Dangerous women: ‘ideology,’ ‘Knowledge’ and ritual among the kono of eastern sierra leone

Abstract

The issue of the linkage between the super? structure and the infrastructure has always been problematic in Marxian thought. Some? times seen merely as the projection of existing relations of production (a variety of so-called "vulgar" Marxism), more recent Marxian thought tends to conceptualize the superstruc? ture as a set of both institutions and symbolic structures which, while generally supportive of existing relations of production, often exhibits a great deal of autonomy. Such a perspective recognizes the problem of conflict within the superstructure and, at the symbolic level, dis? tinguishes between the concepts of ideology and knowledge as contrasting symbolic sys? tems which serve, respectively, either to legitimize given relations of production or chal? lenge them. This separation between ideology and knowledge parallels the distinction be? tween relations of production and forces of production. Of even more recent concern has been the institutional locus of ideology and knowledge within the superstructure. Bloch, for example, borrowing heavily upon the distinction be? tween ideology and knowledge, suggests that two distinctive communicative systems exist in