• Reification

    Date: 2009.11.07 | Category: Glossary, Unit SSK12 | Tags:

    Glossary
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 7 (in Week 10)
    Date: 07 November 2009

    Word: reification n.
    Context: Avruch (2002) in his chapter on culture uses the word in the following contexts: “The reification of culture…” and “a series of short (cognitive) steps from shorthand to metonymy to reification”.
    Definition: The authors of The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought provide an easy to understand definition of reification when they write, “The act of regarding an abstraction as a material thing”. When making an analysis of relationships a process of simplification takes place “through a set of abstractions” breaking down a given “phenomenon” to help us understand it. Reification is the “endowment” of one of these abstractions with “a material existence” of its own. Karl Marx also used the term with a special meaning and a particular purpose.
    Word in Use: Daniel claimed ethnicity was choosing his partners, his reification of ethnicity was evident as he attributed intention to that concept.

    Avruch, Kevin. 2002. Part 1: Culture. In Culture and Conflict Resolution, 5-7; 14-17. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press.

    Bullock, A., and Trombley, S., eds. 2000. The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. 3rd ed. London: Harper Collins.