Translation and the Desacralization of the Western World: From Performativity to Representation

The Western understanding of meaning as primarily
representational
, and therefore translatable, is a relatively recent development in the history of human societies. According to phenomenologists of religion (e.g. Eliade), archaic ontology tended instead to be
performative
, in the sense that reality (that which had sacred potency) was literally summoned into existence by the ritualistic repetition of archetypes. This article argues that the shift from a performative to a representational understanding of meaning in Western culture, which had implications for all aspects of society, was intimately bound up with translation mechanisms.