Formal Models of Cultural Analogy: Zande Social Transitions STEPHEN DAVID SIEMENS 912 N. Atlantic Bd. Alhambra, CA 91801 U.S.A. ABSTRACT: Cultural analogies are frequently studied in symbolic anthropology but formal models of cultural analogy are rarely used. Formal models can provide clarification of the informal use of analogy. I use Lorrain's formal theory of analogy to construct models of the Zande 'rites of passage' that I observed in the field. The ritual process for a bereaved mourner is analogous to that of a baby. Rituals effect transitions from one stage of the passage to the next stage. In the models I represent stages of passage as objects and transitions as relations. I identify analogous transitions through exegesis, through ritual actions of empowerment and through similar transformations of conceptual structures. The analogies identified this way are used as a set of generators for a larger system that satisfies Lorrain's axioms. The resulting model contains nontrivial analogies that might (or might not) have resulted from an informal approach, but they have an explicit derivation by means of the theory, making explicit an otherwise tacit logic. KEY WORDS: formal models, analogy, Lorrain, Zande, 'rites of passage', symbolism. INTRODUCTION Many studies of ritual symbolism recognize the importance of analogical reasoning in these cultural representations (e.g., Turner 1969, 1973; Wagner 1977, 1986; de Heusch 1980, 1982; Fernandez 1980, 1986). Such studies take the principles of analogical reasoning to be self-evident and rely on verbal exposition. Although verbal exposition is regarded as adequate in anthropological theory, formal models based on a formal theory of analogy have advantages: the analogical principles are explicit so the reasoning used is replicable (cf. Bunge 1962: 113; Fernandez 1974: 123; Sperber 1975: 57; Romney 1989: 161-163). Barely noticed by symbolic anthropologists, there have been a number of formal theories of analogy proposed for use in cultural anthropology 1 (e.g., Lorrain 1975; Durrenburger and Morrison 1977; Klein 1983; cf. Siemens 1988; 1991). Since ritual symbolism utilizes analogical reasoning, studies of ritual symbolism are well suited for application of formal theories of analogy but such applications have scarcely begun. In this paper I outline a method of applying Lorrain's formal theory of analogy (1972, 1974, 1975) to Journal of Quantitative Anthropology 4: 123-141, 1993. © 1993 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.