K. David Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195181920
- eISBN:
- 9780199870622
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181920.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. The phenomenon known as language death has ...
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It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. The phenomenon known as language death has started to accelerate as the world has grown smaller. This extinction of languages, and the knowledge therein, has no parallel in human history. This book focuses on the essential questions: What is lost when a language dies?; What forms of knowledge are embedded in a language's structure and vocabulary?; And how harmful is it to humanity that such knowledge is lost forever? The book spans the globe from Siberia to North America to the Himalayas and elsewhere, to look at the human knowledge that is slowly being lost as the languages which express it fade from sight. It uses fascinating anecdotes and portraits of some of these languages' last remaining speakers, in order to demonstrate that this knowledge about ourselves and the world is inherently precious, and once gone, will be lost forever. This knowledge is not only our cultural heritage (oral histories, poetry, stories, etc.) but very useful knowledge about plants, animals, the seasons, and other aspects of the natural world—not to mention our understanding of the capacities of the human mind.Less
It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. The phenomenon known as language death has started to accelerate as the world has grown smaller. This extinction of languages, and the knowledge therein, has no parallel in human history. This book focuses on the essential questions: What is lost when a language dies?; What forms of knowledge are embedded in a language's structure and vocabulary?; And how harmful is it to humanity that such knowledge is lost forever? The book spans the globe from Siberia to North America to the Himalayas and elsewhere, to look at the human knowledge that is slowly being lost as the languages which express it fade from sight. It uses fascinating anecdotes and portraits of some of these languages' last remaining speakers, in order to demonstrate that this knowledge about ourselves and the world is inherently precious, and once gone, will be lost forever. This knowledge is not only our cultural heritage (oral histories, poetry, stories, etc.) but very useful knowledge about plants, animals, the seasons, and other aspects of the natural world—not to mention our understanding of the capacities of the human mind.
Andrew Moutu
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197264454
- eISBN:
- 9780191760501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264454.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter summarises the analysis provided in the book and suggests how an anthropologist might conceptualise relationships in ontological terms. It argues that what distinguishes ‘relationships’ ...
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This chapter summarises the analysis provided in the book and suggests how an anthropologist might conceptualise relationships in ontological terms. It argues that what distinguishes ‘relationships’ ontologically from the epistemological forms of relational practices — such as connection, association, resemblance, comparison — are necessity and transcendence, which give ‘relationships’ the character of an infinite being. This has been shown in Iatmul ethnography, outlined in this book through the ontology of brotherhood.Less
This chapter summarises the analysis provided in the book and suggests how an anthropologist might conceptualise relationships in ontological terms. It argues that what distinguishes ‘relationships’ ontologically from the epistemological forms of relational practices — such as connection, association, resemblance, comparison — are necessity and transcendence, which give ‘relationships’ the character of an infinite being. This has been shown in Iatmul ethnography, outlined in this book through the ontology of brotherhood.
Cheryl Mattingly and Linda Garro (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520218246
- eISBN:
- 9780520935228
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520218246.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Stories of illness and healing are often arresting in their power, illuminating practices and experiences that might otherwise remain obscure. What can be learned through a comparative look at the ...
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Stories of illness and healing are often arresting in their power, illuminating practices and experiences that might otherwise remain obscure. What can be learned through a comparative look at the range of narrative theories and styles of narrative analysis used by anthropologists to make sense of their ethnographic data? Do divergent strategies yield different understandings of the illness experience and healing practices? Does a focus on narrative detract from or conceal other, more fruitful avenues for exploration? Through the analysis of stories drawn from a variety of ethnographic contexts, the contributors to this book address such questions. The book unites medical anthropology and narrative analysis to illuminate how personal narrative shapes the architecture of illness and the life course it yields.Less
Stories of illness and healing are often arresting in their power, illuminating practices and experiences that might otherwise remain obscure. What can be learned through a comparative look at the range of narrative theories and styles of narrative analysis used by anthropologists to make sense of their ethnographic data? Do divergent strategies yield different understandings of the illness experience and healing practices? Does a focus on narrative detract from or conceal other, more fruitful avenues for exploration? Through the analysis of stories drawn from a variety of ethnographic contexts, the contributors to this book address such questions. The book unites medical anthropology and narrative analysis to illuminate how personal narrative shapes the architecture of illness and the life course it yields.
Walter D. Mignolo
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691156095
- eISBN:
- 9781400845064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156095.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This introductory chapter aims to move subjugated knowledge to the limits of the colonial difference where subjugated become subaltern knowledges in the structure of coloniality of power. It ...
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This introductory chapter aims to move subjugated knowledge to the limits of the colonial difference where subjugated become subaltern knowledges in the structure of coloniality of power. It conceives subaltern knowledges in tandem with Occidentalism as the overarching imaginary of the modern/colonial world system: Occidentalism is the visible face in the building of the modern world, whereas subaltern knowledges are its darker side, the colonial side of modernity. This very notion of subaltern knowledges makes visible the colonial difference between anthropologists in the First World “studying” the Third World and “anthropologians” in the Third World reflecting on their own geohistorical and colonial conditions.Less
This introductory chapter aims to move subjugated knowledge to the limits of the colonial difference where subjugated become subaltern knowledges in the structure of coloniality of power. It conceives subaltern knowledges in tandem with Occidentalism as the overarching imaginary of the modern/colonial world system: Occidentalism is the visible face in the building of the modern world, whereas subaltern knowledges are its darker side, the colonial side of modernity. This very notion of subaltern knowledges makes visible the colonial difference between anthropologists in the First World “studying” the Third World and “anthropologians” in the Third World reflecting on their own geohistorical and colonial conditions.
John Borneman and Abdellah Hammoudi (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257757
- eISBN:
- 9780520943438
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257757.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
Challenges to ethnographic authority and to the ethics of representation have led many contemporary anthropologists to abandon fieldwork in favor of strategies of theoretical puppeteering, textual ...
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Challenges to ethnographic authority and to the ethics of representation have led many contemporary anthropologists to abandon fieldwork in favor of strategies of theoretical puppeteering, textual analysis, and surrogate ethnography. This book argues that ethnographies based on these strategies elide important insights. To demonstrate the power and knowledge attained through the fieldwork experience, this book includes chapters by anthropologists working in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tanzania, the Canadian Arctic, India, Germany, and Russia that shift attention back to the subtle dynamics of the ethnographic encounter. From an Inuit village to the foothills of Kilimanjaro, each account illustrates how, despite its challenges, fieldwork yields important insights outside the reach of textual analysis.Less
Challenges to ethnographic authority and to the ethics of representation have led many contemporary anthropologists to abandon fieldwork in favor of strategies of theoretical puppeteering, textual analysis, and surrogate ethnography. This book argues that ethnographies based on these strategies elide important insights. To demonstrate the power and knowledge attained through the fieldwork experience, this book includes chapters by anthropologists working in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tanzania, the Canadian Arctic, India, Germany, and Russia that shift attention back to the subtle dynamics of the ethnographic encounter. From an Inuit village to the foothills of Kilimanjaro, each account illustrates how, despite its challenges, fieldwork yields important insights outside the reach of textual analysis.
Nicholas S. Hopkins and Sohair R. Mehanna (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789774164019
- eISBN:
- 9781617970382
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774164019.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This is a retrospective look at a major investigation of the culture of a displaced people. In the 1960s, the construction of the Aswan High Dam occasioned the forced displacement of a large part of ...
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This is a retrospective look at a major investigation of the culture of a displaced people. In the 1960s, the construction of the Aswan High Dam occasioned the forced displacement of a large part of the Nubian population. Beginning in 1960, anthropologists at the American University in Cairo's Social Research Center undertook a survey of the Nubians to be moved and those already outside their historic homeland. The goal was to record and analyze Nubian culture and social organization, to create a record for the future, and to preserve a body of information on which scholars and officials could draw. This book chronicles the research carried out by an international team with the cooperation of many Nubians. Gathered here into one volume are chapters, which are reprinted, that provide a valuable resource of research data on the Nubian project, as well as photographs taken during the field study that document ways of life that have long since disappeared.Less
This is a retrospective look at a major investigation of the culture of a displaced people. In the 1960s, the construction of the Aswan High Dam occasioned the forced displacement of a large part of the Nubian population. Beginning in 1960, anthropologists at the American University in Cairo's Social Research Center undertook a survey of the Nubians to be moved and those already outside their historic homeland. The goal was to record and analyze Nubian culture and social organization, to create a record for the future, and to preserve a body of information on which scholars and officials could draw. This book chronicles the research carried out by an international team with the cooperation of many Nubians. Gathered here into one volume are chapters, which are reprinted, that provide a valuable resource of research data on the Nubian project, as well as photographs taken during the field study that document ways of life that have long since disappeared.
Douglas A. Feldman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034317
- eISBN:
- 9780813039312
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034317.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, in the United States, most sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) involved in relationships outside their regular partner were routinely practicing safer ...
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By the late 1980s and early 1990s, in the United States, most sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) involved in relationships outside their regular partner were routinely practicing safer sex most of the time. Gay men had learned to use condoms correctly, had reduced their number of partners, and were engaging in less risky sexual practices. Many had participated in HIV risk reduction workshops targeting the gay community. Others were serving as “buddies” to assist gay men with AIDS through their local AIDS community-based organizations. Today, things have changed. “Barebacking” (anal sex without condoms) has increasingly become acceptable behavior. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reevaluated their data and concluded that the number of new cases of HIV infection per year was not 40,000 as estimated, but rather was closer to 56,300, and it had been at that level for several years. Applied medical anthropologists are in a unique position to understand the dynamics of HIV risk among MSM throughout the world and to contribute to the amelioration of this health crisis.Less
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, in the United States, most sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) involved in relationships outside their regular partner were routinely practicing safer sex most of the time. Gay men had learned to use condoms correctly, had reduced their number of partners, and were engaging in less risky sexual practices. Many had participated in HIV risk reduction workshops targeting the gay community. Others were serving as “buddies” to assist gay men with AIDS through their local AIDS community-based organizations. Today, things have changed. “Barebacking” (anal sex without condoms) has increasingly become acceptable behavior. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reevaluated their data and concluded that the number of new cases of HIV infection per year was not 40,000 as estimated, but rather was closer to 56,300, and it had been at that level for several years. Applied medical anthropologists are in a unique position to understand the dynamics of HIV risk among MSM throughout the world and to contribute to the amelioration of this health crisis.
M.N. Srinivas
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077459
- eISBN:
- 9780199081165
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077459.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
The first section of this chapter describes the Bullock House and its inhabitants. The headman set aside for the author and his companion three rooms in the Bullock House, one of the five houses he ...
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The first section of this chapter describes the Bullock House and its inhabitants. The headman set aside for the author and his companion three rooms in the Bullock House, one of the five houses he owned in Rampura. The second section describes the author's experience as a tenant, taking notes of its peculiarities, different from urban settings. Except the richest villagers, and the Brahmins and Lingayats, the others took their bath in the central courtyard. The third section describes how he tried to win friends in the village. The fourth section takes into account Putte Gowda's suggestion to move around the village and not settle with the opinions of a few people. The fifth section describes the villagers' curiosity. The next two sections describe the anthropologist as a Brahmin, as a respected outsider. The last section describes his failures as a fieldworker.Less
The first section of this chapter describes the Bullock House and its inhabitants. The headman set aside for the author and his companion three rooms in the Bullock House, one of the five houses he owned in Rampura. The second section describes the author's experience as a tenant, taking notes of its peculiarities, different from urban settings. Except the richest villagers, and the Brahmins and Lingayats, the others took their bath in the central courtyard. The third section describes how he tried to win friends in the village. The fourth section takes into account Putte Gowda's suggestion to move around the village and not settle with the opinions of a few people. The fifth section describes the villagers' curiosity. The next two sections describe the anthropologist as a Brahmin, as a respected outsider. The last section describes his failures as a fieldworker.
Richard Fardon
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264751
- eISBN:
- 9780191734229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264751.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Mary Douglas's retirement lasted almost a quarter of a century, quite long enough for her to fade pottering into obscurity. Yet what happened was diametrically, single-mindedly opposite: an ...
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Mary Douglas's retirement lasted almost a quarter of a century, quite long enough for her to fade pottering into obscurity. Yet what happened was diametrically, single-mindedly opposite: an increasing productivity well into her eighties; an unchallengeable position within British anthropology's most brilliant professional generation; and a generous reassessment within her own discipline of the work of her mid-career. Few could have predicted this outcome when in 1977 Douglas resigned her professorship at University College London in order to become Director of Research on Culture at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York. Fewer still as she found herself immediately mired in the controversial sacking of the man who had hired her. Yet Douglas emerged from this fray with risk analysis added to the already formidable range of fields on which she wrote. No field of anthropology–religion, symbolism, politics, economics, cognition, to name only a few–was untouched by her ideas.Less
Mary Douglas's retirement lasted almost a quarter of a century, quite long enough for her to fade pottering into obscurity. Yet what happened was diametrically, single-mindedly opposite: an increasing productivity well into her eighties; an unchallengeable position within British anthropology's most brilliant professional generation; and a generous reassessment within her own discipline of the work of her mid-career. Few could have predicted this outcome when in 1977 Douglas resigned her professorship at University College London in order to become Director of Research on Culture at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York. Fewer still as she found herself immediately mired in the controversial sacking of the man who had hired her. Yet Douglas emerged from this fray with risk analysis added to the already formidable range of fields on which she wrote. No field of anthropology–religion, symbolism, politics, economics, cognition, to name only a few–was untouched by her ideas.
Alan Macfarlane
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263020
- eISBN:
- 9780191734199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263020.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Alfred Gell was widely regarded as one of the most interesting thinkers in the world in the field of the anthropology of art. His life and writings provide an interesting insight into the fashions ...
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Alfred Gell was widely regarded as one of the most interesting thinkers in the world in the field of the anthropology of art. His life and writings provide an interesting insight into the fashions and flows of one part of British thought in the later 20th century. While Gell will be remembered as the author of the classic ethnography on the Umeda and a splendid survey of theories of time, it is the work on art and anthropology, undertaken during the last twelve years of his short life, which will determine his wider reputation. This consists of three books. The first, and only one published during his life was Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia (1992). The second in order of writing, though not of publication, was a collection of his essays, mostly given as seminar papers and lectures, published in 1999 as The Art of Anthropology; Essays and Diagrams and edited by Eric Hirsch. The final work was Art and Agency, An Anthropological Theory (1998).Less
Alfred Gell was widely regarded as one of the most interesting thinkers in the world in the field of the anthropology of art. His life and writings provide an interesting insight into the fashions and flows of one part of British thought in the later 20th century. While Gell will be remembered as the author of the classic ethnography on the Umeda and a splendid survey of theories of time, it is the work on art and anthropology, undertaken during the last twelve years of his short life, which will determine his wider reputation. This consists of three books. The first, and only one published during his life was Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia (1992). The second in order of writing, though not of publication, was a collection of his essays, mostly given as seminar papers and lectures, published in 1999 as The Art of Anthropology; Essays and Diagrams and edited by Eric Hirsch. The final work was Art and Agency, An Anthropological Theory (1998).
J. H. R. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263204
- eISBN:
- 9780191734205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263204.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Raymond Firth was an anthropologist, working chiefly in the Pacific, Malaysia and London, in the fields of economics, religion and kinship. Firth held permanent teaching posts at Sydney (1930–2) and ...
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Raymond Firth was an anthropologist, working chiefly in the Pacific, Malaysia and London, in the fields of economics, religion and kinship. Firth held permanent teaching posts at Sydney (1930–2) and at the London School of Economics (1932–40, 1944–68). During the Second World War he served in Naval Intelligence; he became secretary of the Colonial Social Science Research Council in 1944–5, and was a founding member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth in 1946. Firth was a patient and generous teacher whose many graduate students remained loyal throughout their lives; he was an able and purposeful administrator of great integrity: no one alive can remember him doing a mean or malicious or self-interested act. In anthropology he was resolutely humane and empirical: his aim was always to convey the variety and complexity of people's experience, and to show how his theory was based on that understanding.Less
Raymond Firth was an anthropologist, working chiefly in the Pacific, Malaysia and London, in the fields of economics, religion and kinship. Firth held permanent teaching posts at Sydney (1930–2) and at the London School of Economics (1932–40, 1944–68). During the Second World War he served in Naval Intelligence; he became secretary of the Colonial Social Science Research Council in 1944–5, and was a founding member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth in 1946. Firth was a patient and generous teacher whose many graduate students remained loyal throughout their lives; he was an able and purposeful administrator of great integrity: no one alive can remember him doing a mean or malicious or self-interested act. In anthropology he was resolutely humane and empirical: his aim was always to convey the variety and complexity of people's experience, and to show how his theory was based on that understanding.
Rebecca R French
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199580910
- eISBN:
- 9780191723025
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580910.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
Legal anthropologists generally ignore the actual law cases of the legal profession; that is, they don't turn their lens on basic ‘black-letter law’ as a fieldsite. In short, anthropologists don't ...
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Legal anthropologists generally ignore the actual law cases of the legal profession; that is, they don't turn their lens on basic ‘black-letter law’ as a fieldsite. In short, anthropologists don't generally do ethnography in the ordinary case law reports, thereby missing some of the advantages this might bring: it is a project that both scholars and students can do from their computer desks; it allows them to look at the real world of law and legal practice; and it can produce interesting results that are usable by both practitioners and a range of academics. This chapter shows that such a case law examination will reveal exciting areas for further research.Less
Legal anthropologists generally ignore the actual law cases of the legal profession; that is, they don't turn their lens on basic ‘black-letter law’ as a fieldsite. In short, anthropologists don't generally do ethnography in the ordinary case law reports, thereby missing some of the advantages this might bring: it is a project that both scholars and students can do from their computer desks; it allows them to look at the real world of law and legal practice; and it can produce interesting results that are usable by both practitioners and a range of academics. This chapter shows that such a case law examination will reveal exciting areas for further research.
Erika Lorraine Milam
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691181882
- eISBN:
- 9780691185095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181882.003.0008
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter considers the research of women anthropologists during this period. It shows how many anthropologists had fought to refute the picture of universal male authority implied by common ...
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This chapter considers the research of women anthropologists during this period. It shows how many anthropologists had fought to refute the picture of universal male authority implied by common narratives of human evolution were women, often at the very beginning of what turned out to be long, notable careers. Their research gave fuller form to a rhetorically powerful alternative to Man the Hunter in reconstructions of human origins—Woman the Gatherer. Like her partner, Woman the Gatherer found intellectual support in research on long-extinct human ancestors, studies of human cultures today, and animal behavior, with a new emphasis on field research among primates.Less
This chapter considers the research of women anthropologists during this period. It shows how many anthropologists had fought to refute the picture of universal male authority implied by common narratives of human evolution were women, often at the very beginning of what turned out to be long, notable careers. Their research gave fuller form to a rhetorically powerful alternative to Man the Hunter in reconstructions of human origins—Woman the Gatherer. Like her partner, Woman the Gatherer found intellectual support in research on long-extinct human ancestors, studies of human cultures today, and animal behavior, with a new emphasis on field research among primates.
Ira Enell Harrison, Deborah Johnson-Simon, and Erica Lorraine Williams
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042027
- eISBN:
- 9780252050763
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042027.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This volume brings together emerging and leading scholars in the field of anthropology to reflect on the intellectual trajectories of fifteen African American anthropologists who earned their ...
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This volume brings together emerging and leading scholars in the field of anthropology to reflect on the intellectual trajectories of fifteen African American anthropologists who earned their doctorates in anthropology between 1960 and 1969. Following in the footsteps of African American Pioneers in Anthropology (Harrison and Harrison 1999), this volume documents the quest for knowledge, respect, truth and value in the inspiring work of the next generation of black anthropologists. This volume features the intellectual biographies of James Lowell Gibbs Jr., Charles Warren II, William Alfred Shack, Diane K. Lewis, Delmos Jones, Niara Sudarkasa, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, John Langston Gwaltney, Ira E. Harrison, Audrey Smedley, George Clement Bond, Oliver Osborne, Anselme Remy, Vera Mae Green, and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan. This book reflects on the trajectories, challenges, and accomplishments of this second generation of black anthropologists.Less
This volume brings together emerging and leading scholars in the field of anthropology to reflect on the intellectual trajectories of fifteen African American anthropologists who earned their doctorates in anthropology between 1960 and 1969. Following in the footsteps of African American Pioneers in Anthropology (Harrison and Harrison 1999), this volume documents the quest for knowledge, respect, truth and value in the inspiring work of the next generation of black anthropologists. This volume features the intellectual biographies of James Lowell Gibbs Jr., Charles Warren II, William Alfred Shack, Diane K. Lewis, Delmos Jones, Niara Sudarkasa, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, John Langston Gwaltney, Ira E. Harrison, Audrey Smedley, George Clement Bond, Oliver Osborne, Anselme Remy, Vera Mae Green, and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan. This book reflects on the trajectories, challenges, and accomplishments of this second generation of black anthropologists.
Eric Tagliacozzo and Andrew Willford (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804760201
- eISBN:
- 9780804772402
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804760201.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
The intersection between history and anthropology is more varied now than it has ever been—a look at the shelves of bookstores and libraries proves this. Historians have increasingly looked to the ...
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The intersection between history and anthropology is more varied now than it has ever been—a look at the shelves of bookstores and libraries proves this. Historians have increasingly looked to the methodologies of anthropologists to explain inequalities of power, problems of voicelessness, and conceptions of social change from an inside perspective. And ethnologists have increasingly relied on longitudinal visions of their subjects, inquiries framed by the lens of history rather than purely structuralist, culturalist, or functionalist visions of behavior. The contributors to this book deal with the problems and possibilities of the blurring of these boundaries in different and exciting ways. They provide further fodder for a cross-disciplinary experiment that is already well under way, describing peoples and their cultures in a world where boundaries are evermore fluid, but where we all are alarmingly attached to the cataloguing and marking of national, ethnic, racial, and religious differences.Less
The intersection between history and anthropology is more varied now than it has ever been—a look at the shelves of bookstores and libraries proves this. Historians have increasingly looked to the methodologies of anthropologists to explain inequalities of power, problems of voicelessness, and conceptions of social change from an inside perspective. And ethnologists have increasingly relied on longitudinal visions of their subjects, inquiries framed by the lens of history rather than purely structuralist, culturalist, or functionalist visions of behavior. The contributors to this book deal with the problems and possibilities of the blurring of these boundaries in different and exciting ways. They provide further fodder for a cross-disciplinary experiment that is already well under way, describing peoples and their cultures in a world where boundaries are evermore fluid, but where we all are alarmingly attached to the cataloguing and marking of national, ethnic, racial, and religious differences.
Keith M. Murphy and C. Jason Throop (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804768870
- eISBN:
- 9780804773775
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804768870.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This is the first book that systematically explores volition from an ethnographically informed anthropological point of view. While philosophers have for centuries puzzled over the degree to which ...
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This is the first book that systematically explores volition from an ethnographically informed anthropological point of view. While philosophers have for centuries puzzled over the degree to which individuals are “free” to choose how to act in the world, anthropologists have either assumed that the will is a stable, constant fact of the human condition or simply ignored it. Although they are usually quite comfortable discussing the relationship between culture and cognition or culture and emotion, anthropologists have not yet focused on how culture and volition are interconnected. The contributors to this book draw upon their unique insights and research experience to address fundamental questions, including: What forms does the will take in culture? How is willing experienced? How does it relate to emotion and cognition? What does imagination have to do with willing? What is the connection between morality, virtue, and willing? Exploring such questions, the book moves beyond old debates about “freedom” and “determinacy” to demonstrate how a richly nuanced anthropological approach to the cultural experience of willing can help shape theories of social action in the human sciences.Less
This is the first book that systematically explores volition from an ethnographically informed anthropological point of view. While philosophers have for centuries puzzled over the degree to which individuals are “free” to choose how to act in the world, anthropologists have either assumed that the will is a stable, constant fact of the human condition or simply ignored it. Although they are usually quite comfortable discussing the relationship between culture and cognition or culture and emotion, anthropologists have not yet focused on how culture and volition are interconnected. The contributors to this book draw upon their unique insights and research experience to address fundamental questions, including: What forms does the will take in culture? How is willing experienced? How does it relate to emotion and cognition? What does imagination have to do with willing? What is the connection between morality, virtue, and willing? Exploring such questions, the book moves beyond old debates about “freedom” and “determinacy” to demonstrate how a richly nuanced anthropological approach to the cultural experience of willing can help shape theories of social action in the human sciences.
Douglas Lorimer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264393
- eISBN:
- 9780191734571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264393.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter focuses on the emergence of modern racist ideology during the nineteenth century. It examines the role played by the Victorian anatomists and anthropologists who constructed ...
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This chapter focuses on the emergence of modern racist ideology during the nineteenth century. It examines the role played by the Victorian anatomists and anthropologists who constructed classifications of humans according to racial type, and depicted these types as having distinct and certain characteristics determined by their biological inheritance. This ideology of racism is a racial inequality dependent on a biological determinism based on science. From the 1930s to the 1950s, developments in science, specifically in human genetics and anthropology, led to the retreat from scientific racism and biological determinism. In the aftermath of the Second World War, movements such as the international consensus on human rights and equality, decolonization, and civil rights advancement brought new hope to the eradication of racism. Despite initiatives for the abolition of racism, forms of inequality and discrimination persisted. These persistent forms of racism were largely based on institutional or pragmatic racism and deviated from the theoretical racism backed by biological determinism and scientific racism. They posed a great challenge to the empire. Taking the dominant mode of thinking on race as biological determinism, this chapter aims to reconsider this thinking as it misrepresents the Victorian discourse and misconstrues the nineteenth-century legacy on racism and race relations. What follows is an outline of the fault lines surrounding the disputes over the meaning and significance of race.Less
This chapter focuses on the emergence of modern racist ideology during the nineteenth century. It examines the role played by the Victorian anatomists and anthropologists who constructed classifications of humans according to racial type, and depicted these types as having distinct and certain characteristics determined by their biological inheritance. This ideology of racism is a racial inequality dependent on a biological determinism based on science. From the 1930s to the 1950s, developments in science, specifically in human genetics and anthropology, led to the retreat from scientific racism and biological determinism. In the aftermath of the Second World War, movements such as the international consensus on human rights and equality, decolonization, and civil rights advancement brought new hope to the eradication of racism. Despite initiatives for the abolition of racism, forms of inequality and discrimination persisted. These persistent forms of racism were largely based on institutional or pragmatic racism and deviated from the theoretical racism backed by biological determinism and scientific racism. They posed a great challenge to the empire. Taking the dominant mode of thinking on race as biological determinism, this chapter aims to reconsider this thinking as it misrepresents the Victorian discourse and misconstrues the nineteenth-century legacy on racism and race relations. What follows is an outline of the fault lines surrounding the disputes over the meaning and significance of race.
Steven C. Caton
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520210820
- eISBN:
- 9780520919891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520210820.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses Lawrence of Arabia as an allegory about dilemmas of cross-cultural encounters. It studies many themes in the film that are a portion of this book's author's memories of ...
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This chapter discusses Lawrence of Arabia as an allegory about dilemmas of cross-cultural encounters. It studies many themes in the film that are a portion of this book's author's memories of childhood and his experiences as an anthropologist. Two of these themes are the alienated self that is drawn to travel and the complex process of entering into another culture through war, tourism, or migration. This chapter shows that viewing Lawrence of Arabia as a film that has a cultural anthropologist as its main character allows people to interpret the movie as an insightful moral tale about the practices of anthropologists.Less
This chapter discusses Lawrence of Arabia as an allegory about dilemmas of cross-cultural encounters. It studies many themes in the film that are a portion of this book's author's memories of childhood and his experiences as an anthropologist. Two of these themes are the alienated self that is drawn to travel and the complex process of entering into another culture through war, tourism, or migration. This chapter shows that viewing Lawrence of Arabia as a film that has a cultural anthropologist as its main character allows people to interpret the movie as an insightful moral tale about the practices of anthropologists.
J.A. Burrow
- Published in print:
- 1984
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198111870
- eISBN:
- 9780191670657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198111870.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Honour and shame are considered as twin themes in the literature of this time, and these have been much studied by social anthropologists. These themes, which can be found in Sir Gawain and The Green ...
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Honour and shame are considered as twin themes in the literature of this time, and these have been much studied by social anthropologists. These themes, which can be found in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, seem to have been taken for granted. This chapter discusses honour and shame in this literary work, and takes a look at the workings of honour and shame in the Arthurian world.Less
Honour and shame are considered as twin themes in the literature of this time, and these have been much studied by social anthropologists. These themes, which can be found in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, seem to have been taken for granted. This chapter discusses honour and shame in this literary work, and takes a look at the workings of honour and shame in the Arthurian world.
Paul Stoller
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226775340
- eISBN:
- 9780226775364
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226775364.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
It is the anthropologist's fate to always be between things: countries, languages, cultures, even realities. But rather than lament this, the author celebrates the creative power of the between, ...
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It is the anthropologist's fate to always be between things: countries, languages, cultures, even realities. But rather than lament this, the author celebrates the creative power of the between, showing how it can transform us, changing our conceptions of who we are, what we know, and how we live in the world. Beginning with his early days with the Peace Corps in Africa and culminating with a recent bout with cancer, this book is an evocative account of the circuitous path the author's life has taken, offering a fascinating depiction of how a career is shaped over decades of reading and research. He imparts his accumulated wisdom not through grandiose pronouncements but by drawing on his gift for storytelling. Tales of his apprenticeship to a sorcerer in Niger, his studies with Claude Lévi–Strauss in Paris, and his friendships with West African street vendors in New York City accompany philosophical reflections on love, memory, power, courage, health, and illness. Graced with humor and narrative elegance, this book is both the story of a distinguished career and a profound meditation on coming to terms with the impermanence of all things.Less
It is the anthropologist's fate to always be between things: countries, languages, cultures, even realities. But rather than lament this, the author celebrates the creative power of the between, showing how it can transform us, changing our conceptions of who we are, what we know, and how we live in the world. Beginning with his early days with the Peace Corps in Africa and culminating with a recent bout with cancer, this book is an evocative account of the circuitous path the author's life has taken, offering a fascinating depiction of how a career is shaped over decades of reading and research. He imparts his accumulated wisdom not through grandiose pronouncements but by drawing on his gift for storytelling. Tales of his apprenticeship to a sorcerer in Niger, his studies with Claude Lévi–Strauss in Paris, and his friendships with West African street vendors in New York City accompany philosophical reflections on love, memory, power, courage, health, and illness. Graced with humor and narrative elegance, this book is both the story of a distinguished career and a profound meditation on coming to terms with the impermanence of all things.
