Ned Blackhawk and Isaiah Lorado Wilner (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300196511
- eISBN:
- 9780300235678
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300196511.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This book is a compelling study that charts the influence of indigenous thinkers on Franz Boas, the founder of modern anthropology. In 1911, the publication of Franz Boas's The Mind of Primitive Man ...
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This book is a compelling study that charts the influence of indigenous thinkers on Franz Boas, the founder of modern anthropology. In 1911, the publication of Franz Boas's The Mind of Primitive Man challenged widely held claims about race and intelligence that justified violence and inequality. Now, this book examines how this groundbreaking work hinged on relationships with a global circle of indigenous thinkers who used Boasian anthropology as a medium for their ideas. Chapters examine how Boasian thought intersected with the work of major modernist figures, demonstrating how ideas of diversity and identity sprang from colonization and empire. The focus is on the assemblage of individuals and communities who influenced the production and dissemination of modern concepts of diversity, identity, and belonging. This network of communities, cutting across binaries of race and boundaries of empire, is called the Boasian Circle. The book spotlights indigenous intellectuals, African American and pan-African scholars, German and Jewish scientists, and Latino writers and thinkers, all of whom contributed to the making of global cultural studies.Less
This book is a compelling study that charts the influence of indigenous thinkers on Franz Boas, the founder of modern anthropology. In 1911, the publication of Franz Boas's The Mind of Primitive Man challenged widely held claims about race and intelligence that justified violence and inequality. Now, this book examines how this groundbreaking work hinged on relationships with a global circle of indigenous thinkers who used Boasian anthropology as a medium for their ideas. Chapters examine how Boasian thought intersected with the work of major modernist figures, demonstrating how ideas of diversity and identity sprang from colonization and empire. The focus is on the assemblage of individuals and communities who influenced the production and dissemination of modern concepts of diversity, identity, and belonging. This network of communities, cutting across binaries of race and boundaries of empire, is called the Boasian Circle. The book spotlights indigenous intellectuals, African American and pan-African scholars, German and Jewish scientists, and Latino writers and thinkers, all of whom contributed to the making of global cultural studies.
Eric R. Wolf
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520223332
- eISBN:
- 9780520924871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520223332.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This study concerns the recurrent features in the social, economic, and religious organization of peasant groups in two world areas, widely separated by past history and geographical space: ...
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This study concerns the recurrent features in the social, economic, and religious organization of peasant groups in two world areas, widely separated by past history and geographical space: Mesoamerica and Central Java. It explains these structural features as outcomes of the dynamic interaction between community and nation, and not as features of community organization alone. One of the salient aims of modern anthropology, conceived as a science, is to define recurrent sequences of cause and effect; that is, to formulate cultural laws. The cultural configuration discussed is the organization of peasant groups into closed, corporate communities. Peasant communities in both areas show strong tendencies to restrict membership in the community to people born and raised within its boundaries, and maintain strong attitudes against accumulated wealth. The closed corporate peasant communities in both areas are socially and culturally isolated from the larger society in which they exist.Less
This study concerns the recurrent features in the social, economic, and religious organization of peasant groups in two world areas, widely separated by past history and geographical space: Mesoamerica and Central Java. It explains these structural features as outcomes of the dynamic interaction between community and nation, and not as features of community organization alone. One of the salient aims of modern anthropology, conceived as a science, is to define recurrent sequences of cause and effect; that is, to formulate cultural laws. The cultural configuration discussed is the organization of peasant groups into closed, corporate communities. Peasant communities in both areas show strong tendencies to restrict membership in the community to people born and raised within its boundaries, and maintain strong attitudes against accumulated wealth. The closed corporate peasant communities in both areas are socially and culturally isolated from the larger society in which they exist.
