Rereading Cultural Anthropology


Book Description

During its first six years (1986-1991), the journal Cultural Anthropology provided a unique forum for registering the lively traffic between anthropology and the emergent arena of cultural studies. The nineteen essays collected in Rereading Cultural Anthropology, all of which originally appeared in the journal, capture the range of approaches, internal critiques, and new questions that have characterized the study of anthropology in the 1980s, and which set the agenda for the present. Drawing together work by both younger and well-established scholars, this volume reveals various influences in the remaking of traditions of ethnographic work in anthropology; feminist studies, poststructuralism, cultural critiques, and disciplinary challenges to established boundaries between the social sciences and humanities. Moving from critiques of anthropological representation and practices to modes of political awareness and experiments in writing, this collection offers systematic access to what is now understood to be a fundamental shift (still ongoing) in anthropology toward engagement with the broader interdisciplinary stream of cultural studies. Contributors. Arjun Appadurai, Keith H. Basso, David B. Coplan, Vincent Crapanzano, Faye Ginsburg, George E. Marcus, Enrique Mayer, Fred Meyers, Alcida R. Ramos, John Russell, Orin Starn, Kathleen Stewart, Melford E. Spiro, Ted Swedenburg, Michael Taussig, Julie Taylor, Robert Thornton, Stephen A. Tyler, Geoffrey M. White




Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict and Others


Book Description

History of Anthropology is a series of annual volumes, inaugurated in 1983, each of which treats a theme of major importance in both the history and current practice of anthropological inquiry. Drawing its title from a poem of W. H. Auden's, the present volume, Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict, and Others (the fourth in the series) focuses on the emergence of anthropological interest in "culture and personality" during the 1920s and 1930s. It also explores the historical, cultural, literary, and biological background of major figures associated with the movement, including Bronislaw Manlinowski, Edward Sapir, Abram Kardiner, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Gregory Bateson. Born in the aftermath of World War I, flowering in the years before and after World War II, severely attacked in the 1950s and 1960s, "culture and personality" was subsequently reborn as "psychological anthropology." Whether this foreshadows the emergence of a major anthropological subdiscipline (equivalent to cultural, social, biological, or linguistic anthropology) from the current welter of "adjectival" anthropologies remain to be seen. In the meantime, the essays collected in the volume may encourage a rethinking of the historical roots of many issues of current concern. Included in this volume are the contributions of Jeremy MacClancy, William C. Manson, William Jackson, Richard Handler, Regna Darnell, Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, James A. Boon, and the editor.




Re-reading Cultural Geography


Book Description

The geography of culture has held a sustained attraction for some of the most distinguished and promising geographers of the twentieth century. These notable voices have now been brought together to explore the cultural landscape in this fresh, encompassing survey of one of geography's most vital research areas. In Re-reading Cultural Geography, a worthy successor to the original and now classic Readings in Cultural Geography (1962), the editors have gathered articles, essays, and new commentaries, as well as extensive annotated reading lists and a comprehensive bibliography, into a book that will be ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses of all levels. Assessing an intellectual world far different from the one defined in the earlier volume, Re-reading Cultural Geography uncovers the common themes of a vibrant, often clamorous discipline. Broadly defined, these include "how the world looks"—the patternings of cultural traits and material artifacts; "how the world works"—the dynamics of human organizations in interaction with the environment; and "what the world means"—the systems of shared values and beliefs that shape communities.




Cultural Anthropology


Book Description




Conformity and Conflict


Book Description

Demonstrate the nature of culture and its influence on people's lives. For over 40 years, the best-selling Conformity and Conflict has brought together original readings and cutting edge research alongside classic works as a powerful way to study human behavior and events. Its readings cover a broad range of theoretical perspectives and demonstrate basic anthropological concepts. The Fourteenth Edition incorporates successful articles from past editions and fresh ideas from the field to show fascinating perspectives on the human experience. Teaching and Learning Experience Personalize Learning - MyAnthroLab delivers proven results in helping students succeed, provides engaging experiences that personalize learning, and comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep commitment to helping students and instructors achieve their goals. Improve Critical Thinking - Articles, article introductions and review questions encourage students to examine their assumptions, discern hidden values, evaluate evidence, assess their conclusions, and more! Engage Students - Section parts, key terms, maps, a glossary and subject index all spark student interest and illustrate the reader's main points with examples and visuals from daily life. Support Instructors - Teaching your course just got easier! You can create a Customized Text or use our Instructor's Manual, Electronic "MyTest" Test Bank or PowerPoint Presentation Slides. Additionally, Conformity and Conflict's part introductions parallel the basic concepts taught in introductory courses - which allow the book to be used alone as a reader or in conjunction with a main text. Note: MyAnthroLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MyAnthroLab, please visit www.MyAnthroLab.com or you can purchase a valuepack of the text + MyAnthroLab (at no additional cost): VP ISBN-10: 0205176011/ISBN-13: 9780205176014







Rereading


Book Description

What motivates us to reread literary works? How is our pleasure, interpretation, involvement, and evaluation different when we read a literary work and when we reread it? This fascinating book by Matei Calinescu is the first to focus on the implications of rereading for critical understanding. Drawing on literary theory, cultural anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and previous theories of reading, Calinescu describes the dynamics of rereading and explores the sometimes complementary, sometimes sharply conflicting relationships between reading and rereading. Calinescu analyzes fictional works by Borges, Nabokov, Proust, Robbe-Grillet, and Henry James, among others, explaining how reading texts is related both to symbolic play or make-believe and to games with rules. He reviews the history of reading in modern times, discussing, for example, how the Reformation led to rereadings of Scripture and how the proliferation of books during the Enlightenment led to a shift from "intensive reading" to "extensive reading." Calinescu looks at the distinctions between reading and rereading from the perspectives of the age, situation, and gender of the individual reader. He discusses the problems raised by secret or oblique languages and codes - devised to evade censors, communicate with a select audience of "secret sharers, " or play games of hide-and-seek with the reader - and shows that they naturally lead to rereading a text. Calinescu argues persuasively that an understanding of rereading is useful in formulating both analytic strategies of practical criticism and a poetics of reading.







The Interpretation of Cultures


Book Description

One of the twentieth century's most influential books, this classic work of anthropology offers a groundbreaking exploration of what culture is With The Interpretation of Cultures, the distinguished anthropologist Clifford Geertz developed the concept of thick description, and in so doing, he virtually rewrote the rules of his field. Culture, Geertz argues, does not drive human behavior. Rather, it is a web of symbols that can help us better understand what that behavior means. A thick description explains not only the behavior, but the context in which it occurs, and to describe something thickly, Geertz argues, is the fundamental role of the anthropologist. Named one of the 100 most important books published since World War II by the Times Literary Supplement, The Interpretation of Cultures transformed how we think about others' cultures and our own. This definitive edition, with a foreword by Robert Darnton, remains an essential book for anthropologists, historians, and anyone else seeking to better understand human cultures.