Download or read book An Anthropology for Contemporaneous Worlds written by Marc Augé and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under what conditions is anthropology possible today, when a crisis of social meaning—a crisis that makes it more difficult to conceive and manage our relation to the other—makes the need for anthropology appear more clearly than ever before? This book sets forth at least the beginning of an answer to this question. The volume’s title combines a singular noun, anthropology, with a plural one, contemporaneous worlds. It aims to register the double movement of universalization and particularization that is simultaneously affecting the entire planet. Social anthropology has always taken into account the context of the groups and phenomena it studied. Today, while multiplicity is being maintained or, more precisely, renewed, that context has become, in all cases, planetary. Positioned in opposition not only to political theories of universalization and uniformization more or less tied to the theme of “the end of history,” but also to “postmodernist” versions of anthropological theories of multiplicity and relativism, the author argues that social anthropology, through its self-critical tradition, is fully capable of adapting to the accelerated change that is continuously recomposing relations between universalism and particularisms. It is for social anthropology to select, analyze, and understand the new modes of sociality and the new spaces in which (not without calamities and contradictions) these utterly new recompositions, a major aspect of our contemporary world, manifest themselves.
Download or read book An Anthropology for Contemporaneous Worlds written by Marc Augé and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under what conditions is anthropology possible today, when a crisis of social meaning—a crisis that makes it more difficult to conceive and manage our relation to the other—makes the need for anthropology appear more clearly than ever before? This book sets forth at least the beginning of an answer to this question. The volume’s title combines a singular noun, anthropology, with a plural one, contemporaneous worlds. It aims to register the double movement of universalization and particularization that is simultaneously affecting the entire planet. Social anthropology has always taken into account the context of the groups and phenomena it studied. Today, while multiplicity is being maintained or, more precisely, renewed, that context has become, in all cases, planetary. Positioned in opposition not only to political theories of universalization and uniformization more or less tied to the theme of “the end of history,” but also to “postmodernist” versions of anthropological theories of multiplicity and relativism, the author argues that social anthropology, through its self-critical tradition, is fully capable of adapting to the accelerated change that is continuously recomposing relations between universalism and particularisms. It is for social anthropology to select, analyze, and understand the new modes of sociality and the new spaces in which (not without calamities and contradictions) these utterly new recompositions, a major aspect of our contemporary world, manifest themselves.
Download or read book A Sense for the Other written by Marc Auge and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This approach to anthropology focuses on negotiating the social meanings used in making sense of the world, and on the processes of identification that create the difference between same and other.
Download or read book Navigators of the Contemporary written by David A. Westbrook and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-05-15 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the image of anthropologists exploring exotic locales and filling in blanks on the map has faded, the idea that cultural anthropology has much to say about the contemporary world has likewise diminished. In an increasingly smaller world, how can anthropology help us to tackle the concerns of a global society? David A. Westbrook argues that the traditional tool of the cultural anthropologist—ethnography—can still function as an intellectually exciting way to understand our interconnected, yet mysterious worlds. Navigators of the Contemporary describes the changing nature of ethnography as anthropologists use it to analyze places closer to home. Westbrook maintains that a conversational style of ethnography can help us look beyond our assumptions and gain new insight into arenas of contemporary life such as corporations, financial institutions, science, the military, and religion. Westbrook’s witty, absorbing book is a friendly challenge to anthropologists to shed light on the present and join broader streams of intellectual life. And for those outside the discipline, his inspiring vision of ethnography opens up the prospect of understanding our own world in much greater depth.
Download or read book Experiments in Holism written by Ton Otto and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-08-02 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experiments in Holism Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropology presents a series of essays that critically examine the ongoing relevance of holism and its theoretical and methodological potential in today’s world. Contributions from a diverse collection of leading anthropologists reveal how recent critiques of the holistic approach have not led to its wholesale rejection, but rather to a panoply of experiments that critically reassess and reemploy holism. The essays focus on aspects of holism including its utilization in current ethnographic research, holistic considerations in cultural anthropology, the French structuralist tradition, the predominantly English tradition of social anthropology, and many others. Collectively, the essays show how holism is simultaneously central to, and problematically a part of, the theory and practice of anthropology. Experiments in Holism reveals how contemporary attempts to rescale and retool anthropology entail new ways of coming to terms with anthropology’s heritage of holism, seeking to obviate its current excesses while recapturing its critical potential to meet the challenges of our contemporary world.
Download or read book The Future of Anthropology written by Akbar S. Ahmed and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Anthropology in the Contemporary World written by I. M. Lewis and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The World Ahead written by Margaret Mead and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Occasionally, a book comes along that towers above others. The World Ahead is such a book. . .. Textor shows how Mead was a generation ahead of almost all her contemporaries in understanding the importance of studying the sociocultural future of learning what is possible, probable, and preferable in order to know how life could and should be made better. . .." - Wendell Bell, Yale University "As protégé and friend of Margaret Mead for the last thirty years of her illustrious life, I welcome Textor's showcase of her various views of the future. Mead was at her best in planning for future generations." - Wilton S. Dillon, Senior Scholar Emeritus, Smithsonian Institute "[Mead] sought to clarify images of the future as they were current and to articulate images that would be preferable. . .. Textor's commentaries connect these papers and articles in a way that establishes 'the future' as a proper central focus in anthropology. . .." - Reed D. Riner, Northern Arizona University "A valuable contribution that shows Mead's broad range of future-oriented interests." - Future Survey Born in the first year of the 20th century, it is fitting that Margaret Mead should have been one of the first anthropologists to use anthropological analysis to study the future course of human civilization. This volume collects, for the first time, her writings on the future of humanity and how humans can shape that future through purposeful action. For Mead, the study of the future was born out of her lifelong interest in processes of change. Many of these papers were originally published as conference proceedings or in limited-circulation journals, testimony before government bodies and chapters in works edited by others. They show Mead's wisdom, prescience and concern for the future of humanity.
Download or read book World Anthropologies written by Gustavo Lins Ribeiro and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-12 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its inception, anthropology's authority has been based on the assumption that it is a unified discipline emanating from the West. In an age of heightened globalization, anthropologists have failed to discuss consistently the current status of their practice and its mutations across the globe. World Anthropologies is the first book to provoke this conversation from various regions of the world in order to assess the diversity of relations between regional or national anthropologies and a contested, power-laden Western discourse. Can a planetary anthropology cope with both the 'provincial cosmopolitanism' of alternative anthropologies and the 'metropolitan provincialism' of hegemonic schools? How might the resulting 'world anthropologies' challenge the current panorama in which certain allegedly national anthropological traditions have more paradigmatic weight - and hence more power - than others? Critically examining the international dissemination of anthropology within and across national power fields, contributors address these questions and provide the outline for a veritable world anthropologies project.
Download or read book Applied Anthropology written by Alexander M. Ervin and published by Allyn & Bacon. This book was released on 2005 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most up-to-date and accessible text on the subject, Applied Anthropology provides the skills, perspectives, and methodologies needed when working in today's communities and organizations. An invaluable resource, this practical book answers the question, "What can I do with a degree in Anthropology?" In addition to a focus on method, this book provides a solid foundation in the history, activities, and ethical concerns of applied anthropology. The book stresses decision-making and the need to understand policy through anthropological analysis. Because an anthropologist must communicate effectively with the general "non-anthropological" public, the text employs an accessible, jargon-free writing style. More than twenty case studies plus many "real-world" examples of anthropological practice reinforce the usefulness of anthropology in the real world. New material includes a summary of Elizabeth Guillette's research, a case study summarizing the work of Kendall Thu on intensive livestock operations, an analysis of Rapid Assessment Procedures and a summarization of the work and ideas of Robert Chambers.
Download or read book Policy Worlds written by Cris Shore and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are few areas of society today that remain outside the ambit of policy processes, and likewise policy making has progressively reached into the structure and fabric of everyday life. An instrument of modern government, policy and its processes provide an analytical window into systems of governance themselves, opening up ways to study power and the construction of regimes of truth. This volume argues that policies are not simply coercive, constraining or confined to static texts; rather, they are productive, continually contested and able to create new social and semantic spaces and new sets of relations. Anthropologists do not stand outside or above systems of governance but are themselves subject to the rhetoric and rationalities of policy. The analyses of policy worlds presented by the contributors to this volume open up new possibilities for understanding systems of knowledge and power and the positioning of academics within them.
Download or read book The Art of Contemporary China World of Art written by Jiang Jiehong and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A redefinition of contemporary Chinese art from the last forty years in the context of unprecedented cultural, political, and urban transformation, written by an authority on the subject. Contemporary Chinese art is a subject of sustained and growing significance in present-day culture across the globe. This new volume in the World of Art series reframes Chinese art since the end of China’s Cultural Revolution more than four decades ago, placing it in the context of the nation’s unprecedented cultural, political, and urban transformation. Based on original research by writer, curator, and leading scholar in the field of contemporary Chinese art, Jiang Jiehong, this volume explores the area through firsthand materials and in-depth interviews with more than thirty artists. Providing the most up-to-date understanding of contemporary Chinese art, Jiang includes a variety of media, ranging from painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography to installation, video, performance, and participatory art. Featuring over 150 color images of artworks by more than fifty internationally renowned Chinese artists, including Ai Weiwei and Zhang Peili, as well as emerging artists, such as Zhao Zhao, The Art of Contemporary China presents a wide variety of practices through curatorial discussions and images of original installation views and historical art events. What emerges are revelations on art, and new insights into contemporary China. Fulfilling a need for an accessible, affordable introduction to contemporary Chinese art, this volume offers a concise but far-reaching survey of the movement.
Download or read book Non places written by Marc Augé and published by Verso. This book was released on 1995 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ever-increasing proportion of our lives is spent in supermarkets, airports and hotels, on motorways or in front of TVs, computers and cash machines. This invasion of the world by what Marc Augé calls "non-space" results in a profound alteration of awareness: something we perceive, but only in a partial and incoherent manner. Augé uses the concept of "supermodernity" to describe a situation of excessive information and excessive space. In this fascinating essay he seeks to establish an intellectual armature for an anthropology of supermodernity.
Download or read book Cultural Anthropology written by Sheldon Smith and published by Allyn & Bacon. This book was released on 1998 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introduction to cultural anthropology text uses a global approach to examine basic anthropological concepts within a regional context, providing an analysis of contemporary issues throughout. This text utilizes a political ecology perspective, which combines cultural ecology, with its emphasis on adaptation, and political economy, which focuses on the links between productive activity, trade, and distribution of power. This text presents anthropology as a discipline that is indispensable in understanding the dynamics of contemporary intercultural interactions and ethnic conflict. The global approach directs attention both to Western and non-Western traditional and complex societies, where archeological, historical and contemporary data is used to show how cultures adapt and interact over time and within our contemporary global community. The book explores the effects of colonialism, trade and capitalism on the local indigenous cultures of each region, but also shows how contemporary indigenous and minority groups are taking action, in both constructive and destructive ways.While all the traditional anthropological topics are covered, this book also provides an overview of key events in the prehistory and history of Western civilization including a chapter on the rise of capitalism and a chapter on American culture. It also explores, in the relevant regional chapters, the contemporary transitions from economies based on central planning and state ownership of industries to more capitalistic economies, the struggles to institute democratic reforms and the efforts to establish national identities and boundaries in multi-ethnic regions formerly united by repressive political systems.
Download or read book Relational Anthropology for Contemporary Economics written by Jermo van Nes and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book offers a multidisciplinary dialogue on relational anthropology in contemporary economics. A particular view of the human being is often assumed in economic models, but seldom acknowledged let alone explicated. Addressing this neglected area of research in economic studies, altogether the contributors touch upon the importance and potential of virtues, the notions of freedom and self-love, the potential of simulation models, the dialectics of love, and questions of methodology in constructing a relational anthropology for contemporary economics. The overall result is a highly informative and constructive dialogue, establishing inter alia a research agenda for future collaborative and multidisciplinary study.
Download or read book Contemporary Revolutions written by Susan Stanford Friedman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Returning to revolution's original meaning of 'cycle', Contemporary Revolutions explores how 21st-century writers, artists, and performers re-engage the arts of the past to reimagine a present and future encompassing revolutionary commitments to justice and freedom. Dealing with histories of colonialism, slavery, genocide, civil war, and gender and class inequities, essays examine literature and arts of Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, and the United States. The broad range of contemporary writers and artists considered include fabric artist Ellen Bell; poets Selena Tusitala Marsh and Antje Krog; Syrian artists of the civil war and Sana Yazigi's creative memory web site about the war; street artist Bahia Shehab; theatre installation artist William Kentridge; and the recycles of Virginia Woolf by multi-media artist Kabe Wilson, novelist W. G. Sebald, and the contemporary trans movement.
Download or read book Framing Cosmologies written by Allen Abramson and published by . This book was released on 2016-08-19 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How might the anthropological study of cosmologies illuminate understandings of the contemporary world? This book addresses this question by bringing together anthropologists whose research is informed by a concern with cosmological dimensions of social life in different ethnographic settings
