This is an easy to use A-Z guide to the central concepts that students are likely to encounter in this field. Now fully updated, this third edition includes entries on material culture, environment, human rights, hybridity, alterity, cosmopolitanism, ethnography, applied anthropology, gender, cybernetics, and much more.
'Reveries of Home' considers understandings of home in the world today and the techniques by which homes are assured. In particular, the volume explores the relationship between the phenomenon of globalisation and the ways in which home-making entails acts of practical and symbolic emplacement in landscapes felt to be meaningful and authentic. Home-making is a continuous work for 'place' is not a neither necessarily singular nor once-and-for-all. The places of identity, of self and society, are continually generated by acts of home-making and 'Reveries of Home' explores how homes exist in time, in moments of individual and collective performance which are both mundane and memorial. A series of case-studies, from Norway and West Africa, the mid-western USA, Egypt, Scotland and elsewhere, offer an illustrative array of homes made in rural communities and urban worksites, in personal life-histories and the policies of diasporic groups, in ceremonial revivals and mundane in postcards, house furnishings, clothes and smells.
Focusing on the concept of cosmopolitanism, the book presents it as a vital framework for understanding human identity beyond traditional affiliations like nation, religion, and race. It proposes that recognizing shared human experiences can foster solidarity and justice, offering a more inclusive alternative to multiculturalism. By positioning cosmopolitanism as both a theoretical approach and a moral guide, the author argues for its essential role in addressing the complexities of identity politics and promoting a universal human condition.
The book emphasizes the importance of the individual within anthropological theory and ethnographic writing, showcasing diverse voices that highlight how individuals shape and express cultural and social life. It advocates for a perspective that prioritizes individuality over cultural norms, reflecting a liberal moral stance that encourages value judgments beyond traditional cultural frameworks.
Exploring the philosophical contributions of Emmanuel Levinas, this work challenges traditional anthropology's claims of understanding humanity. It posits that subjectivity and identity are inherently 'secret,' advocating for an ethics rooted in 'not-knowing' to truly appreciate 'otherness.' The book argues for anthropology's evolution into a humanistic science that authentically documents social life, intertwining Levinasian philosophy with anthropological principles to draw meaningful conclusions about the nature of human existence.
The quest for an ethic of social recognition and inclusion is central to this work, emphasizing shared humanity over divisive social and cultural identities. It proposes love as a fundamental force for social cohesion, defining it as the emotional recognition of others. Through this lens, the book advocates for a more inclusive society that transcends fictional boundaries like religion and ethnicity, promoting a universal connection among individuals.
What is it to be human? What are our specifically human attributes, our capacities and liabilities? Such questions gave birth to anthropology as an Enlightenment science. This book argues that it is again appropriate to bring the human to the fore, to reclaim the singularity of the word as central to the anthropological endeavor...
What kind of a resource - ethnographic, theoretic and methodological - does literature represent to anthropology?
This collection explores the social legacy of European Enlightenment ideas of science and rationality. In their deployment science and rationality were intended to give rise to open and democratic societies. The volume addresses the history of these notions while centring on ethnographic studies of openness and equitability in contemporary European social milieux, as well as in the European postcolony and on Europe's increasingly global 'fringes'. The book takes its lead, in particular, from Karl Popper's ideas, and his key liberal text, The Open Society and its Enemies.
A study which attempts to formulate an anthropological approach to consciousness. This text explores the importance of the conscious self, and of the conscious collectively, in the construction and interpretation of social relations and process.
