J Benthall

Biographic Data

ID31467
NAMEJ Benthall
GIVEN NAMESJ
FAMILY NAMEBenthall
SIGNATUREBENTHALL J
AFFILIATIONSUniversity College London
ORCID0000-0001-5825-014X
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS131
TOTAL CITATIONS191
AUTHOR COUNT129
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1973
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2023
H-INDEX6

  • James Woodburn

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2023References: 4

  • L’humanitaire et le religieux

    J Benthall, Lucas FaureARTICLECritique internationale2022

  • Mary Douglas and Raymond Firth at 100/120

    Open AccessP Laviolette, J BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2021

  • The critique of ethnocentrism in retrospect

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2021References: 15

    This article opens with a review of the origins of the term 'ethnocentrism' as the linchpin of modern anthropology despite the discipline's background in the colonial past. The author is stimulated by Step Stuurman's The invention of humanity: Equality and cultural difference in human history (2017) to ask to what extent the critique of ethnocentrism, which gradually gathered strength in the West, has had parallels in non-Western civilizations. H…

  • Poignant Obituary (At36,3)

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2020

  • Anthropology and Climate Change

    Open AccessJ Benthall, Nancy LindisfarneARTICLEAnthropology Today2020References: 11

  • The Care of Orphans in the Islamic Tradition, Vulnerable Children, and Child Sponsorship Programs

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEJournal of Muslim Philanthropy…2019

  • Glynn Flood

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2019References: 3

  • Charité

    Open AccessJ Benthall, Andrew Sanchez et al.ARTICLEOpen Encyclopedia of Anthropology2018

    Cet article aborde la charité comme un terme «étique» qui facilite la comparaison entre des traditions différentes. Les bases théoriques en ont été posées par deux grands anthropologues au début du XXe siècle: Marcel Mauss, dont L’essai sur le don a suscité des interprétations très variées sur le thème de l’échange et de la réciprocité; et Edvard Westermarck, chez lequel, derrière les préjugés sur une hiérarchie des «races», on peut discerner que…

  • Mary Douglas and the Diversity of Purity Frameworks

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2018Cited by: 3References: 4

  • Michael Herbert Day (1927-2018)

    Open AccessB Wood, J BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2018

  • Humanitarianism as Ideology and Practice

    Open AccessJ BenthallOTHERThe International Encyclopedia of…2017

    Humanitarianism has an ideological aspect, representing the industrialized world's aspirations to relieve suffering in societies faced by acute crisis, but may also be conceived as a self‐evidently practical response to needs. After a historical summary, this entry describes how social–cultural anthropologists since the 1980s have helped to lay the foundations for “humanitarian studies,” especially in questioning many professional assumptions but…

  • Technological art and Studio International ’s eclectic vanguardism

    J BenthallARTICLEInterdisciplinary Science Reviews2017

    This article takes the editorship by Peter Townsend of Studio International, to which the author contributed regularly between 1969 and 1972, as a starting-point to recall decisive personal encounters with Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings, Wen-Ying Tsai’s sculptures, Jasia Reichardt’s exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity and the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science. It goes on to re-endorse the earlier argument that a long historical tim…

  • The Palestinian zakat committees 1993–2007 and their contested interpretations

    J BenthallCHAPTERIslamic Charities and Islamic…2016

    This chapter was published in 2008, shortly after the decision of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to reorganize some 90 zakat committees and bring them under central control. The chapter (originally published by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) set out to review competing interpretations of the nature of the West Bank committees during the “Oslo period”, after limited autonomy was ceded by Israel…

  • Islamic Charities and Islamic Humanism in Troubled Times

    J BenthallBOOKIslamic Charities and Islamic…2016

    This book is the fruit of twenty years’ reflection on Islamic charities, both in practical terms and as a key to understand the crisis in contemporary Islam. On the one hand Islam is undervalued as a global moral and political force whose admirable qualities are exemplified in its strong tradition of charitable giving. On the other hand, it suffers from a crisis of authority that cannot be blamed entirely on the history of colonialism and stigmat…

  • Islamic charities and Islamic humanism in troubled times

    J Benthall, Bertrand TaitheBOOKIslamic Charities and Islamic…2016

    This book is the fruit of twenty years' reflection on Islamic charities, both in practical terms and as a key to understand the crisis in contemporary Islam. On the one hand Islam is undervalued as a global moral and political force whose admirable qualities are exemplified in its strong tradition of charitable giving. On the other hand, it suffers from a crisis of authority that cannot be blamed entirely on the history of colonialism and stigmat…

  • Anthropology, Anti-Racism and Schools in the 1970s

    Open AccessDavid Mills, J BenthallARTICLETeaching Anthropology2016

    This interview with a former director of the Royal Anthropological Institute offers an insight into the very start of conversations about an Anthropology A-level in the 1970s

  • Puripetal Force in the Charitable Field

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAsian Ethnology2016Cited by: 1

  • William Fagg the seer (Respond to this article at https

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2015References: 2

    This guest editorial assesses Bill Fagg's legacy in the African art scene

  • Popular Pepresentations of Development

    J BenthallARTICLEDevelopment in Practice2015

  • Scientology's winning streak (Respond to this article at http

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2014Cited by: 1

    In this editorial the author considers the effect of recent legal judgments enabling Scientology weddings in England

  • Fail better? Reflections on Face values and Millennium (Respond to this article at http

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2014

  • Foregrounding the Muslim periphery (Respond to this article at http

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2013

    This guest editorial considers the implications of Akbar Ahmed's latest book – The Thistle and the Drone: How America's war on terror became a global war on tribal Islam , which was the centrepiece of several panel discussions in London

  • “Cultural Proximity” and the Conjuncture of Islam with Modern Humanitarianism

    J BenthallCHAPTERSacred aid2012

    This chapter discusses the issue of “cultural proximity.” It determines that this issue has arisen almost exclusively in the context of work in the Muslim world, where the word “cultural” becomes a euphemism for “religious.” It studies “communitarian aid” in the context of the Christians and Jews, and introduces the concept of the Islamic umma, or transnational community of Muslims. It also describes the devastating effects of the 2004 Indian Oce…

  • Charity plus (Respond to this article at http

    Open AccessJ BenthallARTICLEAnthropology Today2012References: 3

    This editorial takes to task a statement on humanitarianism by Valerie Amos, UN Under‐Secretary‐General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, which seems to gloss over issues to do with staff selection and management policies, but especially the work of veteran anthropologists in the field of development and alternative perspectives on humanitarianism