Magic, Self and (World) Society
Groundwork for an Existential and Cosmopolitan Anthropology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2145207 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Huon Wardle (University of St Andrews, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 33-51 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropological Forum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00664677.2023.2272053 |
| OpenAlex | W4388231446 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 31 |
Human beings can be found everywhere (Piette) and the true subject of anthropology is anyone (Rapport). What do we need to do to our epistemology and practice to reframe anthropology in existential and cosmopolitan terms? This paper explores processes of cosmology- and society-making through an existential and cosmopolitan epistemology and axiology. We can reenlist classic anthropological discussions on magic to understand how subjects generate a Society into which they insert themselves as creative agents. Magical practice shows how Society is uniquely biographical and personal, and that subjectivity is an irreducible and ‘in-additive’ source of social and cosmological structure. Cosmopolitan anthropology describes, then, encounters of ‘non-interchangeable’ (Kneubuhler) biographical selves meeting in and constructing world-space; different selves on diverse cosmopolitanizing trajectories engage in divergent biographical worldmaking practices. In this light, cosmopolitan anthropology takes the form of analytic biography, tracing and retracing these unfoldings of self-orienting structure. Two radically distinct examples of subject-oriented cosmology-making are enlisted: Rastafari I-Yaric and Arrernte tjurunga knowledge
Cognitive reframing · Epistemology · Existentialism · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Subjectivity · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Computer Science · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Philosophy · Psychology · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory
Art And Agency
Kinship and the Social Order.
The Ecological Approach To Visual Perception
Elements of social organization
Anyone
From Human Nature and Conduct (1922)
Rastafari and Other African-Caribbean Worldviews
Coral Gardens and Their Magic
The Philosophy of Money
The Philosophy of Money
The Rules of Sociological Method
The Euahlayi Tribe. A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia
The Psychology of Imagination
Words, works, worlds
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
Das Café der Existenzialisten
Theoretical Anthropology or How to Observe a Human Being
Observations on Rastafari Cosmopolitics from the Caribbean
Jamaican Adventures
How is Society Possible
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |