Sameness and the Ethnological Will to Meaning

Bibliographic Data

ID2187381
AuthorsVassos Argyrou (corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume40
IssueS1
PagesS29-S41
Publication date1999-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/200059
OpenAlexW2057763254
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited2

This article examines the claim that there is a crisis in ethnological representation. It argues that no such crisis exists because the truth of the most fundamental ethnological representation-Sameness-is questioned by no one. It suggests that this claim must be understood as an attempt to uphold Sameness in the face of representations of difference that contradict it. The article further argues that it is impossible to demonstrate Sameness and that every attempt to do so results in the production of difference and Otherness. It concludes by suggesting why anthropologists must nonetheless persist in this self-defeating endeavor

Epistemology · Face (sociological concept · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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