Deconstructing anthropology
First Annual Stephen F. Gudeman Lecture
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2226893 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Adam Kuper (London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 10-22 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Hau Journal of Ethnographic Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2049-1115 • E-ISSN: 2575-1433 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/703730 |
| OpenAlex | W2953615549 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 31 |
This lecture makes a start at deconstructing some of anthropology's most venerable avatars. Classical theories invoked a certain kind of person as the subject of anthropology. He was the savage, the tribal, the indigenous. More recently he became simply The Other. Always, he was our mirror opposite, ourselves turned upside down in a fairground mirror. And the theories that tried to explain this imaginary actor recycled a recurrent set of ideas and arguments about nature and culture, and savagery and civilization.If we are to return to the real world we must free our thinking of these imaginary dichotomies, and set aside the repetitive cycle of mythical transformations that they support. Begin with the recognition that we are very like the people we study. Then construct a cosmopolitan anthropology that will confront current theories, models and methods with the experience and the understanding of the people we live with as ethnographers
Civilization · Construct (python library · Dichotomy · Epistemology · Ethnography · Indigenous · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Subject (documents · The Imaginary · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Computer Science · Culinary Culture and Tourism · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Ecology
Trade and Market in the Early Empires
Anthropology and Economy
The Interpretation of Cultures
Economics as culture
Pul Eliya, a village in Ceylon
Anthropologists unite!
Rethinking Anthropology
Economy's Tension
Configurations of Culture Growth
Patterns of Culture
The Stages of Economic Growth
Naven
Ideology, Social Science, and Destiny
Methods and Principles
The neglected 95
The Rise of Anthropological Theory
Franz Boas' Approach to Language
Political Systems of Highland Burma
Crime and Custom in Savage Society
On Certain Unconsidered Aspects of Double Descent Systems
Culture Contact and Schismogenesis
Edmund Leach
Transformation transformed
Glimpses of the Unmentionable in the History of British Social Anthropology
Culture, Genuine and Spurious
An Interview with Edmund Leach
Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |