The Tragic Denouement of English Sociality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3003607 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Miller (0000-0001-6554-9174, UCL Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 336-357 |
| Publication date | 2015-05-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cultural Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0886-7356 • E-ISSN: 1548-1360 |
| Publisher | American Anthropological Association (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.14506/ca30.2.11 |
| OpenAlex | W2133586695 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 23 |
Social science contains a grand narrative about our fall from intense sociality to fragmented individualism. The present essay contests this narrative with respect to the sociality of the English. It starts with a study of hospice patients with terminal cancer who live in villages and yet become isolated and lonely. To explain this phenomenon, it uses a larger ethnography of village life, finding that villagers are highly sociable and philanthropic in the public domain, but circumspect and reticent with regard to the private domain. So once patients are restricted to their homes, isolation follows. The article further examines the comparative anthropology of Britain and historical studies of neighbors and family relations to suggest that this pattern of sociality has held true for centuries and represents nothing new. Finally, I consider these insights in the context of a wider study of social media, and its consequences for the work of the hospice
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Ethnography · Individualism · Isolation (microbiology · Literature · Narrative · Nothing · Phenomenon · Political science · Sociality · Sociology · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · History · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy · Social Media and Politics · Ecology
After nature
Family Life and Illicit Love in Earlier Generations
The Caring Relationship
Suicide
Cultures of Relatedness
The origins of English individualism
Diverse world-views in an English village
The Metropolis and Mental Life
Suicide
Social Identities across the Life Course
The Dying Process
Publicly Private and Privately Public
Early modern English kinship in the long run
Does the Internet Change How We Die and Mourn? Overview and Analysis
A Semiotics of the Public/Private Distinction
Social Identities Across the Life Course
Kinship at the Core
Community Re-Studies
The Gift
Kinship at the Core
What is a Relationship? Is Kinship Negotiated Experience
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,36 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2025 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |