Agency and pain

An exploration

Bibliographic Data

ID7097337
AuthorsTalal Asad (City University of New York, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume1
Issue1
Pages29-60
Publication date2000-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture and Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-5610 • E-ISSN: 1475-5629
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01438300008567139
OpenAlexW2091941152
LanguageEN
Citations received52
References cited38

The notion of agency has become particularly prominent in social‐science writing. This article identifies some of the weaknesses in the ways it has been employed in contemporary anthropology. It criticises the assumptions of self‐empowerment, responsibility, and constructivism that are held to be essential to moral agency in much of that usage. Present‐day conceptions of agency in this literature introduce—whether intentionally or not—a triumphalist vision of history. Drawing on recent neuro‐physiological research, religious history and ethnography, it focuses on pain in order to think about agency in other than triumphalist terms. Triumphalist versions of agency, the article argues, are not only inherently questionable, they also distract our attention away from the need to understand how different traditions articulate the idea of living sanely in a world that is inevitably painful

Agency (philosophy · Constructivism (international relations · Empowerment · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ethnography · International relations · Moral agency · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub