One of the big problems I encounter when providing potted histories of anthropological theory is to figure out what has gone on since the late 1980s. Sherry Ortner’s article Theory in Anthropology Since The 1960s is now ubiquitous on theory syllabi and has had a weirdly hegemonic effect on our imagination of anthropology’s landscape. The other thing the late 80s were good for were strong statements in the field of political economy (Europe and The People Without History) and of course the ‘Writing Culture’ moment which was easy to clearly clustered around Writing Culture, Interpretation of Culture, and Anthropology As Cultural Critique. But since then… what? I’d like to nominate a couple of contenders for the potted-theory shortlist.
First, for a more British and less potted collection there is always Blackwell’s new Anthropology in Theory: Issues in Epistemology edited by Moore and Sanders which came out in 2005 and is more or less brand spanking new.
Second, there is Webb Keane’s article Self-interpretation, Agency, and the Objects of Anthropology: Reflections on a Genealogy which is, as far as I can tell, available on-line free of charge (as are many of his other excellent papers) which reflects on the ‘Gupta and Ferguson’ moment of 1997 featured both Anthropological Locations and Culture Power Place as well as Abu-Lughod’s Writing Against Culture which has certainly become representative of a certain approach to anthropology.
Third, there is Sherry Ortner herself, who has attempted to update her famous article in the first chapter of her book Making Gender in 1997 and it looks like her upcoming volume Anthropology and Social Theory will do the same.
Finally, there is Robert Brightman’s 1995 article Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification which presents a sort of conservative counter-thrust to authors — Abu-Lughod chief among them — who want us to ‘forget culture.’
So there it is — from 2006 to 1995, some good places to continue the potted history of anthropological theory. What would you add to this list?
I’d add: A History of Anthropology by Eriksen and Nielsen, from 2001.
Ah well, there are lots of good histories of anthropology out there. I suppose what I am looking for are good single-serving essays that one could assign for class — or just read on your own if you are an auto-didact.
It’s also interesting to see directions proposed and not quite taken–is it in Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society that Herzfeld proffers the requirement that dissertations be published in the language of fieldwork?
Thanks for this great post.
To bad there aren’t more articles avaliable online. Perhaps some could be added to the playlist refered to in this post, CiteULike, or maybe even simple static page here at SM. That would be a great resource for someone like me who has minimal formal background in anthropology but keeps gravitating towards it from other disciplines.
Bush is forever saying that democracies do not invade other countries and start wars. Well, he did just that. He invaded Iraq, started a war, and killed people. What do you think? How does that work in a democracy again? How does being more threatening make us more likeable?Isn’t the country with
the most weapons the biggest threat to the rest of the world? When one country is the biggest threat to the rest of the world, isn’t that likely to be the most hated country?
Our country is in debt until forever, we don’t have jobs, and we live in fear. We have invaded a country and been responsible for thousands of deaths.
The more people that the government puts in jails, the safer we are told to think we are. The real terrorists are wherever they are, but they aren’t living in a country with bars on the windows. We are.