Comments on: Gabriel Tarde: Been there, done that.

By: » Gabriel Tarde and Anthropology The Sociological Imagination

» Gabriel Tarde and Anthropology The Sociological Imagination — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:01:13 +0000

[…] like to find out more about Tarde and his legacy, it’s worth reading this interesting post on Savage Minds which discusses Tarde’s often overlooked influence on […]

By: Daniel Rosenblatt

Daniel Rosenblatt — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 15:41:46 +0000

John, Thanks for the plug. In that context, with reference to countering the despair implicit in our hyper critical temperament, you should look at Ira Bashkow’s piece on borders in the same mini-collection.

By: Forgetting Gabriel Tarde | Savage Minds Backup

Forgetting Gabriel Tarde | Savage Minds Backup — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 17:46:31 +0000

[…] Rex recently pointed out, Durkheim’s elder and rival Gabriel Tarde is experiencing a “reinvention” or “revival” at […]

By: Jason Baird Jackson

Jason Baird Jackson — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 02:42:40 +0000

Amen, Rex. I second the suggestion of “Goldenweiser’s “History, Psychology, and Culture.” It knocked me out when I read it and I loved that I used to be able to teach it. For its illustration of Boasian ethnological/cultural historical method in action, I really like Radin’s dissertation on the medicine dance, which was published in JAF in 1911 and is old enough to be free via JSTOR.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 02:52:03 +0000

@Daniel

Just included a plug for your paper in a comment on Open Anthropology Cooperative:

http://openanthcoop.ning.com/forum/topics/new-online-seminar-9-21-september-lee-drummond-lance-armstrong-th?page=1&commentId=3404290%3AComment%3A199908&x=1#3404290Comment199908

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 07:33:02 +0000

@Daniel,

Thank you so much. I have just quickly scanned the general intro to which you have provided the link above. Very impressive, indeed. I look forward to reading your piece at a more leisurely pace after I get home from the office today.

By: Daniel Rosenblatt

Daniel Rosenblatt — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 02:56:42 +0000

George Stocking’s Race, Culture and Evolution is the crucial source on Boas, making explicit much of what was implicit in Boas. Ruth Benedict is the Boasian who was most explicit about what culture is.

Ira Bashkow, Matti Bunzl, Andrew Orta, Richard Handler and I published a set of papers in AA about the relevance of Boasian anthropology for today. Our general intro and my piece are on my academia.edu page, and of course the rest are available online if you have access to anthrosource.

http://www.academia.edu/961670/A_new_Boasian_anthropology_Theory_for_the_21st_century

http://www.academia.edu/961669/An_Anthropology_Made_Safe_for_Culture_Patterns_of_Practice_and_the_Politics_of_Difference_In_Ruth_Benedict

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 23:12:36 +0000

Thank-you both. I have just ordered Invisible Genealogies. Amazon.co.jp says 2-4 weeks. Any links to stuff available on line in the meantime?

By: Rex

Rex — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 23:01:53 +0000

John — that’s the next entry. Hang in there! Actually while I’m putting that together, Lowie’s “Culture and Ethnology” is a good popular introduction (skip the last chapter) but probably a little basic for you. Goldenweiser’s “History, Psychology, and Culture” is also a good start (although with a convoluted writing style) and the essays is available in the book of the same name as well as on JSTOR. I believe that it is OA on archive.org as well.

I second Invisible Genealogies. The conclusion to “Along Came Boas” by Darnell is the best summary of the Boasians. Stocking’s “The Basic Assumptions of Boasian Anthropology” in “The Shaping of American Anthropology” is longer and a little earlier.

By: Mateo

Mateo — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 15:39:51 +0000

I can not speak for Rex, obviously, and though I could provide such a list, I would recommend Regna Darnell’s Invisible Genealogies as a first stop. One of the difficulties for those getting started with the Boasians is that the theory tends to be implicit. Darnell does a good job of laying it all bare.

By: Anthropology roundup: ” ‘neo-Tardian revival’ … « Erkan's Field Diary

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 08:33:03 +0000

[…] Gabriel Tarde: Been there, done that. […]

By: Anthropology roundup: ” ‘neo-Tardian revival’ … | Erkan's Field Diary

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 08:33:03 +0000

[…] Gabriel Tarde: Been there, done that. […]

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 01:40:22 +0000

@Rex

I have heard you say before that we should pay more attention to the Boasians. I suspect, however, that for many like me, who were trained in the British + French traditions, an important question is where to begin. Could we persuade you to put together a brief syllabus, along the lines of “Reading these five or ten things in the following order will provide you with a solid foundation”?

By: Katie Derthick

Katie Derthick — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 20:01:19 +0000

What readings would you recommend?

By: A. J. West (@AlWest13)

A. J. West (@AlWest13) — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 19:48:32 +0000

My tutor at Ox (who had studied for his undergrad at Reed) told me that Alexander Goldenweiser had a collection of books in ‘all of the languages of Europe’ which had been annotated by Goldenweiser in the language they were in. If the book was in Russian, he wrote his notes in the margins in Russian; if French, the notes were in French. Clearly an incredibly clever man.

It’s easy to see the value in reading the Boasians, but I’m struggling to find the value in reading books by Deleuze, Guattari, or Latour.