Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 464 pages
- Published by: University Of Chicago Press July 1, 2002
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0226500136
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0226500133
-
Book Dimensions:
9 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
- Weighs: 1.5 pounds
Product Description
Since its founding in the nineteenth century, social anthropology has been seen as the study of exotic peoples in faraway places. But today more and more anthropologists are dedicating themselves not just to observing but to understanding and helping solve social problems wherever they occur—in international aid organizations, British TV studios, American hospitals, or racist enclaves in Eastern Europe, for example.
In
Exotic No More, an initiative of the Royal Anthropological Institute, some of today's most respected anthropologists demonstrate, in clear, unpretentious prose, the awesome contributions that anthropology can make to contemporary society. They cover issues ranging from fundamentalism to forced migration, child labor to crack dealing, human rights to hunger, ethnicity to environmentalism, intellectual property rights to international capitalisms. But
Exotic No More is more than a litany of gloom and doom; the essays also explore topics usually associated with leisure or "high" culture, including the media, visual arts, tourism, and music. Each author uses specific examples from their fieldwork to illustrate their discussions, and 62 photographs enliven the text.
Throughout the book, the contributors highlight anthropology's commitment to taking people seriously on their own terms, paying close attention to what they are saying and doing, and trying to understand how they see the world and why. Sometimes this bottom-up perspective makes the strange familiar, but it can also make the familiar strange, exposing the cultural basis of seemingly "natural" behaviors and challenging us to rethink some of our most cherished ideas—about gender, "free" markets, "race," and "refugees," among many others.
Contributors:
William O. Beeman
Philippe Bourgois
John Chernoff
E. Valentine Daniel
Alex de Waal
Judith Ennew
James Fairhead
Sarah Franklin
Michael Gilsenan
Faye Ginsburg
Alma Gottlieb
Christopher Hann
Faye V. Harrison
Richard Jenkins
Melissa Leach
Margaret Lock
Jeremy MacClancy
Jonathan Mazower
Ellen Messer
A. David Napier
Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Jane Schneider
Parker Shipton
Christopher B. Steiner
From the Inside Flap
Since its founding in the nineteenth century, social anthropology has been seen as the study of exotic peoples in faraway places. But today more and more anthropologists are dedicating themselves to addressing matters of public concern and to understanding and helping solve social problems wherever they occur-in international aid organizations, British TV studios, American hospitals, or racist enclaves in Eastern Europe, for example. In
Exotic No More, an initiative of the Royal Anthropological Institute, some of today's most respected anthropologists demonstrate, in clear, unpretentious prose, the awesome contributions that anthropology can make to contemporary society.
Covering issues ranging from fundamentalism to forced migration, child labor to crack dealing, and visual arts to tourism, the contributors highlight anthropology's commitment to taking people seriously on their own terms, paying close attention to what they are saying and doing, and trying to understand how they see the world and why. In exposing the cultural basis of seemingly "natural" behaviors and challenging us to rethink some of our most cherished ideas-about gender, "free" markets, "race," and "refugees"-the essays here demonstrate the vitality of anthropology for today's world.
Reader ReviewsThis is an excellent reader. Superb. Extremely funny essays from "publish or perish" series. As a student, I wasn't "frustrated by the lack of references, footnotes, and endnotes" at all. But, still, for a Stalinist/Maoist anthropology professor it may look so. (Talking about representation - who represents whom).I have no intentions, of course, of refuting Stalinist ravings. It is just as meaningless as these ridiculous "front lines" stories.
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