Who are 'We'?: Reimagining Alterity and Affinity in Anthropology

Published by Berghahn Books 2018

Who are 'We'?

Reimagining Alterity and Affinity in Anthropology

Edited by: Liana Chua and Nayanika Mathur

Volume 34 in the series Methodology & History in Anthropology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785338892

Overview
Contents

About this book

Who do “we” anthropologists think “we” are? And how do forms and notions of collective disciplinary identity shape the way we think, write, and do anthropology? This volume explores how the anthropological “we” has been construed, transformed, and deployed across history and the global anthropological landscape. Drawing together both reflections and ethnographic case studies, it interrogates the critical—yet poorly studied—roles played by myriad anthropological “we” ss in generating and influencing anthropological theory, method, and analysis. In the process, new spaces are opened for reimagining who “we” are – and what “we,” and indeed anthropology, could become.

Author / Editor information

Liana Chua is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Brunel University London. She works on Christianity, ethnic politics, resettlement, and development in Borneo, and on global orangutan conservation in “the Anthropocene.” Her publications include The Christianity of Culture (Palgrave, 2012) and co-edited volumes on evidence, power in Southeast Asia, and Alfred Gell’s theory of art.

Nayanika Mathur is Associate Professor in the Anthropology of South Asia and Fellow of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford. She is currently working on multispecies ethnography, climate change, and human-big cat conflict in the Anthropocene. She is the author of Paper Tiger: Law, Bureaucracy and the Developmental State in Himalayan India (Cambridge, 2016) and the co-editor of Remaking the Public Good: A New Anthropology of Bureaucracy (Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 2015).

Liana Chua is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Brunel University London. She works on Christianity, ethnic politics, resettlement, and development in Borneo, and on global orangutan conservation in “the Anthropocene.” Her publications include The Christianity of Culture (Palgrave, 2012) and co-edited volumes on evidence, power in Southeast Asia, and Alfred Gell’s theory of art.

Reviews

“Who Are ‘We’? does not provide a response to its own title. Rather, it pulls some of the historical, epistemic and political threads that have come to produce the intricate ‘we’ that we think we are… Importantly, this book is not a guide through pre‐existing affinities and alterities, but an invitation to imagine new ways of reconnecting people – anthropologists and those who are not – in ever productive ways.” • Social Anthropology

“[This volume] raises awareness about existing inequalities in knowledge production, and at the same time contributes to the theoretical discussions on knowledge production in anthropology.” • Michal Buchowski, Adam Mickiewicz University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction. Who Are ‘We’? Liana Chua and Nayanika Mathur Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Revisiting the Anthropological ‘We’
Chapter 1. Anthropology at the Dawn of Apartheid: Radcliffe-Brown and Malinowski’s South African Engagements, 1919–34 Isak Niehaus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Chapter 2. The Savage Noble: Alterity and Aristocracy in Anthropology David Sneath Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
Part II. Alterity and Affinity in Anthropology’s Global Landscape
Chapter 3. The Anthropological Imaginarium: Crafting Alterity, The Self and an Ethnographic Film in Southwest China Katherine Swancutt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Chapter 4. The Risks of Affinity: Indigeneity and Indigenous Film Production in Bolivia Gabriela Zamorano Villarreal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
Chapter 5. Shifting the ‘We’ in Oceania: Anthropology and Pacific Islanders Revisited Ty P. Kawika Tengan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Part III. Where Do ‘We’ Go from Here?
Chapter 6. Crafting Anthropology Otherwise: Alterity, Affinity and Performance Gey Pin Ang and Caroline Gatt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Chapter 7. Towards an Ecumenical Anthropology João de Pina-Cabral Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Afterword Mwenda Ntarangwi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 264
Keywords: Anthropology (General); Theory and Methodology

eBook

Published: June 13, 2018
ISBN: 9781785338892