ISBN:
9781785330940
Language:
Undetermined
Pages:
364 p.
Edition:
1st edition
Keywords:
Theory & Methodology in Anthropology
Abstract:
Since the politicization of anthropology in the 1970s, most anthropologists have been reluctant to approach the topic of universals-that is, phenomena that occur regularly in all known human societies. In this volume, Christoph Antweiler reasserts the importance of these cross-cultural commonalities for anthropological research and for life and co-existence beyond the academy. The question presented here is how anthropology can help us approach humanity in its entirety, understanding the world less as a globe, with an emphasis on differences, but as a planet, from a vantage point open to commonalities.
Description / Table of Contents:
List of Tables -- Preface -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Humankind: Current Societal Debates -- -- Universal Postulates Everywhere! -- Popular Universality in Visual Media: "The Family of Man" -- Normative Universalism -- -- Chapter 2. A World of Cultures: Their Differences and Likenesses -- -- Finding Patterns in Diversity: George Peter Murdock and Donald Edward Brown -- Universals as Subject Matter: Concept, Terms and Metaphors -- Universals do matter: The Relevance of Universals in General and for Cultural Studies -- Universals in Cultural Anthropology Today: the forgotten Half in the Science of Humanity -- -- Chapter 3. Cultures and Human Nature: Human Beings are biologically Cultural -- -- The Nexus of Intra-cultural Diversity and Universals -- Human Nature and the Proper Image of Who We Are -- Homo sapiens: Uniqueness versus Special Status -- -- Chapter 4. Universals: Examples from Several Realms -- -- Qualifying Remarks -- Narration and Expressive Culture -- Sociality -- Worldview and Images of Humanity -- Rituals and Beliefs -- Cognition and Knowledge -- Languages and Speaking -- Behavior and Experience -- Gender, Sexuality and Social Reproduction -- -- Chapter 5. Methods: Deduction, Case Studies and Comparison -- -- Finding Potential Candidates and Deducing from Theory -- Case Studies: Testing Postulated Universals -- Concepts beyond Cultural Bias? -- Inventories of Universals -- Evaluating Lists of Universals and Holistic Forms of Representation -- Cross-cultural Comparison -- Cross-species Comparison -- -- Chapter 6. Taxonomy: The Forms, Levels and Depth of Universals -- -- Levels, Spheres and Time Frame -- Substance and Depth -- Degree of Universality -- Conditional Universals and other Specific Forms -- Relations between basic Anthropological Orientations -- -- Chapter 7. Toward Explanation: Why do Universals exist? -- -- Ten Pitfalls in Research and in Anti-universalism -- Systematics of Explanatory Approaches -- Cultural Contact: Universals through Cultural Transfer and Diffusion -- Function, Convergence and Structural Implication: Emerging Universals through Real-Life Circumstances -- Evolution: Universals Based on Adaptation -- Complex Causes -- -- Chapter 8. Critical Positions: Arguments against Universalism -- -- Reification, Hidden Syllogisms and Implicit Primitivity -- Relativist and Empirical Criticisms -- Fundamental Criticism: Charges of Eurocentrism and Hegemony -- -- Chapter 9. Synthesis: Human Universals and the Human Sciences -- Bibliography -- Index --
URL:
http://fid.berghahnbooksonline.com/title/AntweilerOur
URL:
https://fid-ska.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://fid.berghahnbooksonline.com/title/AntweilerOur
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