Anthropology in the Meantime: Experimental Ethnography, Theory, and Method for the Twenty-First Century
by Michael M. J. Fischer
Duke University Press, 2018 Cloth: 978-1-4780-0040-2 | Paper: 978-1-4780-0055-6 | eISBN: 978-1-4780-0222-2 Library of Congress Classification GN316.F57 2018
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In Anthropology in the Meantime Michael M. J. Fischer draws on his real world, multi-causal, multi-scale, and multi-locale research to rebuild theory for the twenty-first century. Providing a history and inventory of experimental methods and frameworks in anthropology from the 1920s to the present, Fischer presents anthropology in the meantime as a methodological injunction to do ethnography that examines how the pieces of the world interact, fit together or clash, generate complex unforeseen consequences, reinforce cultural references, and cause social ruptures. Anthropology in the meantime requires patience, constant experimentation, collaboration, the sounding-out of affects and nonverbal communication, and the conducting of ethnographically situated research over longitudinal time. Perhaps above all, anthropology in the meantime is no longer anthropology of and about peoples; it is written with and for the people who are its subjects. Anthropology in the Meantime presents the possibility for creating new narratives and alternative futures.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Michael M. J. Fischer is Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of eight books, including Anthropological Futures; Mute Dreams, Blind Owls, and Dispersed Knowledges; and Emergent Forms of Life and the Anthropological Voice, all also published by Duke University Press.
REVIEWS
"Anthropology in the Meantime is a rich collection of essays in tune with the central debates in contemporary cultural anthropology. . . . It serves as a survey of the present state of the field, identifying the tensions and re-inscribing them in the long tradition of anthropological scholarship. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates and above."
-- A. Ponce de Leon Choice
" [This book] maintains a productive line that brings one back to the spirit, above all, of ethnographic exploration as idea and method mining. ... I believe it arrives at a perfect moment. [Fischer] contributes to various contemporary discussions within anthropology on religion, film, politics, postcolonialism, and gender/sexuality."
-- Joseph Russo Anthropological Quarterly
“This wonderful and well-researched collection of essays on third ethnographic spaces offers a pragmatic vision for anthropology in the Kantian spirit of the formation of a world society. A must read indeed in times of rapid change.”
-- Michelangelo Paganopoulos Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue: Changing Modes of Ethnographic Authority 1 Part I. Ethnography in the Meantime 1. Experimental Ethnography in Ink, Light, Sound, and Performance 39 2. Ontology and Metaphysics Are False Leads 49 3. Pure Logic and Typologizing Are False Leads 79 Part II. Ground-Truthing 4. Violence and Deep Play 99 5. Amazonian Ethnography and the Politics of Renewal 114 6. Ethnic Violence, Galactic Polities, and the Great Transformation 130 Part III. Tone and Tuning 7. Health Care in India 161 8. Hospitality 186 9. Anthropology and Philosophy 198 Part IV. Temporalities and Recursivities 10. Changing Media of Ethnographic Writing 233 11. Recalling Writing Culture 258 12. Anthropological Modes of Concern 276 Epilogue: Third Spaces and Ethnography in the Anthropocene 298 Acknowledgments 345 Notes 349 Bibliography 391 Index 429
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Anthropology in the Meantime: Experimental Ethnography, Theory, and Method for the Twenty-First Century
by Michael M. J. Fischer
Duke University Press, 2018 Cloth: 978-1-4780-0040-2 Paper: 978-1-4780-0055-6 eISBN: 978-1-4780-0222-2
In Anthropology in the Meantime Michael M. J. Fischer draws on his real world, multi-causal, multi-scale, and multi-locale research to rebuild theory for the twenty-first century. Providing a history and inventory of experimental methods and frameworks in anthropology from the 1920s to the present, Fischer presents anthropology in the meantime as a methodological injunction to do ethnography that examines how the pieces of the world interact, fit together or clash, generate complex unforeseen consequences, reinforce cultural references, and cause social ruptures. Anthropology in the meantime requires patience, constant experimentation, collaboration, the sounding-out of affects and nonverbal communication, and the conducting of ethnographically situated research over longitudinal time. Perhaps above all, anthropology in the meantime is no longer anthropology of and about peoples; it is written with and for the people who are its subjects. Anthropology in the Meantime presents the possibility for creating new narratives and alternative futures.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Michael M. J. Fischer is Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of eight books, including Anthropological Futures; Mute Dreams, Blind Owls, and Dispersed Knowledges; and Emergent Forms of Life and the Anthropological Voice, all also published by Duke University Press.
REVIEWS
"Anthropology in the Meantime is a rich collection of essays in tune with the central debates in contemporary cultural anthropology. . . . It serves as a survey of the present state of the field, identifying the tensions and re-inscribing them in the long tradition of anthropological scholarship. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates and above."
-- A. Ponce de Leon Choice
" [This book] maintains a productive line that brings one back to the spirit, above all, of ethnographic exploration as idea and method mining. ... I believe it arrives at a perfect moment. [Fischer] contributes to various contemporary discussions within anthropology on religion, film, politics, postcolonialism, and gender/sexuality."
-- Joseph Russo Anthropological Quarterly
“This wonderful and well-researched collection of essays on third ethnographic spaces offers a pragmatic vision for anthropology in the Kantian spirit of the formation of a world society. A must read indeed in times of rapid change.”
-- Michelangelo Paganopoulos Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue: Changing Modes of Ethnographic Authority 1 Part I. Ethnography in the Meantime 1. Experimental Ethnography in Ink, Light, Sound, and Performance 39 2. Ontology and Metaphysics Are False Leads 49 3. Pure Logic and Typologizing Are False Leads 79 Part II. Ground-Truthing 4. Violence and Deep Play 99 5. Amazonian Ethnography and the Politics of Renewal 114 6. Ethnic Violence, Galactic Polities, and the Great Transformation 130 Part III. Tone and Tuning 7. Health Care in India 161 8. Hospitality 186 9. Anthropology and Philosophy 198 Part IV. Temporalities and Recursivities 10. Changing Media of Ethnographic Writing 233 11. Recalling Writing Culture 258 12. Anthropological Modes of Concern 276 Epilogue: Third Spaces and Ethnography in the Anthropocene 298 Acknowledgments 345 Notes 349 Bibliography 391 Index 429
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE