Ernest Gellner explores here the links between anthropology and politics, and shows just how central these are. The recent postmodernist turn in anthropology has been linked to the expiation of colonial guilt. Traditional, functionalist anthropology is characteristically regarded as an accessory to the crime, and anyone critical of the relativistic claims of interpretative anthropology (as Ernest Gellner is) is likely to be charged (as he sometimes is) with being an ex post imperialist. Ernest Gellner argues that cultures are crucially important in human life as constraining systems of meaning. Cultural transition means that the required characteristics are transmitted from generation to generation, leading, he shows, to both greater diversity and to far more rapid change than is possible among species where transmission is primarily by genetic means. But the relative importance of semantic and physical compulsion needs to be explored rather than pre--judged.
The weakness of idealism, which at present operates under the name of hermeneutics, is that it underplays the importance of coercion, and that it presents cultures as self--justifying and morally sovereign: this line of argument, the author demonstrates, is fundamentally flawed.
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aeo The biggest name in contemporary anthropology. aeo One of the worlda s leading philosophers -- addresses the key issues in the subject: relativism and unique truth; the post--colonial crisis of confidence; the anthropology of the west, including the anthropology of war.
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Preface. 1. The Politics of Anthropology. 2. Origins of Society. 3. Culture, Constraint and Community. 4. Freuda s Social Contract. 5. Past and Present. 6. James Frazer and Cambridge. 7. Pluralism and the Neolithic. 8. The Highway to Growth. 9. A Marxist Might--have--been. 10. War and Violence. 11. Tribe and State in the Middle East. 12. Maghreb as Mirror for Man. 13. Lawrence of Moravia. 14. Anthropology and Europe. 15. The Coming Fin de Millenaire. 16. The Uniqueness of Truth. Acknowledgments. Index.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780631199175
Publisert
1995-10-26
Utgiver
Vendor
Blackwell Publishers
Vekt
594 gr
Høyde
236 mm
Bredde
163 mm
Dybde
24 mm
Aldersnivå
05, 06, UU, P, UP
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
278
Forfatter