The American Ethnological Society: A Deep Dive into Anthropological History and Legacy
This article delves into the rich history and enduring impact of the American Ethnological Society (AES), a pivotal organization in the development of anthropology in the United States. We'll explore its founding, its evolution through pivotal moments in anthropological thought, its prominent members, its publications, and its lasting contributions to the field. We’ll examine its successes and controversies, highlighting its role in shaping our understanding of cultures across the globe. By the end, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of the AES and its significance in the broader context of American and global anthropology.
Article Outline:
- Introduction: The American Ethnological Society – A Historical Overview
- Early Years and Founding Members: Shaping the Society's Initial Direction
- The Society's Founding Principles and Mission: What were their initial goals?
- Key Publications: The Journal of the American Ethnological Society (JAES) – its impact and evolution.
- Evolution of Anthropological Thought and the AES: How did the Society adapt to changing theories?
- Prominent Members and Their Contributions: Highlighting influential figures.
- The AES and the Development of American Anthropology: Its role in shaping the discipline.
- Controversies and Criticisms: Confronting the complexities of the past.
- The Society's Relationship with Indigenous Peoples: A critical examination.
- The AES and Museum Collections: Its involvement in museum anthropology.
- The AES in the 20th Century: Navigating shifting academic landscapes.
- The AES Today: Current Activities and Focus: Where does the Society stand now?
- The Legacy of the AES: Its lasting influence on the field.
- The Future of the AES: Challenges and opportunities.
- Conclusion: Reflecting on the Enduring Impact of the AES
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Introduction: The American Ethnological Society – A Historical Overview
The American Ethnological Society (AES), established in 1842, stands as a cornerstone of American anthropology. It wasn't just a club for academics; it was a vital force that shaped the discipline, fostering debate, publishing groundbreaking research, and influencing generations of anthropologists. Think of it as a crucial engine driving the development of a complex and often controversial field. But what exactly did it do, and how did it affect our understanding of culture? Let's delve into its fascinating history.
2. Early Years and Founding Members: Shaping the Society's Initial Direction
The AES emerged during a period of intense intellectual ferment. Its founders, a diverse group of scholars and enthusiasts, weren't just interested in collecting artifacts; they were driven by a desire to understand the workings of different societies. Their initial focus was broad, encompassing various aspects of human culture, laying the groundwork for the multifaceted field we know today. Who were these pioneers, and what were their guiding principles?
3. The Society's Founding Principles and Mission: What were their initial goals?
The Society's initial mission statement wasn't simply to gather and classify information; it was far more ambitious. They sought to understand the interconnectedness of human cultures, to identify commonalities and differences, and to develop a scientific understanding of humanity's diverse expressions. This early ambition set the stage for the rigorous intellectual work that would define the AES for decades to come. What were the underlying philosophies that motivated these early anthropologists?
4. Key Publications: The Journal of the American Ethnological Society (JAES) – its impact and evolution.
The Journal of the American Ethnological Society (JAES) served as the primary vehicle for disseminating the Society's research. Think of it as the AES's voice, reflecting the evolving priorities and perspectives of the field. Over time, the journal evolved, reflecting shifts in anthropological theory and methodology. How did the publication's content mirror the changing intellectual landscape of the field?
5. Evolution of Anthropological Thought and the AES: How did the Society adapt to changing theories?
From its early days focused on collecting ethnographic data to its engagement with more theoretical frameworks, the AES adapted to the evolving landscape of anthropological thought. This wasn't always a smooth transition; internal debates reflected broader tensions within the field. How did these internal struggles shape the trajectory of the AES and its contribution to anthropology?
6. Prominent Members and Their Contributions: Highlighting influential figures.
The AES boasts a roster of influential figures who profoundly impacted anthropology. Lewis Henry Morgan, Franz Boas, and Ruth Benedict, to name a few, were prominent members whose work reshaped the discipline. Their contributions, their debates, and their legacies continue to resonate today. Who were these key players, and how did their work shape the AES's identity and influence?
7. The AES and the Development of American Anthropology: Its role in shaping the discipline.
The AES played a crucial role in establishing anthropology as a distinct academic discipline in the United States. It provided a platform for researchers, fostered collaboration, and shaped the direction of anthropological inquiry. Its influence extends beyond the purely academic; its work has had tangible implications for policy and social justice. How did this organization contribute to the institutionalization of anthropology in America?
8. Controversies and Criticisms: Confronting the complexities of the past.
Like many institutions, the AES has faced criticisms. Its early work, particularly in its engagement with indigenous populations, has been rightly scrutinized. The ethical dimensions of anthropological fieldwork, the power dynamics inherent in research relationships, and the impact of colonialism on anthropological practice are important considerations. How has the AES grappled with its own problematic history?
9. The Society's Relationship with Indigenous Peoples: A critical examination.
The relationship between the AES and indigenous communities is complex and fraught with ethical challenges. The very act of ethnographic research can involve power imbalances, raising questions of representation, informed consent, and the potential for exploitation. How did the AES approach its relationship with the subjects of its studies? What ethical dilemmas did it face?
10. The AES and Museum Collections: Its involvement in museum anthropology.
The AES was intimately involved in the development of museum collections, which played a significant role in shaping anthropological understanding. However, the ethics of collecting and displaying artifacts from different cultures have come under increasing scrutiny. How did the AES's engagement with museums shape its work, and what ethical considerations were involved?
11. The AES in the 20th Century: Navigating shifting academic landscapes.
The 20th century brought significant changes to the academic landscape. The rise of new theoretical perspectives, the challenges posed by social movements, and evolving ethical standards all impacted the AES. How did the society navigate these transformations?
12. The AES Today: Current Activities and Focus: Where does the Society stand now?
The AES continues to be an active organization, albeit with a changed focus. It promotes anthropological scholarship, encourages ethical research practices, and engages with contemporary societal challenges. What are the current activities of the society, and what are its priorities?
13. The Legacy of the AES: Its lasting influence on the field.
The legacy of the AES is undeniable. It has profoundly shaped the development of American anthropology, influencing research methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and the ethical considerations that guide the field today. Its enduring impact remains a testament to its pioneering role. What are the most significant ways in which the AES has impacted the field?
14. The Future of the AES: Challenges and opportunities.
The AES faces both challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. The need for greater inclusivity, engagement with diverse perspectives, and addressing ethical complexities are crucial aspects of its future. What challenges does the society face, and what opportunities lie ahead?
15. Conclusion: Reflecting on the Enduring Impact of the AES
The American Ethnological Society's journey, from its humble beginnings to its present-day activities, reflects the evolution of anthropology itself. It’s a story of intellectual innovation, ethical struggles, and lasting contributions to our understanding of human societies. While the past requires critical engagement, the AES's continued existence demonstrates a commitment to adapting and evolving within the ever-changing landscape of anthropological scholarship. It serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing importance of cross-cultural understanding and the need for ethical and responsible anthropological practice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What is the primary focus of the American Ethnological Society today? The AES's current focus is on promoting anthropological scholarship, supporting diverse voices within the field, and fostering ethical research practices. This includes encouraging research that addresses social justice issues and promotes a more inclusive understanding of human culture.
- How can I become a member of the American Ethnological Society? Membership information, including application details, is typically available on the AES website. Check their official site for the most up-to-date information on membership requirements and benefits.
- Where can I access the Journal of the American Ethnological Society (JAES)? Access to the JAES often requires institutional subscriptions or individual memberships. Many university libraries subscribe to the journal, offering access to their students and faculty. Check your local library's online catalog.
- What are some of the major criticisms leveled against the AES throughout its history? Criticisms have centered on the ethical implications of early ethnographic work, the potential for exploitation of indigenous communities, and a lack of inclusivity within the organization itself. These criticisms are central to understanding the complexities of the society's past and its ongoing efforts to address these issues.
- How has the AES adapted to changing ethical standards in anthropological research? The AES has responded to evolving ethical standards by incorporating discussions of ethical conduct into its publications, encouraging greater collaboration with the communities being studied, and promoting research that prioritizes informed consent and mutual respect. This ongoing evolution is a testament to its commitment to responsible anthropological practice.
Related Keywords: American anthropology, ethnological society, cultural anthropology, Franz Boas, Lewis Henry Morgan, Ruth Benedict, ethnographic research, indigenous peoples, museum anthropology, anthropological theory, social science, cultural studies, American Studies, history of anthropology, academic societies.
| american ethnological society: A Diagram for Fire Jon Bialecki, 2017-03-07 What is the work that miracles do in American Charismatic Evangelicalism? How can miracles be unanticipated and yet worked for? And finally, what do miracles tell us about other kinds of Christianity and even the category of religion? A Diagram for Fire engages with these questions in a detailed sociocultural ethnographic study of the Vineyard, an American Evangelical movement that originated in Southern California. The Vineyard is known worldwide for its intense musical forms of worship and for advocating the belief that all Christians can perform biblical-style miracles. Examining the miracle as both a strength and a challenge to institutional cohesion and human planning, this book situates the miracle as a fundamentally social means of producing change—surprise and the unexpected used to reimagine and reconfigure the will. Jon Bialecki shows how this configuration of the miraculous shapes typical Pentecostal and Charismatic religious practices as well as music, reading, economic choices, and conservative and progressive political imaginaries. |
| american ethnological society: Transactions of the American Ethnological Society , 1845 |
| american ethnological society: Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 1978 |
| american ethnological society: Publications of the American Ethnological Society , 1912 |
| american ethnological society: Bitter Money Parker MacDonald Shipton, 1989 fascinating little book adds to the study of culture to political economy MacGaffey Journal of Anthropological Research presents fascinating material on beliefs about money in some Luo-speaking communities of Kenya... an insightful analysis... a case that will generate fruitful discussions for years to come Ferguson American Ethnologist BITTER MONEY unites symbolic and economic analysis in exploring the beliefs about forbidden exchanges among the Luo of Kenya and other African peoples. Shipton's multi-paradigmatic theoretical explanation briefly summarizes a century of anthropological thought about African exchange, while integrating ways of understanding rural African economy, politics, and culture. |
| american ethnological society: Spatializing Culture Setha Low, 2016-08-12 This book demonstrates the value of ethnographic theory and methods in understanding space and place, and considers how ethnographically-based spatial analyses can yield insight into prejudices, inequalities and social exclusion as well as offering people the means for understanding the places where they live, work, shop and socialize. In developing the concept of spatializing culture, Setha Low draws on over twenty years of research to examine social production, social construction, embodied, discursive, emotive and affective, as well as translocal approaches. A global range of fieldwork examples are employed throughout the text to highlight not just the theoretical development of the idea of spatializing culture, but how it can be used in undertaking ethnographies of space and place. The volume will be valuable for students and scholars from a number of disciplines who are interested in the study of culture through the lens of space and place. |
| american ethnological society: Bulletin of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 1861 |
| american ethnological society: Monographs of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 1940 |
| american ethnological society: Publications Of The American Ethnological Society, Volume 7, Part 2 American Ethnological Society, |
| american ethnological society: Publications of the American Ethnological Society Gene Weltfish, |
| american ethnological society: Rainforest Warriors Richard Price, 2011-06-06 Rainforest Warriors is a historical, ethnographic, and documentary account of a people, their threatened rainforest, and their successful attempt to harness international human rights law in their fight to protect their way of life—part of a larger story of tribal and indigenous peoples that is unfolding all over the globe. The Republic of Suriname, in northeastern South America, contains the highest proportion of rainforest within its national territory, and the most forest per person, of any country in the world. During the 1990s, its government began awarding extensive logging and mining concessions to multinational companies from China, Indonesia, Canada, and elsewhere. Saramaka Maroons, the descendants of self-liberated African slaves who had lived in that rainforest for more than 300 years, resisted, bringing their complaints to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2008, when the Inter-American Court of Human Rights delivered its landmark judgment in their favor, their efforts to protect their threatened rainforest were thrust into the international spotlight. Two leaders of the struggle to protect their way of life, Saramaka Headcaptain Wazen Eduards and Saramaka law student Hugo Jabini, were awarded the Goldman Prize for the Environment (often referred to as the environmental Nobel Prize), under the banner of A New Precedent for Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. Anthropologist Richard Price, who has worked with Saramakas for more than forty years and who participated actively in this struggle, tells the gripping story of how Saramakas harnessed international human rights law to win control of their own piece of the Amazonian forest and guarantee their cultural survival. |
| american ethnological society: Transactions of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 1845 |
| american ethnological society: Bodies in Evidence Heather R. Hlavka, Sameena Mulla, 2021-11-09 Winner, 2021-2022 AES Senior Book Prize, awarded by the American Ethnological Society Honorable Mention, Senior Book Prize of the Association for Feminist Anthropology Uncovers how the process of sexual assault adjudication reinforces inequality and becomes a public spectacle of violence For victims in sexual assault cases, trials rarely result in justice. Instead, the courts drag defendants, victims, and their friends and family through a confusing and protracted public spectacle. Along the way, forensic scientists, sexual assault nurse examiners, and police officers provide their insight and expertise, shaping the story that emerges for the judge and jury. These expert narratives intersect with the stories of victims, witnesses, and their communities to reproduce our cultural understandings of sexual violence, but too often this process results in reinscribing racial, gendered, and class inequalities. Bodies in Evidence draws on observations of over 680 court appearances in Milwaukee County’s felony sexual assault courts, as well as interviews with judges, attorneys, forensic scientists, jurors, sexual assault nurse examiners, and victim advocates. It shows how forensic science helps to propagate public misunderstandings of sexual violence by bestowing an aura of authority to race and gender stereotypes and inequalities. Expert testimony reinforces the idea that sexual assault is physically and emotionally recognizable and always leaves material evidence. The court’s reliance on the presence of forensic evidence infuses these very familiar stereotypes and myths about sexual assault with new scientific authority. Powerful, unflinching, and at times heartbreaking, Bodies in Evidence reveals the human cost of sexual assault adjudication, and the social cost we all bear when investing in forms of justice that reproduce inequality and racial injustice. |
| american ethnological society: Text, Play, and Story Edward M. Bruner, 1984 |
| american ethnological society: Marriage and Mandatory Abortion Among the 17th-century Siraya John Robert Shepherd, 1995 This is an excellent piece of historical ethnography.Masaharu Asian Ethnology a well- researched and elegantly written slim volume Boomgaard Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Fortunately, this important monograph has been reissued and is now readily available to those interested. Jacobs, The China Journal A detailed ethnographic description of the Siraya, the Austronesian inhabitants of pre-Dutch southwestern Taiwan, and the practice of mandated abortion for all young wives. By placing Siraya customs of marriage, pregnancy taboos, and massage abortion in historical and cultural context, this monograph provides new solutions to the puzzle of Siraya mandatory abortion. |
| american ethnological society: Metaphysical Community Greg Urban, 1996 Review: Leading exponent of discourse-centered approach examines social organization of the Shokleng, Gê-speaking peoples of southern Brazil. Author suggests a reading in terms of the problematic of knowledge: the theme of intelligibility and sensibility and their interrelations; logical empiricism and its connection to the world; the attachment of circulating discourse to sensible space; the relation of discourse and power relations; and the relation of discourse to reference--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57. http://www.loc.gov/hlas/ |
| american ethnological society: American Ethnological Society. New York, [Nov. 26] 185[2] American Ethnological Society, Evert Augustus Duyckinck, 1852 |
| american ethnological society: Proceedings of the ... Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society. Spring Meeting, 1958 |
| american ethnological society: Publications of the American ethnological society American ethnological society, New York, 1907 |
| american ethnological society: In Amazonia Hugh Raffles, 2002-10-27 The Amazon is not what it seems. As Hugh Raffles shows us in this captivating and innovative book, the world's last great wilderness has been transformed again and again by human activity. In Amazonia brings to life an Amazon whose allure and reality lie as much, or more, in what people have made of it as in what nature has wrought. It casts new light on centuries of encounter while describing the dramatic remaking of a sweeping landscape by residents of one small community in the Brazilian Amazon. Combining richly textured ethnographic research and lively historical analysis, Raffles weaves a fascinating story that changes our understanding of this region and challenges us to rethink what we mean by nature. Raffles draws from a wide range of material to demonstrate--in contrast to the tendency to downplay human agency in the Amazon--that the region is an outcome of the intimately intertwined histories of humans and nonhumans. He moves between a detailed narrative that analyzes the production of scientific knowledge about Amazonia over the centuries and an absorbing account of the extraordinary transformations to the fluvial landscape carried out over the past forty years by the inhabitants of Igarapé Guariba, four hours downstream from the nearest city. Engagingly written, theoretically inventive, and vividly illustrated, the book introduces a diverse range of characters--from sixteenth-century explorers and their native rivals to nineteenth-century naturalists and contemporary ecologists, logging company executives, and river-traders. A natural history of a different kind, In Amazonia shows how humans, animals, rivers, and forests all participate in the making of a region that remains today at the center of debates in environmental politics. |
| american ethnological society: Bulletin of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 1861 |
| american ethnological society: American Anthropology, the Early Years American Ethnological Society, 1976 |
| american ethnological society: Proceedings of the ... Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 1971 |
| american ethnological society: Publications of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 2015-12-08 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| american ethnological society: Publications of the American Ethnological Society , 1907 |
| american ethnological society: Progressive Dystopia Savannah Shange, 2019-11-15 San Francisco is the endgame of gentrification, where racialized displacement means that the Black population of the city hovers at just over 3 percent. The Robeson Justice Academy opened to serve the few remaining low-income neighborhoods of the city, with the mission of offering liberatory, social justice--themed education to youth of color. While it features a progressive curriculum including Frantz Fanon and Audre Lorde, the majority Latinx school also has the district's highest suspension rates for Black students. In Progressive Dystopia Savannah Shange explores the potential for reconciling the school's marginalization of Black students with its sincere pursuit of multiracial uplift and solidarity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and six years of experience teaching at the school, Shange outlines how the school fails its students and the community because it operates within a space predicated on antiblackness. Seeing San Francisco as a social laboratory for how Black communities survive the end of their worlds, Shange argues for abolition over revolution or progressive reform as the needed path toward Black freedom. |
| american ethnological society: Newsletter American Ethnological Society, 1958 |
| american ethnological society: Waste Siege Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, 2019-12-10 Waste Siege offers an analysis unusual in the study of Palestine: it depicts the environmental, infrastructural, and aesthetic context in which Palestinians are obliged to forge their lives. To speak of waste siege is to describe a series of conditions, from smelling wastes to negotiating military infrastructures, from biopolitical forms of colonial rule to experiences of governmental abandonment, from obvious targets of resistance to confusion over responsibility for the burdensome objects of daily life. Within this rubble, debris, and infrastructural fallout, West Bank Palestinians create a life under settler colonial rule. Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins focuses on waste as an experience of everyday life that is continuous with, but not a result only of, occupation. Tracing Palestinians' own experiences of wastes over the past decade, she considers how multiple authorities governing the West Bank--including municipalities, the Palestinian Authority, international aid organizations, NGOs, and Israel--rule by waste siege, whether intentionally or not. Her work challenges both common formulations of waste as matter out of place and as the ontological opposite of the environment, by suggesting instead that waste siege be understood as an ecology of matter with no place to go. Waste siege thus not only describes a stateless Palestine, but also becomes a metaphor for our besieged planet. |
| american ethnological society: Liquidated Karen Ho, 2009-07-13 Financial collapses—whether of the junk bond market, the Internet bubble, or the highly leveraged housing market—are often explained as the inevitable result of market cycles: What goes up must come down. In Liquidated, Karen Ho punctures the aura of the abstract, all-powerful market to show how financial markets, and particularly booms and busts, are constructed. Through an in-depth investigation into the everyday experiences and ideologies of Wall Street investment bankers, Ho describes how a financially dominant but highly unstable market system is understood, justified, and produced through the restructuring of corporations and the larger economy. Ho, who worked at an investment bank herself, argues that bankers’ approaches to financial markets and corporate America are inseparable from the structures and strategies of their workplaces. Her ethnographic analysis of those workplaces is filled with the voices of stressed first-year associates, overworked and alienated analysts, undergraduates eager to be hired, and seasoned managing directors. Recruited from elite universities as “the best and the brightest,” investment bankers are socialized into a world of high risk and high reward. They are paid handsomely, with the understanding that they may be let go at any time. Their workplace culture and networks of privilege create the perception that job insecurity builds character, and employee liquidity results in smart, efficient business. Based on this culture of liquidity and compensation practices tied to profligate deal-making, Wall Street investment bankers reshape corporate America in their own image. Their mission is the creation of shareholder value, but Ho demonstrates that their practices and assumptions often produce crises instead. By connecting the values and actions of investment bankers to the construction of markets and the restructuring of U.S. corporations, Liquidated reveals the particular culture of Wall Street often obscured by triumphalist readings of capitalist globalization. |
| american ethnological society: Symposium on Community Studies in Anthropology {held at Cornell University, March 29-31} American Ethnological Society, Viola Edmundson Garfield, Ernestine Friedl, Symposium on Community Studies in Anthropology, 1964 |
| american ethnological society: Screening Culture, Viewing Politics Purnima Mankekar, 1999 An ethnography of urban women television viewers in India, and their reception of particular shows, especially in relation to issues of gender and nation. |
| american ethnological society: The Politics of Aesthetics Jacques Ranciere, 2006-06-23 Aiming to rethink the relation between art and politics, this title seeks to reclaim aesthetics from its contemporary narrow confines to reveal its significance for contemporary experience. It ranges across art and politics, the uses and abuses of modernity, the role of visual technologies, and the relationship between history and fiction. |
| american ethnological society: Alien Ocean Stefan Helmreich, 2023-09-01 Alien Ocean immerses readers in worlds being newly explored by marine biologists, worlds usually out of sight and reach: the deep sea, the microscopic realm, and oceans beyond national boundaries. Working alongside scientists at sea and in labs in Monterey Bay, Hawai'i, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Sargasso Sea and at undersea volcanoes in the eastern Pacific, Stefan Helmreich charts how revolutions in genomics, bioinformatics, and remote sensing have pressed marine biologists to see the sea as animated by its smallest inhabitants: marine microbes. Thriving in astonishingly extreme conditions, such microbes have become key figures in scientific and public debates about the origin of life, climate change, biotechnology, and even the possibility of life on other worlds. Alien Ocean immerses readers in worlds being newly explored by marine biologists, worlds usually out of sight and reach: the deep sea, the microscopic realm, and oceans beyond national boundaries. Working alongside scientists at sea and in labs in |
| american ethnological society: Unsettled Janet McIntosh, 2016-04-26 In 1963, Kenya gained independence from Britain, ending nearly seventy years of white colonial rule. While tens of thousands of whites relocated outside Kenya for what they hoped would be better prospects, many stayed. Over the past decade, however, protests, scandals, and upheavals have unsettled families with colonial origins, reminding them of the tenuousness of their Kenyan identity. In this book, Janet McIntosh looks at the lives and dilemmas of settler descendants living in postindependence Kenya. From clinging to a lost colonial identity to embracing a new Kenyan nationality, the public face of white Kenyans has undergone changes fraught with ambiguity. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, McIntosh focuses on their discourses and narratives, asking: What stories do settler descendants tell about their claims to belong in Kenya? How do they situate themselves vis-a-vis the colonial past and anticolonial sentiment, phrasing and rephrasing their memories and judgments as they seek a position they feel is ethically acceptable? With her respondents straining to defend their entitlements in the face of mounting Kenyan rhetorics of ancestry and autochthony, McIntosh explores their contradictory and diverse responses: moral double consciousness, aspirations to uplift the nation, ideological blind spots, denial, and self-doubt. Ranging from land rights to language, from romantic intimacy to the African occult, Unsettled offers a unique perspective on whiteness in a postcolonial context and a groundbreaking theory of elite subjectivity--Provided by publisher. |
| american ethnological society: Transactions of the American Ethnological Society American Ethnological Society, 1848 |
| american ethnological society: American Ethnological Society Proceedings, 1957-1965 American Ethnological Society. Spring Meeting, |
| american ethnological society: At Home in the World Michael Jackson, 1995 Now in paperback Ours is an era of uprootedness, with fewer and fewer people living out their lives where they are born. At such a time, in such a world, what does it mean to be at home? Perhaps among a nomadic people, for whom dwelling is not synonymous with being housed and settled, the search for an answer to this question might lead to a new way of thinking about home and homelessness, exile and belonging. First published by Duke University Press in 1995, At Home in the World is the story of just such a search, chronicling Jackson's experience among the Warlpiri of the Tanami Desert in Central Australia where he lived, worked, and traveled intermittently over three years. Blending narrative ethnography, empirical research, philosophy, and poetry, Jackson construes the meaning of home existentially, as a metaphor for the balance people try to strike between the world they call their own and the world they see as other. Home is never a stable essence, therefore, but a constantly negotiated relationship between being closed and open, acting and being acted upon. At once a moving depiction of an aboriginal culture, and a meditation on the practice of anthropology, At Home in the World is a timely reflection on how, in defining home, we continue to define ourselves. |
| american ethnological society: Symposium on Community Studies in Anthropology American Ethnological Society Staff, 1988 |
| american ethnological society: The Spirit Ambulance Scott Stonington, 2020-08-25 The Spirit Ambulance is a journey into decision-making at the end of life in Thailand, where families attempt to craft good deaths for their elders in the face of clashing ethical frameworks, from a rapidly developing universal medical system, to national and global human-rights politics, to contemporary movements in Buddhist metaphysics. Scott Stonington’s gripping ethnography documents how Thai families attempt to pay back a “debt of life” to their elders through intensive medical care, followed by a medically assisted rush from the hospital to home to ensure a spiritually advantageous last breath. The result is a powerful exploration of the nature of death and the complexities arising from the globalization of biomedical expertise and ethics around the world. |
| american ethnological society: Northern Athabascan Survival Phyllis Ann Fast, 2002-11-01 The Northern Athabascan peoples of the Alaskan interior and the Yukon have survived centuries of contact and attempted domination by outsiders. Their lives today are rich in meaning and tradition yet are also complicated by numerous challenges such as poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, suicide, and troubled leadership. Combining scholarly analysis, first-person accounts, and her own experiences and insights as a Koyukon Athabascan artist and anthropologist, Phyllis Ann Fast illuminates the modern Athabascan world. Her conversations with Athabascan women offer revealing glimpses of their personal lives and a probing assessment of their professional opportunities and limitations. Also showcased is the crucial but ambiguous role of Athabascan leaders, who are needed to champion reform and social healing but are often undermined by conflicting notions of decision making, personhood, and leadership in Athabascan society. A troubling observation of this study is the vast extent to which addiction—manifested as both substance abuse and economic dependency—pervades Northern Athabascan society and threatens to curtail its cohesion and aspirations. But Northern Athabascans are far from victims. As Fast discovers, Northern Athabascan men and women are well aware of these widespread social problems, and many have undertaken initiatives to deal with and heal them. Rigorous and compassionate, Northern Athabascan Survival provides an uncompromising view of a remarkable and troubled world. |
