Using the influential and field-changing Writing Culture as a point of departure, the thirteen essays in Writing Culture and the Life of Anthropology address anthropology's past, present, and future. The contributors, all leading figures in anthropology today, reflect back on the "writing culture" movement of the 1980s, consider its influences on ethnographic research and writing, and debate what counts as ethnography in a post-Writing Culture era. They address questions of ethnographic method, new forms the presentation of research might take, and the anthropologist's role. Exploring themes such as late industrialism, precarity, violence, science and technology, globalization, and the non-human world, this book is essential reading for those looking to understand the current state of anthropology and its possibilities going forward.
Contributors. Anne Allison, James Clifford, Michael M.J. Fischer, Kim Fortun, Richard Handler, John L. Jackson, Jr., George E. Marcus, Charles Piot, Hugh Raffles, Danilyn Rutherford, Orin Starn, Kathleen Stewart, Michael Taussig, Kamala Visweswaran
- Cover
- Contents
- Introduction, Orin Starn
- Chapter 1. Feeling Historical, James Clifford
- Chapter 2. The Legacies of Writing Culture and the Near Future of the Ethnographic Form: A Sketch, George E. Marcus
- Chapter 3. Between History and Coincidence: Writing Culture in the Annual Review of Anthropology, ca. 1982, Richard Handler
- Chapter 4. Time, Camera, and the (Digital) Pen: Writing Culture Operating Systems 1.0–3.0, Michael M. J. Fischer
- Chapter 5. Kinky Empiricism, Danilyn Rutherford
- Chapter 6. Ethnography in Late Industrialism, Kim Fortun
- Chapter 7. Excelente Zona Social, Michael Taussig
- Chapter 8. Ethnography Is, Ethnography Ain’t, John L. Jackson Jr.
- Chapter 9. From Village to Precarious Anthropology, Anne Allison
- Chapter 10. Kinship by Other Means, Charles Piot
- Chapter 11. Dying Worlds, Kamala Visweswaran
- Chapter 12. Precarity’s Forms, Kathleen Stewart
- Chapter 13. Writing Culture (or Something Like That), Hugh Raffles
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index