Since its founding in the nineteenth century, social anthropology has been seen as the study of exotic peoples in faraway places. But today more and more anthropologists are dedicating themselves not just to observing but to understanding and helping solve social problems wherever they occur—in international aid organizations, British TV studios, American hospitals, or racist enclaves in Eastern Europe, for example.In Exotic No More, an initiative of the Royal Anthropological Institute, some of today's most respected anthropologists demonstrate, in clear, unpretentious prose, the tremendous contributions that anthropology can make to contemporary society. They cover issues ranging from fundamentalism to forced migration, child labor to crack dealing, human rights to hunger, ethnicity to environmentalism, intellectual property rights to international capitalisms. But Exotic No More is more than a litany of gloom and doom; the essays also explore topics usually associated with leisure or "high" culture, including the media, visual arts, tourism, and music. Each author uses specific examples from their fieldwork to illustrate their discussions, and 62 photographs enliven the text.Throughout the book, the contributors highlight anthropology's commitment to taking people seriously on their own terms, paying close attention to what they are saying and doing, and trying to understand how they see the world and why. Sometimes this bottom-up perspective makes the strange familiar, but it can also make the familiar strange, exposing the cultural basis of seemingly "natural" behaviors and challenging us to rethink some of our most cherished ideas—about gender, "free" markets, "race," and "refugees," among many others.Contributors:William O. BeemanPhilippe BourgoisJohn ChernoffE. Valentine DanielAlex de WaalJudith EnnewJames FairheadSarah FranklinMichael GilsenanFaye GinsburgAlma GottliebChristopher HannFaye V. HarrisonRichard JenkinsMelissa LeachMargaret LockJeremy MacClancyJonathan MazowerEllen MesserA. David NapierNancy Scheper-HughesJane SchneiderParker ShiptonChristopher B. Steiner
Author(s): Jeremy MacClancy
Edition: 1
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 464
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Introduction: Taking People Seriously......Page 12
1. Understanding Inner-City Poverty: Resistance and Self-Destruction under U.S. Apartheid......Page 26
2. Min(d)ing the Body: On the Trail of Organ-Stealing Rumors......Page 44
3. World Markets: Anthropological Perspectives......Page 75
4. Political Ideologies: Socialism and Its Discontents......Page 97
5. On Conflict and Violence......Page 110
6. Imagined but Not Imaginary: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Modern World......Page 125
7. Fighting the Good Fight: Fundamentalism and Religious Revival......Page 140
8. Unraveling “Race” for the Twenty-First Century......Page 156
9. Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural Anthropology......Page 178
10. Medical Knowledge and Body Politics......Page 209
11. Anthropology, Culture, and Environment......Page 228
12. Hunger in Africa: Untangling Its Human Roots......Page 246
13. Anthropology and the Aid Encounter......Page 270
14. The Refugee: A Discourse on Displacement......Page 289
15. Our Own Way: On Anthropology and Intellectual Property......Page 306
16. Anthropologists in a World with and without Human Rights......Page 338
17. Future Generations and Global Standards: Children’s Rights at the Start of the Millennium......Page 357
18. The Anthropology of Science......Page 370
19. Fieldwork at the Movies: Anthropology and Media......Page 378
20. Ideas of Culture and the Challenge of Music......Page 396
21. Art/Anthropology/Museums: Revulsions and Revolutions......Page 418
22. Paradise Postponed: The Predicaments of Tourism......Page 437
23. Survival International......Page 449
Contributors......Page 452
Index......Page 458
