Transcendent Individual argues for a reappraisal of the place of the individual in anthropolgical theory and ethnographic writing. A wealth of voices illustrate and inform the text, showing ways in which individuals creatively 'write', narrate and animate cultural and social life. This is an anthropology imbued with a liberal morality which is willing to make value judgements over and against culture in favour of individuality.Rapport draws widely on ethnographic and theoretic materials bringing into the debate a range of voices, among them Nietzsche, Wilde, George Steiner, Richard Rorty, John Berger and Anthony Cohen. In doing so he approaches individuality in terms of a range of issues: biological integrity, consciousness, agency, democracy, discourse, globalism, knowledge and play.
Author(s): Nigel Rapport
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 1997
Language: English
Pages: 231
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Manifesto Towards a liberal and literary appreciation of the conscious and creative individual......Page 12
Writing Individual Knowledge and Personal Relations Eschewing the paths to impersonalisation......Page 23
'Going Meta' Structure and creativity......Page 41
Individual Narratives 'Writing' as a mode of thought which gives meaning to experience......Page 54
Movement and Identity Narrations of 'home' in a world in motion......Page 75
~Surely Everything Has Already Been Said About Malinowski's Diary!~......Page 91
Writing Fieldnotes On the conventionalities of note-taking and taking note, local and academic......Page 104
Domino Worlds At home on the dominoes-table in Wanet......Page 117
Hard-sell or Mumbling ~Right~ Rudely The hold of conversation: the power of discursive surfaces......Page 152
Discourse and Creativity Sheikh Alwan: Fathalla: Sid Askrig......Page 175
Individual Morality Between liberalism, anthropology and biology......Page 191
Bibliography......Page 213
Index......Page 226
