After Society: Anthropological Trajectories out of Oxford

Published by Berghahn Books 2020

After Society

Anthropological Trajectories out of Oxford

Edited by: João Pina-Cabral and Glenn Bowman

Volume 39 in the series Methodology & History in Anthropology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781789207699

Overview
Contents

About this book

In the early 1980s, when the contributors to this volume completed their graduate training at Oxford, the conditions of practice in anthropology were undergoing profound change. Professionally, the immediate postcolonial period was over and neoliberal reforms were marginalizing the social sciences. Analytically, the poststructuralist critique of the notion of ‘society’ challenged a discipline that dubbed itself as ‘social’. Here self-ethnography is used to portray the contributors’ anthropological trajectories, showing how analytical and academic engagements interacted creatively over time.

Author / Editor information

João Pina-Cabral is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Kent and Research Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon. He was co-founder and president both of the Portuguese Association of Anthropology and of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.

Glenn Bowman is Professor Emeritus in Socio-Historical Anthropology at the University of Kent. He carried out his DPhil fieldwork on pilgrimage in Jerusalem's Old City (1983-85), before returning to the UK to teach at UCL and Kent. His recent publications include Sharing the Sacra (Berghahn, 2012).

João Pina-Cabral is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Kent and Research Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon. He was co-founder and president both of the Portuguese Association of Anthropology and of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.

Reviews

“[The book] tell us a lot about the development of anthropology and of a difficult period faced by universities in UK at the time resulting mainly from government policy.” • David Parkin, University of Oxford

“This volume provides a valuable mix of autobiographical reflections on what it was to be a student of anthropology at Oxford at a particular time in the Institute’s history. Such reflections are all the more insightful, written as they are, by former students who by now have had largely successful (indeed very successful) careers in the discipline.” • Elizabeth Ewart, University of Oxford

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
INTRODUCTION. AFTER SOCIETY João Pina-Cabral and Glenn Bowman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I The Oxford Experience and Beyond
Chapter 1 PLODDING TOWARDS PROSOPOGRAPHY: OXFORD ANTHROPOLOGY FROM 1976 ON Jeremy MacClancy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 2 AMOR FATI AND THE INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY Glenn Bowman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Chapter 3 THE LUCKY ANTHROPOLOGIST? BECOMING AN ANTHROPOLOGIST OF JAPAN AT OXFORD Dolores P. Martinez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
Chapter 4 LOST AND FOUND AT OXFORD Roger Just Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
Chapter 5 IS NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION? A. David Napier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
PART II Ethnography as a Vocation
Chapter 6 CHANGING QUESTIONS? REFLECTIONS ON SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN AND OUT OF OXFORD SINCE THE 1980S David N. Gellner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Chapter 7 THE FIELDWORK TRADITION AND THE QUEST FOR ESSENTIAL PERPLEXITIES Signe Howell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Chapter 8 JOURNEYS OF AN ETHNOGRAPHER: FROM OXFORD TO THE FIELD AND ON TO THE ARCHIVES Sandra Ott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
PART III Why Anthropology? Concluding Remarks
Chapter 9 WHY ANTHROPOLOGY? STRUCTURALISM AND SINCE Timothy Jenkins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Chapter 10 FROM OXFORD TO CAMBRIDGE CHASING THE ‘AKA’ Maryon McDonald Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Chapter 11 MEDITERRANEAN EQUIVOQUES AT OXFORD João Pina-Cabral Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	196
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 232
Keywords: Theory and Methodology

eBook

Published: July 1, 2020
ISBN: 9781789207699