Anthropological Theory in North America / Edition 1

by E. Liza Cerroni-Long

Overview

Cultural anthropology is at a crossroads. Under the impact of postmodernist critiques, serious doubts have been raised about the scientific validity—indeed, the very viability—of the ethnographic enterprise. These doubts have been voiced most loudly in North America, where the field nonetheless still enjoys the broadest academic base, and attracts the largest number of practitioners. Over the last decade, a set of critical issues has increasingly engaged cultural anthropologists in heated debate. The first part of this volume includes a full-fledged discussion of these issues, offering suggestions for their constructive resolution.

In spite of the disciplinary self-doubts engendered by postmodernism, the theory-building process in anthropology has not been abandoned. The second part of the volume presents a range of original theoretical statements by which American and Canadian anthropologists set the premises for disciplinary trends likely to shape anthropological practice for years to come. If, as it is prognosticated, the 21st century will see an explosion of interest in cultural anthropology, the models and ideas presented in this volume define the parameters of disciplinary expansion. North American cultural anthropology enters its second century on a wave of theoretical innovation and pragmatic translatability that may finally resolve the disciplinary contrast between analysis and application.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897896856
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/30/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

E.L. Cerroni-Long is Professor of Anthropology, Eastern Michigan University.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Vesna V. Godina
Introduction
Anthropology at Century's End by E. L. Cerroni-Long
Paradigms Refound: The Structure of Anthropological Revolutions by Paul Bohannan, Mari Womack, and Karen Saenz
The "World System" of Anthropology and "Professional Others" by Pamela J. Asquith
Maladapatation: A Challenge to Relativism by Robert B. Edgerton
Science, Objectivity, Morality by Marvin Harris
Culture Is Not Everything by Roy D'Andrade
Causal Individualism and the Unification of Anthropology by Tim O'Meara
A Realist/Postmodern Concept of Culture by Joseph A. Maxwell
Immanent Holism: On Transfer of Knowledge from Global to Local by Peter Harries-Jones
Toward an Anthropological Theory of Natural Resource Management in Indigenous Communities by Daniel M. Cartledge
Recapturing Anthropology in Marginal Communities by Parin A. Dossa
Human Materialism: A Paradigm for Analyzing Sociocultural Systems and Understanding Human Behavior by Paul J. Magnarella
Forecasting Theory: Problems and Exemplars in the Twenty-First Century by Stanley R. Barrett
Index

Editorial Reviews

Overviews recent theoretical developments in anthropological theory in the US and Canada, with contributions by comparatively new authors as well as scholars who have already marked the discipline. Chapters present full-fledged theoretical models arranged thematically, revealing similar basic perspectives including a realist epistemology, a behavioral view of structuration, an inductive approach, a personalized interpretation of causation, and a keen appreciation of the strategic consequences of social locus. The editor is affiliated with Eastern Michigan University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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