Questions of AnthropologyRita Astuti, Jonathan Parry, Charles Stafford Routledge, 2020 M06 8 - 288 pages Anthropology today seems to shy away from the big, comparative questions that ordinary people in many societies find compelling. Questions of Anthropology brings these issues back to the centre of anthropological concerns.Individual essays explore birth, death and sexuality, puzzles about the relationship between science and religion, questions about the nature of ritual, work, political leadership and genocide, and our personal fears and desires, from the quest to control the future and to find one's 'true' identity to the fear of being alone. Each essay starts with a question posed by individual ethnographic experience and then goes on to frame this question in a broader, comparative context. Written in an engaging and accessible style, Questions of Anthropology presents an exciting introduction to the purpose and value of Anthropology today. |
Contents
1 | |
2 How do we know who we are? | 29 |
3 What is going to happen next? | 55 |
4 Why exactly is the world as it is? | 77 |
5 How does ritual matter? | 105 |
6 What makes people work? | 137 |
7 What kind of sex makes people happy? | 167 |
8 How do women give birth? | 197 |
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