An Anthropology of Nothing in Particular

An Anthropology of Nothing in Particular

Author: Martin Demant Frederiksen

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Published: 2018-08-31

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 178535700X

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There have been claims that meaninglessness has become epidemic in the contemporary world. One perceived consequence of this is that people increasingly turn against both society and the political establishment with little concern for the content (or lack of content) that might follow. Most often, encounters with meaninglessness and nothingness are seen as troubling. "Meaning" is generally seen as being a cornerstone of the human condition, as that which we strive towards. This was famously explored by Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning in which he showed how even in the direst of situations individuals will often seek to find a purpose in life. But what, then, is at stake when groups of people negate this position? What exactly goes on inside this apparent turn towards nothing, in the engagement with meaninglessness? And what happens if we take the meaningless seriously as an empirical fact?


Book Synopsis An Anthropology of Nothing in Particular by : Martin Demant Frederiksen

Download or read book An Anthropology of Nothing in Particular written by Martin Demant Frederiksen and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There have been claims that meaninglessness has become epidemic in the contemporary world. One perceived consequence of this is that people increasingly turn against both society and the political establishment with little concern for the content (or lack of content) that might follow. Most often, encounters with meaninglessness and nothingness are seen as troubling. "Meaning" is generally seen as being a cornerstone of the human condition, as that which we strive towards. This was famously explored by Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning in which he showed how even in the direst of situations individuals will often seek to find a purpose in life. But what, then, is at stake when groups of people negate this position? What exactly goes on inside this apparent turn towards nothing, in the engagement with meaninglessness? And what happens if we take the meaningless seriously as an empirical fact?


Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Communication

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Communication

Author: Brent D. Ruben

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-01-16

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1351309986

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This volume brings together diverse and divergent essays on communication as viewed by outstanding scholars in various disciplines. The authors review the mainstream of each approach to communication, sketch the dimensions of that concern, and discuss the problems and potential for future progress.Contents: Lee Thayer, "Communication: Sine Qua Non of the Behavioral Sciences"; Hubert Frings, "Zoology"; Alfred G. Smith, "Anthropology"; Richard W. Budd, "General Semantics"; Brent D. Ruben, "General System Theory"; Joseph M.R. Del-gado, "Neurophysiology"; Herbert Blumer, "Symbolic Interaction"; and Peter L. Berger, "Sociology of Knowledge."


Book Synopsis Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Communication by : Brent D. Ruben

Download or read book Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Communication written by Brent D. Ruben and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together diverse and divergent essays on communication as viewed by outstanding scholars in various disciplines. The authors review the mainstream of each approach to communication, sketch the dimensions of that concern, and discuss the problems and potential for future progress.Contents: Lee Thayer, "Communication: Sine Qua Non of the Behavioral Sciences"; Hubert Frings, "Zoology"; Alfred G. Smith, "Anthropology"; Richard W. Budd, "General Semantics"; Brent D. Ruben, "General System Theory"; Joseph M.R. Del-gado, "Neurophysiology"; Herbert Blumer, "Symbolic Interaction"; and Peter L. Berger, "Sociology of Knowledge."


Anthropology and Civilizational Analysis

Anthropology and Civilizational Analysis

Author: Johann P. Arnason

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2018-05-01

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 143846939X

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Brings social and cultural anthropologists into dialogue with historical sociology and illustrates the continued potential of the concept of civilization for all participants. The concept of civilization has a long but checkered history in anthropology, and anthropological materials have been of great importance for the development of civilizational analysis in historical sociology. Anthropology and Civilizational Analysis brings these diverse fields together and explores a wide range of topics pertaining to civilization, from classical theories to contemporary rhetorical discourses, including detailed case studies of concrete practices documented through archival and ethnographic research. While many scholars and the wider public still think of civilization in simplistic terms, viewing it in terms of Enlightenment notions of progress and evolution to higher stages, others have pluralized the term only to create essentialized units which are only tenuously linked to historical processes. In this book contributors use dynamic approaches, including those rooted in the seminal writings of Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss, opening up the dimension of civilization as an important complement to other key terms such as society and culture in social science and historical analysis.


Book Synopsis Anthropology and Civilizational Analysis by : Johann P. Arnason

Download or read book Anthropology and Civilizational Analysis written by Johann P. Arnason and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brings social and cultural anthropologists into dialogue with historical sociology and illustrates the continued potential of the concept of civilization for all participants. The concept of civilization has a long but checkered history in anthropology, and anthropological materials have been of great importance for the development of civilizational analysis in historical sociology. Anthropology and Civilizational Analysis brings these diverse fields together and explores a wide range of topics pertaining to civilization, from classical theories to contemporary rhetorical discourses, including detailed case studies of concrete practices documented through archival and ethnographic research. While many scholars and the wider public still think of civilization in simplistic terms, viewing it in terms of Enlightenment notions of progress and evolution to higher stages, others have pluralized the term only to create essentialized units which are only tenuously linked to historical processes. In this book contributors use dynamic approaches, including those rooted in the seminal writings of Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss, opening up the dimension of civilization as an important complement to other key terms such as society and culture in social science and historical analysis.


Theologically Engaged Anthropology

Theologically Engaged Anthropology

Author: J. Derrick Lemons

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-08-17

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0192518755

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After years of discussion within the field of anthropology concerning how to properly engage with theology, a growing number of anthropologists now want to engage with theology as a counterpart in ethnographic dialogue. Theologically Engaged Anthropology focuses on the theological history of anthropology, illuminating deeply held theological assumptions that humans make about the nature of reality, and illustrating how these theological assumptions manifest themselves in society. This volume brings together leading anthropologists and theologians to consider what theology can contribute to cultural anthropology and ethnography. It provides anthropologists and theologians with a rationale and framework for using theology in anthropological research.


Book Synopsis Theologically Engaged Anthropology by : J. Derrick Lemons

Download or read book Theologically Engaged Anthropology written by J. Derrick Lemons and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After years of discussion within the field of anthropology concerning how to properly engage with theology, a growing number of anthropologists now want to engage with theology as a counterpart in ethnographic dialogue. Theologically Engaged Anthropology focuses on the theological history of anthropology, illuminating deeply held theological assumptions that humans make about the nature of reality, and illustrating how these theological assumptions manifest themselves in society. This volume brings together leading anthropologists and theologians to consider what theology can contribute to cultural anthropology and ethnography. It provides anthropologists and theologians with a rationale and framework for using theology in anthropological research.


The Cell Phone

The Cell Phone

Author: Heather Horst

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-07-31

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1000190080

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Few modern innovations have spread quite so quickly as the cell phone. This technology has transformed communication throughout the world. Mobile telecommunications have had a dramatic effect in many regions, but perhaps nowhere more than for low-income populations in countries such as Jamaica, where in the last few years many people have moved from no phone to cell phone. This book reveals the central role of communication in helping low-income households cope with poverty. The book traces the impact of the cell phone from personal issues of loneliness and depression to the global concerns of the modern economy and the transnational family. As the technology of social networking, the cell phone has become central to establishing and maintaining relationships in areas from religion to love. The Cell Phone presents the first detailed ethnography of the impact of this new technology through the exploration of the cell phone's role in everyday lives.


Book Synopsis The Cell Phone by : Heather Horst

Download or read book The Cell Phone written by Heather Horst and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few modern innovations have spread quite so quickly as the cell phone. This technology has transformed communication throughout the world. Mobile telecommunications have had a dramatic effect in many regions, but perhaps nowhere more than for low-income populations in countries such as Jamaica, where in the last few years many people have moved from no phone to cell phone. This book reveals the central role of communication in helping low-income households cope with poverty. The book traces the impact of the cell phone from personal issues of loneliness and depression to the global concerns of the modern economy and the transnational family. As the technology of social networking, the cell phone has become central to establishing and maintaining relationships in areas from religion to love. The Cell Phone presents the first detailed ethnography of the impact of this new technology through the exploration of the cell phone's role in everyday lives.


The Logic of Environmentalism

The Logic of Environmentalism

Author: Vassos Argyrou

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9781845450328

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Although modernity's understanding of nature and culture has now been superseded by that of environmentalism, the power to define the meaning of both, and hence the meaning of the world itself, remains in the same (Western) hands. This bold argument is at the center of this provocative book that challenges the widespread assumption that environmentalism reflects a radical departure from modernity. Our perception of nature may have changed, the author maintains, but environmentalism remains a thoroughly modernist project. It reproduces the cultural logic of modernity, a logic that finds meaning in unity and therefore strives to efface difference, and to reconfirm the position of the West as the source of all legitimate signification.


Book Synopsis The Logic of Environmentalism by : Vassos Argyrou

Download or read book The Logic of Environmentalism written by Vassos Argyrou and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although modernity's understanding of nature and culture has now been superseded by that of environmentalism, the power to define the meaning of both, and hence the meaning of the world itself, remains in the same (Western) hands. This bold argument is at the center of this provocative book that challenges the widespread assumption that environmentalism reflects a radical departure from modernity. Our perception of nature may have changed, the author maintains, but environmentalism remains a thoroughly modernist project. It reproduces the cultural logic of modernity, a logic that finds meaning in unity and therefore strives to efface difference, and to reconfirm the position of the West as the source of all legitimate signification.


Kant's Lectures on Anthropology

Kant's Lectures on Anthropology

Author: Alix Cohen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-10-30

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 131619437X

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Kant's lectures on anthropology, which formed the basis of his Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798), contain many observations on human nature, culture and psychology and illuminate his distinctive approach to the human sciences. The essays in the present volume, written by an international team of leading Kant scholars, offer the first comprehensive scholarly assessment of these lectures, their philosophical importance, their evolution and their relation to Kant's critical philosophy. They explore a wide range of topics, including Kant's account of cognition, the senses, self-knowledge, freedom, passion, desire, morality, culture, education and cosmopolitanism. The volume will enrich current debates within Kantian scholarship as well as beyond, and will be of great interest to upper-level students and scholars of Kant, the history of anthropology, the philosophy of psychology and the social sciences.


Book Synopsis Kant's Lectures on Anthropology by : Alix Cohen

Download or read book Kant's Lectures on Anthropology written by Alix Cohen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kant's lectures on anthropology, which formed the basis of his Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798), contain many observations on human nature, culture and psychology and illuminate his distinctive approach to the human sciences. The essays in the present volume, written by an international team of leading Kant scholars, offer the first comprehensive scholarly assessment of these lectures, their philosophical importance, their evolution and their relation to Kant's critical philosophy. They explore a wide range of topics, including Kant's account of cognition, the senses, self-knowledge, freedom, passion, desire, morality, culture, education and cosmopolitanism. The volume will enrich current debates within Kantian scholarship as well as beyond, and will be of great interest to upper-level students and scholars of Kant, the history of anthropology, the philosophy of psychology and the social sciences.


Surrendering to Utopia

Surrendering to Utopia

Author: Mark Goodale

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2009-05-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0804771219

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Surrendering to Utopia is a critical and wide-ranging study of anthropology's contributions to human rights. Providing a unique window into the underlying political and intellectual currents that have shaped human rights in the postwar period, this ambitious work opens up new opportunities for research, analysis, and political action. At the book's core, the author describes a "well-tempered human rights"—an orientation to human rights in the twenty-first century that is shaped by a sense of humility, an appreciation for the disorienting fact of multiplicity, and a willingness to make the mundaneness of social practice a source of ethical inspiration. In examining the curious history of anthropology's engagement with human rights, this book moves from more traditional anthropological topics within the broader human rights community—for example, relativism and the problem of culture—to consider a wider range of theoretical and empirical topics. Among others, it examines the link between anthropology and the emergence of "neoliberal" human rights, explores the claim that anthropology has played an important role in legitimizing these rights, and gauges whether or not this is evidence of anthropology's potential to transform human rights theory and practice more generally.


Book Synopsis Surrendering to Utopia by : Mark Goodale

Download or read book Surrendering to Utopia written by Mark Goodale and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surrendering to Utopia is a critical and wide-ranging study of anthropology's contributions to human rights. Providing a unique window into the underlying political and intellectual currents that have shaped human rights in the postwar period, this ambitious work opens up new opportunities for research, analysis, and political action. At the book's core, the author describes a "well-tempered human rights"—an orientation to human rights in the twenty-first century that is shaped by a sense of humility, an appreciation for the disorienting fact of multiplicity, and a willingness to make the mundaneness of social practice a source of ethical inspiration. In examining the curious history of anthropology's engagement with human rights, this book moves from more traditional anthropological topics within the broader human rights community—for example, relativism and the problem of culture—to consider a wider range of theoretical and empirical topics. Among others, it examines the link between anthropology and the emergence of "neoliberal" human rights, explores the claim that anthropology has played an important role in legitimizing these rights, and gauges whether or not this is evidence of anthropology's potential to transform human rights theory and practice more generally.


Being and Nothingness

Being and Nothingness

Author: Jean-Paul Sartre

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 869

ISBN-13: 0671867806

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Sartre explains the theory of existential psychoanalysis in this treatise on human reality.


Book Synopsis Being and Nothingness by : Jean-Paul Sartre

Download or read book Being and Nothingness written by Jean-Paul Sartre and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1992 with total page 869 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sartre explains the theory of existential psychoanalysis in this treatise on human reality.


Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be

Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be

Author: Dominic Boyer

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2015-12-21

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1501700898

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Within anthropology, as elsewhere in the human sciences, there is a tendency to divide knowledge making into two separate poles: conceptual (theory) vs. empirical (ethnography). In Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be, Dominic Boyer, James D. Faubion, and George E. Marcus argue that we need to take a step back from the assumption that we know what theory is to investigate how theory—a matter of concepts, of analytic practice, of medium of value, of professional ideology—operates in anthropology and related fields today. They have assembled a distinguished group of scholars to diagnose the state of the theory-ethnography divide in anthropology today and to explore alternative modes of analytical and pedagogical practice. Continuing the methodological insights provided in Fieldwork Is Not What It Used to Be, the contributors to this volume find that now is an optimal time to reflect on the status of theory in relation to ethnographic research in anthropology and kindred disciplines. Together they engage with questions such as, What passes for theory in anthropology and the human sciences today and why? What is theory’s relation to ethnography? How are students trained to identify and respect anthropological theorization and how do they practice theoretical work in their later career stages? What theoretical experiments, languages, and institutions are available to the human sciences? Throughout, the editors and authors consider theory in practical terms, rather than as an amorphous set of ideas, an esoteric discourse of power, a norm of intellectual life, or an infinitely contestable canon of texts. A short editorial afterword explores alternative ethics and institutions of pedagogy and training in theory.


Book Synopsis Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be by : Dominic Boyer

Download or read book Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be written by Dominic Boyer and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within anthropology, as elsewhere in the human sciences, there is a tendency to divide knowledge making into two separate poles: conceptual (theory) vs. empirical (ethnography). In Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be, Dominic Boyer, James D. Faubion, and George E. Marcus argue that we need to take a step back from the assumption that we know what theory is to investigate how theory—a matter of concepts, of analytic practice, of medium of value, of professional ideology—operates in anthropology and related fields today. They have assembled a distinguished group of scholars to diagnose the state of the theory-ethnography divide in anthropology today and to explore alternative modes of analytical and pedagogical practice. Continuing the methodological insights provided in Fieldwork Is Not What It Used to Be, the contributors to this volume find that now is an optimal time to reflect on the status of theory in relation to ethnographic research in anthropology and kindred disciplines. Together they engage with questions such as, What passes for theory in anthropology and the human sciences today and why? What is theory’s relation to ethnography? How are students trained to identify and respect anthropological theorization and how do they practice theoretical work in their later career stages? What theoretical experiments, languages, and institutions are available to the human sciences? Throughout, the editors and authors consider theory in practical terms, rather than as an amorphous set of ideas, an esoteric discourse of power, a norm of intellectual life, or an infinitely contestable canon of texts. A short editorial afterword explores alternative ethics and institutions of pedagogy and training in theory.