Re-creating Anthropology: Sociality, Matter, and the Imagination

Description

This book makes a notable contribution to discussions of what anthropology is and should be in the twenty-first century through a reconsideration, from diverse sub-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, of the interactions between sociality, matter, and the imagination. It explores the imagination in its social contexts, how it is put to work, and how, in its embodied and material forms, it works in practice. The chapters provide detailed case studies, including film-making in Egypt; spirit-possession/exorcism in Italy; Theosophy and the production of knowledge about UFOs; the role of mistakes or glitches in public performances; humans' varying relationships to the environment; post-coloniality, time, and crisis in anthropology; and artistic creativity. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Figures Contributors Preface 1 Introduction: Social Anthropology as Scepticism, Empathy, and Holism Time: The Pasts in the Present and the Past in Anthropology Imagination and the Social Futures Conclusion Notes References Part I Time 2 ‘Not an Airy European Fantasy’ Or How (De)Colonization Embeds the Anthropological Imagination ‘Imagination’ in Late Twentieth-Century Anthropology Imagining the Native Point of View Socialities of the Anthropological Imagination of Race Conclusion Notes References 3 Placing Time: Open, Wild, Drift Placing Time Open Time Wild Time Drift Time Transformation Acknowledgements Notes References 4 Time and Permanence: In an Epoch of the Anachronic Reversal and Permanence Endless Crisis References 5 Crisis, Prophecy, and Ethnography: Living in the Waste Land Then and Now 1921 – The Crisis of Europe The Silence of Prophecy The Emergence of Anachronism The Waste Land and the Ethnographic Imagination Notes References Part II Imagination and the Social 6 Interactional Glitches, Cooperation, and the Paradox of Public Joint Activities Introduction Subject and Object as Co-Participants in the Intentional Act Imagination Improvisation Wittgenstein’s ‘Aspect’ Two Collective Activities President Obama’s Toast to Queen Elizabeth The Royal Band’s Aspect Hearing Hospitality Versus Protocol The 2017 American Academy Awards Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway Announce the ‘Best Picture’ of the Year A Participant’s First Account Seeing the Wrong Card as the Right Card Covering Up a Perceived Mistake Conclusions Acknowledgements Notes References 7 Enskilment and the Emergent Imagination Inward Traces of Vision: A Move Towards the Interior Inner Life as Interior Dialogue Modern Interiors Bodies and Skills Floating Imagination: Of Ink and Smoke The Emergent Imagination Skills, Inspiration, and Inner Life Mediation and Techniques of the Imagination Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References 8 ‘She Talks to Angels’: Spirit Becomings, Embodied Memories, and Affective Imagination Skills in Catholic Exorcism in ... Possessing Imagination Raiders of the Lost Archangel The Archangel Rises Embodied Memories and Affective Imagination Skills Notes References 9 The Role of Unproved Ideas in the Production of Knowledge: A Case Study Introduction Backstory The Military-Industrial Constellation Public Involvement Conclusion Notes References 10 The Light of a Piece: An Exploration of Materiality and Creative Practice in a Maine Landscape – Notes On a Film Screening I Matter Out of Place Anthropologies of and Anthropologies With Reorientations Corporeal Engagements And Finally … the Light of a Piece II III IV References Part III Futures 11 Describing the Future: Predictability, Uncertainty, and Imponderability The Futures of Poisonous Roses Futures in Contemporary Anthropology Conclusion References 12 Anthropocenic Reconfigurations: Socio-Natures and the Politics of Planetary Health Anthropocenic Imaginaries and Ontologies Environment-Health Relations – Anthropocenically Reconfigured Conclusions Note References 13 Psychological Essentialism: An Anchoring for Anthropological Comparison Introduction Humans Are 200% Psychological Essentialism Four Ethnographic Studies Conclusion Note References Afterword: Anthropology and Imagination’s Techniques Re-membering Or Remaking a Discipline Dismantling Reassembling Notes References Index