Anthropology and politics : revolutions in the sacred grove

Ernest Gellner

Ernest Gellner explores here the links between anthropology and politics, and shows just how central these are. The recent postmodernist turn in anthropology has been linked to the expiation of colonial guilt. Traditional, functionalist anthropology is characteristically regarded as an accessory to the crime, and anyone critical of the relativistic claims of interpretative anthropology (as Ernest Gellner is) is likely to be charged (as he sometimes is) with being an ex post imperialist. Ernest Gellner argues that cultures are crucially important in human life as constraining systems of meaning. Cultural transition means that the required characteristics are transmitted from generation to generation, leading, he shows, to both greater diversity and to far more rapid change than is possible among species where transmission is primarily by genetic means. But the relative importance of semantic and physical compulsion needs to be explored rather than pre-judged. The weakness of idealism, which at present operates under the name of hermeneutics, is that it underplays the importance of coercion, and that it presents cultures as self-justifying and morally sovereign: this line of argument, the author demonstrates, is fundamentally flawed.

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Ernest Gellner explores here the links between anthropology and politics, and shows just how central these are. The recent postmodernist turn in anthropology has been linked to the expiation of colonial guilt. Traditional, functionalist anthropology is characteristically regarded as an accessory to the crime, and anyone critical of the relativistic claims of interpretative anthropology (as Ernest Gellner is) is likely to be charged (as he sometimes is) with being an ex post imperialist. Ernest Gellner argues that cultures are crucially important in human life as constraining systems of meaning. Cultural transition means that the required characteristics are transmitted from generation to generation, leading, he shows, to both greater diversity and to far more rapid change than is possible among species where transmission is primarily by genetic means. But the relative importance of semantic and physical compulsion needs to be explored rather than pre--judged. The weakness of idealism, which at present operates under the name of hermeneutics, is that it underplays the importance of coercion, and that it presents cultures as self--justifying and morally sovereign: this line of argument, the author demonstrates, is fundamentally flawed.

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[目次]

  • Preface. 1. The Politics of Anthropology. 2. Origins of Society. 3. Culture, Constraint and Community. 4. Freud's Social Contract. 5. Past and Present. 6. James Frazer and Cambridge. 7. Pluralism and the Neolithic. 8. The Highway to Growth. 9. A Marxist Might-have-been. 10. War and Violence. 11. Tribe and State in the Middle East. 12. Maghreb as Mirror for Man. 13. Lawrence of Moravia. 14. Anthropology and Europe. 15. The Coming Fin de Millenaire. 16. The Uniqueness of Truth. Acknowledgments. Index.

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[目次]

  • Preface. 1. The Politics of Anthropology. 2. Origins of Society. 3. Culture, Constraint and Community. 4. Freuda s Social Contract. 5. Past and Present. 6. James Frazer and Cambridge. 7. Pluralism and the Neolithic. 8. The Highway to Growth. 9. A Marxist Might--have--been. 10. War and Violence. 11. Tribe and State in the Middle East. 12. Maghreb as Mirror for Man. 13. Lawrence of Moravia. 14. Anthropology and Europe. 15. The Coming Fin de Millenaire. 16. The Uniqueness of Truth. Acknowledgments. Index.

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この本の情報

書名 Anthropology and politics : revolutions in the sacred grove
著作者等 Gellner, Ernest
出版元 Blackwell Publishers
刊行年月 1995
ページ数 xv, 260 p.
大きさ 23 cm
ISBN 0631199187
0631199179
NCID BA26520360
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言語 英語
出版国 イギリス
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