American Anthropologist 

About: American Anthropologist is an academic journal published by American Anthropological Association. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Kinship & Politics. It has an ISSN identifier of 0002-7294. Over the lifetime, 13180 publications have been published receiving 235624 citations.

Sequencing in Conversational Openings

Abstract: An attempt is made to ascertain rules for the sequencing of a limited part of natural conversation and to determine some properties and empirical consequences of the operation of those rules. Two formulations of conversational openings are suggested and the properties "nonterminality" and "conditional relevance" are developed to explicate the operation of one of them and to suggest some of its interactional consequences. Some discussion is offered of the fit between the sequencing structure and the tasks of conversational openings.

Culture as Consensus: A Theory of Culture and Informant Accuracy

Abstract: This paper presents and tests a formal mathematical model for the analysis of informant responses to systematic interview questions. We assume a situation in which the ethnographer does not know how much each informant knows about the cultural domain under consideration nor the answers to the questions. The model simultaneously provides an estimate of the cultural competence or knowledge of each informant and an estimate of the correct answer to each question asked of the informant. The model currently handles true-false, multiple-choice, andfill-in-the-blank type question formats. In familiar cultural domains the model produces good results from as few as four informants. The paper includes a table showing the number of informants needed to provide stated levels of confidence given the mean level of knowledge among the informants. Implications are discussed.

Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others

Abstract: This article explores the ethics of the current "War on Terrorism, asking whether anthropology, the discipline devoted to understanding and dealing with cultural difference, can provide us with critical purchase on the justifications made for American intervention in Afghanistan in terms of liberating, or saving, Afghan women. I look first at the dangers of reifying culture, apparent in the tendencies to plaster neat cultural icons like the Muslim woman over messy historical and political dynamics. Then, calling attention to the resonances of contemporary discourses on equality, freedom, and rights with earlier colonial and missionary rhetoric on Muslim women, I argue that we need to develop, instead, a serious appreciation of differences among women in the world—as products of different histories, expressions of different circumstances, and manifestations of differently structured desires. Further, I argue that rather than seeking to "save" others (with the superiority it implies and the violences it would entail) we might better think in terms of (1) working with them in situations that we recognize as always subject to historical transformation and (2) considering our own larger responsibilities to address the forms of global injustice that are powerful shapers of the worlds in which they find themselves. I develop many of these arguments about the limits of "cultural relativism" through a consideration of the burqa and the many meanings of veiling in the Muslim world. [Keywords: cultural relativism, Muslim women, Afghanistan war, freedom, global injustice, colonialism]

Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory.

Abstract: Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Alfred Gell. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 271 pp.