Continuity thinking and the problem of christian culture : Belief, time, and the anthropology of christianity
TL;DR: A close reading of the Comaroffs' Of Revelation and Revolution illustrates the ways in which anthropologists sideline Christianity and leads to a discussion of reasons the anthropology of Christianity has languished as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: To this point, the anthropology of Christianity has largely failed to develop. When anthropologists study Christians, they do not see themselves as contributing to a broad comparative enterprise in the way those studying other world religions do. A close reading of the Comaroffs’ Of Revelation and Revolution illustrates the ways in which anthropologists sideline Christianity and leads to a discussion of reasons the anthropology of Christianity has languished. While it is possible to locate the cause in part in the culture of anthropology, with its emphasis on difference, problems also exist at the theoretical level. Most anthropological theories emphasize cultural continuity as opposed to discontinuity and change. This emphasis becomes problematic where Christianity is concerned, because many kinds of Christianity stress radical change and expect it to occur. Confronted by people claiming that radical Christian change has occurred in their lives, anthropologists become suspicious and often explain away th...
Citations
More filters
1,000 citations
TL;DR: The recent collection of articles, The Art of Translation [Masterstvo perevoda], follows publication of two other books on the subject, The Problems of Translation of Creative Writing [Voprosy khudozhestvennogo pereVoda] and another work also bearing the title The art of Translation.
Abstract: The recent collection of articles, The Art of Translation [Masterstvo perevoda], follows publication of two other books on the subject, The Problems of Translation of Creative Writing [Voprosy khudozhestvennogo perevoda] and another work also bearing the title The Art of Translation.
913 citations
01 Jan 1997-Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies
TL;DR: Hayden White as mentioned in this paper put together essays on Droysen, Foucault, Jameson and Ricoeur to give an encompassing account of a problematic issue that has been one of the major concerns of historical studies as well as of many other areas of the human sciences: that of the importance of narrative representation in the description or explanation of the "object" of study of human sciences.
Abstract: Although the chapters that appear in this book have been previously published separately in different places at different
times, they have been revised by the author for their publication as a book and are all related to the problem of
historical representation. By putting together essays on Droysen, Foucault, Jameson and Ricoeur, Hayden White hasmanaged to give an encompassing account of a problematic issue that has been one of the major concerns of
historical studies as well as of many other areas of the human sciences: that of the importance of narrative representation in the description or explanation of the “object” of study of
the human sciences. Although the authors mentioned deal with this subject in different ways, White finds in them
common characteristics which confirm the point made by him that historical narratives are, from a semiological
perspective, concerned with the production of meanings.
811 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the change from the anthropologists' focus on the "other" to the "the other" and suggest that some strengths of earlier work were lost in the transition.
Abstract: In the 1980s, anthropology set aside a focus on societies defined as radically ‘other’ to the anthropologists' own. There was little consensus at the time, however, about who might replace the other as the primary object of anthropological attention. In important respects, I argue, its replacement has been the suffering subject. Tracing this change, I consider how it addressed key problems of the anthropology of the other, but I also suggest that some strengths of earlier work – particularly some of its unique critical capacities – were lost in the transition. The conclusion considers how recent trends in anthropology might coalesce in a further shift, this one toward an anthropology of the good capable of recovering some of the critical force of an earlier anthropology without taking on its weaknesses.
622 citations
Book•
31 Dec 2016TL;DR: The ontological turn in the history of anthropology and its emergence as a distinct theoretical orientation over the past few decades has been discussed in this paper, showing how it emerged in the work of Roy Wagner, Marilyn Strathern and Viveiros de Castro, as well a number of younger scholars.
Abstract: A new and often controversial theoretical orientation that resonates strongly with wider developments in contemporary philosophy and social theory, the so-called 'ontological turn' is receiving a great deal of attention in anthropology and cognate disciplines at present. This book provides the first anthropological exposition of this recent intellectual development. It traces the roots of the ontological turn in the history of anthropology and elucidates its emergence as a distinct theoretical orientation over the past few decades, showing how it has emerged in the work of Roy Wagner, Marilyn Strathern and Viveiros de Castro, as well a number of younger scholars. Distinguishing this trajectory of thinking from related attempts to put questions of ontology at the heart of anthropological research, the book articulates critically the key methodological and theoretical tenets of the ontological turn, its prime epistemological and political implications, and locates it in the broader intellectual landscape of contemporary social theory.
275 citations
References
More filters
Book•
29 Apr 1983
TL;DR: This article explored examples of this process of invention -the creation of Welsh Scottish national culture, the elaboration of British royal rituals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the origins of imperial ritual in British India and Africa, and the attempts by radical movements to develop counter-traditions of their own.
Abstract: Many of the traditions which we think of as very ancient in their origins were not in fact sanctioned by long usage over the centuries, but were invented comparative recently. This book explores examples of this process of invention - the creation of Welsh Scottish 'national culture'; the elaboration of British royal rituals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the origins of imperial ritual in British India and Africa; and the attempts by radical movements to develop counter-traditions of their own. This book addresses the complex interaction of past and present, bringing together historicans and anthropologists in a fascinating study of ritual and symbolism which possess new questions for the understanding of our history.
7,291 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1946
TL;DR: A collection of Max Weber's key papers is presented in this article with a new preface by Professor Bryan S. Turner, who was one of the most prolific and influential sociologists of the twentieth century.
Abstract: Max Weber (1864-1920) was one of the most prolific and influential sociologists of the twentieth century. This classic collection draws together his key papers. This edition contains a new preface by Professor Bryan S. Turner.
5,657 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: Time and the Other as discussed by the authors is a critique of the notions that anthropologists are "here and now," their objects of study are "there and then", and that the "other" exists in a time not contemporary with our own.
Abstract: Fabian's study is a classic in the field that changed the way anthropologists relate to their subjects and is of immense value not only to anthropologists but to all those concerned with the study of man. A new foreward by Matti Bunzl brings the influence of Fabian's study up to the present. Time and the Other is a critique of the notions that anthropologists are "here and now," their objects of study are "there and then," and that the "other" exists in a time not contemporary with our own.
4,085 citations
"Continuity thinking and the problem..." refers background or methods in this paper
...This model is based, as Fabian (1983) puts it, on a desacralized, naturalized view of time....
[...]
...As Fabian (1983, 10) notes, the most debilitating aspect of the naturalized time of the anthropologists is that it claims to be “a knowledge of Time which is . . . superior” to the knowledge of those we study....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: In this paper, a genealogies of the concept of ritual in medieval Christian monasticism is discussed. But the focus is on the construction of religion as an anthropological category toward a genealogy of the concepts of ritual.
Abstract: Part 1 Genealogies: the construction of religion as an anthropological category toward a genealogy of the concept of ritual. Part 2 Archaisms: pain and truth in medieval Christian ritual on discipline and humility in medieval Christian monasticism. Part 3 Translations: the concept of cultural translation in British social anthropology the limits of religious criticism in the Middle East. Part 4 Polemics: multiculturalism and British identity in the wake of the Rushdie affair ethnography, literature and politics - some readings and uses of Salmon Rushdie's "Satanic Verses".
2,179 citations
1,554 citations
"Continuity thinking and the problem..." refers background in this paper
...While some Christian anthropologists made significant contributions in the early years of the discipline (e.g., Lienhardt [see Clifford 1997]; Pike 1967; Nida and Taber 1982), in recent years many Christian anthropologists have employed this understanding of time, placing their own faith outside…...
[...]