A Possible Anthropology by Anand Pandian

A Possible Anthropology by Anand Pandian

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Summary

Conceptualizing anthropology as a mode of practical and transformative inquiry, Anand Pandian stages an ethnographic encounter with the field in an effort to grasp its impact on the world and its potential for addressing and offering solutions to the profound crises of the present.

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A Possible Anthropology by Anand Pandian

In a time of intense uncertainty, social strife, and ecological upheaval, what does it take to envision the world as it yet may be? The field of anthropology, Anand Pandian argues, has resources essential for this critical and imaginative task. Anthropology is no stranger to injustice and exploitation. Still, its methods can reveal unseen dimensions of the world at hand and radical experience as the seed of a humanity yet to come. A Possible Anthropology is an ethnography of anthropologists at work: canonical figures like Bronislaw Malinowski and Claude Lévi-Strauss, ethnographic storytellers like Zora Neale Hurston and Ursula K. Le Guin, contemporary scholars like Jane Guyer and Michael Jackson, and artists and indigenous activists inspired by the field. In their company, Pandian explores the moral and political horizons of anthropological inquiry, the creative and transformative potential of an experimental practice.
“Incorporating the current movements beyond 'writing culture' of twentieth-century anthropology, Anand Pandian reinstantiates the poetics of an ethnographic method that anticipates futuresIn the midst of a surge of multimodal experimentation, Pandian stunningly reinvests in the narrative character of ethnography.” -- George E. Marcus, coauthor of * Ethnography by Design: Scenographic Experiments in Fieldwork *
“Offering the daring gambit of revisiting anthropology's past to make it new, and critically meditating, too, upon the field's latest theoretical moves, Anand Pandian's captivating book is a stirring brief for ethnography as a method for exploring that which is and may yet be possible.” -- Stefan Helmreich, author of * Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond *

"This is a book that practicing anthropologists and students of anthropology must both read."

-- Shweta Krishnan * Anthropology Book Forum *
"A Possible Anthropology is bold, caring, and creative in trying to confront these issues head on, in trying to imagine some other kind of world." -- Andrés Romero * Cultural Anthropology *
"With a focus on figures in the discipline’s past and current practices, A Possible Anthropology contributes to debates about the future of anthropological inquiry (and the ethnographic method) in academia and the wider world. It is an evocative and inspired book, clearly written and rigorous." -- Adam Fleischmann * Anthropological Quarterly *
"This book is an inspirational joy and a read I recommend." -- Robert Meckin * Qualitative Research *
“Pandian has offered a strong work. . . . A Possible Anthropology is indeed a hopeful book for uneasy times, that encourages us to dive deeper into an anthropological way of engaging with the world.” -- Julia Nina Baumann * Anthropos *
Anand Pandian teaches anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. His books include Reel World: An Anthropology of Creation and the coedited volume Crumpled Paper Boat: Experiments in Ethnographic Writing, both also published by Duke University Press.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781478003113
ISBN 10 1478003111
Title A Possible Anthropology
Author Anand Pandian
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Duke University Press
Year published 2019-10-18
Number of pages 168
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable