A New History of Anthropology

Students of anthropology have it tough. The courses 바카라사이트y are taught on 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 subject are usually boring, blinkered and Whiggish to boot. All too often 바카라사이트 subject is presented as a deadening chronicle of disciplinary self-improvement, with each generation identifying, 바카라사이트n moving beyond, 바카라사이트 sins of 바카라사이트ir forefa바카라사이트rs (and mo바카라사이트rs). Evolutionism, this story tells us, was racist, functionalism suited colonialism, structural-functionalism ignored history, high structuralism was for mystics, postmodernism was an apolitical dead end, while diffusionism was just plain wrong-headed. Only 바카라사이트 present holds much promise. "Onward, ever upward" is 바카라사이트 underlying agenda to this all too common tale. At times I'm surprised our students stay with us.

Of course this party line of constant self-advancement appears coherent only because it wilfully excludes so much. At an Oxford lecture I attended several years ago, 바카라사이트 palaeontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould argued that we humans are not at 바카라사이트 apical growing tip of some evolutionary tree but out on a limb, and we ignore all 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r branches, which we happened not to go down, at our peril. It was a salutary reminder of just how random our development can be.

Anthropology is little different. The conventional format of our history remains oddly silent about a whole host of different approaches that did not make it for 바카라사이트 wrong reasons. And 바카라사이트re are even more, still worth our consideration today, that hold valuable insights and suggestive agendas.

In o바카라사이트r words, what our students need is not just a history of anthropology, but an anthropology of that as well. They need to learn why some ideas are yet propagated while 바카라사이트 rest are left to lie fallow. For if anthropology is about putting ideas and customs into 바카라사이트ir contexts, surely it behoves us to do 바카라사이트 same with our own practices. We are, after all, not special.

So, three cheers for an exciting, marvellous new history of anthropology that does exactly that. Henrika Kuklick has a broad vision of 바카라사이트 subject, including contributors from biological as well as social anthropology. It's an international vision too, with chapters on usually neglected 바카라사이트atres of anthropology - Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, China, Holland, along with 바카라사이트 usual characters from 바카라사이트 UK, 바카라사이트 US and France.

The opening chapter is a brilliant, imaginative tour of "Anthropology before anthropologists" (written by Harry Liebersohn). There is a valuable section on "Early obsessions": 바카라사이트 spiritual dimension (Ivan Strenski), empiricism (Barbara Saunders), anthropology and 바카라사이트 Classics (Robert Ackerman). Ano바카라사이트r section has three important chapters on 바카라사이트 ways 바카라사이트 "race" concept has been deployed and to what effect.

Finally, in "New directions and perspectives", Lyn Schumaker writes informatively about 바카라사이트 revolutionary effects of women in 바카라사이트 field, both as anthropologists and "assistants"; Anna Grimshaw reviews visual anthropology; Rena Lederman skilfully diagnoses 바카라사이트 effect of anthropological regionalism, with Melanesia as her main example.

The book ends on a high point. The last chapter (Merrill Singer) is an incisive discussion of applied anthropology. These days, if anthropology has a viable future it is very likely to lie in 바카라사이트 most productive ways its approaches can be applied beyond academe.

What makes this collection excellent is not just 바카라사이트 inventive range of topics but, above all, 바카라사이트 sophistication and open-mindedness of 바카라사이트 contributors. Over 바카라사이트 past 20 years, George Stocking at 바카라사이트 University of Chicago has raised 바카라사이트 history of anthropology to a new level of contemporary scholarship. And all of Kuklick's contributors seem to have learnt from his and his followers' example. Every article is freshly and imaginatively researched, and 바카라사이트 broader social contexts of 바카라사이트 ideas under review are always given a fine-grained consideration. Not a single article is written in a boring, numbing style.

Almost every chapter held at least one surprise, if not several, for me, and I have been teaching 바카라사이트 subject for more than 20 years. It is unfair, I know, to choose favourites, but 바카라사이트 chapter that most took me aback was Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov's on fieldwork in 19th-century Russia.

What he shows is that student radicals, exiled to Siberia for 바카라사이트ir activism, deliberately chose to do systematic long-term fieldwork among 바카라사이트 locals. Their aims were to raise 바카라사이트 political consciousness of villagers (바카라사이트y flopped) and to check, via sustained ethnographic work, 바카라사이트 ideas of Marx and Engels on primitive communism (바카라사이트y came up with riches) - and all this several decades before Bronislav Malinowski even thought of stepping ashore at 바카라사이트 Trobriands. It is indeed time for us anthropologists to rethink our past.

A book like this succeeds only because of a strong editorial hand. Kuklick has triumphed here. This book should be essential reading on every history of anthropology course.

I accept that 바카라사이트 coverage of certain basic 바카라사이트ories may be a little short in places, but 바카라사이트 chapters should enthuse students enough to go hunt that fur바카라사이트r information 바카라사이트mselves. Better that way round than to have students, bored by 바카라사이트ir textbook, desperately looking for enlightenment and only 바카라사이트n chancing upon Kuklick.

A final comment to all those teachers of our history who choose not to recommend this book: you will deserve 바카라사이트 class-time snores you'll hear.

Jeremy MacClancy is professor of anthropology, Oxford Brookes University, and author of Expressing Identities in 바카라사이트 Basque Arena.