There was a moment in my fieldwork in China when I was prompted to rethink my position in relation to my interlocutors and the values they brought into play. More specifically, I became aware that their image of Western foreigners matched my profile as a wandering anthropologist with incoherent life trajectories. This was so even though, to some degree, they had difficulty translating their image of me into their social reality. Through my research on practices of self-improvement, I came to see how, in expressing concerns about their personhood and ways of living, my interlocutors moved beyond the telos of business-driven success. Analytically, I came to better understand how my interaction with them had productively constituted new discursive spaces of the imagination—spaces in which some of our worries were likely to unravel.
{"title":"Cliché anthropologists and the interactive probing of aspirations under market expansion","authors":"Gil Hizi","doi":"10.1111/amet.13380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13380","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There was a moment in my fieldwork in China when I was prompted to rethink my position in relation to my interlocutors and the values they brought into play. More specifically, I became aware that their image of Western foreigners matched my profile as a wandering anthropologist with incoherent life trajectories. This was so even though, to some degree, they had difficulty translating their image of me into their social reality. Through my research on practices of self-improvement, I came to see how, in expressing concerns about their personhood and ways of living, my interlocutors moved beyond the telos of business-driven success. Analytically, I came to better understand how my interaction with them had productively constituted new discursive spaces of the imagination—spaces in which some of our worries were likely to unravel.</p>","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"64-67"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/amet.13380","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143363006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Theory occupies a central, if curious place in contemporary anthropology. It is needed and valuable, enabling the articulation and use of insights from field research. But it is also feared at times as hard, and also used in exclusionary ways. In this commentary, I review how my understanding of and relationship to theory have changed over time, primarily through an understanding of ethnography as always already theoretical. After considering what theory and ethnography are, as well as the importance of story to theory, I then offer 10 lessons I've learned that shape my theoretical practice.
{"title":"I was wrong about theory","authors":"Carole McGranahan","doi":"10.1111/amet.13378","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13378","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Theory occupies a central, if curious place in contemporary anthropology. It is needed and valuable, enabling the articulation and use of insights from field research. But it is also feared at times as hard, and also used in exclusionary ways. In this commentary, I review how my understanding of and relationship to theory have changed over time, primarily through an understanding of ethnography as always already theoretical. After considering what theory and ethnography are, as well as the importance of story to theory, I then offer 10 lessons I've learned that shape my theoretical practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"68-72"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142879629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Disability worlds By Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2024. 271 pp.","authors":"Timothy Y. Loh","doi":"10.1111/amet.13372","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13372","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"125-126"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142776611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The composition of worlds: Interviews with Pierre Charbonnier By Philippe Descola. Cambridge: Polity, 2024. 200 pp.","authors":"Laura Rival","doi":"10.1111/amet.13376","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13376","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"131-133"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142763363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Zainab's traffic: Moving saints, selves, and others across borders By Emrah Yıldız. Oakland: University of California Press, 2024. 191 pp.","authors":"Sana Chavoshian","doi":"10.1111/amet.13375","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13375","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"106-107"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142763358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Passport island: The market for EU citizenship in Cyprus By Theodoros Rakopoulos. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023. 262 pp.","authors":"Nicole Constable","doi":"10.1111/amet.13374","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13374","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"108-109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142763163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The violence of recognition: Adivasi indigeneity and anti-Dalitness in India By Pinky Hota. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024. 230 pp.","authors":"Svati Shah","doi":"10.1111/amet.13373","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13373","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"134-135"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142763357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The mother, the politician, and the guerrilla: Women's political imagination in the Kurdish movement By Nazan Üstündağ. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023. 272 pp.","authors":"Hasret Cetinkaya","doi":"10.1111/amet.13358","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13358","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"104-105"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142596539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Terror trials: Life and law in Delhi's courts By Mayur R. Suresh. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023. 272 pp.","authors":"Thomas Blom Hansen","doi":"10.1111/amet.13360","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13360","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"112-113"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142596541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital unsettling: Decoloniality and dispossession in the age of social media By Sahana Udupa and Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan. New York: New York University Press, 2023. 264 pp.","authors":"Maitrayee Basu","doi":"10.1111/amet.13357","DOIUrl":"10.1111/amet.13357","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48134,"journal":{"name":"American Ethnologist","volume":"52 1","pages":"102-103"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142596540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}