Rethinking ethnography: A study in public anthropology

This editorial calls for an alternative approach to writing ethnographies. Instead of treating a group as a cultural whole to make writing about it easier, the author emphasizes the importance of understanding the intracultural diversity that exists within that group. In addition, he asks ethnographers to step away from a framework which places them as the primary interpreters of a group. Instead, he calls for more dialogic, multicentric narratives, that allow the people they study (as well as their readers) to compose their own empowering narratives about the group. Intracultural diversity ensures there is not one true account, but many.     

Cultural relativism and indigenous rights: Rethinking some dilemmas in applied anthropology (part 1)

The basis on which peoples should understand and relate to each other is a key dilemma for applied anthropology and a human rights organization such as the Forest Peoples Programme. Cultural relativism rejects universalism, critiques the individualist emphasis of human rights as Western imperialism and teaches that every society must be understood in its own terms. While it is true that some countries have resisted the impositions of the human rights regime, most have also ratified the key human rights treaties. It is clear that the notion of ‘human rights’ is a cultural construct of Western civilization, with a long gestation dating back to the ancient Greeks. Human rights have three foundational principles: individual rights, non-discrimination and self-determination. The tension between the three creates space for cultural specificity, decolonization and the assertion of collective rights. Indigenous peoples have effectively used the human rights system of the United Nations to reclaim their collective rights and, in so doing, accept that these universal norms also apply to their own societies, which they reform through their self-determined efforts. Ultimately, all human rights trace back to various conceptions of freedom – free will, freedom of belief, autonomy and self-determination – and even in societies where personhood is more relational and communal, notions of collective freedom are readily discernible. We need an ‘anthropology of freedom’ that builds on the insights of cultural relativism but is open to supporting self-determined movements for reform.     

Cultural relativism and indigenous rights: Rethinking some dilemmas in applied anthropology (part 2)

The basis on which people should understand and relate to each other is a crucial dilemma for applied anthropology and a human rights organization such as the Forest Peoples Programme. Cultural relativism rejects universalism, critiques the individualist emphasis of human rights as Western imperialism and teaches that every society must be understood on its own terms. While it is true that some countries have resisted the impositions of the human rights regime, most have also ratified the key human rights treaties. It is clear that the notion of ‘human rights’ is a cultural construct of Western civilization, with a long gestation dating back to the ancient Greeks. Human rights have three foundational principles: individual rights, non-discrimination and self-determination. The tension between the three creates space for cultural specificity, decolonization and the assertion of collective rights. Indigenous peoples have effectively used the human rights system of the United Nations to reclaim their collective rights and, in so doing, accept that these universal norms also apply to their own societies, which they reform through their self-determined efforts. Ultimately, all human rights trace back to various conceptions of freedom – free will, freedom of belief, autonomy and self-determination – and even in societies where personhood is more relational and communal, notions of collective freedom are readily discernible. We need an ‘anthropology of freedom’ that builds on the insights of cultural relativism but is open to supporting self-determined movements for reform.     

The anthropology of modernization and the modernization of anthropology

John J. Poggie, Jr. and Robert N. Lynch, eds. Rethinking Modernization. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1974. xii + 405 pp. Tables, illustrations, maps, figures, bibliography, and index. $15.95.     

Interpretive anthropology

Keith H. Basso and Henry A. Selby, eds. Meaning in Anthropology. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976. xii + 255 pp. Bibliography, index. $17.50.

Anthony Giddens. New Rules of Sociological Method: A Positive Critique of Interpretive Sociologies. New York: Basic Books. 1976. 192 pp. Bibliography, index. $10.95.     

Demographic anthropology

John F. Marshall and Steven Polgar, eds. Culture, Natality and Family Planning. Chapel Hill: Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, 1976. xiii + 301 pp. Tables.

Bernice A. Kaplan, ed. Anthropological Studies of Human Fertility. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1976. v + 146 pp. $8.95.     

Histories of anthropology

Timothy H. H. Thoresen, ed. Toward A Science of Man: Essays in the History of Anthropology. The Hague and Paris: Mouton Publishers, 1975. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Company, vii + 232 pp. Biographical notes and indices. $14.95.     

Understanding urban anthropology: A review of anthropology of the city

Edwin Eames and Judith Granich Goode, eds. Anthropology of the City. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1977. 344 pp. Bibliography, indexes. $8.95.     

Making anthropology public

Public Anthropology entails diverse practices. One is 'writing' for the public by making our work more accessible and accountable. A less conventional way of getting anthropological research findings and interpretations to broader publics is through active collaboration with journalists and the media. To make anthropology public is to invite criticism and to face 'erasures' of ownership of our findings once they are shared with journalists. Even so, it is satisfying to see one's work appear on the front pages of the Sunday Times even if uncited. Finally, in the tradition of CW Mills' The Sociological Imagination, the goal of public anthropology is to make public issues, not simply to respond to them. Those who wan to be public anthropologist – just do it! But don't expect to be rewarded for it. Instead, consider it a precious right and a privilege.     

The newer anthropology

J. H. M. Beattie and R. G. Lienhardt, eds. Studies in Social Anthropology: Essays in Memory of E. E. Evans‐Pritchard by His Former Oxford Colleagues. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975. x + 394 pp. Illustrations, maps, figures, references, bibliography, appendices, and index. $16.00.     

Language in anthropology

William C. McCormack and Stephen A. Wurm, eds. Language and Thought. Anthropological Issues. The Hague, Paris, Mouton Publishers, 1977, 533 pp.     

The anthropology of ethnicity

Frances Henry, ed. Ethnicity in the Americas. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1976. vii + 438 pp. Bibliographical notes and index. $22.50.     

Restudy in economic anthropology

T. Scarlett Epstein. South India: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1973. xv + 273 pp. Maps, tables, bibliography, and index. $15.00.     

Transnational corporations and anthropology

Richard J. Barnet and Ronald E. Müller. Global Reach: The Power of the Multinational Corporations. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974. 508 pp. Tables, appendix, bibliography, and index. $4.95 paper.