Arguments with ethnography : comparative approaches to history, politics, & religion / Ioan M. Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, I. M.

Series:

Monographs on social anthropology ; no. 70.

Monographs on social anthropology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--Philosophy.

Ethnology.

Ethnology--History.

History.

Ethnology--Religious aspects.

Political anthropology.

Physical Description:

xvii, 167 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New Brunswick, NJ : Athlone Press, 1999.

Summary:

A major critique of the globalization of the culture principle in anthropology. This study contends that the subjective anthropology promoted through postmodernism represents an extreme development of long established, highly patronizing and misleading evaluations in the anthropologist's creative role in the construction of theory. Arguing that theory building is dependent on the actual study of peoples - a study which is empirically based and historically sensitive - the book advocates the "fieldwork mode of production and reproduction." The simplest model for the construction of empirically-grounded theory involves three interacting sets of factors: the subjective ethnographer and their deployment of current theoretical assumptions; the multi-layered ethnographic "facts" disclosed by fieldwork; and the geopolitical and historical contexts in which fieldwork is conducted.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-162) and index.

ISBN:

0485195704

OCLC:

40489325