British subjects : an anthropology of Britain / edited by Nigel Rapport.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Rapport, Nigel, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anthropology--Great Britain--History.

Anthropology.

National characteristics, British.

History.

Great Britain--Social life and customs.

Great Britain.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

xii, 340 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Berg, 2002.

Summary:

The anthropology of Britain is hotly debated. What does it mean to live in Britain and to be 'British', and is an anthropology of Britain even a legitimate undertaking? British Subjects presents a forthright voice in this debate. Key anthropological concerns such as community, rationality, aesthetics, the body, power, work and leisure, nationalism and transnationalism are found reflected in the lives of a wide range of British 'subjects'--from farmers to dancers, children to retired miners, new-agers to entrepreneurs. In disputing traditional claims that anthropology 'at home' and 'of one's own' is misconceived, unnecessary or unperceptive, this book clearly establishes that an anthropology of Britain can set excellent standards of subtle ethnography and complex analysis. Providing a nuanced appreciation of the intricacies of British society, this book shows how the anthropological study of Britain can offer an enlightening paradigm for the study of individual lives.

Contents:

Introduction, 'Best of British!' : an introduction to the anthropology of Britain / Nigel Rapport

Subject positions and 'real royalists' : monarchy and vernacular civil religion in Great Britain / Anne Rowbottom

National day : achieving collective identity on the Isle of Man / Susan Lewis

Aesthetics at the ballet : looking at 'national' style, body and clothing in the London dance world / Helena Wulff

On 'old things' : the fetishization of past everyday life / Sharon Macdonald

Leisure and change in a post-mining mining town / Andrew Dawson

Dissociation, social technology and the spiritual domain / Tanya Luhrmann

English child : toward a cultural politics of childhood identities / Allison James

Bits and bytes of information / Jeanette Edwards

Culture in a network : dykes, webs and women in London and Manchester / Sarah Green

Interviews as ethnography? : disembodied social interaction in Britain / Jenny Hockey

Entering secure psychiatric settings / Christine Brown

Cultural values and social organization in Wales : is ethnicity the locus of culture? / Carol Trosset and Douglas Caulkins

Armenian and other diasporas : trying to reconcile the irreconcilable / Vered Amit

Both independent and interconnected voices : Bakhtin among the Quakers / Peter Collins

Body of the village community : between Reverend Parkington in Wanet and Mr Beebe in A Room with a View / Nigel Rapport

Epilogue, 'Best of British'

with more to come / Anthony P. Cohen.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1859735517

1859735460

OCLC:

48399013