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The culture of invention in the Americas : anthropological experiments with Roy Wagner / edited by Pedro Pitarch & José Antonio Kelly.
- Format:
- Book
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Wagner, Roy, 1938-.
- Wagner, Roy.
- Ethnology--Latin America.
- Ethnology.
- Symbolism.
- Culture.
- Anthropology.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (287 pages) : illustrations
- Place of Publication:
- Canon Pyon, England : Sean Kingston Publishing, 2019.
- Summary:
- The Culture of Invention in the Americas takes the theoreticalcontribution of one of anthropology's most radical thinkers, RoyWagner, as a basis for conceptual improvisation. It uses Wagner'smost synthetic and complex insights - developed in Melanesiaand captured in the title of his most famous book, The Inventionof Culture - as a springboard for an exploration of otheranthropological and societal imaginaries. What do the inherent reflexivity, recursivenessand limits of all and any peoples' anthropologies render for us to write and think about,and live within? Who is doing anthropology about whom? Which are the best ways toconvey our partial grasp of these conundrums: theory, poetry, jokes? No claim is made toresolve what should not be seen as a problem. Instead, inspired by Roy Wagner's studyand use of metaphor, this book explores analogical variations of these riddles.The chapters bring together ethnographic regions rarely investigated together:indigenous peoples of Mexico and Lowland South America; and Afro-American peoples ofBrazil and Cuba. The 'partial connections' highlighted by the authors' analytic conjunctions- Ifá divination practices and Yanomami shamanism, Ki¿sedjê (Amazonia) and Huichol(Mexico) anthropology of Whites, and Meso-American and Afro-American practices ofsacrifice - show the inspirational potential of such rapprochements.As the first book to acknowledge the full range of Wagner's anthropologicalcontributions, and an initial joint exploration of Native American and Afro-Americanethnographies, this experimental work honours Wagner's vision of a multiplicity of peoples'anthropologies through and of each other. It concludes with a remarkable dialogue createdby Roy Wagner's responses to each author's work.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 1-912385-18-X
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