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A development in anthropological theory, characterized as the 'moral turn', is gaining popularity and should be carefully considered. In examining the context, arguments, and discourse that surrounds this trend, this volume reconceptualizes the discipline of anthropology in a radical way. Contributions from anthropologists from around the world from different theoretical traditions and with expertise in a multiplicity of ethnographic areas makes this collection a provocative contribution to larger discussions not only in anthropology but the social sciences more broadly.
List of contents
Introduction: Reconceptualising the Discipline
PART I: THE CASE AGAINST MORAL ANTHROPOLOGY Chapter 1. Why I Will Not Make It as a 'Moral Anthropologist'
Don Kalb Chapter 2. Steps Away from Moralism
Martin Holbraad Chapter 3. Not Beyond Good and Evil: The Ethics of Anthropology and the Anthropology of Ethics
Kirsten Bell Chapter 4. An Obscure Desire for Catastrophe
Rohan Bastin PART II: MORAL ISSUES IN CONTEXT Chapter 5. Facts, Values, Morality, and Anthropology
Christopher C. Taylor Chapter 6. Moral Anthropology, Human Rights and Egalitarianism or The AAA boycott
Marina Gold Chaprter 7. Anthropology's Atavistic Turn : An Animist Perspective
Caroline Ifeka PART III: PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS Chapter 8. Empathy, As Affective Ethical Technology and Transformative Political Praxis
Elisabeth Kirtsoglou & Dimitrios Theodossopoulos Chapter 9. The Question of Ethics and Morality
Terry Evens PART IV: A BROADER VIEW IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT Chapter 10. The Horizon of Freedom and Ethics of Singularity: The Social Individual and the Necessity of Reloading the Spirit of 1968
Jakob Rigi Chapter 11. Situating Morality
Jonathan Friedman
About the author
Bruce Kapferer is Honorary Professor University College London and Professor Emeritus, University of Bergen, where he is Director of the Egalitarianism Project supported by an ERC Advanced Grant. Has published widely on South Asia, Africa and Australia where he has done extensive anthropological fieldwork.
Marina Gold is research fellow in the department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, where she is part of the ERC Advanced Grant Egalitarianism Project. Her publications include articles in Social Analysis, and the Bulletin of Latin American Research and a recent monograph based on her research in Cuba, titled People and State in Socialist Cuba: Ideas and practices of Revolution (Palgrave 2015).
Summary
A development in anthropological theory, characterized as the 'moral turn', is gaining popularity and should be carefully considered. In examining the context, arguments, and discourse that surrounds this trend, this volume reconceptualizes the discipline of anthropology in a radical way. Contributions from anthropologists from around the world from different theoretical traditions and with expertise in a multiplicity of ethnographic areas makes this collection a provocative contribution to larger discussions not only in anthropology but the social sciences more broadly.
