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This book explores how modern concepts of time constrain our understanding of temporal diversity. Time is a necessary and pervasive dimension of scholarship, yet rarely have the cultural assumptions about time been explored. This book looks at how anthropology--a discipline known for the study of cultural, linguistic, historical, and biological variation and differences--is blind to temporalities outside of the logics of European-derived ideas about time. While the argument focuses primarily on anthropology, its points can be applied to other fields in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences.
List of contents
Prelude: The Duplicity of Time.- Chapter 1. (Hegemonic) Calibrations in Anthropology.- Chapter 2. Evolution's Anticipation of Horology?.- Chapter 3. 'Hours Don't Make Work': Kairos, Chronos, and the Spirit of Work in Trinidad.- Chapter 4. Past Times: Temporal Structuring of History and Memory.- Chapter 5. Tensions of the Times: Homochronism versus Narratives of Postcolonialism.-Chapter 6. Thinking Through Homochronic Hegemony Ethnographically.
About the author
Kevin K. Birth is Professor of Anthropology at Queens College of the City University of New York, USA. He is the author of numerous articles and several books about time.
Summary
This book explores how modern concepts of time constrain our understanding of temporal diversity. Time is a necessary and pervasive dimension of scholarship, yet rarely have the cultural assumptions about time been explored. This book looks at how anthropology--a discipline known for the study of cultural, linguistic, historical, and biological variation and differences--is blind to temporalities outside of the logics of European-derived ideas about time. While the argument focuses primarily on anthropology, its points can be applied to other fields in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences.
