Engaging Evil - A Moral Anthropology

Anthropologists have expressed wariness about the concept of evil even in discussions of morality and ethics, in part because the concept carries its own cultural baggage and theological implications in Euro-American societies. Addressing the problem of evil as a distinctly human phenomenon and a category of ethnographic analysis, this volume shows the usefulness of engaging evil as a descriptor of empirical reality where concepts such as violence, criminality, and hatred fall short of capturing the darkest side of human existence.

List of contents

Introduction

William C. Olsen and Thomas Csordas

PART I: EVIL AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Chapter 1. From Theodicy to Homodicy: Evil as an Anthropological Problem

Thomas Csordas

Chapter 2. On the Concept of "Evil" in Anthropological Analyses and Political Violence

Byron Good

PART II: EVIL AND SUFFERING

Chapter 3. Speak No Evil: Inversion and Evasion in Indonesia

Andrew Beatty

Chapter 4. Mother Evil in Hell Valley: A Creole Transvalorisation of Evil in Trinidad

Roland Littlewood

Chapter 5. Satan on the Old Kent Road: Articulations of Evil in a Pentecostal Diaspora

Simon Coleman

Chapter 6. The Transformation of Evil in Nepal

David Gellner

Chapter 7. Radical Evil and the Notion of Conscience: A Buddhist Meditation on Christian Soteriology

Gananath Obeyesekere

Chapter 8. Are Spirits Satanic? The Ambiguity of Evil in Niger

Adeline Masqulier

PART III: EVIL AND VIOLENCE

Chapter 9. Engaging Evil and Excess in Palestine / Israel

Julie Peteet

Chapter 10. The Violence of Evil: A Biocultural Approach to Violence, Memory, and Pain

Ventura Perez

Chapter 11. The Intention of Evil: Asram in Asante

William C. Olsen

Chapter 12. Monsters, Sadists, and the Unspectacular Torture Experience

Nerina Weiss

Afterword

David Parkin

 

About the author

William C. Olsen is a lecturer for anthropology and African studies at Georgetown University.

Thomas J. Csordas is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and James Y. Chan Presidential Chair in Global Health at the University of California, San Diego.

Product details

• Authors: William C. Csordas Olsen
• Assisted by: Thomas Csordas (Editor), Thomas J Csordas (Editor), Thomas J. Csordas (Editor), Csordas Thomas J. (Editor), William C Olsen (Editor), William C. Olsen (Editor), Olsen William C. (Editor)
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.05.2019
• EAN: 9781789202137
• ISBN: 978-1-78920-213-7
• No. of pages: 360
• Series: Methodology & History in Anthr; Methodology & History in Anthr; Methodology & History in Anthropology
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, PHILOSOPHY / Good & Evil, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Ethics & moral philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Social and cultural anthropology, Violence in society, Social and ethical issues