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Transcendent Individual argues for a reappraisal of the place of the individual in anthropolgical theory and ethnographic writing. A wealth of voices illustrate and inform the text, showing ways in which individuals creatively 'write', narrate and animate cultural and social life. This is an anthropology imbued with a liberal morality which is willing to make value judgements over and against culture in favour of individuality.
Rapport draws widely on ethnographic and theoretic materials bringing into the debate a range of voices, among them Nietzsche, Wilde, George Steiner, Richard Rorty, John Berger and Anthony Cohen. In doing so he approaches individuality in terms of a range of issues: biological integrity, consciousness, agency, democracy, discourse, globalism, knowledge and play.
List of contents
Manifesto, I. Writing Individual Knowledge and Personal Relations, II. 'Going Meta', III. Individual Narratives, IV. Movement and Identity, V. 'Surely Everything Has Already Been Said About Malinowski's Diary', VI. Writing Fieldnotes, VII. Domino Worlds, VIII. Hard-Sell or Numbling 'Right' Rudely, IX. Discourse and Creativity, X. Individual Morality
About the author
Nigel Rapport
Summary
Rapport argues that anthropology should demonstrate a commitment to a liberal agenda through a reappraisal of the place of the individual in anthropological theorizing and ethnographic writing. This work also argues for a social-scientific appreciation of the individual as methodological, moral, pragmatic and aesthetic subject.
