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A Possible Anthropology: Methods for Uneasy Times
In a time of intense uncertainty, social strife, and ecological upheaval, what does it take to envision the world as it yet may be? The field of anthropology, Anand Pandian argues, has resources essential for this critical and imaginative task. Anthropology is no stranger to injustice and exploitation. Still, its methods can reveal unseen dimensions of the world at hand and radical experience as the seed of a humanity yet to come. A Possible Anthropology is an ethnography of anthropologists at canonical figures like Bronislaw Malinowski and Claude Lévi-Strauss, ethnographic storytellers like Zora Neale Hurston and Ursula K. Le Guin, contemporary scholars like Jane Guyer and Michael Jackson, and artists and indigenous activists inspired by the field. In their company, Pandian explores the moral and political horizons of anthropological inquiry, the creative and transformative potential of an experimental practice.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 30, 2020
A few hurried notes, based on listening to a recent reading by Pandian of this timely book.
This book, he says, tries to grapple with the paradox that anthropologists see the discipline as both essential in today’s time of crises, but at the same time steeped -- some may say irreversibly -- in the same logics of oppression that plague the larger world to start with. The book is short, about 120 pages in length, and has three chapters. Pandian says he’s tried to make it as accessible, readable and actionable as possible, so that it hopefully reaches people beyond the academy.
A summary of the three chapters:
Chapter 1: The World at Hand (what I labelled “Reality” during the reading): This chapter invites us to see empirical reality through the lens of magic, myth and metaphor. It draws an unlikely parallel between the work of Zora Neale Hurston on the hand, and Bronislaw Mallinowski on the other, showing how both struggled -- privately and publicly -- with reconciling their own dogmatic notions of reality with what they experienced in the field.
Chapter 2: A Method of Experience (“Method”): This chapter tries to position anthropology and the anthropological method as fundamentally improvisational and concerned with the unknown. Pandian takes us to Toronto's High Park, where anthropologist Natasha Myers has been conducting ethnographic fieldwork amongst oaks, goldenrods and Queen Anne's Laces. Pandian wants to show us how Myers' seemingly peculiar, multisensory methods embody exactly the sort of methodology that's needed to truly grasp the world that surrounds us.
Chapter 3: For the Humanity Yet to Come (“Practice”): This chapter tries to illustrate how anthropology can be of help to the present moment by influencing political critique, art, communication and so on. It takes us to a beach in Point Reyes National Park north of San Francisco (that I was lucky enough to visit recently), where artists Richard & Judith Lang have been excavating for plastic for years, to construct 'archaeological' exhibits from the year 2885 AD.
Coda: The coda speculates whether it’s possible to conduct critique as something that’s affirmative, as opposed to denunciatory. Reminds me of the improv 101 lesson that “Yes, and” is always better than “No, but”. It uses Pandian’s favourite quote of Michel Foucault to bring the point home.
I personally liked that I listened to this reading when I did, because I just happened to be reading about Critical Realism, and writing a fun note about how this philosophy of science can be of use to anthropologists. It seems that Pandian’s book is trying to engage with the very same questions that I felt Critical Realism could help anthropologists think through.
For example, the painful reality of terrible working conditions amongst young anthropologists echoes the Critical Realist insight that the production of scientific knowledge is, and always will be, a social process. In this sense, anthropology will never be immune to the evils present in the society that it’s part of.
Secondly, Pandian’s concern with empirical reality -- and the methods we can use to understand it -- mirrors the Critical Realist critique of the very notion of empirical realism, or more precisely, its depiction of reality and the methods required to produce knowledge about reality. Furthermore -- and this is something I’m saying based mostly on watching YouTube videos about Critical Realism, not a proper book about it -- Critical Realism’s forays into social ontology expressly account for similar domains of ‘co-presence' and 'nonduality', and I think this resonates with Pandian’s talk of ghosts, myths and multisensory encounters.
Thirdly, Pandian’s anthropological call to action resonates with Critical Realism’s commitment to seriousness, to be, in the words of its founder Roy Bhaskar, ‘a philosophy that you can act on’. In a similar vein, Pandian wants us to see anthropology as full of the potential to make yourself and others conscious of social possibilities, to see things from others’ points of view.
As enjoyable as this reading, though, I personally have a big bone to pick with it. As someone who studied anthropology in the so-called British school, I continue to be surprised and somewhat crestfallen at how long a shadow German idealism has cast on American cultural anthropology, as we see, for example, in Pandian’s call to revisit the axiology of the German Romantic philosopher Johan Gottfried von Herder in framing a new anthropology.
My thoughts here are obviously provisional, and are based on listening to a 1-hour reading -- which is by no means a substitute for actually reading the book, so you have been warned -- but even at his most ‘radical’, Pandian seems content to confine anthropology’s radical potential to be little more than sparking ‘aha!’ moments, as it does through the art exhibits of Richard & Judith Lang. It’s radical potential is through facilitating moments of empathy, communication, epiphany.
All this is of course extremely worthy, but I’m always pained (perhaps unreasonably so) by how it seems to sideline the domains of action, save for action as methodology. If we see anthropology as a study of culture, without considering its immense benefits in also appraising questions of social structure, we can fall into the old trap of believing that it’s possible to simply think our way out of crises, as they just exist in our minds -- it isn't, and they don't.
Yes, sparking moments of empathy and reflection is something that anthropology is exceptionally good at by design, but Pandian's idealist approach seems to forget that it’s just as good at helping us trace the contours of social structure, of understanding the processes by which life-threatening crises emerge, and what stops them from being dispelled. It's just as good at helping us define, with great accuracy, the very tangible object that we seek to change for the better: society. Indeed, I personally think that anthropology is much better at this than most ‘revolutionary theories’ such as, say, the countless stands of Marxism.
Again, this is where the ontology presented by Critical Realism can be of use. A big reason why cultural anthropology ignores questions of society & structure is because it sees any attempt to meaningfully study them as futile and prone to falling into on or another form of positivism. But scholars such as Terence Turner, Fred Myers, David Graeber, Steven Sangren have offered ways to avoid such traps for a few decades now. It's worth revisiting their works, lest we forget they exist and end up reinventing the wheel or, worse, falling short of doing so.
I say all this with utmost respect to the book, and in the spirit of Pandian’s affirmative mode of critique. I felt so alive and excited as I listened to Pandian reading passage after passage from the book. It inspired me to get up, jump around, smile, see connections between all the different things I’ve been reading lately, and start writing. The 1-hour reading went by as if it was a fleeting moment, and much was conveyed in that moment.
I’ll be sure to sit down and fully read the book, continue placing it in dialogue with my ongoing study of Critical Realism, and update this haphazard note with a much more organized, well-thought-out review.
This book, he says, tries to grapple with the paradox that anthropologists see the discipline as both essential in today’s time of crises, but at the same time steeped -- some may say irreversibly -- in the same logics of oppression that plague the larger world to start with. The book is short, about 120 pages in length, and has three chapters. Pandian says he’s tried to make it as accessible, readable and actionable as possible, so that it hopefully reaches people beyond the academy.
A summary of the three chapters:
Chapter 1: The World at Hand (what I labelled “Reality” during the reading): This chapter invites us to see empirical reality through the lens of magic, myth and metaphor. It draws an unlikely parallel between the work of Zora Neale Hurston on the hand, and Bronislaw Mallinowski on the other, showing how both struggled -- privately and publicly -- with reconciling their own dogmatic notions of reality with what they experienced in the field.
Chapter 2: A Method of Experience (“Method”): This chapter tries to position anthropology and the anthropological method as fundamentally improvisational and concerned with the unknown. Pandian takes us to Toronto's High Park, where anthropologist Natasha Myers has been conducting ethnographic fieldwork amongst oaks, goldenrods and Queen Anne's Laces. Pandian wants to show us how Myers' seemingly peculiar, multisensory methods embody exactly the sort of methodology that's needed to truly grasp the world that surrounds us.
Chapter 3: For the Humanity Yet to Come (“Practice”): This chapter tries to illustrate how anthropology can be of help to the present moment by influencing political critique, art, communication and so on. It takes us to a beach in Point Reyes National Park north of San Francisco (that I was lucky enough to visit recently), where artists Richard & Judith Lang have been excavating for plastic for years, to construct 'archaeological' exhibits from the year 2885 AD.
Coda: The coda speculates whether it’s possible to conduct critique as something that’s affirmative, as opposed to denunciatory. Reminds me of the improv 101 lesson that “Yes, and” is always better than “No, but”. It uses Pandian’s favourite quote of Michel Foucault to bring the point home.
I personally liked that I listened to this reading when I did, because I just happened to be reading about Critical Realism, and writing a fun note about how this philosophy of science can be of use to anthropologists. It seems that Pandian’s book is trying to engage with the very same questions that I felt Critical Realism could help anthropologists think through.
For example, the painful reality of terrible working conditions amongst young anthropologists echoes the Critical Realist insight that the production of scientific knowledge is, and always will be, a social process. In this sense, anthropology will never be immune to the evils present in the society that it’s part of.
Secondly, Pandian’s concern with empirical reality -- and the methods we can use to understand it -- mirrors the Critical Realist critique of the very notion of empirical realism, or more precisely, its depiction of reality and the methods required to produce knowledge about reality. Furthermore -- and this is something I’m saying based mostly on watching YouTube videos about Critical Realism, not a proper book about it -- Critical Realism’s forays into social ontology expressly account for similar domains of ‘co-presence' and 'nonduality', and I think this resonates with Pandian’s talk of ghosts, myths and multisensory encounters.
Thirdly, Pandian’s anthropological call to action resonates with Critical Realism’s commitment to seriousness, to be, in the words of its founder Roy Bhaskar, ‘a philosophy that you can act on’. In a similar vein, Pandian wants us to see anthropology as full of the potential to make yourself and others conscious of social possibilities, to see things from others’ points of view.
As enjoyable as this reading, though, I personally have a big bone to pick with it. As someone who studied anthropology in the so-called British school, I continue to be surprised and somewhat crestfallen at how long a shadow German idealism has cast on American cultural anthropology, as we see, for example, in Pandian’s call to revisit the axiology of the German Romantic philosopher Johan Gottfried von Herder in framing a new anthropology.
My thoughts here are obviously provisional, and are based on listening to a 1-hour reading -- which is by no means a substitute for actually reading the book, so you have been warned -- but even at his most ‘radical’, Pandian seems content to confine anthropology’s radical potential to be little more than sparking ‘aha!’ moments, as it does through the art exhibits of Richard & Judith Lang. It’s radical potential is through facilitating moments of empathy, communication, epiphany.
All this is of course extremely worthy, but I’m always pained (perhaps unreasonably so) by how it seems to sideline the domains of action, save for action as methodology. If we see anthropology as a study of culture, without considering its immense benefits in also appraising questions of social structure, we can fall into the old trap of believing that it’s possible to simply think our way out of crises, as they just exist in our minds -- it isn't, and they don't.
Yes, sparking moments of empathy and reflection is something that anthropology is exceptionally good at by design, but Pandian's idealist approach seems to forget that it’s just as good at helping us trace the contours of social structure, of understanding the processes by which life-threatening crises emerge, and what stops them from being dispelled. It's just as good at helping us define, with great accuracy, the very tangible object that we seek to change for the better: society. Indeed, I personally think that anthropology is much better at this than most ‘revolutionary theories’ such as, say, the countless stands of Marxism.
Again, this is where the ontology presented by Critical Realism can be of use. A big reason why cultural anthropology ignores questions of society & structure is because it sees any attempt to meaningfully study them as futile and prone to falling into on or another form of positivism. But scholars such as Terence Turner, Fred Myers, David Graeber, Steven Sangren have offered ways to avoid such traps for a few decades now. It's worth revisiting their works, lest we forget they exist and end up reinventing the wheel or, worse, falling short of doing so.
I say all this with utmost respect to the book, and in the spirit of Pandian’s affirmative mode of critique. I felt so alive and excited as I listened to Pandian reading passage after passage from the book. It inspired me to get up, jump around, smile, see connections between all the different things I’ve been reading lately, and start writing. The 1-hour reading went by as if it was a fleeting moment, and much was conveyed in that moment.
I’ll be sure to sit down and fully read the book, continue placing it in dialogue with my ongoing study of Critical Realism, and update this haphazard note with a much more organized, well-thought-out review.
August 9, 2020
Pandian offers many provocations for what anthropology could and maybe ought to be going forward; more inclusive, less hierarchical, still emphatically empirical, but also speculative, imaginative, opened up and built out. Unexamined, this may sound radical, but Pandian traces each possibility as a logical extension of the discipline's own practices, values, and histories. These could be put to other uses, he suggests, before showing us the kernels of possibilities perhaps undreamed in work that is already being done.
February 10, 2021
A really good read for anyone coming of age in anthropology or just trying to re-think the discipline. A beautiful spread of really topical and timely encounters with authors in the field--this is the kind of book that points you towards other books that you will want to read ASAP.
January 17, 2023
Fascinating read...questioning what anthropology is, an open-ended inquiry, following the range of anthropologists from Jane Guyer, Michael Jackson, Natasha Myers, Claude Levi-Strauss, to Broinslaw Malinoswki and Zora Neale Hurston.
June 13, 2020
Hopeful exploration of what anthropology could be.
September 6, 2021
Bit confusing. Didn't understand their point
May 2, 2023
A 3.5–this is four essays, some of which I really liked and some I didn’t.
January 20, 2025
Preaching to the choir, but like, I'm the choir, so preach away
Read
December 11, 2019I need to reread this a little later because it's a lot but reading this was a positive experience.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews