Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society

by Michael Herzfeld

Not a textbook in the ordinary sense, this work offers a vision of how anthropology - a discipline that operates through intimate knowledge of local societies - can offer vastly increased understanding of society and culture even in this age of mass communication. In its examination of topics ranging as far afield as the mass media, environmental and development issues, kinship and suffering in transnational settings, the politics of both the nation-state and the local community, the arts, cosmologies of science as well as religion, and the relationship between social life and history, this book is not just about an academic discipline; it is about the theoretical as well as ethical commitments that have enabled anthropologists to play a leading role in the critique of racism and other forms of intolerance.

Genres: Anthropology

388 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Michael Herzfeld was educated at the Universities of Cambridge (B.A. in Archaeology and Anthropology, 1969), Athens (non-degree program in Greek Folklore, 1969-70), Birmingham (M.A., Modern Greek Studies, 1972; D.Litt., 1989); and Oxford (Social Anthropology, D.Phil., 1976). Before moving to Harvard, he taught at Vassar College (1978-80) and Indiana University (1980-91) (where he served as Associate Chair of the Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies, 1980-85, and as Chair of the Department of Anthropology, 1987-90). Lord Simon Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester in 1994, he has also taught at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (1995), Paris, at the Università di Padova (1992), the Università di Roma “La Sapienza” (1999-2000), and the University of Melbourne (intermittently since 2004), and has held a visiting research appointments at the Australian National University and the University of Sydney (1985), at the University of Adelaide, and at the Université de Paris-X (Nanterre) (1991).

Major lectures include the inaugural Distinguished Lecture in European Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1996), the Munro Lecture at the University of Edinburgh (1997), the Journal of Anthropological Research Distinguished Lecture at the University of New Mexico (2001), the Einaudi Lecture at Cornell University (2004), the keynote address to the Association of Social Anthropologists of the British Commonwealth (2008), three lectures hosted by the Korea Research Foundation (2009), the Kimon Friar Lecture (Deree College, Athens, 2009), and the Eilert Sundt Lecture (University of Oslo, 2009).

His D.Litt. was awarded for a series of publications, including books and articles, that have set out his understanding of the processes at work in cultural identity construction in modern Greece.

A past president of both the Modern Greek Studies Association and the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, he was editor of American Ethnologist during 1994-98 and is now Editor at Large with specific responsibility for the feature "Polyglot Perspectives" in Anthropological Quarterly; he serves on numerous other editorial boards and is currently co-editor of “New Anthropologies of Europe” (Indiana University Press).

Reviews

[Francisco Reis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esse livro é o tipo de apanhado que apresenta um "estado da arte" do campo antropológico em torno de 13 eixos temáticos que perpassam as diversas linhas de investigação da antropologia (epistemologias, economias, políticas...todos plurais). Sua origem são dois números coletivos da ISSJ da UNESCO que Herzfeld tentou emular desde sua perspectiva pragmática da antropologia como um "meio-termo militante" entre os excessos dogmáticos do pós-modernismo e do positivismo. Muito se critica no tratamento tangencial, perfunctório e sinóptico de datado em que esse tipo de livro recai, mas me parece que o livro de Herzfeld pode muito bem ser lido pela sua visão erudita e operativa do campo.

[Ghola · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get the feeling Herzfeld REALLY loves himself and thinks that he is highly intelligent. He might be smart, but taking 30 pages to say something that could've been said in three is just masturbatory. The book has some fine points, but overall I would recommend the Kuper book first.

p.s. Dear Mike, don't use big words if you don't know what they mean or what context to use them in.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have read many times and continue to do so.