Boundless Worlds: An Anthropological Approach to Movement

by Peter Wynn Kirby (Editor)

Where lived experience of surroundings is shifting, visceral, and immersive, interpretation of social spaces tends to be static and remote. "Space" and "place" are also often analyzed without grappling much (if at all) with the social, political, and historical roots of spatial practice. This volume embarks upon the novel strategy of focusing on movement as a way of understanding social spaces, which offers a means to get beyond biases inherent in the social science of space. Ethnographic studies of social life in settings as varied as nomadic Mongolia and island Melanesia, as distinct as contemporary Tokyo and war-torn Palestine, challenge Western assumptions about the universality of "space" and allow concrete understanding of how life plays out over different socio-cultural topographies. In a world that is becoming increasingly "bounded" in many ways - despite enormous changes wrought by technological, ideological, and other social developments - Boundless Worlds urges a scholarly turn, away from the purely global, toward the human dimension of social lives lived in conditions of conflict, upheaval, remapping, and improvisation through movement.

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Lucian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book truly changed my life, really an exquisite piece of literature which every human should indulge in. Before reading this book, I was unintelligent but single-handedly this book has made me gain an iq of 200. Peter Kirby and especially his son Lucian (A truly incredible boy who is perfect) are impeccable people who have completely revolutionised my life.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ambitiously diverse assortment of essays on space and anthropology.

Would have bennifited from more focus..