"Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be illuminates and jeopardizes notions long central to anthropology. Fieldwork and ethnography have both come under much more thorough scrutiny than theory. This book explores the complexities, resonances, and possibilities of theory in relation to contemporary and near-future anthropology. It opens up complex and challenging terrain and provides us with the analytical wherewithal for thinking through—and with—questions of what theory can be and how it can shape and be shaped by the field. Lucid, fascinating, exceptionally engaging, and highly sophisticated, this book is a major contribution to key debates within and beyond anthropology."
- Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz, coeditor of <I>Annual Review of Anthropology</I>,
"The essays in Theory Can Be More than It Used to Be are well crafted; they draw on vibrant ethnographic material and a creative rendering of social and cultural theory in relation to the abiding imperatives of anthropology. This book sets out a rich variety of approaches that will constitute points of departure for scholarly discussions, research, and pedagogy going forward. It is by no means an exaggeration to say the fate of the discipline of anthropology rests on the questions posed here. There are three no better and more respected anthropologists than Dominic Boyer, James D. Faubion, and George E. Marcus to speak authoritatively to these profound concerns and challenges."
- Douglas R. Holmes, Binghamton University, author of <I>Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism</I>,
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Dominic Boyer is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences at Rice University. He is the author of The Life Informatic: Newsmaking in the Digital Era; Spirit and System: Media, Intellectuals, and the Dialectic in Modern German Culture; and Understanding Media: A Popular Philosophy. James Faubion is the Radoslav Tsanoff Chair and Professor of Anthropology at Rice University. He is the author of An Anthropology of Ethics, The Shadows and Lights of Waco: Millennialism Today, and Modern Greek Lessons: A Primer in Historical Constructivism. George E. Marcus is Chancellor’s Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is coauthor of Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences and coeditor of Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. He was the founding editor of Cultural Anthropology.