Experiments in Holism : Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropologypresents a series of essays from leading anthropologists that critically reexamine the relevance of holism as a foundational tenet of anthropology, and its theoretical and methodological potential in today's world.

Acknowledgments vii List of Contributors ix 1. Anthropology and the Predicaments of Holism 1 Nils Bubandt and Ton Otto Part 1 Rethinking Holism in Ethnographic Practice 17 2. Beyond the Whole in Ethnographic Practice? Introduction to Part 1 19 Ton Otto and Nils Bubandt 3. Holism and the Expectations of Critique in Post-1980s Anthropology: Notes and Queries in Three Acts and an  Epilogue 28 George E. Marcus 4. Worlding the Matsutake Diaspora: Or, Can Actor–Network Theory Experiment With Holism? 47 Anna Tsing 5. The Whole Beyond Holism: Gambling, Divination, and Ethnography in Cuba 67 Martin Holbraad Part 2 Beyond Cultural Wholes? Wholes are Parts, and Parts are Wholes 87 6. Beyond Cultural Wholes? Introduction to Part 2 89 Ton Otto and Nils Bubandt 7. The Whole is a Part: Intercultural Politics of Order and Change 102 Marshall Sahlins 8. Lingual and Cultural Wholes and Fields 127 Alan Rumsey 9. Deep Wholes: Fractal Holography in Trobriand Agency and Culture 150Mark Mosko Part 3 Beyond Structural Wholes? Encompassment, Collectives, and Global Systems 175 10. Beyond Structural Wholes? Introduction to Part 3 177 Nils Bubandt and Ton Otto 11. Louis Dumont and a Holist Anthropology 187 Bruce Kapferer 12. From Wholes to Collectives: Steps to an Ontology of Social Forms 209 Philippe Descola 13. Holism and the Transformation of the Contemporary Global Order 227 Jonathan Friedman Part 4 Beyond Social Wholes? Holistic Practice: Cosmology, History, and the Continuity of Life 249 14. Beyond Social Wholes? Introduction to Part 4 251 Nils Bubandt and Ton Otto 15. Proportional Holism: Joking the Cosmos Into the Right Shape in North Asia 262 Rane Willerslev and Morten Axel Pedersen 16. One Past and Many Pasts: Varieties of Historical Holism in Melanesia and the West 279 Eric Hirsch and Daniele Moretti 17. Drawing Together: Materials, Gestures, Lines 299 Tim Ingold Index 314  

Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropology presents a series of essays that critically examine the ongoing relevance of holism and its theoretical and methodological potential in today’s world. Contributions from a diverse collection of leading anthropologists reveal how recent critiques of the holistic approach have not led to its wholesale rejection, but rather to a panoply of experiments that critically reassess and reemploy holism. The essays focus on aspects of holism including its utilization in current ethnographic research, holistic considerations in cultural anthropology, the French structuralist tradition, the predominantly English tradition of social anthropology, and many others. Collectively, the essays show how holism is simultaneously central to, and problematically a part of, the theory and practice of anthropology. Experiments in Holism reveals how contemporary attempts to rescale and retool anthropology entail new ways of coming to terms with anthropology’s heritage of holism, seeking to obviate its current excesses while recapturing its critical potential to meet the challenges of our contemporary world.

The term "holism" is shorthand for a central predicament in anthropology:  human situations are culturally structured, but individuals, who participate in more than one cultural "whole," can sometimes change the rules.  This volume explores the theoretical space between those two aspects of the human condition.  Richard Handler, University of Virginia   These authors persuasively, even passionately, refocus the analysis of socio-cultural ontology.  In showing how the simplistic rejection of past holisms undermined anthropology's fundamental commitments, they instead devise ingeniously critical new perspectives reflecting today's massively reconfigured and variegated understandings of context. Michael Herzfeld (Harvard University)   In this capacious and brilliantly-edited collection, holism no longer suggests a totalizing project, but rather an indispensable toolkit of world-making strategies.  The innovative essays gathered here map a new, multi-scaled landscape of Anthropological research. James Clifford, University of California, Santa Cruz. Author of The Predicament of Culture.   ‘Holism' does its magic again. This is an extraordinarily interesting commentary on the present state of anthropology that would never have come together without the editors' pursuit of an apparently unfashionable idea. Marilyn Strathern

List of contributors 1. Anthropology and the Predicaments of Holism Part 1: Rethinking Holism in Ethnographic Practice Part 2: Beyond Cultural Wholes? Wholes are Parts, and Parts are Wholes Part 3: Beyond Structural Wholes? Encompassment, Collectives, and Global Systems Part 4: Beyond Social Wholes? Holistic Practice: Cosmology, History, and the Continuity of Life Index