Anthropology and Social Theory

Ortner Sherry B. Ortner

Description

In Anthropology and Social Theory the award-winning anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner draws on her longstanding interest in theories of cultural practice to rethink key concepts of culture, agency, and subjectivity for the social sciences of the twenty-first century. The seven theoretical and interpretive essays in this volume each advocate reconfiguring, rather than abandoning, the concept of culture. Similarly, they all suggest that a theory which depends on the interested action of social beings-specifically practice theory, associated especially with the work of Pierre Bourdieu-requires a more developed notion of human agency and a richer conception of human subjectivity. Ortner shows how social theory must both build upon and move beyond classic practice theory in order to understand the contemporary world.Some of the essays reflect explicitly on theoretical concerns: the relationship between agency and power, the problematic quality of ethnographic studies of resistance, and the possibility of producing an anthropology of subjectivity. Others are ethnographic studies that apply Ortner's theoretical framework. In these, she investigates aspects of social class, looking at the relationship between race and middle-class identity in the United States, the often invisible nature of class as a cultural identity and as an analytical category in social inquiry, and the role that public culture and media play in the creation of the class anxieties of Generation X. Written with Ortner's characteristic lucidity, these essays constitute a major statement about the future of social theory from one of the leading anthropologists of our time.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Anthropology

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 30 novembre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822388456
• Langue: English

Extrait

Anthropology and Social Theory

A JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN CENTER BOOK

Anthropology and Social Theory CULTURE, POWER, AND THE ACTING SUBJECT

Sherry B. Ortner

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

DURHAM AND LONDON 2006

∫2006 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Designed by Heather Hensley Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. Several of these pieces have been previously published. The original publication infor- mation is as follows:

‘‘Reading America: Preliminary Notes on Class and Culture.’’ Reprinted by permission fromRecapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present, edited by Richard G. Fox. Copyright∫1991 by the School of American Research, Santa Fe.

‘‘Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal,’’Comparative Studies in Society and History37:1 (1995): 173–93.∫1995 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press. ‘‘Identities: The Hidden Life of Class,’’Journal of Anthropological Research54:1 (1998): 1–17. Reprinted with permission. ‘‘Generation X: Anthropology in a Media-Saturated World,’’Cultural Anthropology 13:3 (1998): 414–40. Copyright∫American Anthropological Association. Re- 1998 printed with permission. ‘‘Subjectivity and Cultural Critique,’’Anthropological Theory 5:1 (2005).∫ 2005 Sage Publications. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd.

FOR TIM AND GWEN With love as always

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

NOTES

REFERENCES CITED

INDEX

Updating Practice Theory 1

Reading America: Preliminary Notes on Class and Culture 19

Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal 42

Identities: The Hidden Life of Class 63

Generation X: Anthropology in a Media-Saturated World 80

Subjectivity and Cultural Critique 107

Power and Projects: Reflections on Agency 129

155

167

181

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The papers in this collection have specific histories, and each carries its own section of acknowledgments. In addition I wish to thank Ken Wissoker of Duke University Press for unfailing interest in my work, and for friendship that goes beyond that. I also wish to thank the readers of the manu- script, one of whom—Akhil Gupta—revealed his identity to me, and one of whom remains anonymous. Both provided extremely useful comments.