Current Anthropology. A Supplement to Anthropology Today.William L. Thomas, Jr.

1956 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-341
Author(s):  
Wilson D. Wallis
Keyword(s):  
Current Anthropology

scholarly journals “Ritual” in Recent Criticism: The Elusive Sense of Community

PMLA ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 846-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard F. Hardin
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Medieval Drama ◽  
Ritual Theory ◽  
Victor Turner ◽  
Current Anthropology ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Emotional Effects

Since the 1960s scholars have challenged earlier assumptions concerning ritual and literature. They have seriously discredited both the “ritual theory of myth” and traditional ideas on the relation of ritual to Greek and medieval drama. Although some critics still subscribe to theories of psychoanalysis and the “Cambridge anthropological school,” current anthropology offers superior theories of ritual, particularly those of Victor Turner, with their emphasis on community. Because literature and rites have similar emotional effects we have tended to equate them, but by so doing we confuse the liminal with the “liminoid.” Modern authors influenced by Frazer often invite this comparison. Rene Girard's theories of scapegoat and civilization have provided a new, if controversial, turn to ritual criticism. Rites share their symbolic nature with art, but their peculiar satisfaction lies in the experience of community.

Whether Mahatma Gandhi Was Misinterpreted Through the Dilemma of Irrelevant and Relevant Philosophies?

2021 ◽  
pp. 0972558X2110571
Author(s):  
Mithun Sikdar
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Sexual Life ◽  
Health Food ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Mahatma Gandhi ◽  
Current Anthropology ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Life History Study

In one of the articles published in Current Anthropology way back in 1973, David G. Mandelbaum talked about two approaches to understand the life of an individual. For him, to observe the lifestyle of a person or gain the knowledge about a lifestyle of a person, social scientists always succumb to two main approaches: life passage studies and life history studies. Life passage studies understand the contribution of society about the socialization and enculturation of their young ones, whereas life history studies emphasize the personified experiences and requirements of the individuals and how the individual copes up with the society. Here I have adopted the means of life history study to see some of the facets of Gandhiji’s life and its influence in the society. I shall do it by looking at some of his philosophies on health, food, sexual life, rather than going into the details of his whole life history. I shall do it without perplexing my own way of understanding “Mahatma” and linking sometimes my own life experiences that had been influenced by the philosophies of Gandhiji. I shall be carrying out an autoethnography by perceiving the virtues of Gandhiji in my own life. Nevertheless, it will rather be a futile exercise to describe his philosophies in a single paper and that too with a minimum experience on his whole life.

Associates in Current Anthropology

1968 ◽  
Vol 9 (5, Part 2) ◽  
pp. 566-583
Keyword(s):  
Current Anthropology

Participation in Current Anthropology

1965 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-280
Author(s):  
Ethel Nurge
Keyword(s):  
Current Anthropology

The culture problem: How the honor/shame issue got the wrong end of the anthropological stick

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-141
Author(s):  
Johannes Merz
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Diversity ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Categorical Classification ◽  
Current Anthropology ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Horizontal Spread ◽  
Honor And Shame

The honor/shame issue is an important topic in mission, as portrayed in Georges’s The 3D Gospel for example. Proponents of the shame–guilt distinction draw on the popular culture concept of the early 20th century by assuming that cultures are objects that we can easily grasp and demarcate from one to another. Culture thus becomes a convenient idea to understand difference by generalizing and simplifying the unfamiliar and submitting it to one’s own way of thinking. Current anthropology, however, rejects such a reifying and essentializing approach. Rather, culture is seen as an expression of how humans think, act, and live in the world, and is thus complex, fuzzy, and dynamic. In dealing with the honor/shame issue, we need to get hold of the other end of the stick by starting with humans and treating honor and shame as cultural traits. Accordingly, honor and shame are encountered to different degrees and in different ways across humanity. A vertical and categorical classification and demarcation of cultures thus needs to make room for a more dynamic and horizontal spread of cultural traits. This allows us to account better for human diversity, while simultaneously maintaining humanity’s commonality as cultural beings. To study honor and shame we need to focus on how relationships work in various real-life situations. Such an ethnographic approach builds on observation, participation, and sharing in other people’s lives. It also asks what words and notions people use to express the values that shape their relationships.

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