1st Edition

Anthropological Controversies The “Crimes” and Misdemeanors that Shaped a Discipline

By Gavin Weston, Natalie Djohari Copyright 2020
    220 Pages
    by Routledge

    220 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book uses controversies as a gateway through which to explore the origins, ethics, key moments, and people in the history of anthropology. It draws on a variety of cases including complicity in "human zoos", Malinowski’s diaries, and the Human Terrain System to explore how anthropological controversies act as a driving force for change, how they offer a window into the history of and research practice in the discipline, and how they might frame wider debates such as those around reflexivity, cultural relativism, and the politics of representation. The volume provokes discussion about research ethics and practice with tangible examples where gray areas are brought into sharp relief. The controversies examined in the book all involve moral or practical ambiguities that offer an opportunity for students to engage with the debate and the dilemmas faced by anthropologists, both in relation to the specific incidents covered and to the problems posed more generally due to the intimate and political implications of ethnographic research.

    1. Introduction

    2. Human zoos and social Darwinism

    3. Malinowski and his diaries

    4. Whose side are you on? Colonial & military complicity

    5. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

    6. Mead versus Freeman

    7. Napoleon Chagnon & the ‘fierce’ controversy

    8. Carlos Castaneda & Fakery

    9. Rebekah Nathan & Covert ethnography

    10. Alice Goffman

    11. Conclusion

    Biography

    Gavin Weston is a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

    Natalie Djohari is a Research Associate in the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia, UK.