Popularizing Anthropology

266 Pages·1996·0.94 MB·English

by  Jeremy MacClancy

Popularizing Anthropology

Anthropology written for a popular audience is the most neglected
branch of the discipline. In the 1980s postmodernist anthropologists
began to explore the literary and reflective aspects of their work.
Popularizing Anthropology advances that trend by looking at a key
but previously marginalized genre of anthropology.
The contributors, who are well-known anthropologists, explore
such themes as:

• why so many popular anthropologists are women;
(cid:127) how the Japanese have reacted to Ruth Benedict;
(cid:127) why Margaret Mead became so successful;
(cid:127) how the French media promote Lévi-Strauss and Louis Dumont;
(cid:127) why Bruce Chatwin tells us more about Aboriginals than many
anthropologists of Australia;
(cid:127) how personal accounts of fieldwork have evolved since the 1950s;
(cid:127) how to write a personal account of fieldwork.

Popularizing Anthropology unearths a submerged tradition within
anthropology and reveals that, from its beginning, anthropologists
have looked beyond the boundaries of the academy for their listeners.
It aims to establish the popularization of the discipline as an illuminating
topic of investigation in its own right, arguing that it is not an irrelevant
appendage to the main body of the subject but has always been an
integral part of it.
Jeremy MacClancy and Chris McDonaugh are Senior Lecturers at
Oxford Brookes University.

Popularizing Anthropology
Edited by Jeremy MacClancy and
Chris McDonaugh

London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

1996 Jeremy MacClancy and Chris McDonaugh, selection and
editorial matter; individual chapters, the contributors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Popularizing anthropology/edited by Jeremy MacClancy and
Chris McDonaugh.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Anthropology—Popular works. I. MacClancy, Jeremy.
II. McDonaugh, Chris, 1953–.
GN31.2.P66 1997
301–dc20
96–7567
CIP

ISBN 0-203-43675-X Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-74499-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-13612-1(hbk)
ISBN 0-415-13613-X(pbk)
Towards the memory of Godfrey Lienhardt, 1921–1993

Contents

Notes on contributors ix
Preface xi
1 Popularizing anthropology
Jeremy MacClancy 1
2 Tricky tropes: styles of the popular and the pompous
Alan Campbell 58
3 Typecasting: anthropology’s dramatis personae
Wendy James 83
4 The chrysanthemum continues to flower: Ruth
Benedict and some perils of popular anthropology
Joy Hendry 106
5 Communicating culture: Margaret Mead and the
practice of popular anthropology
William E.Mitchell 122
6 Enlarging the context of anthropology: the case of
Anthropology Today
Jonathan Benthall 135
7 Claude Lévi-Strauss and Louis Dumont:
media portraits
Dominique Casajus 142
8 Proximity and distance: representations of
Aboriginal society in the writings of Bill Harney
and Bruce Chatwin
Howard Morphy 157
vii
viii Contents
9 Women readers: other utopias and own bodily
knowledge
Judith Okely 180
10 A bricoleur’s workshop: writing Les lances du crépuscule
Philippe Descola 208
11 Fieldwork styles: Bohannan, Barley, and Gardner
Jeremy MacClancy 225
Index 245
Notes on contributors
Jonathan Benthall is Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Alan Campbell is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University
of Edinburgh.
Dominique Casajus is an attaché de recherches, CNRS, Paris.
Philippe Descola is Directeur d’Etudes, Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
Joy Hendry is Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford Brookes
University.
Wendy James is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the Institute of
Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University.
Jeremy MacClancy is a senior lecturer in Social Anthropology at
Oxford Brookes University.
Christian McDonaugh is a senior lecturer in Social Anthropology
at Oxford Brookes University.
William E.Mitchell is Professor of Social Anthropology at the
University of Vermont.
Howard Morphy is Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
University.
Judith Okely is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University
of Hull.
ix