In this ambitious study, Kirsten Hastrup offers an analysis of Icelandic Society from 1400 to 1800--a period of remarkable social disintegration and technological decline. Juxtaposing the economic, social, and political orders with concepts of humanity, fate, and nature, her study shows how the dissolution of the ancient order must be attributed to internal factors of culture and mentality, as well as to the external ones of natural catastrophe and commercial exploitation. The book ends with an invaluable analysis of the nature of causation in history.

After a decade of historical anthropology, the discipline seems to be thoroughly historicized. This implies not only that the historical dimension of other cultures has become an integrated part of any anthropological inquiry, but also that the different ways of producing history have become important considerations. Using historical and ethnographic material, mainly from Europe, Other Histories examines the nature of history and its importance to anthropological study. The apparently Eurocentric perspective of this book actually serves the purpose of dismantling the unity and progress of...

After a decade of historical anthropology, the discipline seems to be thoroughly historicized. This implies not only that the historical dimension of other cultures has become an integrated part of any anthropological inquiry, but also that the different ways of producing history have become important considerations. Using historical and ethnographic material, mainly from Europe, Other Histories examines the nature of history and its importance to anthropological study. The apparently Eurocentric perspective of this book actually serves the purpose of dismantling the unity and progress of...

Anthropology poses an explicit challenge to standard notions of scientific knowledge. It claims to produce genuine insights into the workings of culture in general on the basis of individual social experience in the field. Social Experience and Anthropological Knowledge traces the process from the ethnographic experience to the analytical results, showing how fieldwork enables the ethnographer to arrive at an understanding, not only of culture and society, but also of the processes by which cultures and societies are transformed. The contributors challenge the distinction between subjectivity...

The postmodernist critique of Objectivism, Realism and Essentialism has somewhat shattered the foundations of anthropology, seriously questioning the legitimacy of studying others. By confronting the critique and turning it into a vital part of the anthropological debate, A Passage to Anthropology provides a rigorous discussion of central theoretical problems in anthropology that will find a readership in the social sciences and the humanities. It makes the case for a renewed and invigorated scholarly anthropology with extensive reference to recent anthropological debates in Europe...

The postmodernist critique of Objectivism, Realism and Essentialism has somewhat shattered the foundations of anthropology, seriously questioning the legitimacy of studying others. By confronting the critique and turning it into a vital part of the anthropological debate, A Passage to Anthropology provides a rigorous discussion of central theoretical problems in anthropology that will find a readership in the social sciences and the humanities. It makes the case for a renewed and invigorated scholarly anthropology with extensive reference to recent anthropological debates in Europe...

Culture has been subject to critical debate in anthropology during the past decade and this is related to a shift in emphasis from the bounded local culture to transnational cultural flows. At the same time that cultural mobility is being emphasized, the people studied by anthropologists are recasting culture as a place of belonging as they construct local identities within global fields of relations.
So far, much of the analysis of the role of place in culture has been carried out at a level of theoretical debate. Siting Culture argues that it is only through rich ethnographic...

Culture has been subject to critical debate in anthropology during the past decade and this is related to a shift in emphasis from the bounded local culture to transnational cultural flows. At the same time that cultural mobility is being emphasized, the people studied by anthropologists are recasting culture as a place of belonging as they construct local identities within global fields of relations.
So far, much of the analysis of the role of place in culture has been carried out at a level of theoretical debate. Siting Culture argues that it is only through rich ethnographic...

The universality of human rights has been extensively discussed since their inception, and most often in terms of contrasting viewpoints of universalism versus relativism. The present volume seeks to get beyond the polarization and to ask instead in which sense human rights are universal. The point of departure is that human rights must be universal in some sense, or they are nothing. It is meaningless to talk of human rights if they are not applicable to all humans, unconditionally. From each of their vantage points the authors explore the notion of universality in a joint effort to...

Discrimination on the basis of race, gender or other ascribed group affiliations or individual identities is an all too well-known phenomenon. International instruments are invoked and refined to alter this situation, but often to little avail. In the present volume, authors from across the globe explore the nature and forms of discrimination and seek to establish a new conceptual ground for addressing the issue.
Toleration is often advocated as a remedy for discriminatory practices. In contrast to tolerance, which is seen as an attitude, toleration implies an active engaging of...