Anthropology: Home

Henri Lefebvre on: space

Click on the image to see works in our Library collections by and about French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre

"A theory is therefore called for, one which would transcend representational space on the one hand and representations of space on the other, and which would be able properly to articulate contradictions (and in the first place the contradiction between these two aspects of representation). Socio-political contradictions are realized spatially. The contradictions of space thus make the contradictions of social relations operative. In other words, spatial contradictions 'express' conflicts between socio-political interests and forces; it is only in space that such conflicts come effectively into play, and in so doing they become contradictions of space."

Lefebvre, Henri. (1974) 1991. The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell.

Judith Butler on: gender

Click on the image to see works in our Library collections by and about American philosopher and gender scholar Judith Butler

"The effect of gender is produced through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self. This formulation moves the conception of gender off the ground of a substantial model of identity to one that requires a conception of gender as a constituted social temporality.  A political genealogy of gender ontologies, if it is successful, will deconstruct the substantive appearance of gender into its constitutive acts and locate and account for those acts within the compulsory frames set by the various forces that police the social appearance of gender. "

Butler, Judith. 1999. Gender Trouble. London: Routledge.

Talal Asad on: religion

Click on the image to see works in our Library collections by and about Saudi cultural anthropologist Talal Asad

"My anthropological explorations into Christian and post-Christian history are therefore motivated by the conviction that its conceptual geology has profound implications for the ways in which non-Western traditions are now able to grow and change. More particularly, I hold that anthropologists who would study, say, Muslim beliefs and practices will need some understanding of how 'religion' has come to be formed as concept and practice in the modern West. For while religion is integral to modern Western history, there are dangers in employing it as a normalizing concept when translating Islamic traditions."

Talal Asad. 1993. Genealogies of Religion : Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity
     and Islam. Baltimore, Md.U.A.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

Émile Durkheim on: religion

Click on the image to see works in our Library collections by and about French social scientist Émile Durkheim

"At the foundation of all systems of belief and all cults, there ought necessarily to be a certain number of fundamental representations or conceptions and of ritual attitudes which, in spite of the diversity of forms which they have taken, have the same objective significance and fulfill the same functions everywhere. These are the permanent elements which constitute that which is permanent and human in religion; they form all the objective contents of the idea which is expressed when one speaks of religion in general."

Durkheim, Emile. 1912. Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Oxford University Press

Max Weber on: economy

Click on the image to see works in our Library collections by and about German sociologist and political economist Weber

"It is essential to include the criterion of power of control and disposal in the sociological concept of economic action, if for no other reason than that at least a modern market economy essentially consists in a complete network of exchange contracts, that is, in deliberate planned acquisitions of powers of control and disposal. This, in such an economy, Is the principal source of the relation of economic action to the law. But any other type of organization of economic activities would involve some kind of de facto distribution of powers of control and disposal"

Weber, Max. (1922) 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology.
     Berkeley: University of California Press.

Claude Lévi-Strauss on: kinship

Click on the image to see works in our Library collections by and about French anthropologist and ethnologist Lévi-Strauss

"... the recurrence of kinship patterns, marriage rules, similar prescribed attitudes between certain types of relatives, and so forth, in scattered regions of the globe and in fundamentally different societies, leads us to believe that, in the case of kinship as well as linguistics, the observable phenomena result from the action of laws which are general but implicit. [...] Can the anthropologist, using a method analogous in form (if not in content) to the method used in structural linguistics, achieve the same kind of progress in his own science as that which has taken place in linguistics?"

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1968. Structural Anthropology / Vol. 1, Translated from the French by
     Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest Schoepf. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin
     Press.

The road between preserving rich ancient heritage and drawing in needed revenues from global tourism can be tricky, and for many nations today the question is more relevant than ever. Delve deeper into the subject with Neoliberal reform in Macchu Picchu by Luciano Pellegrino (professor of anthropology at AUK), which analyzes how people in Peru mobilized against neoliberal reforms and investments to best protect their local tourism economy.

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