Beyond anthropology to post-anthropology : towards a new theory of centrality and peripherality in the post-human future /
Peter Baofu.
- First edition.
- New Delhi Overseas Press India Pvt. Ltd. 2017
- 2 volumes (xxxiii, 799 pages) ;
- 2 Volumes .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 731-755) and index.
Is anthropology really so heterophilic that, as Ruth Benedict once suggested, “the purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences” (BQ 2017) This positive view on anthropology can be contrasted with the opposing one by Nancy B. Smith, who observed instead that “anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over―except when they are different”? (BQ 2017a) Contrary to these opposing views (and other ones as will be discussed in the book), anthropology (in relation to centrality and peripherality—as well as other dichotomies) is neither possible (or impossible) nor desirable (or undesirable) to the extent that the respective ideologues (on different sides) would like us to believe, such that there is no centrality without peripherality (and vice versa), to be explained by the “symmetry-asymmetry principle” (and other ones) in “existential dialectics” (in Chapter Four). Needless to say, this challenge to the conventional debate does not mean that anthropology is worthless, or that those diverse fields (related to anthropology)—such as sociology, cultural studies, religion, criminology, jurisprudence, medicine, science studies, biology, linguistics, philosophy, economics, political science, cosmology, psychology, social studies, history, literature, ecology, the arts, communication studies, technology studies, and so on—should be rejected. (WK 2017) Of course, neither of these extreme views is reasonable.
English
9789383803736
Anthropology--Philosophy.--Peripherality and Society