Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences

In an ideal world, politicians should be required to take a course in the history of the field of anthropology. Here’s one entry for the reading list. There are other points of view, of course, but let’s at least keep the conversation going.

Just as stated. Thank you

This classic work by Marcus and Fischer is still important to an understanding of changing global and local conditions in postmodernity and how we, as ethnographers, might proceed. This text was very helpful in the researching and writing of my ethnography (now a book: Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000). I needed help in conceptualizing hybrid cultural forms and found it in Marcus's and Fisher's text. I also found the text useful for helping me think through the popular cultural critique that needed to be articulated from the everyday discourses of my participants. If you are interested in critical ethnography, this is a must read. Anthropologists, Sociologists, and folks in Cultural Studies and Communications will want to have this text in their reference libraries.