The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art

James Clifford

Published by Harvard University Press 1988

The Predicament of Culture

Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art

James Clifford

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674503724

Overview
Contents

About this book

Clifford offers a critical ethnography of the West in its changing relations with other societies. Analyzing cultural practices such as anthropology, travel writing, collecting, and museum displays of tribal art, Clifford shows authoritative accounts of other ways of life to be contingent fictions, now actively contested in postcolonial contexts.

Reviews

The Predicament of Culture is a work of sustained brilliance, packed with simply wonderful gifts for the reader. The several chapters on French anthropology and ethnographic surrealism are fascinating, and somehow as urgent as the ones on collecting or on the relentless intertranslating of cultural demands, or as the theme that we must rethink this entire dimension of human existence. It is also an extremely wise book. Since wisdom and brilliance rarely go together, it is plain that James Clifford is himself one of our cultural treasures.
-- Arthur C. Danto New York Times Book Review

With an intellectual modesty that belies his sweeping global perspective, Clifford focuses on who has the authority to speak for any group’s identity and authenticity. As he traces the development of twentieth-century anthropology, Clifford locates affinities between anthropology and avant-garde art, making this book one of the most readable introductions to contemporary cultural criticism.
-- Mary Warner Marien Utne Reader

Clifford’s reflections are salutory. They are not self-serving, allowing Clifford entry by a backdoor into a community which often threatens the exclusivity of a private club. By breaking with narrow professional definitions of anthropology, Clifford broadens its vision. Anthropology again becomes the exploration of the grounds of humanity in its original, general, and philosophically fundamental sense.
-- Bruce Kapferer Critique of Anthropology

Clifford is original and very nearly unique. He is one of the few persons who connects history, literature, and anthropology. He’s had an enormous impact because he provides a new perspective on the study of culture that would almost certainly never have been generated from within anthropology itself.
-- Clifford Geertz

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
ILLUSTRATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: The Pure Products Go Crazy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One: Discourses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Part Two: Displacements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Part Three: Collections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Part Four: Histories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 395

eBook

Published: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 9780674503724