A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics - (Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology) by David Nugent & Joan Vincent (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This Companion offers an unprecedented overview of anthropology's unique contribution to the study of politics.

• Explores the key concepts and issues of our time - from AIDS, globalization, displacement, and militarization, to identity politics and beyond
• Each chapter reflects on concepts and issues that have shaped the anthropology of politics and concludes with thoughts on and challenges for the way ahead
• Anthropology's distinctive genre, ethnography, lies at the heart of this volume

From the Back Cover

A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics offers an unprecedented overview of the field, written by a breathtaking roster of contemporary scholars. This ambitious volume explores the key concepts and issues of our time - from AIDS, globalization, displacement, militarization, and neoliberalism to identity politics and beyond - in the words of the very individuals who have contributed to the development of this important field.

Each author reflects on concepts and issues that have shaped the anthropology of politics and concludes with thoughts on and challenges for the way ahead. The volume as a whole is written in an accessible manner, although each chapter is crafted in its author's own unique style. At the heart of the volume lies anthropology's distinctive genre: ethnography.

Offering a comprehensive understanding of anthropology's unique contribution to the study of politics, A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics will set a new benchmark for the field and will undoubtedly spur students and scholars to new heights in the decades to come.

Review Quotes

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year

"A magnificent collection. The most engaged and imaginative writing that anthropology has to offer, disclosing the inherently political nature of everyday life." Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley

"What is impressive about this collection is the way many authors take received ideas from political science, political philosophy, cultural studies, or world systems theory and, by subjecting them to ethnographic scrutiny, transform them in new and powerful ways. Anthropology makes a difference." Marshall Sahlins, University of Chicago

"The Blackwell Companions to Anthropology, of which this volume is the second to appear, are set fair to blow cobwebs from dormant minds ... this volume is an exemplar of scholarship at its meticulous, dynamic, and demanding best ... we have here an erudite analysis of problems of direct relevance to the lives of every individual person on our planet, and an inspired exploration of "things to come". This is scholarly, sophisticated, unsparing, courageous political thinking, far removed from the shams, slogans, shibboleths, stupidities, and silliness of much of the political comment and conditioning purveyed by our mass media - even by our elected "representatives" ... This is an admirable work that will fertilise the rugged field of the anthropology of politics for decades to come. All academic libraries need it. It would also be a salutary Christmas present choice for our pet political representative, an earnest hope of a positive revolution in political theory and practice." Reference Reviews

About the Author

David Nugent is Professor of Anthropology, Emory University. He is President-Elect, American Ethnological Society and North American Editor of the journal Critique of Anthropology. He is the author of Modernity at the Edge of Empire: State, Individual, and Nation in the Northern Peruvian Andes (1997), and the editor of Locating Capitalism in Time and Space (2002).

Joan Vincent is Professor of Anthropology Emerita at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is author of numerous books and encyclopedia articles on political anthropology. Her works include Anthropology and Politics (1990, reissued 1995) and The Anthropology of Politics: A Reader in Ethnography, Theory, and Critique (Blackwell, 2002).