Anthropology as Cosmopolitan Practice?

This article advances the case for both an anthropology of cosmopolitanism and, at the same time, a cosmopolitan anthropology. Illustrated by means of a case study of apparently traditional Minangkabau domestic authority structure, the article seeks to sketch in the parameters of an anthropological...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAnthropological theory Vol. 3; no. 4; pp. 403 - 415
Main Author Kahn, Joel S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published SAGE Publications 01.12.2003
Subjects
Anthropological theory
Anthropology
Cosmopolitanism
Ethnocentrism
Indonesia
Minang Kabu
Traditional Societies
Universalism
Eurocentrism
anthropology
cosmopolitanism
universalism
Minangkabau
Indonesia
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This article advances the case for both an anthropology of cosmopolitanism and, at the same time, a cosmopolitan anthropology. Illustrated by means of a case study of apparently traditional Minangkabau domestic authority structure, the article seeks to sketch in the parameters of an anthropological contribution to the recent attempts to recover a notion of cosmopolitanism, mainly by social and political theorists. One anthropologist who has made out a case for a cosmopolitan anthropology has been Adam Kuper. But unlike Kuper’s piece, this article argues that we need to locate all such arguments more firmly within the modern intellectual tradition within which they are formed. This means also that we must seriously engage with those critiques of that tradition that suggest that all such universalizing logics are Eurocentric, based on highly problematic notions of universal human reason, and thereby exclusionary of other races and other cultures.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:1463-4996
1741-2641
DOI:10.1177/146349960334001