Debating Authenticity : : Concepts of Modernity in Anthropological Perspective / / ed. by Thomas Fillitz, A. Jamie Saris.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Banks, Marcus,; Dilley, Roy,; Fillitz, Thomas,; Gingrich, Andre,; Grau Rebollo, Jorge,; Grijp, Paul van der,; Muršič, Rajko,; Okely, Judith,; Saris, A. Jamie,; Sjørslev, Inger,; Taylor, Lawrence J.,; Warnier, Jean-Pierre,
• HerausgeberIn: Fillitz, Thomas,; Saris, A. Jamie,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2012]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (258 p.)

The longing for authenticity, on an individual or collective level, connects the search for external expressions to internal orientations. What is largely referred to as production of authenticity is a reformulation of cultural values and norms within the ongoing process of modernity, impacted by globalization and contemporary transnational cultural flows. This collection interrogates the notion of authenticity from an anthropological point of view and considers authenticity in terms of how meaning is produced in and through discourses about authenticity. Incorporating case studies from four continents, the topics reach from art and colonialism to exoticism-primitivism, film, ritual and wilderness. Some contributors emphasise the dichotomy between the academic use of the term and the one deployed in public spaces and political projects. All, however, consider authenticity as something that can only be understood ethnographically, and not as a simple characteristic or category used to distinguish some behaviors, experiences or material things from other less authentic versions.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction. Authenticity Aujourd’hui -- Part I. Authenticity and Authenticating -- 1. Revisiting ‘Culture, Genuine and Spurious’: Reflections on Icons and Politics in Ireland -- 2. Deceptive Tentacles of the Authenticating Mind: On Authenticity and Some Other Notions That are Good for Absolutely Nothing -- Part II. Moral Discourses of Authenticity -- 3. Authentic Wilderness: The Production and Experience of Nature in America -- 4. The Moral Economy of Authenticity and the Invention of Traditions in Franche-Comté (France) -- 5. ‘Oh, That’s So Typical!’ Discussing Some Spanish ‘Authentic’ Essential Traits -- Part III. Authenticity: Popular and Academic Discourses -- 6. Is Form Really Primary or, What Makes Things Authentic? Sociality and Materiality in Afro-Brazilian Ritual and Performance -- 7. A Cultural Search for Authenticity: Questioning Primitivism and Exotic Art -- 8. Wooden Pillars and Mural Paintings in the Saudi South-west: Notes on Continuity, Authenticity and Artistic Change in Regional Traditions -- 9. True to Life: Authenticity and the Photographic Image -- Part IV. Entangled Spaces of Authenticity -- 10. Questions of Authenticity and Legitimacy in the Work of Henri Gaden (1867–1939) -- 11. Constructing Culture through Shared Location, Bricolage and Exchange: The Case of Gypsies and Roma -- 12. Cultural Regimes of Authenticity and Contemporary Art of Africa -- Notes on Contributors -- Index