Against Exoticism : : Toward the Transcendence of Relativism and Universalism in Anthropology / / ed. by Bruce Kapferer, Dimitrios Theodossopoulos.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2016
• MitwirkendeR: Bhattacharyya, Urmi,; Kapferer, Bruce,; Lefkaditou, Theodora,; Nugent, Stephen,; Said, Maurice,; Theodossopoulos, Dimitrios,; Werbner, Pnina,
• HerausgeberIn: Kapferer, Bruce,; Theodossopoulos, Dimitrios,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (154 p.)

Anthropology begins in the encounter with the ‘exotic’: what stands outside of—and challenges—conventional or established understandings. This volume confronts the distortions of orientalism, ethnocentrism, and romantic nostalgia to expose exoticism, defined as the construction of false and unsubstantiated difference. Its aim is to re-found the importance of the exotic in the development of anthropological knowledge and to overcome methodological dualisms and dualistic approaches. Chapters look at the risk of exoticism in the perspectivist approach, the significant exotic corrective of Lévi-Strauss vis-à-vis an imperializing Eurocentrism, our nostalgic relationship with the ethnographic record, and the attempts of local communities to readapt previous exoticized referents, renegotiate their identity, and ‘counter-exoticize.’ This volume demonstrates a range of approaches that will be valuable for researchers and students seeking to effectively establish comparative methodological frameworks that transcend issues of relativism and universalism.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: Against Exoticism -- Chapter 1 On Ethnographic Nostalgia: Exoticizing and De-exoticizing the Emberá, for Example -- Chapter 2 Between Tristes Tropiques and Cultural Creativity: Modern Times and the Vanishing Primitive -- Chapter 3 The Exotic Albatross: Exotic Indians, Exotic Theory -- Chapter 4 Living the Li(f)e: Negotiating Paradise in Southern Sri Lanka -- Chapter 5 Bahia of All Saints, Enchantments, and Dreams: Female Tourists, Capoeira Practitioners, and the Exotic -- Chapter 6 From Primitive to Culturally Distinct: Patachitra and Self-Exoticization in West Bengal -- Afterword: Lessons of the Exotic -- Index