The Nihilistic Turn
This essay explores what one might call the “nihilistic turn”: the structures of intellectual self-destruction that seem to have become embedded in social anthropology. Using the author’s long-term fieldwork in Greenland as a backdrop and from the point of view of the ethnographer in the field, it f...
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2023
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2023-1-1 |
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crnomosverl:10.5771/0257-9774-2023-1-1 2024-06-09T07:46:20+00:00 The Nihilistic Turn Leonard, Stephen P. 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2023-1-1 unknown Nomos Verlag Anthropos volume 118, issue 1, page 1-6 ISSN 0257-9774 journal-article 2023 crnomosverl https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2023-1-1 2024-05-15T13:27:36Z This essay explores what one might call the “nihilistic turn”: the structures of intellectual self-destruction that seem to have become embedded in social anthropology. Using the author’s long-term fieldwork in Greenland as a backdrop and from the point of view of the ethnographer in the field, it finds that much of the nihilistic navel-gazing that has come to characterise the subject is to be found wanting. The ethnographer is seldom in the superordinate position vis-à-vis his or her interlocutors that so many assume, and if we stopped insisting on framing questions of representation through the post-modernist lens of power differentials we would see that the supposed “power” that a western ethnographer has is often grossly exaggerated. [ethnography; entanglements; nihilism; Greenland] Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Nomos Greenland Anthropos 118 1 1 6 |
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This essay explores what one might call the “nihilistic turn”: the structures of intellectual self-destruction that seem to have become embedded in social anthropology. Using the author’s long-term fieldwork in Greenland as a backdrop and from the point of view of the ethnographer in the field, it finds that much of the nihilistic navel-gazing that has come to characterise the subject is to be found wanting. The ethnographer is seldom in the superordinate position vis-à-vis his or her interlocutors that so many assume, and if we stopped insisting on framing questions of representation through the post-modernist lens of power differentials we would see that the supposed “power” that a western ethnographer has is often grossly exaggerated. [ethnography; entanglements; nihilism; Greenland] |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Leonard, Stephen P. |
spellingShingle |
Leonard, Stephen P. The Nihilistic Turn |
author_facet |
Leonard, Stephen P. |
author_sort |
Leonard, Stephen P. |
title |
The Nihilistic Turn |
title_short |
The Nihilistic Turn |
title_full |
The Nihilistic Turn |
title_fullStr |
The Nihilistic Turn |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Nihilistic Turn |
title_sort |
nihilistic turn |
publisher |
Nomos Verlag |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2023-1-1 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Anthropos volume 118, issue 1, page 1-6 ISSN 0257-9774 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2023-1-1 |
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Anthropos |
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118 |
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1 |
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1 |
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6 |
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1801376133106630656 |