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Invisible Genealogies: A History of Americanist Anthropology
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Invisible Genealogies: A History of Americanist Anthropology Hardcover - 2001

by Regna Darnell


From the publisher

Invisible Genealogies is a landmark reinterpretation of the history of anthropology in North America. During the past two decades, theorizing by many American anthropologists has called for an experimental moment grounded in explicit self-reflexive scholarship and experimentation with alternate forms of presentation. Such postmodern anthropology has effectively downplayed connections with past luminaries in the field, whose scholarship is perceived to be uncomfortably colonialist and nonreflexive. Ironically, as the American Anthropological Association nears its one hundredth anniversary and interest in the history of the discipline is at an all-time high, that history has been effectively presented as removed from and irrelevant to the new generation. Invisible Genealogies offers an alternative, compelling vision of the development of anthropology in North America, one that emphasizes continuity rather than discontinuity from legendary founder Franz Boas to the present. Regna Darnell identifies key interpretive assumptions and practices that have persisted, sometimes in modified form, since the groundbreaking work of A. L. Kroeber, Boas, Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir, Elsie Clews Parsons, Paul Radin, Benjamin Lee Whorf, and A. Irving Hallowell during the founding decades of anthropology. Also highlighted are the Americanist roots of postmodern anthropology and the work of innovative recent scholars like Claude Lvi-Strauss and Clifford Geertz.

Details

  • Title Invisible Genealogies: A History of Americanist Anthropology
  • Author Regna Darnell
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Pages 374
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Nebraska Press
  • Date March 1, 2001
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780803217102 / 0803217102
  • Weight 1.46 lbs (0.66 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.37 x 6.23 x 1.02 in (23.80 x 15.82 x 2.59 cm)
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 00055956
  • Dewey Decimal Code 301.097

About the author

Regna Darnell is a professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario. Her many works include And Along Came Boas: Continuity and Revolution in Americanist Anthropology and Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist.