Full Description
This original, field-changing collection explores the plasticity and unfinishedness of human subjects and lifeworlds, advancing the conceptual terrain of an anthropology of becoming. People's becomings trouble and exceed ways of knowing and acting, producing new possibilities for research, methodology, and writing. The contributors creatively bridge ethnography and critical theory in a range of worlds on the edge, from war and its aftermath, economic transformation, racial inequality, and gun violence to religiosity, therapeutic markets, animal rights activism, and abrupt environmental change. Defying totalizing analytical schemes, these visionary essays articulate a human science of the uncertain and unknown and restore a sense of movement and possibility to ethics and political practice. Unfinished invites readers to consider the array of affects, ideas, forces, and objects that shape contemporary modes of existence and future horizons, opening new channels for critical thought and creative expression.
Contributors. Lucas Bessire, JoÃo Biehl, Naisargi N. Dave, Elizabeth A. Davis, Michael M. J. Fischer, Angela Garcia, Peter Locke, Adriana Petryna, Bridget Purcell, Laurence Ralph, Lilia M. Schwarcz
Contents
Foreword. Unfinished / JoÃo Biehl and Peter Locke ix
Introduction. Ethnographic Sensorium / JoÃo Biehl and Peter Locke 1
1. The Anthropology of Becoming / JoÃo Biehl and Peter Locke 41
2. Becoming Aggrieved / Laurence Ralph 93
3. Heaven / Angela Garcia 111
4. Rebellious Matter / Bridget Purcell 133
5. Witness / Naisargi N. Dave 151
6. I Was Cannibalized by an Artist / Lilia M. Schwarcz 173
7. On Negative Becoming / Lucas Bessire 197
8. Time Machines / Elizabeth A. Davis 217
9. Horizoning / Adriana Petryna 243
10. Meantime / Peter Locke 269
11. Hereafter / JoÃo Biehl 278
Afterword. Zen Exercises: Anthropological Discipline and Ethics / Michael M. J. Fischer 293
Acknowledgments 317
Bibliography 319
Contributors 353
List of Illustrations 357
Index 359
