Full Description
There is surprisingly little fieldwork done on the United States by anthropologists from abroad. America Observed fills that gap by bringing into greater focus empirical as well as theoretical implications of this phenomenon. Edited by Virginia Dominguez and Jasmin Habib, the essays collected here offer a critique of such an absence, exploring its likely reasons while also illustrating the advantages of studying fieldwork-based anthropological projects conducted by colleagues from outside the U.S. This volume contains an introduction written by the editors and fieldwork-based essays written by Helena Wulff, Jasmin Habib, Limor Darash, Ulf Hannerz, and Moshe Shokeid, and reflections on the broad issue written by Geoffrey White, Keiko Ikeda, and Jane Desmond. Suitable for introductory and mid-level anthropology courses, America Observed will also be useful for American Studies courses both in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Contents
Introduction: Can the US Be "Othered" Usefully? On an International Anthropology of the United States
Virginia R. Dominguez and Jasmin Habib
PART I: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN? THE US AS FIELDSITE
Chapter 1. Manhattan as a Magnet: Place and Circulation among Young Swedes
Helena Wulff
Chapter 2. Is It Un-American to Be Critical of Israel? Criticism and Fear in the US Context
Jasmin Habib
Chapter 3. Biosecurity in the US: "The Scientific" and "the American" in Critical Perspective"
Limor Samimian-Darash
Chapter 4. American Theater State: Reflections on Political Culture
Ulf Hannerz
Chapter 5. Observing American Gay Organizations and Voluntary Associations: An Outsider's Exposition
Moshe Shokeid
PART II: FROM THE INSIDE OUT? REFLECTIONS ON AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE US
Chapter 6. Who Cares? Why It's Odd and Why It's Not?
Geoffrey White
Chapter 7. Power and the Trafficking of Scholarship in International American Studies
Keiko Ikeda
Afterword: The Sounds of Silence: Commissions, Omissions, and Particularity in the Global Anthropology of the United States
Jane C. Desmond
Index
