Описание: The Culture of Invention in the Americas takes the theoretical contribution of one of anthropologys most radical thinkers, Roy Wagner, as a basis for conceptual improvisation. It uses Wagners most synthetic and complex insights - developed in Melanesia and captured in the title of his most famous book, The Invention of Culture - as a springboard for an exploration of other anthropological and societal imaginaries. What do the inherent reflexivity, recursiveness and limits of all and any peoples anthropologies render for us to write and think about, and live within? Who is doing anthropology about whom? Which are the best ways to convey our partial grasp of these conundrums: theory, poetry, jokes? No claim is made to resolve what should not be seen as a problem. Instead, inspired by Roy Wagners study and use of metaphor, this book explores analogical variations of these riddles.
The chapters bring together ethnographic regions rarely investigated together: indigenous peoples of Mexico and Lowland South America; and Afro-American peoples of Brazil and Cuba. The partial connections highlighted by the authors analytic conjunctions - If divination practices and Yanomami shamanism, Ki sedj (Amazonia) and Huichol (Mexico) anthropology of Whites, and Meso-American and Afro-American practices of sacrifice - show the inspirational potential of such rapprochements.
As the first book to acknowledge the full range of Wagners anthropological contributions, and an initial joint exploration of Native American and Afro-American ethnographies, this experimental work honours Wagners vision of a multiplicity of peoples anthropologies through and of each other. It concludes with a remarkable dialogue created by Roy Wagners responses to each authors work.
We dont have to imagine what Wagner might have made of this inspired collection: his concluding commentary on each of these extraordinary chapters is in effect a collection in itself. The sparks they together ignite make this an editorial and publishing triumph.
Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge
If Roy Wagner famously invented culture, the contributors to this volume counter-invent Wagner, at once engaging comprehensively and didactically with his thought, and exteriorizing it onto novel conceptual and geographical territories. A book from tomorrows yesterday (Wagner), The Culture of Invention in the Americas anticipates for us the anthropology to come - playful, experimental, and deeply ethnographic.
Alberto Cors n Jim nez, Spanish National Research Council
Editors: Pedro Pitarch is Professor of Anthropology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Jos Antonio Kelly is Assistant Professor at the Univeridade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil).
