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The Predicament of Culture

Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art

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Product: Book
ISBN-10: 0-674-69842-8
ISBN-13: 9780674698420
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Country:
Year: May 18, 1988
Size: 15.49 x 23.62 x 2.79cm
Number of pages: 398
Weight: 748gr
Binding: Hardcover

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0.) The Predicament of Culture
James Clifford
Harvard University Press; 1988
Paperback

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The Predicament of Culture is a critical ethnography of the West in its changing relations with other societies. Analyzing cultural practices such as anthropology, travel writing, collecting, and museum displays of tribal art, Clifford shows authoritative accounts of other ways of life to be contingent fictions, now actively contested in postcolonial contexts. His critique raises questions of global significance: Who has the authority to speak for any group's identity and authenticity? What are the essential elements and boundaries of a culture? How do self and »the other« clash in the encounters of ethnography, travel, and modern interethnic relations? In discussions of ethnography, surrealism, museums, and emergent tribal arts, Clifford probes the late-twentieth century predicament of living simultaneously within, between, and after culture.

reviews

Outstanding anthropological essays 5 star rating

James Clifford's book considers how anthropology can exist in these postmodern times. Considering such phenomena as a museum exhibit which displays »primitive artefacts« next to contemporaneous »modern art pieces,« Clifford discusses the way »Western« culture privileges its own culture at the expense of other cultures, clearly showing the ways assumptions of the definition of culture defines this privilege. Clifford's essay on the Mashpees on Cape Cod offers a striking example of directions in which anthropology can move to redesign its own project without privileging itself. A well-written, erudite text. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the workings of contemporary society.