Overview
Existential anthropology is an approach inspired by existential and phenomenological thought to further our understanding of the human condition. Its ethnographic methodology emphasises embodied experience and focuses on what is at stake for people amid the contingencies, struggles, and uncertainties of everyday life. While anthropological research on religion abounds, there has been little systematic attention to the ways anthropology and religious studies might benefit from better consideration of one another or from the adoption of a shared existential perspective. Between Life and Thought gathers leading anthropologists and religion scholars, including some of existential anthropology's most recognised advocates and thoughtful critics. The collection opens with a comprehensive introduction to phenomenology and existentialism in anthropology and religious studies, and concludes with an analysis of how existential anthropology might address the long-standing problem of constructivism and perennialism in religious studies. The chapters altogether present existential anthropology as an especially generative paradigm within which to rethink and remake both anthropology and the academic study of religion. A timely and significant intervention across multiple areas of research, Between Life and Thought is an invaluable source for critically exploring the prospects, as well as the limits, of an anthropological approach to religion grounded in experiential ethnography and existential thought.
Full Product Details
Author: Don Seeman ,
Devaka Premawardhana
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.400kg
ISBN: 9781487554750
ISBN 10: 1487554753
Pages: 278
Publication Date: 05 April 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
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Reviews
"""This is a timely and important connection of a humanistic philosophy with cultural anthropology. Anthropologists often tend to think that philosophy is too divorced from everyday life to be useful - and philosophers, in turn, rarely think about the value of their work for the study of culture - making this book valuable in its focus on a significant meeting place between these two disciplines.""--Kevin Schilbrack, Professor of Religious Studies, Appalachian State University ""This is a wonderful volume, with essays by leading scholars, and a homage to one of the most original voices of anthropology and religious studies, Michael D. Jackson. Far beyond being a traditional festschrift, Between Life and Thought offers novel, future-oriented contributions from several different parts of the world. The essays themselves are a joy to read, thoughtful, well-crafted, and perhaps most crucially, each individual essay is of a high quality and relates closely to the overall theme, both in terms of inheriting the thoughts and provocations offered by Michael D. Jackson's work, and in signalling broader contributions to anthropology, religious studies, and to the humanities at large.""--Bhrigupati Singh, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, Ashoka University, and Visiting Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Brown University"
Author Information
Don Seeman is an associate professor in the Department of Religion and the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University. Devaka Premawardhana is an associate professor in the Department of Religion and current occupant of a Winship Distinguished Research chair at Emory University.
