“Anthropology as a Type of Penmanship”. Textual Criticism vs. Reflectiveness in Cultural Anthropology Cover Image

"Antropologia jako rodzaj pisarstwa". Krytyka tekstualna a kwestia refleksyjności w antropologii kulturowej
“Anthropology as a Type of Penmanship”. Textual Criticism vs. Reflectiveness in Cultural Anthropology

Author(s): Wojciech Kruszelnicki
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Cultural anthropology; Ethnography; Description

Summary/Abstract: This article offers a closer look at the intellectual origins of ‘textual debate’ in the field of cultural anthropology – as initiated by Clifford Geertz in The Interpretation of Cultures and Works and Lives, and continued then on by James Clifford and George Marcus in their volume Writing Culture. An attempt subsequently followed at combining the insights, having appeared within the debate’s confines, into interpretation and textual processing of ethnographic data with the idea of anthropological reflectiveness conceived as examination of de-objectivising influence exerted upon the ethnographic description of culture by factors such as historicity and politicality of the writing individual; his/her assumed research strategy and writing rhetoric; and, unconsciously accepted socio-cultural and personal data determining the cognitive process.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 5
  • Page Range: 140-155
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish