Writing Culture and the Life of Anthropology

"This exceptional collection is indeed about the lives of anthropology in the post-Writing Culture era.  Beyond a uniquely enlightening discussion of the multiple faces of the field at present, it envisages the rich paths the discipline might take in the era of radical climate change and planet-wide social and cultural dislocations. It shows how, in the interstices of recalcitrant notions such as fieldwork, ethnography, and culture novel approaches to context, history, life, and connection are yielding an amazing range of practices that portend powerful anthropological futures.  To the question posed twenty-five years ago of 'Why write, and how,' some of the essays now pointedly add 'Why act, and how do we act?' It still behooves us, all of those doing intellectual work, to grapple with these question that have haunted the academy for decades." - Arturo Escobar, author of Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes

"This volume's contributors offer lively and provocative readings and show the legacy of Writing Culture in their reflexive first-person accounts of fieldwork and teaching. The authors experiment not only with writing but also with new kinds of topics that are reframing the field. All write with wit, creativity, and a passion to secure anthropology’s contemporary and future relevance." - Faye Ginsberg, coeditor of Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain

"...this volume will interest those curious about what anthropology—or at least a strong current within it—means in the 21st century. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." - F. W. Gleach, Choice

"Orin Starn [et. al.] have produced a rich and thought-provoking collection of essays addressing the current and future state of anthropology..." - Petra Rethmann, American Anthropologist