Review by Choice Review
This excellent and thought-provoking collection challenges postmodernism in anthropology, especially its criticism of anthropology for a presumed past history of moral disengagement while itself promotes an extreme relativism in the present. Anthropology has also contended with a mistaken popular perception that it is devoted to something called "primitive society." Essays presented here point anthropology in new directions for research that recognize the most just and apt criticisms of the discipline while illustrating the engaged application of anthropological research to large-scale societal and global problems. These include, for example, a critique of Western policy in the Balkan war and an analysis of Balkanization and ethnic conflict as an increasing global process (e.g., Rwanda, the former Soviet Union). They also include discussions of aging and its societal ramifications, the lessons that anthropology can teach from a study of AIDS, and the many consequences of tourism--a large chunk of the global economy--for both sending and host societies. For all anthropology collections serving upper-division undergraduates and above. R. Berleant-Schiller University of Connecticut
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
