Michael lambek frsc born 11 june 1950 is professor of anthropology at the university of toronto scarborough. Minds, surfaces, and reasons in the anthropology of ethics webb keane 64. I briefly address what i mean by immanence and point to my argum. View enhanced pdf access article on wiley online library html view download pdf for. Michael lambek s essays in this collection point with definitive force toward a single central truth. Focusing on ordinary implies an ethics that is relatively tacit, grounded in. Mam01 winter semester 201819 thursday, 2 4 pm room. Terminology and ordinary ethics in my use of the term ethics, i allude to the body of work by michael lambek and contributors in ordinary ethics 2010b that seeks to relocate the domain of the ethical from its imprisonment within minds and written codes, toward a more dynamic concept primarily found in action and practice. As michael lambek points out in his introduction to this volume, the ethnographers experience confirms this as a general rather than a culturespecific truth, and many of the best works of ethnographical description vividly convey what he calls the ubiquity of ordinary ethics. Whereas michael lambek situates the exploration of the significance of ordinary.
Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Annotation what is the place of the ethical in human life. Professor lambek holds a sshrc standard research grant on heterodoxy and the ethical imagination. He has edited ordinary ethics and a companion to the anthropology of religion, among many other works. Ethics, language, and human sociality alan rumsey 105. Michael lambek is professor of anthropology and a canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. Original essays by international experts explore the various currents, approaches, and issues in this important new discipline, examining topics such as the ethnography of moralities, the study of moral subjectivities, and the exploration of moral economies.
A companion to the anthropology of religion presents a collection of original, ethnographicallyinformed essays that explore the variety of beliefs, practices, and religious experiences in the contemporary world and asks how to think about religion as a subject of anthropological inquiry presents a collection of original, ethnographicallyinformed essays exploring the wide variety of beliefs. Introduction to moral and other laboratories springerlink. Get your kindle here, or download a free kindle reading app. Michael lambeks the ethical condition is an immeasurably valuable. Claiming pule, manifesting mana ordinary ethics and. Michael lambek holds a canada research chair in the anthropology of ethical life. Spirits without borders is an ethnographic study of the transnational and multicultural expansion of vietnams mother goddess religion and its spirit possession ritual. A response to michael lempert, no ordinary ethics sage journals. Anthropology, language and action by lambek, michael isbn. View the article pdf and any associated supplements and figures for a period of 48 hours. Michael lambek is a canada research chair and professor of anthropology at the university of toronto, where he chairs the department at the scarborough campus. He has been carrying out research in the western indian ocean since 1975 and is the author of three monographs and editor of several collections, including ordinary ethics fordham. He is the author of several books, most recently the weight of the past, and editor or coeditor of several more, including ordinary ethics and a companion to the anthropology of religion. Id like to read this book on kindle dont have a kindle.
Anthropology, language, and action, edited and introduced by michael lambek, contains 20 essays presented at a workshop held at the university of toronto in 2008. How might sustained attention to the ethical transform anthropological theory and enrich our understanding of. As michael lambek puts it in introducing the volume ordinary ethics, our ethics is neither prescriptive nor universalist, in the sense of. Scholars such as jarrett zigon and michael lambek have shown that morality can be successfully studied from the bottom up, as ordinary ethics zigon 2008. Anthropology, language, and action edited by michael lambek. American ethnologist is a quarterly journal concerned with ethnology in the broadest sense of the term. Essays on action, person, and value, michael lambek is published by university of chicago press. Michael lemperts misleading critique of what i have called ordinary ethics provides a welcome invitation to clarify my perspective. Anthropology, language, and action from fordham university press what is the place of the ethical in human life. Unlimited viewing of the articlechapter pdf and any associated supplements and figures.
Michael lambek has coined the term ordinary ethics to signal this departure from the kantian tradition of western moral thoughtin which a priori assumptions about autonomy, agency, virtue, and community refer to particular situations cursorily, anecdotally, or not at all. Project muse promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. In a secular context ethics is based on negotiations and compromise rather than on following a precise set of given rules. He is a specialist in the anthropology of religion. Article information, pdf download for on the immanence of the ethical. The editor welcomes manuscripts that creatively demonstrate the connections between ethnographic specificity and theoretical originality, as well as the ongoing relevance of the ethnographic imagination to the contemporary world. Moreover, lambek contents that in the ordinary course of events evaluative criteria are implicit but can become available for deliberation. How might sustained attention to the ethical transform anthropological theory and enrich our understanding of thought, speech, and social action. The ethnographic case studies deal with a range of ethical issues linked to childhood and. This volume offers a significant attempt to address these questions.
Spirits without borders vietnamese spirit mediums in a. Edinburgh research explorer connecting repositories. A virtue of the turn called ordinary ethics is that it can steer us toward the. S theory in anthropology since the eighties ma module. Michael lambek is a professor of anthropology and the canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. Keywords discourse, ethics, goffman, habermas, interaction, language, morality, ordinary language, reflexivity, scale in michael lambeks. A companion to moral anthropology wiley online books. The moral repertoires identified here follow the dynamics of ordinary ethics as described by michael lambek 2010, 2, namely, a relatively implicit aspect of morality. Anthropology, language, and action as want to read. A companion to the anthropology of religion janice boddy. Anthropology, language, and action pdf public ebook library. Responding to the challenges from the worlds they study and reflecting critically on their own practice, anthropologists have recently devoted new attention to ethics and morality. Local discourses of islam, sorcery and spirit possession 1993 tense past edited with paul antze, 1996. The aim of the chapter is to show how art practices may allow marginalized youth to develop reflexivity, autonomy, and subjectivity regarding their own social situation, as well as an alternative conception of citizenship.
How might sustained attention to the ethical transform anthropological theory and e. It is a common experience of most ethnographers that the people we encounter are trying to do what they. He conducts ethnographic research in switzerland as well as longterm fieldwork in the indian ocean islands of mayotte and madagascar. View enhanced pdf access article on wiley online library html view download pdf for offline viewing. Michael lambek michael lambek is a professor of anthropology and the canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. He is also a participant in a resetproject funded by the open society soros foundation on anthropological approaches to religion and secularism for. Animal ethos draws on ethnographic engagement with academic labs in which experimental research involving nonhuman species provokes difficult questions involving life and death, scientific progress, and other competing quandaries. The contributions are arranged into seven thematic sectionstheoretical frameworks, the ethics of speaking, responsibility and agency, punishment. Human spirits 1981 knowledge and practice in mayotte. In the spirit of michael lambek s work, too, i am most concerned with that which he terms ordinary ethics 2010, 6, or those moral processes ubiquitous in daily life yet all too often unmarked as such because of their quotidian nature see brodwin 20.
Essays on action, person, and value article pdf available in journal of the anthropological society of oxfordonline 91. The work explores how and why the ritual spread from vietnam to the us and back again and the impact of ritual transnationalism in. Based on michael lambek s concept of ordinary ethics, the papers in this volume, based on a 2009 workshop at lse, discuss common ethical practices and understandings in contemporary china. Article anthropological theory 4 370393 no ordinary ethics. Animal ethos the morality of humananimal encounters in. Moral philosophy and the ethical turn in anthropology springerlink. The wherewithal of life by michael jackson paperback. Written over a thirtyyear span, michael lambek s essays in this col. I examine mana and pule through the lens of what michael lambek calls ordinary ethics to explore how claiming divine and pule mana is a strategic and ordinary way to deflect individual agency. As michael lambek points out in his introduction to this volume, the ethnographers experience. Ordinary ethics suggests that everyday discursive interaction interaction mediated by actual language use has tacit ethical dimensions.
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