Epistle to the anthropologists

pp. 183-196

in: I. C. Jarvie, Thinking about society, Berlin, Springer, 1986

Abstract

This paper addresses itself to two problems: first, is there a crisis in anthropology; second, if there is, what caused it and what will resolve it. As a springboard for discussion, we look at the allegation of crisis and its diagnosis that has come from anthropologists of a phenomenological or "critical theory" persuasion. While agreeing with them that there is a crisis, the paper attributes it to theoretical stagnation, not to the influence of "positivism." A possible cure for theoretical stagnation is seen in critical reflection on the history of anthropology, and especially in coming to terms with the continuities (or lack of them) between its present concerns and those of the tradition of inquiry to which it belongs.