An Anthropology of Names and Naming [Hardcover]

This book provides the tools through which we examine the politics and power of names.Many philosophers and linguists suggest that names are just labels, but parents internationally are determined to get their children's names right. This book illustrates the intersection of names and naming with current interests in political processes, the relation between bodies and personal identities, and ritual and daily social life.Many philosophers and linguists suggest that names are just labels, but parents internationally are determined to get their children's names right. This book illustrates the intersection of names and naming with current interests in political processes, the relation between bodies and personal identities, and ritual and daily social life.This book is about personal names, something of abiding interest to specialists and lay readers alike. Over a million people have checked the American Name Society website since 1996, for instance. Many philosophers and linguists suggest that names are 'just' labels, but parents internationally are determined to get their children's names 'right'. Personal names may be given, lost, traded, stolen and inherited. This collection of essays provides comparative ethnography through which we examine the politics of naming; the extent to which names may be property-like; and the power of names themselves, both to fix and to destabilize personal identity. Our purpose is not only to renew anthropological attention to names and naming, but to show how this intersects with current interests in political processes, the relation between bodies and personal identities, ritual and daily social life.1. 'Entangled in histories': an introduction to the anthropology of names and naming Barbara Bodenhorn and Gabriele vom Bruck; 2. 'Your child deserves a name': possessive individualism and the politics of memory of pregnancy loss Linda Layne; 3. Names that do not need people Andr? Iteanu; 4. The substance of northwest AmazonianlS*