Starry Nights Critical Structural Realism In Anthropology (loose Can(n)ons) [Paperback]

Starry Nights: Critical Structural Realism in Anthropologyoffers nothing less than a reinventing of the discipline of anthropology. In these six essays  four published here for the first time  Stephen Reyna critiques the postmodern tenets of anthropology, while devising a new strategy for conducting research. Combative and clear,Starry Nightsprovides an important critique of mainstream anthropology as represented by Geertz and the postmodern legacy, and envisions a mode of anthropological research that addresses social, cultural and biological questions with techniques that are theoretically rigorous and practically useful.

Stephen P. Reynais a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Salle and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.

Preface

Introduction

PART I: EPISTEMOLOGY

Chapter 1.Literary Anthropology and the Case against Science
Chapter 2.What Is Th eory? Something, Time-Being, Art

PART II: ONTOLOGY

Chapter 3.Dialectics of Force: Contradiction, Logics, and Conservation of D?lires

PART III: CRITICAL SCIENCE

Chapter 4.Right and Might: Of Approximate Truths and Moral Judgments
Chapter 5.Perpetual Peace? Dreaming in the Time-Being of Empire

Index

This is an important and timely collection of essays by one of the leading exponents of a scientific, materialist anthropology& I could see the usefulness of this collection in seminars on theory at the graduate and undergraduate level.? David Sutton, Southern Illinois University