ABSTRACT

Anthropology, it is often argued, is an art of translation. Recently, however, social theorists have raised serious doubts about the translator's enterprise. Over the last few years the human social and ecological habitat has seen spectacular developments. Modern humans inhabit a 'global village' in a very genuine sense. What lessons may be learned from these developments for anthropology? In Beyond Boundaries, ten anthropologists from different countries address the problem of social understanding and cultural translation from different theoretical as well as ethnographic perspectives. Quite appropriately, given the general theme of the volume, the contributors represent several different academic traditions and communities - Britain, Finland, France, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Norway, the former Soviet Union, and Sweden.

chapter Chapter 1|40 pages

Introduction: beyond boundaries

ByGísli Pálsson

chapter Chapter 2|17 pages

Mediations in the global ecumene

ByUlf Hannerz

chapter Chapter 4|25 pages

Foreign myths and sagas in Japan: the academics and the cartoonists

ByHalldór Stefánsson

chapter Chapter 5|17 pages

The anthropologist as shaman: interpreting recent political events in Armenia

ByLevon H. Abrahamian

chapter Chapter 6|23 pages

Household words: attention, agency and the ethnography of fishing

ByGísli Pálsson

chapter Chapter 7|22 pages

Acting cool and being safe: the definition of skill in a Swedish railway yard

ByBirgitta Edelman

chapter Chapter 8|22 pages

Interpreting and explaining cultural representations 1

ByDan Sperber

chapter Chapter 9|26 pages

Beyond the words: the power of resonance

ByUnni Wikan

chapter Chapter 10|21 pages

The art of translation in a continuous world

ByTim Ingold