ABSTRACT
The final topic serves as something by way of a conclusion to the book. Controversies over personhood offer a means of reflection on the way anthropologists make and use the concepts without which there would be no dialogue. Like other chapters in this book, this chapter touches on broad areas of anthropological theorizing of which it is necessarily but a digest. However, this chapter creates a focus for the reader through drawing mainly on two recent collections of essays: ‘The anthropology of personhood, redux: Views from Christianity’, edited by Bialecki and Daswani, and ‘Gender and person in Oceania’, edited by Morgain and Taylor. Between them, these recapitulate and extend much of the current state of play, especially in relation to changing conditions of social life; they also offer ethnographic materials. Other works are referenced to indicate that many paths and avenues, many lines for pursuit, lead out from and back into even this small part of the field.
