The Objects of Evidence Anthropological Approaches to the Production of Knowledge

by Engelke, Matthew

• ISBN13: 9781405192965
• ISBN10: 1405192968
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-30
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The contributors to this volume share the conviction that anthropology can no longer afford to ignore the importance of the concept of evidence, either for the ways in which anthropologists carry out their work (methodology) or present and justify their findings (epistemology). Demonstrates that evidence is something that all anthropologists must possess Shows how the collection of evidence in the field is still, without doubt, one of the main ingredients of what Bronislaw Malinowski once referred to as 'the ethnographer's magic' Reveals how the concept of evidence has received little sustained attention in print - especially when compared to related concepts, such as 'fieldwork', 'truth', 'facts', and 'knowledge' Argued from a variety of theoretical perspectives and a rarity in its ability to orchestrate some many different - and vibrant - paradigms and points of view

Author Biography

Matthew Engelke is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics.

Table of Contents

Notes on editor and contributors	p. vii
Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
The objects of evidence	p. 1
Truth and sight: generalizing without universalizing	p. 21
The prosthetic eye: photography as cure and poison	p. 31
Cultural evidence in Courts of law	p. 44
The antinomies of political evidence in post-Apartheid Durban, South Africa	p. 58
Three propositions for an evidence-based medical anthropology	p. 74
Definitive evidence, from Cuban gods	p. 89
The evidence of the senses and the materiality of religion	p. 105
Linguistic and cultural variables in the psychology of numeracy	p. 122
Some Problems with property ascription	p. 135
Index	p. 151
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