An Anthropology of the Enlightenment

How can we rethink the terms of Enlightenment anthropology in a manner and an idiomappropriate to the contemporary era? The essays collated here argue for anthropology'suse in acknowledging, exploring and interpreting divergence and ideological conflict overhuman meaning.The volume is structured aro [...]
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How can we rethink the terms of Enlightenment anthropology in a manner and an idiomappropriate to the contemporary era? The essays collated here argue for anthropology'suse in acknowledging, exploring and interpreting divergence and ideological conflict overhuman meaning.The volume is structured around some of the key themes that the Enlightenment fostered,including human nature, time, Earth and the cosmos, beauty, order, harmony and design,morals, and the query of whether wealthy nations make for healthy publics. It focuses inparticular on how `moral sentiment' offered a guiding idea in Enlightenment thought. Theidea of `moral sentiment' is central to the essays' grappling with the ethical anxieties ofcontemporary anthropology. The essays therefore trace historical connections and fissures,and focus in particular on Adam Smith's attempts toward an understanding of what wouldlater be called `modernity' - where the realism that allows us to understand individualexperience appears at odds with the realism which takes on larger scale social processesof enculturation or globalization.With an afterword from Marilyn Strathern, this volume makes a strong addition to the ASAconference proceedings.