Ethical immanence jack sidnell, marie meudec, michael. Produced by johns hopkins university press in collaboration with the sheridan libraries. Anthropology, language, and action what is the place of the ethical in human life. This collection is the latest contribution to the steadily growing anthropological literature on morality and ethics. Forthcoming in four lectures on ethics by miachael lambek. Michael lambek is the author of a reader in the anthropology of religion 3. In addition to deepening our understanding of ethics, the volume makes an incisive and necessary intervention in anthropological theory, recasting. He is also a participant in a resetproject funded by the open society soros foundation on anthropological approaches to religion and secularism for scholars from postsoviet societies. Minds, surfaces, and reasons in the anthropology of ethics.
Michael lambek is professor of anthropology and a canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. This article draws on the perspective of ordinary ethics lambek 2010 to argue. Terminology and ordinary ethics in my use of the term ethics, i allude to the body of work by michael lambek and contributors in ordinary ethics 2010b that seeks to relocate the domain of the ethical from its imprisonment within minds and written codes, toward a more dynamic concept primarily found in action and practice. Moreover, traditions and borders occur within multiple levels of inclusion. Article information, pdf download for on the immanence of the ethical. View the article pdf and any associated supplements and figures for a period of 48 hours. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. He is the author of several books, most recently the weight of the past, and editor or coeditor of several more, including ordinary ethics and a companion to the anthropology of religion. Michael lambek books list of books by michael lambek. Michael lambek is a professor of anthropology and the canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. Anthropology, language, and action as want to read. He is a specialist in the anthropology of religion selected publications. Michael lambek has 20 books on goodreads with 444 ratings.
One of their points of departure is a book i edited, ordinary ethics lambek 2010, in which i invited contributors. Michael lambek is the canada research chair in the anthropology of ethical life in the department of social sciences, university of toronto at scarborough as well as professor in the department of anthropology, university of toronto. Keywords discourse, ethics, goffman, habermas, interaction, language, morality, ordinary language, reflexivity, scale in michael lambeks 2010 provocative. Anthropology, language, and action, edited and introduced by michael lambek, con tains 20 essays presented at a. Oct, 2014 anthropology has recently seen a lively interest in the subject of ethics and comparative notions of morality and freedom.
Ethics, language, and human sociality alan rumsey 105. Aug 03, 2017 they range across the continent, including one article from west africa, two from east africa and three from southern africa. Responding to the challenges from the worlds they study and reflecting critically on their own practice, anthropologists have recently devoted new attention to ethics and morality. Human spirits 1981 knowledge and practice in mayotte. Michael lambek is the canada research chair in the anthropology of ethical life in the.
Responding to the challenges from the worlds they study and. Essays on action, person, and value article pdf available in journal of the anthropological society of oxfordonline 91. Ethics morality cambridge encyclopedia of anthropology. He is a specialist in the anthropology of religion. A companion to the anthropology of religion janice boddy. A companion to the anthropology of religion anthropology. As michael lambek points out in his introduction to this volume, the ethnographers experience confirms this as a general rather than a culturespecific truth, and many of the best works of ethnographical description vividly convey what he calls the ubiquity of ordinary ethics.
A companion to the anthropology of religion wiley online books. Michael lambek holds a canada research chair in the anthropology of ethical life. Michael lambek author of a reader in the anthropology of. This cited by count includes citations to the following articles in scholar. He is also a participant in a resetproject funded by the open society soros foundation on anthropological approaches to religion and secularism for. Freedom, reflexivity, and the sheer everydayness of ethics. Michael lambek s most popular book is a reader in the anthropology of religion. Merged citations this cited by count includes citations to the following articles in scholar.
I take it to further develop what i have elsewhere lambek 2010a called ordinary ethics, that is, the relatively preobjectified ethical dimensions of everyday life as constituted through criteria and performative acts. Focusing on ordinary implies an ethics that is relatively tacit, grounded in. Rather than focus on codes of conduct or hotbutton issues, they make the cumulative argument that ethics is profoundly ordinary, pervasive and possibly even intrinsic to speech and action. This edited volume constitutes a remarkably strong incentive to abandon power and structures in favour of ethics for explaining social reality. On the immanence of ethics michael lambek university of toronto october 10, 20 ethics is a complex topic on which it would be impossible to construct a theory that was at once fully comprehensive, systematic, and true to life. He has edited ordinary ethics and a companion to the anthropology of religion, among many other works. Local discourses of islam, sorcery and spirit possession 1993. It is possible to argue that the anthropology of ethics has always been part of the discipline but also that it is a radically new and transformative venture.
Claiming pule, manifesting mana ordinary ethics and. It describes how moral life has long been generally understood in anthropology, how this came to seem insufficient, and the ways that have been proposed recently for improvement. Anthropology, language, and action the rise of a field of humanitarian action accompanies cultural transformations in the category of the human and the idea of responsibility. A companion to the anthropology of religion wiley online. Lambek, m 2012, ethics out of the ordinary, in the sage handbook of social anthropology, sage publications ltd, london, pp. Ebook the anthropology of empathy as pdf download portable. Indeed, that very inability itself serves as a subject of some ethical thought. In addition to deepening our understanding of ethics, the volume makes an incisive and necessary intervention in. I examine mana and pule through the lens of what michael lambek calls ordinary ethics to explore how claiming divine and pule mana is a strategic and ordinary way to deflect individual agency. The ones marked may be different from the article in the profile. A companion to moral anthropology wiley online books. Michael lambek frsc born 11 june 1950 is professor of anthropology at the university of toronto scarborough. By way of illustration, i revisit the local interplay of three traditions described in knowledge and practice in mayotte lambek 1993 through the lens of ethics.
A virtue of the turn called ordinary ethics is that it can steer us toward the. I briefly address what i mean by immanence and point to my argument that the ethical is intrinsic to action and practice rather than discernable only as a discrete object or distinct product of linguistic. I briefly address what i mean by immanence and point to my argument that the ethical is intrinsic to action and practice rather than discernable only as a discrete object or distinct product of linguistic interaction. Local discourses of islam, sorcery and spirit possession 1993 tense past edited with paul antze, 1996. Anthropology has recently seen a lively interest in the subject of ethics and comparative notions of morality and freedom. A companion to moral anthropology is the first collective consideration of the anthropological dimensions of morals, morality, and ethics. Violence and the descent into the ordinary, for i wish to deepen my understanding of the sense of scandal that the. The ordinary character of ethics describes its ubiquitous occurrence, its relationship to social practices, and the effects of ethical speech and action lambek 2010. My own concerns stem from existential moments i encountered in the field that made me ask repeatedly, how can ordinary, everyday acts stand up.
Professor lambek holds a sshrc standard research grant on heterodoxy and the ethical imagination. And yet others, like michael lambek, might be interested in working out how ethics might be treated as intrinsic to life. Michael lemperts misleading critique of what i have called ordinary ethics provides a welcome invitation to clarify my perspective. Oct 21, 20 michael lambek is professor of anthropology and canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. A companion to the anthropology of religion presents a collection of original, ethnographicallyinformed essays that explore the variety of beliefs, practices, and religious experiences in the contemporary world and asks how to think about religion as a subject of anthropological inquiry. Minds, surfaces, and reasons in the anthropology of ethics webb keane 64. He conducts ethnographic research in switzerland as well as longterm fieldwork in the indian ocean islands of mayotte and madagascar. As he shows through rich ethnographic accounts and multiple theoretical traditions, our human condition is at heart an ethical onewe may not always be good or just, but we are always subject to their criteria. Local discourses of islam, sorcery, and spirit possession 1993. The ethical is immanent in the social lambek 2015a.
On being present to history university of chicago press. Ordinary ethics and the ethics code of the american. Michael lambek michael lambek is a professor of anthropology and the canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. Michael lambek is professor of anthropology and canada research chair at the university of toronto scarborough. I look at action in two related waysas specific acts performance and. Original essays by international experts explore the various currents, approaches, and issues in this important new discipline, examining topics such as the ethnography of moralities, the study of moral subjectivities, and the exploration of moral economies. A response to michael lempert, no ordinary ethics sage journals. Anthropology, language, and action edited by michael lambek. Written over a thirtyyear span, michael lambek s essays in this collection point with definitive force toward a single central truth.
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