Synopses & Reviews
Since the 1950s, anthropologist Sidney W. Mintz has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate the disciplines of anthropology and history. Author of
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History and other groundbreaking works, he was one of the first scholars to anticipate "globalization studies." Yet a strong tradition of epistemologically sophisticated and theoretically informed empiricism of the sort advanced by Mintz has yet to become a cornerstone of contemporary anthropological scholarship. This collection of essays by leading anthropologists and historians serves as an intervention that rests on Mintz's rigorously historicist ethnographic work, which has long predicted the methodological crisis in anthropology today.
Contributors to this volume build on Mintzean interdisciplinarity to provide productive ways to theorize the everyday life of local groups and communities, nation-states, and regions and the interconnections among them. Consisting of theoretical and case studies of Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, and Papua New Guinea, Empirical Futures demonstrates how a Mintzean approach advances the study of culture, power, and identity.
The contributors are George Baca, Frederick Cooper, Virginia R. Dominguez, Frederick Errington, Deborah Gewertz, Juan Giusti-Cordero, Aisha Khan, Samuel Martínez, Stephan Palmié, Jane Schneider, and Rebecca J. Scott. The editors are George Baca, Aisha Khan, and Stephan Palmié.
Contributors:
George Baca, Goucher College
Frederick Cooper, New York University
Virginia R. Dominguez, University of Illinois
Frederick Errington, Trinity College
Deborah Gewertz, Amherst College
Juan Giusti-Cordero, University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras
Aisha Khan, New York University
Samuel Martínez, University of Connecticut
Stephan Palmie, University of Chicago
Jane Schneider, City University of New York Graduate Center
Rebecca J. Scott, University of Michigan
Review
"Offers the reader a wide range of stimulating essays that are a fitting tribute to Mintz's distinctive approach to a historical anthropology."
-Hispanic American Historical Review
Synopsis
Contributors to this volume address a current methodological crisis in anthropology today by turning to the methods promoted by Sidney W. Mintz, who has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate the disciplines of anthropology and history for several decades and was one of the first scholars to anticipate and critique "globalization studies." Essays by leading anthropologists and historians collected here present case studies of Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, and Papua New Guinea that demonstrate the productive use of Mintz's approach.
About the Author
George Baca is assistant professor of anthropology at Goucher College. Aisha Khan is associate professor of anthropology at New York University. Stephan Palmie is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago.