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Coda: Autobiography in Anthropology, Then and Now

Coda: Autobiography in Anthropology, Then and Now This article is available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license as part of Berghahn Open Anthro, a subscribe-to-open model for APC-free open access made possible by the journal’s subscribers. Editorial Coda Autobiography in Anthropology, Then and Now Helena Wulff Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the first publication of the volume Anthropology and Autobiography (1992) edited by Judith Okely and Helen Callaway, AJEC 31(1) features an inspiring special issue devoted to this topic, then and now. Starting from the beginning, we learn about the appalling resistance Judith Okely faced when she suggested Anthropology and Autobiography as a theme for the 1989 ASA (Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK) Conference. The idea to include the experience of the fieldworker, his or her emo- tional reactions, and issues related to gender, age and race – in the research and later even the use of “I” in the writing – came from the ‘writing culture’ movement in the United States. This early resistance against reflexivity and autobiography in British anthropology can be understood as a generational intolerance of American intellectual influence. As Ernest Gellner (1988: 26) suggested in a review of Clif- ford Geertz’ Works and Lives: My own advice http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anthropological Journal of European Cultures Berghahn Books

Coda: Autobiography in Anthropology, Then and Now

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Publisher
Berghahn Books
Copyright
© 2022 Berghahn Books
ISSN
1755-2923
eISSN
1755-2931
DOI
10.3167/ajec.2022.310201
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article is available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license as part of Berghahn Open Anthro, a subscribe-to-open model for APC-free open access made possible by the journal’s subscribers. Editorial Coda Autobiography in Anthropology, Then and Now Helena Wulff Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the first publication of the volume Anthropology and Autobiography (1992) edited by Judith Okely and Helen Callaway, AJEC 31(1) features an inspiring special issue devoted to this topic, then and now. Starting from the beginning, we learn about the appalling resistance Judith Okely faced when she suggested Anthropology and Autobiography as a theme for the 1989 ASA (Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK) Conference. The idea to include the experience of the fieldworker, his or her emo- tional reactions, and issues related to gender, age and race – in the research and later even the use of “I” in the writing – came from the ‘writing culture’ movement in the United States. This early resistance against reflexivity and autobiography in British anthropology can be understood as a generational intolerance of American intellectual influence. As Ernest Gellner (1988: 26) suggested in a review of Clif- ford Geertz’ Works and Lives: My own advice

Journal

Anthropological Journal of European Cultures – Berghahn Books

Published: Sep 1, 2022

References

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    Favero, P. S. H.
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    Gellner, E.
  • Ground-Level Travel for a Non-Flying Baltic States Anthropologist from Northern Ireland
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    Kempny, M.
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    Laviolette, P. and A. Bošković
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    Leete, A. and P. Laviolette
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    Okely, J.
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    Peternel, L. and A. Maskalan
  • Writing Anthropology
    Wulff, H. F. Stein