Debating Authenticity

Concepts of Modernity in Anthropological Perspective
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-85745-496-6
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 258 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 529 g

The longing for authenticity, on an individual or collective level, connects the search for external expressions to internal orientations. What is largely referred to as production of authenticity is a reformulation of cultural values and norms within the ongoing process of modernity, impacted by globalization and contemporary transnational cultural flows. This collection interrogates the notion of authenticity from an anthropological point of view and considers authenticity in terms of how meaning is produced in and through discourses about authenticity. Incorporating case studies from four continents, the topics reach from art and colonialism to exoticism-primitivism, film, ritual and wilderness. Some contributors emphasise the dichotomy between the academic use of the term and the one deployed in public spaces and political projects. All, however, consider authenticity as something that can only be understood ethnographically, and not as a simple characteristic or category used to distinguish some behaviors, experiences or material things from other less authentic versions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fillitz, Thomas

Saris, A. Jamie

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Authenticity Aujourd’hui

Thomas Fillitz and A. Jamie Saris

PART I: AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHENTICATING

Chapter 1. Revisiting “Culture, Genuine and Spurious:” Reflections on Icons and Politics in Ireland

A. Jamie Saris

Chapter 2. Deceptive Tentacles of the Authenticating Mind: on Authenticity and Some Other Notions that are Good for Absolutely Nothing

Rajko Muršic

PART II: MORAL DISCOURSES OF AUTHENTICITY

Chapter 3. Authentic Wilderness: The Production and Experience of Nature in America

Lawrence J. Taylor

Chapter 4. The Moral Economy of Authenticity. And the Invention of Traditions in

Franche-Comté (France)

Jean-Pierre Warnier

Chapter 5. Oh, That’s So Typical!” Discussing Some Spanish “Authentic” Essential Traits

Jorge Grau Rebollo

PART III: AUTHENTICITY: POPULAR AND ACADEMIC DISCOURSES

Chapter 6. Is Form Really Primary or, What Makes Things Authentic? Sociality and Materiality in Afro Brazilian Ritual and Performance

Inger Sjørslev

Chapter 7. Cultural Search for Authenticity: Questioning Primitivism and Exotic Art

Paul Van der Grijp

Chapter 8. Wooden Pillars and Mural Paintings in the Saudi Southwest: Notes on Continuity, Authenticity, and Artistic Change in Regional Traditions

Andre Gingrich

Chapter 9. True to Life: Authenticity and the Photographic Image

Marcus Banks

PART IV: ENTANGLED SPACES OF AUTHENTICITY

Chapter 10. Questions of Authenticity and Legitimacy in the Work of Henri Gaden (1867-1939)

Roy Dilley

Chapter 11. Constructing Culture Through Shared Location, Bricolage and Exchange: the Case of Gypsies and Roma

Judith Okely

Chapter 12. Cultural Regimes of Authenticity and Contemporary Art of Africa

Thomas Fillitz

Notes on Contributors

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Saris, A. Jamie
A. Jamie Saris is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at the National University of Ireland-Maynooth and Co-Chair of the Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium. He has been working more than fifteen years in medical and psychological anthropology in Ireland, North America and Africa.

Fillitz, Thomas
Thomas Fillitz is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna. He has been a visiting professor at the Université des Sciences et Technologies Lille-1 (2001, 2003), at the Université Lumière Lyon-2 (2008), and at Université Paris Descartes (2011).

Thomas Fillitz is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna. He has been a visiting professor at the Université des Sciences et Technologies Lille-1 (2001, 2003), at the Université Lumière Lyon-2 (2008), and at Université Paris Descartes (2011).