Breaking the Frames ─ Anthropological Conundrums

This book argues that the breaking and re-making of frames of analysis underlie the history of theorizing in anthropology. Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern note that this mode of analysis risks fabricating over-essentialized dichotomies between viewpoints. They apply this argument to the analysis of cargo cults in Papua New Guinea; methods of processual analysis; theories of sociality and individuality; language acquisition; religion and cognition; kinship; and the overall trope of nature vs. culture, which they describe as a mistaken conundrum. The authors advocate a mindful, nuanced, people-centered approach to all theorizing, one that avoids total system approaches (-isms). They suggest that theory should relate cogently to ethnography. Mindful anthropology, as this book envisages it, is not a specific theory but a philosophical aspiration for the discipline as a whole. At its heart, this volume advocates for engagement with these issues, coupled with an open-minded approach toward the construction of theory.