Edvard Hviding

Klassiske og moderne antropologiske tænkere er en indføring i den særlige tænkning, som antropologien har fostret. Antropologien voksede ud af en stigende interesse for at forstå den globale mangfoldighed i slutningen af det 19. århundrede, hvor hele verden var kendt og opmålt. Samtidig vidste man stadig meget lidt om, hvordan enkeltsamfund hang sammen. Det blev der rådet bod på gennem det etnografiske feltarbejde, der opstod som en ny videnskabelig metode. Det direkte møde med andre former for samfundsliv og måder at ræsonnere på lagde grunden til en særegen antropologisk tænkestil, der udfolder sig mellem konkrete detaljer og generelle begreber. I bogen præsenteres centrale antropologers arbejder gennem intellektuelle portrætter af Franz Boas, Marcel Mauss, Knud Rasmussen, Margaret Mead, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Gregory Bateson, Mary Douglas, Talal Asad, Marilyn Strathern, Bruno Latour, Anna Tsing og mange flere. Klassiske og moderne antropologiske tænkere er skrevet af antropologer fra danske, norske og islandske universiteter og er redigeret af professor emeritus Kirsten Hastrup. Bogens opbygning er enkel: Tænkerne er kronologisk ordnet efter deres fødselsår. Fødselsåret forklarer naturligvis ikke tænkningen, men det er tydeligt, at hver enkelt tænker afspejler sin tid; lige så tydeligt er det, at afspejlingen hverken er mekanisk eller uniform, og at begreber kan trække lange spor i historien. Det, der forbinder kapitlerne med hinanden, er afsættet i konkrete samfund. Bogen viser således at “klassisk” og “moderne” ikke er entydigt tidslige kategorier. Specifikke feltarbejder finder sted på bestemte tider, men de kan omsættes i mangfoldige senere læsninger. Bogen er relevant for læsere inden for alle samfundsvidenskabelige studier såvel som inden for humanistiske studier, som ønsker at forstå og udfordres på begreber som kultur, natur, globalisering, slægtskab, udveksling og meget mere. Et kortfattet overblik, der introducerer hvert kapitel, en fyldig litteraturliste og et omfattende navne- og emneregister gør bogen anvendelig som opslagsværk og som redskab for litteratursøgning.

This title was first published in 2000: An original and thought-provoking analysis of modern initiatives in the tropical rain forest. While issues such as logging, eco-timber, eco-tourism have been widely analyzed from an outsider’s perspective, this book considers them from the local people’s viewpoint, in terms of a long history of the rainforest uses. The authors demonstrate that the relationship of indigenous people to the tropical forest is not essentially timeless, nor is it primarily spiritual or mystical. It is in fact firmly connected to modern realities, while still being rooted in historical beliefs and practices. Standing at the intersection of anthropology, historical geography and rainforest ecology, and also at the interface of the local and the global, this ethnographically grounded study dispels a number of commonly held assumptions. It reveals how processes of ’impact’ are actually two-way interactions, as local communities in Melanesia incorporate industries like logging into rapidly evolving post-colonial society and economy.

This title was first published in 2000: An original and thought-provoking analysis of modern initiatives in the tropical rain forest. While issues such as logging, eco-timber, eco-tourism have been widely analyzed from an outsider’s perspective, this book considers them from the local people’s viewpoint, in terms of a long history of the rainforest uses. The authors demonstrate that the relationship of indigenous people to the tropical forest is not essentially timeless, nor is it primarily spiritual or mystical. It is in fact firmly connected to modern realities, while still being rooted in historical beliefs and practices. Standing at the intersection of anthropology, historical geography and rainforest ecology, and also at the interface of the local and the global, this ethnographically grounded study dispels a number of commonly held assumptions. It reveals how processes of ’impact’ are actually two-way interactions, as local communities in Melanesia incorporate industries like logging into rapidly evolving post-colonial society and economy.

In Hviding's case, the gap between the social and natural sciences is bridged as he deftly draws on conceptual frameworks from social and cultural anthropology, cultural ecology, history, and marine biology. As he tells the story of the people of Marovo Lagoon in New Georgia in the western Solomon Islands, his focus is on customary marine tenure, a topic that has been surprisingly neglected by most anthropologists working in the Pacific.