INTRODUCTION: ON FOUR ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND THEIR HISTORIES

Authors

Virginia Yans, Rutgers UniversityFollow

Abstract

This introduction discusses ten essays concerning Pacific anthropologists Gregory Bateson, Reo Fortune, Margaret Mead, and their colleague, Ruth Benedict. The intellectual and personal engagement of these four social scientists with each other is well known and heavily documented in archival collections: they worked as “before-the-text” collaborators in fieldwork and in formulating culture theory. My Introduction highlights the epistemological and textual strategies the contributors to this special issue employ to describe the “Gang of Four.” These essays demonstrate how a group of contemporary anthropologists think about the past and the history of their discipline. As a remedy for the disruption of disciplinary consensus and the declension in anthropology’s scientific authority, ten scholars explore their ancestral past and occupy an epistemological middle ground or “vital center” between objective scientific authority and postmodern challenges to it. A revival of interest in anthropology’s history appears to be related to a renewed interest in anthropology’s potential to inform social change.

Recommended Citation

Yans, Virginia (2009) "INTRODUCTION: ON FOUR ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND THEIR HISTORIES," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 32: No. 2, Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol32/iss2/2