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Overview
In this pathbreaking study, Micaela di Leonardo reveals the face of power within the mask of cultural difference. From the 1893 World's Fair to Body Shop advertisements, di Leonardo focuses on the intimate and shifting relations between popular portrayals of exotic Others and the practice of anthropology. In so doing, she casts new light on gender, race, and the public sphere in America's past and present.
"An impressive work of scholarship that is mordantly witty, passionately argued, and takes no prisoners."—Lesley Gill, News Politics
"[Micaela] di Leonardo eloquently argues for the importance of empirical, interdisciplinary social science in addressing the tragedy that is urban America at the end of the century."—Jonathan Spencer, Times Literary Supplement
"In her quirky new contribution to the American culture brawl, feminist anthropologist Micaela di Leonardo explains how anthropologists, 'technicians of the sacred,' have distorted American popular debate and social life."—Rachel Mattson, Voice Literary Supplement
"At the end of di Leonardo's analyses one is struck by her rare combination of rigor and passion. Simply, [she] is a marvelous iconoclast."—Matthew T. McGuire, Boston Book Review
Synopsis
In this pathbreaking study, Micaela di Leonardo reveals the face of power within the mask of cultural difference. From the 1893 World's Fair to Body Shop advertisements, di Leonardo focuses on the intimate and shifting relations between popular portrayals of exotic Others and the practice of anthropology. In so doing, she casts new light on gender, race, and the public sphere in America's past and present.
"An impressive work of scholarship that is mordantly witty, passionately argued, and takes no prisoners."—Lesley Gill, News Politics
"[Micaela] di Leonardo eloquently argues for the importance of empirical, interdisciplinary social science in addressing the tragedy that is urban America at the end of the century."—Jonathan Spencer, Times Literary Supplement
"In her quirky new contribution to the American culture brawl, feminist anthropologist Micaela di Leonardo explains how anthropologists, 'technicians of the sacred,' have distorted American popular debate and social life."—Rachel Mattson, Voice Literary Supplement
"At the end of di Leonardo's analyses one is struck by her rare combination of rigor and passion. Simply, [she] is a marvelous iconoclast."—Matthew T. McGuire, Boston Book Review
Library Journal
The title refers simultaneously to American anthropologists and the domestic subjects they most often study: ethnic minorities and women. As evidenced by new retail chains such as Anthropologie, the public and the media often perceive anthropologists as what the author refers to as 'guardians of the offbeat.' Similarly, women and minorities are often viewed both by anthropologists and the public as 'temporally distant' primitives. In this work, di Leonardo (anthropology and women's studies, Northwestern Univ.) presents an in-depth, fascinating history of the changing political context and public personae of American anthropology. Unlike recent histories such as Curtis Hinsley's 'Savages and Scientists' (Smithsonian Institution, 1981), which focuses on anthropology's changing theoretical paradigms, di Leonardo concerns herself with how anthropologists are perceived by the public and portrayed by the media. Although written in sometimes cryptic academic language, this is an engaging study. -- Jim Woodman, Boston Athenaeum
Editorials
Library Journal
The title refers simultaneously to American anthropologists and the domestic subjects they most often study: ethnic minorities and women. As evidenced by new retail chains such as Anthropologie, the public and the media often perceive anthropologists as what the author refers to as 'guardians of the offbeat.' Similarly, women and minorities are often viewed both by anthropologists and the public as 'temporally distant' primitives. In this work, di Leonardo (anthropology and women's studies, Northwestern Univ.) presents an in-depth, fascinating history of the changing political context and public personae of American anthropology. Unlike recent histories such as Curtis Hinsley's 'Savages and Scientists' (Smithsonian Institution, 1981), which focuses on anthropology's changing theoretical paradigms, di Leonardo concerns herself with how anthropologists are perceived by the public and portrayed by the media. Although written in sometimes cryptic academic language, this is an engaging study. -- Jim Woodman, Boston AthenaeumLibrary Journal
The title refers simultaneously to American anthropologists and the domestic subjects they most often study: ethnic minorities and women. As evidenced by new retail chains such as Anthropologie, the public and the media often perceive anthropologists as what the author refers to as 'guardians of the offbeat.' Similarly, women and minorities are often viewed both by anthropologists and the public as 'temporally distant' primitives. In this work, di Leonardo (anthropology and women's studies, Northwestern Univ.) presents an in-depth, fascinating history of the changing political context and public personae of American anthropology. Unlike recent histories such as Curtis Hinsley's 'Savages and Scientists' (Smithsonian Institution, 1981), which focuses on anthropology's changing theoretical paradigms, di Leonardo concerns herself with how anthropologists are perceived by the public and portrayed by the media. Although written in sometimes cryptic academic language, this is an engaging study. -- Jim Woodman, Boston AthenaeumBooknews
Looks at the intimate and shifting relations between popular portrayals of exotic Others and the practice of anthropology, casting new light on gender, race, and the public sphere in America's past and present. Finds the political and economic relations of inequality hidden in plain sight in cultural discourse, with examples ranging from Far Side cartoons to Margaret Meade's career to tribal wars in Africa and Europe. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Jonathan Spencer
In this engaging book, Micaela di Leonardo asks what the popular version of anthropology tells us about anthropology as well as about America…In the final pages…di Leonardo eloquently argues for the importance of empirical, interdisciplinary social science in addressing the tragedy that is urban America at the end of the century. Those pages alone make the book worth reading.—Time Literary Supplement