George Gumerman | Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (original) (raw)
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Papers by George Gumerman
American Anthropologist, 2003
Geertz's chapter on the Balinese cockfight is not only his "most famous single contribution to th... more Geertz's chapter on the Balinese cockfight is not only his "most famous single contribution to the literature of anthropology," it is "a striking addition to English literature tout court" (p. 85). "Found in Translation: On the Social History of the Moral Imagination" (1977) is "his finest single essay" (p. 129) and of all his books, Negara (1980) is the "noblest" (p. 155). It is not surprising then, that of Geertz's four "cultural system" essays (on religion, ideology, common sense, and art), Inglis privileges the last one-and he thinks Geertz does, too (p. 120). Mediating between the people they study and the audiences they write for, between the details of social action and the social-scientific concepts and metaphors they use to think about them, anthropologists in general (and Inglis has praise for the work of Mead, Benedict, Evans-Pritchard, Firth, and a few others) and Geertz in particular have been nimbler than other social scientists at avoiding the theoretical traps they set for themselves. Inglis praises Geertz for responding, but never capitulating, to one or another master narrative, whether of Marx, Freud, Levi-Strauss, or Bourdieu, and he has harsh criticism for those who allow their theories to overwhelm their attention to people: "ideology-critique, functionalism, psychoanalysis. .. are alike in despising the reasons for action, the intentions they express, and the meanings they embody for the people who perform them" (p. 117). Thus it is that Inglis is quite willing to excoriate both recent anthropology and recent cultural studies for their "loss of intellectual nerve consequent on seeing the truths in postmodernism" (p. 150). But those truths had been well engaged by Geertz himself, who nonetheless managed to continue writing superb ethnography (and good literature) without giving in to either "confessional narcissism" (p. 155) or "clottedly allusive theorization" (p. 173). Inglis's Clifford Geertz is itself a valuable work of mediation. Even anthropologists who know Geertz's work well will profit from this theoretically astute, literary-critical view of our discipline.
The object of the workshop was to discuss and demonstrate the modeling of artificial societies an... more The object of the workshop was to discuss and demonstrate the modeling of artificial societies and to suggest its potential for extending our knowledge about the prehistoric Southwest. Our efforts are part of the much larger questions anthropologists have asked for generations concerning how culture and cultures evolve. Traditional study of human social change and cultural evolution has resulted in many useful generalizations concerning the trajectory of change through prehistory and classifications of types of organization. It is ...
The first New World Conference on Rescue Archaeology was held in Quito, Ecuador in May 1981. The ... more The first New World Conference on Rescue Archaeology was held in Quito, Ecuador in May 1981. The conference was organized in response to the increasing destruction of the archaeological record by industrialization, urbanization, and illegal transportation and sale of artifacts. Various aspects of a system for establishing and maintaining effective rescue archaeological systems were discussed in symposia and workshops. The members of the conference endorsed a number of recommendations addressed to archaeologists, museums, individual governments, and the Organization of American States in order to reduce the damage being done to the cultural resources of the Western Hemisphere.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 1997
In complex societies individuals from distinct socia~ economic, gender, or age groups often consu... more In complex societies individuals from distinct socia~ economic, gender, or age groups often consume different foods because of various economic, politica~ and ideological factors. The food system not only involves what is consumed but includes the labor and technology that goes into the production and preparation of food as well as how certain foods are distributed and eventually discarded. Food systems within and among complex societies are thus tightly intertwined with social differentiation and the political economy and participate in defining and maintaining differential social relations.
American Anthropologist, 1975
American Indian Quarterly, 1991
... ISBN: 0-12-624160-0 Language Text: English References: Bibliography: p. 445-476 Subject Keywo... more ... ISBN: 0-12-624160-0 Language Text: English References: Bibliography: p. 445-476 Subject Keywords English: Cultural property, protection recommendation; Identification, cultural property; Archaeology, site conservation; Archaeology, site inventory; Urbanism, regional ...
Investigacion Y Ciencia, 2005
The Saa Archaeological Record, 2003
Advances in Geographic Information Science, 2014
Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling, 2012
Science, 1979
Convergent archeological, geological, palynological, dendrochronological, and radiometric data pr... more Convergent archeological, geological, palynological, dendrochronological, and radiometric data provide a paleoenvironmental record for the American Southwest at a level of detail and time resolution not previously achieved. Many prehistoric cultural and demographic changes on the Colorado Plateaus coincided with environmental fluctuations defined by precisely dated geoclimatic and bioclimatic indicators. These coincidences support the interpretation that socioeconomic changes and population displacements were commonly triggered by environmental stress.
American Anthropologist, 2003
Geertz's chapter on the Balinese cockfight is not only his "most famous single contribution to th... more Geertz's chapter on the Balinese cockfight is not only his "most famous single contribution to the literature of anthropology," it is "a striking addition to English literature tout court" (p. 85). "Found in Translation: On the Social History of the Moral Imagination" (1977) is "his finest single essay" (p. 129) and of all his books, Negara (1980) is the "noblest" (p. 155). It is not surprising then, that of Geertz's four "cultural system" essays (on religion, ideology, common sense, and art), Inglis privileges the last one-and he thinks Geertz does, too (p. 120). Mediating between the people they study and the audiences they write for, between the details of social action and the social-scientific concepts and metaphors they use to think about them, anthropologists in general (and Inglis has praise for the work of Mead, Benedict, Evans-Pritchard, Firth, and a few others) and Geertz in particular have been nimbler than other social scientists at avoiding the theoretical traps they set for themselves. Inglis praises Geertz for responding, but never capitulating, to one or another master narrative, whether of Marx, Freud, Levi-Strauss, or Bourdieu, and he has harsh criticism for those who allow their theories to overwhelm their attention to people: "ideology-critique, functionalism, psychoanalysis. .. are alike in despising the reasons for action, the intentions they express, and the meanings they embody for the people who perform them" (p. 117). Thus it is that Inglis is quite willing to excoriate both recent anthropology and recent cultural studies for their "loss of intellectual nerve consequent on seeing the truths in postmodernism" (p. 150). But those truths had been well engaged by Geertz himself, who nonetheless managed to continue writing superb ethnography (and good literature) without giving in to either "confessional narcissism" (p. 155) or "clottedly allusive theorization" (p. 173). Inglis's Clifford Geertz is itself a valuable work of mediation. Even anthropologists who know Geertz's work well will profit from this theoretically astute, literary-critical view of our discipline.
The object of the workshop was to discuss and demonstrate the modeling of artificial societies an... more The object of the workshop was to discuss and demonstrate the modeling of artificial societies and to suggest its potential for extending our knowledge about the prehistoric Southwest. Our efforts are part of the much larger questions anthropologists have asked for generations concerning how culture and cultures evolve. Traditional study of human social change and cultural evolution has resulted in many useful generalizations concerning the trajectory of change through prehistory and classifications of types of organization. It is ...
The first New World Conference on Rescue Archaeology was held in Quito, Ecuador in May 1981. The ... more The first New World Conference on Rescue Archaeology was held in Quito, Ecuador in May 1981. The conference was organized in response to the increasing destruction of the archaeological record by industrialization, urbanization, and illegal transportation and sale of artifacts. Various aspects of a system for establishing and maintaining effective rescue archaeological systems were discussed in symposia and workshops. The members of the conference endorsed a number of recommendations addressed to archaeologists, museums, individual governments, and the Organization of American States in order to reduce the damage being done to the cultural resources of the Western Hemisphere.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 1997
In complex societies individuals from distinct socia~ economic, gender, or age groups often consu... more In complex societies individuals from distinct socia~ economic, gender, or age groups often consume different foods because of various economic, politica~ and ideological factors. The food system not only involves what is consumed but includes the labor and technology that goes into the production and preparation of food as well as how certain foods are distributed and eventually discarded. Food systems within and among complex societies are thus tightly intertwined with social differentiation and the political economy and participate in defining and maintaining differential social relations.
American Anthropologist, 1975
American Indian Quarterly, 1991
... ISBN: 0-12-624160-0 Language Text: English References: Bibliography: p. 445-476 Subject Keywo... more ... ISBN: 0-12-624160-0 Language Text: English References: Bibliography: p. 445-476 Subject Keywords English: Cultural property, protection recommendation; Identification, cultural property; Archaeology, site conservation; Archaeology, site inventory; Urbanism, regional ...
Investigacion Y Ciencia, 2005
The Saa Archaeological Record, 2003
Advances in Geographic Information Science, 2014
Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling, 2012
Science, 1979
Convergent archeological, geological, palynological, dendrochronological, and radiometric data pr... more Convergent archeological, geological, palynological, dendrochronological, and radiometric data provide a paleoenvironmental record for the American Southwest at a level of detail and time resolution not previously achieved. Many prehistoric cultural and demographic changes on the Colorado Plateaus coincided with environmental fluctuations defined by precisely dated geoclimatic and bioclimatic indicators. These coincidences support the interpretation that socioeconomic changes and population displacements were commonly triggered by environmental stress.