Kathleen Stewart

Affect and Emotion, Anthropology of

Attention to emotion and affect is a wide register running through the history of anthropology. Until recently, however, emotions and affect have not often been explicitly articulated as a force in themselves in theories of culture, history, and ways of life. This article traces the history of affect and emotion in anthropology and reveals emergent trajectories for future work. It situates affect and emotion historically and highlights key writings on these themes in cultural, physical, and linguistic anthropology, and in archaeology. Ultimately, it positions affect as a fruitful analytical tool for anthropology and as a generative source of cross-subfield dialogue.