Stephen P. Reyna

Theory counts: (discounting) discourse to the contrary by adopting a confrontational stance

This article argues the virtues of a particular research methodology, the confrontational stance, for making theory count by helping it to formulate approximate truths of some rigor. Argument proceeds by first showing how a particular anthropological tradition, social anthropology, achieved success by haphazardly adopting such a stance; and then by suggesting certain requirements needed to systematically adopt such a stance.

American imperialism? "The current runs swiftly"

This essay is concerned with where the current of global political and economic events runs. It addresses this concern by erecting an argument in three stages. First, a string being theory (SBT) is outlined. Second, this theory is used to formulate an SBT approach to imperialism, one that might be imagined as Lenin by alternative (theoretical) means, emphasizing the role of violent force. The ‘seven deadly sirens’—generalizations that predict the exercise of violent force under different conditions in imperial systems—are introduced. Third, certain post-1945 US government uses of violence are analyzed in terms of their fit with the seven sirens’ predictions. Oil depletion is considered as contributing to systemic crisis in capital accumulation, and its role in Gulf War II is explored. It is concluded that US government violence is consistent with the sirens’ predictions. The essay terminates with speculation about where the current runs.

The disasters of war in Darfur, 1950 - 2004

Abstract This article investigates the conflict that had been developing since the 1950s in Darfur and which in 2003 and 2004 burst into intense warfare. A ‘complex-structuring of violence’ standpoint explains the warfare. The argument is organised in two parts. The first section formulates the position by introducing Darfur, next evaluating the prevailing barbarisation perspectives attempts to explicate Darfur warring and, finally, formally presenting the complex structuring standpoint. The second section offers evidence bearing upon this standpoint. This involves information showing that four interrelated structural realms form a causal complex producing the violence. The article ends with discussion of the US governments role in Darfurian disasters of war.

Right and might: of approximate truths and moral judgements

This article explains why the community of scholars in the current conjuncture of the capitalist development of power experiences problems distinguishing between right and might and suggests a way of reducing such difficulties. It claims that the mightys’ operation of regimes of truth in conjunction with intellectuals’ adoption of postmodern sentiments erodes the ability to judge whether those with might have it right. This position is argued by considering a particular assertion of righteousness. The Indonesian and US mighty, as represented by Geertz, claimed that the Indonesian militarys 1965–66 massacres were in self‐defense. “Causal moral analysis” is formulated as a method of assessing this claim.

Neo-Boasianism, a form of critical structural realism: it's better than the alternative

A good paper should have fortifying doses of reason and revelation. The revelation in this paper is the identity of ‘the alternative’ mentioned in the title. The article reasons that neo-Boasianism should be an approach of broad interest in anthropological research. Argumentation extends across two sections. The first section explains the merits of critical structural realism. Different sub-sections introduce the realism, structuralism, and critical science of critical structural realism, taking pains to compare it with postmodernism. The second section introduces neo-Boasianism, showing how it is a form of critical structural realism – one that permits analysis of connections between brain and social structural realms. The notion of a cultural neurohermeneutic system is advanced as a neurological structure allowing antecedent social action to be connected with subsequent action. Finally, revelation comes at the paper’s conclusion: it is shown what alternative neo-Boasianism is better than.

The owl in the twilight: Cultural anthropologies of Clifford Geertz and Marshall Sahlins

Geertz, Clifford. After the Fact: Two Countries, Four Decades, One Anthropologist Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. 198 pp. including notes and index.

Social Evolution: A Learning-Theory Approach

22:95 cloth,

Making do when the rains stop: adjustment of domestic structure to climatic variation among the Barma

12.95 paper. Sahlins, Marshall. How “Natives” Think: About Captain Cook, For Example. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. 318 pp. including appendixes, bibliography, and index.

The jeweler’s loupe: Validation

24.95 cloth,

Vision Statement: Anthropological Theory from and for Everybody:

14.95 paper.