Terence Turner

The social skin

This is a reprint of Terence S. Turner, 1980. “The Social Skin.” In Not work alone: A cross-cultural view of activities superfluous to survival , edited by Jeremy Cherfas and Roger Lewin, 112–140. London: Temple Smith.

Marxian value theory An anthropological perspective

Marxs critique of political economy and analysis of the capitalist mode of production are grounded in more general ideas about human activity and social organization that, taken together, constitute an anthropology which is applicable in principle to all social systems and forms of social production, including those that do not involve the production and exchange of commodities. Marxs anthropology is built upon general notions of production, need, value, semiotic mediation, exploitation, alienation, the role of subjective activity and consciousness, and the structural properties of systems of social production as totalities. This article attempts to abstract the general forms and principles of these notions in terms applicable to non-commodity producing social systems. It identifies Marxs formulation of value theory as the most encompassing organizational framework of his anthropological ideas.

Remote and edgy: New takes on old anthropological themes

Eight anthropologists working in various parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America reflect on an essay by Edwin Ardener on the concept of remote areas recently reprinted in Hau(Volume 2, Issue 1). These reflections all show that the idea of the remote can be detached from its geographical moorings and understood not simply as a spatial concept but as a relativistic social construct. Considered in conjunction with the notion of edginess, they understand remoteness not so much as a place, but as a way of being. By purposefully comparing work in cities and in places more commonly described as remote, they show that the remote may be present in any site of anthropological inquiry.

Beauty and the beast (The 2011 R. R. Marett Memorial Lecture)

This paper describes the notion of “beauty” as a socially constructed value among the Kayapo of the Brazilian Amazon and how this value reflects relations within society and between humans and animals. Kayapo society is divided into two status groups, people who have received beautiful names from certain kin during elaborate village rituals, and those who have not. The ritual bestowal of such names counteracts fissive tendencies produced through the developmental cycle of Kayapo households. “Beautiful people” tend to have wider kin networks with access to greater resources and leadership roles than do ordinary “commoners.” These distinctions are correlated with categories of animals and forms of behavior, and reveal parallels to the socialization and death of the person. However, certain contradictions in Kayapo society are epitomized in the figure of the jaguar, an animal that embodies beauty and power as well as fierceness and bestiality. Similarly, leaders mobilize resources for the well-being of the entire community, but they are also at risk of reverting to bestial behavior and running amok. Anthropological theories of animism and perspectivism would do well to consider the more nuanced Kayapo concepts of the complex interconnections between animals and humans, the natural and the social.

Commentaries on “Knowledge and Empire: The Social Sciences and United States Imperial Expansion”

Commentaries on “Knowledge and Empire: The Social Sciences and United States Imperial Expansion” Lesley Gill a; Terence Turner b; Micaela di Leonardo c; Catherine Lutz d; Ananthakrishnan Aiyer e a Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA b Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA c Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA d Department of Anthropology and Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA e University of MichiganFlint Flint, Michigan, USA