Available Light

Preface ix Acknowledgments xv I. Passage and Accident: A Life of Learning 3 Overture 3 The Bubble 3 Changing the Subject 11 Waiting Time 19 II. Thinking as a Moral Act: Ethical Dimensions of Anthropological Fieldwork in the New States 21 III. Anti Anti-Relativism 42 IV. The Uses of Diversity 68 V. The State of the Art 89 Waddling In 89 Culture War 97 Deep Hanging Out 107 History and Anthropology 118 "Local Knowledge" and Its Limits 133 VI. The Strange Estrangement: Charles Taylor and the Natural Sciences 143 VII. The Legacy of Thomas Kuhn: The Right Text at the Right Time 160 VIII. The Pinch of Destiny: Religion as Experience, Meaning, Identity, Power 167 IX. Imbalancing Act: Jerome Bruner's Cultural Psychology 187 X. Culture, Mind, Brain / Brain, Mind, Culture 203 XI.The World in Pieces: Culture and Politics at the End of the Century 218 The World in Pieces 218 What Is a Country if It Is Not a Nation? 231 What Is a Culture if It Is Not a Consensus? 240 Index 205

"Available Light reflects an eminent scholar's mature insights into the state of anthropology after it has lost much of its former prestige..."--Library Journal "An important contribution to how we think and live in the world today."--Publishers Weekly "This is a provocative look at the human race (and the study thereof) by a man who has seen more of it than most."--Kirkus Reviews "The essays and personal history contained in Available Light distill the continuing vitality, honesty, and acumen of an intellectual... [Geertz's] clarity, humor, and insight never give way to the flattened tone of pedagogue."--Paul-Jonathan Benson, The Boston Book Review "Mr. Geertz's most recent collection of papers and lectures ... makes the peculiarities of his profession still more pronounced. What, he asks, is anthropology really about? ... Isn't the anthropologist doomed to misinterpret another culture? Is any universal judgement possible? ... So the anthropologist stands at a troubled crossroads... In one direction is the world of culture, diverse and unimaginably complex; in the other is the world of nature, immutable and universal."--Edward Rothstein, New York Times "Lucid, provocative and playful... The book is impeccably written--droll, animated, and bright in both senses of the word--and should enlighten lay readers as well as specialists."--Lionel Shriver, The Guardian "Available Light is deeply moving."--T.M. Luhrmann, Times Literary Supplement "Anthropology has never been so central or so widely read within the academy; and anthropologists have never been so insecure. In this context of moral insecurity, Available Light is deeply moving."--T. M. Luhrmann, Times Literary Supplement "I am a fan of Geertz because he is one of the world's most effective proponents of cultural, moral, and scientific pluralism... His new book ... is a welcome, predictably fascinating, and very elucidative exposition of Geertz's brand of pluralism... Gripping."--Richard A. Shweder, Science