The Ethnographer's Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology

Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992. 2nd Printing. Octavo in wraps; 440 pp: photographs (b&w); 24 cm Very good(+); small sticker to back wrap; pages clean, binding tight. Paperback. ISBN: 0299134148

Stocking was one of the central architects of modern historiography in anthropology, renowned for insisting that anthropological ideas be understood within their full intellectual, institutional, and political contexts rather than judged by present standards. The "Ethnographer’s Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology gathers some of his most influential work, examining how fieldwork authority, cultural relativism, racial theory, and the professional self-image of anthropology were historically produced rather than naturally given. Through close readings of key figures and moments, Stocking shows how anthropology’s claims to scientific objectivity were shaped by colonial settings, moral anxieties, and changing conceptions of culture. The book remains foundational for demonstrating that anthropology has its own history not as a linear march toward truth, but as a discipline continually negotiating power, representation, and belief." --Publisher