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Abstract

This article reviews the references to humanity and humanism in Eric R. Wolf’s work. These words have particular rhetorical weight in his books, indicating that they convey his ethical-political perspective. Yet Wolf’s own emphasis on history, context, power and transformation present challenges to a broad-brush humanism, as do writings of other social theorists. The article considers those criticisms, exploring replies to them derived from Wolf’s work. This textual, intellectual work speaks to contemporary anthropology, which openly considers ethical-political perspectives (e.g. militant and engaged anthropologies) and in which ‘humanism’ is increasingly being advocated as a central value. Ethical-political humanism is proposed to be a framework for combined scientific and normative discussion, in which values of individual, collectivity (cultures), and shared commonality come into play.

Keywords

engaged anthropology humanism social morality Eric R. Wolf

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Eric Wolf’s Ethical-political Humanism,and Beyond

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