This article explores anthropology, power, and political engagement first by examining Eric Wolf's approach to power. His concern with structural power challenges our understanding of power as involving imposition and unequal outcomes. It then moves on to consider how ethnographers identify power, from overt conflicts to subtle hegemonies. Although the various ethnographic strategies are insightful, the full extent of structural power does not and cannot emerge directly from empirical material. It requires, in addition, comparisons to other possible states of affairs arising from the theories and values of the social analyst. They function as the inverse of power, illustrating its presence and workings by contrasts. These `counterpart ideals' are ever-present in anthropology and other social sciences, yet we rarely talk about them openly or acknowledge their role in our analysis. One cannot identify a single true or foundational counterpart ideal, yet we can have an open dialogue about them, grounded in rigorous empirical and analytical knowledge. Hence, the article finishes by outlining various possible counterpart ideals for anthropologists and their uses in helping to identify power. The goal is to stimulate further dialogue on the social sciences, power, and political engagement.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abu-Lughod, Lila (1993) Writing Women's Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press .
2.
Barrett, Stanley R., Sean Stokholm and Jeanette Burke (2001) `The Idea of Power and the Power of Ideas: A Review Essay' , American Anthropologist103: 468-480 .
3.
Bornstein, Avram (2001) `Ethnography and the Politics of Prisoners in Palestine-Israel' , Journal of Contemporary Ethnography30: 546-574 .
4.
Campbell, Howard (1994) Zapotec Renaissance: Ethnic Politics and Cultural Revivalism in Southern Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press .
5.
Campbell, Howard, Leigh Binford, Miguel Bartolomé and Alicia Barabas, eds (1993) Zapotec Struggles: Histories, Politics and Representations from Juchitán, Oaxaca. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press .
6.
Caplan, Pat (2002) `Anthropology as a Moral Discipline: Social Justice, Human Rights, and Ethics' , Keynote lecture, Canadian Anthropological Society/Société Canadienne d'Anthropologie, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 3 May 2002.
7.
Cohen, Abner (1974) Two-Dimensional Man: An Essay on the Anthropology of Power and Symbolism in Complex Society. Berkeley: University of California Press .
8.
D'Andrade, Roy (1995) `Moral Models in Anthropology' , Current Anthropology36: 399-408, 420-440 .
9.
Di Leonardo, Micaela (1998) Exotics at Home: Anthropologies, Others, American Modernity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
10.
Dombrowski, Kirk (2001) Against Culture: Development, Politics, and Religion in Indian Alaska. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press .
11.
Dumont, Louis (1977) From Mandeville to Marx: The Genesis and Triumph of Economic Ideology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
12.
Dumont, Louis (1986) Essays on Individualism: Modern Ideology in Anthropological Perspective. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
13.
Elias, Norbert (1971) Was ist Soziologie? Munich: Juventa Verlag .
14.
Foucault, Michel (1970) The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Random House .
15.
Fraser, Nancy (1989) `Foucault on Modern Power: Empirical Insights and Normative Confusions', in Nancy Fraser Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press .
16.
Fraser, Nancy (1997) `From Redistribution to Recognition: Dilemmas of Justice in a “Post-Socialist” Age', in Nancy Fraser Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the `Post-Socialist' Condition, pp. 11-40. London: Routledge .
17.
Fried, Morton H. (1967) The Evolution of Political Society: An Essay in Political Anthropology. New York: Random House .
18.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo (1983) The Power of the Poor in History: Selected Writings. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books .
19.
Gutman, Herbert G. (1976) Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America: Essays in American Working-Class and Social History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf .
20.
Habermas, Jürgen (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action: Vol 2, Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Trans. Thomas McCarthy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press .
21.
Hawthorn, Geoffrey (1991) Plausible Worlds: Possibility and Understanding in History and the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
22.
Heyman, Josiah McC. (1998) Finding a Moral Heart for US Immigration Policy: An Anthropological Perspective. Washington, DC: American Anthropological Association .
23.
Lukes, Steven (1974) Power: A Radical View. London: Macmillan .
24.
Malinowski, Bronislaw (1973 [1939]) `The Group and Individual in Functional Analysis', in Paul Bohannon and Mark Glazer (eds) Highpoints in Anthropology, pp. 275-293. New York: Alfred A. Knopf .
25.
Messer, Ellen (1993) `Anthropology and Human Rights' , Annual Review of Anthropology22: 221-249 .
26.
Miller, Daniel (2001) The Dialectics of Shopping. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
27.
Mintz, Sidney W. (1960) Worker in the Cane: A Puerto Rican Life History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
28.
Moore, Barrington, Jr (1978) Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt. White Plains, NY: M.E. Sharpe .
29.
Nash, June C. (1993 [1979]) We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us: Dependency and Exploitation in Bolivian Tin Mines (revised edn). New York: Columbia University Press .
30.
Nash, June C. (2001) Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization. New York: Routledge .
31.
Rappaport, Roy A. (1979) Ecology, Meaning, and Religion. Richmond, CA: North Atlantic Books .
32.
Rappaport, Roy A. (1999) Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
33.
Rawls, John (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
34.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (1992) Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press .
35.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (1995) `The Primacy of the Ethical: Propositions for a Militant Anthropology' , Current Anthropology36: 409-440 .
36.
Scott, James C. (1985) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
37.
Scott, James C. (1990) Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
38.
Sen, Amartya (1999) Development as Freedom. New York: Random House .
39.
Taussig, Michael T. (1980) The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press .
40.
Tetlock, Philip, and Aaron Belkin, eds (1996) Counterfactual Thought Experiments in World Politics: Logical, Methodological, and Psychological Perspectives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
41.
Thompson, E.P. (1963) The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Pantheon Books .
42.
Trigger, Bruce G. (1976) The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press .
43.
Turner, Bryan (1993) `Outline of a Theory of Human Rights' , Sociology27: 489-512 .
44.
Turner, Victor W. (1969) The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago, IL: Aldine .
45.
Vincent, Joan (1990) Anthropology and Politics: Visions, Traditions, and Trends. Tucson: University of Arizona Press .
46.
Wilson, Richard A. (1997a) `Human Rights, Culture, and Context: An Introduction', in Richard A. Wilson (ed.) Human Rights, Culture, and Context: Anthropological Perspectives, pp. 1-27. London: Pluto Press .
47.
Wilson, Richard A., ed. (1997b) Human Rights, Culture, and Context: Anthropological Perspectives. London: Pluto Press .
48.
Wilson, Richard A. (2001) The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
49.
Wolf, Eric R. (1969) Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper and Row .
50.
Wolf, Eric R. (1974a [1969]) `American Anthropologists and American Society', in Dell Hymes (ed.) Reinventing Anthropology, pp. 251-263. New York: Vintage .
51.
Wolf, Eric R. (1974b [1964]) Anthropology. New York: W.W. Norton .
52.
Wolf, Eric R. (1982) Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California Press .
53.
Wolf, Eric R. (1999) Envisioning Power: Ideologies of Dominance and Crisis. Berkeley: University of California Press .
54.
Wolf, Eric R. (2001 [1990]) `Facing Power - Old Insights, New Questions', in Eric W. Wolf, Pathways of Power: Building an Anthropology of the Modern World, pp. 383-397. Berkeley: University of California Press .
55.
Yanagisako, Sylvia J., and Carol L. Delaney, eds (1995) Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis. New York: Routledge .
56.
Yelvington, Kevin A. (1995) Producing Power: Ethnicity, Gender, and Class in a Caribbean Workplace. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press .
