Boasian Verse: The Poetic and Ethnographic Work of Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead

Boasian Verse examines the poetic output of three major twentieth-century anthropologists, exploring the representations of cultural others and the uses of ethnographic studies for cultural critique. It questions why they chose to write poetry about their ethnographic endeavors and whether it allowed them to transcend their own primitivist tendencies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 182 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Boasian verse delves into the lesser-explored poetic works of three prominent twentieth-century anthropologists: Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead. By conducting a comparative analysis of their anthropological and poetic outputs, this volume explores the diverse representations of cultural "others" and the applications of ethnographic studies for cultural critique. Its primary objectives include:

Why did these anthropologists opt to write poetry about their ethnographic endeavors?

Why did they choose to write in the specific styles they employed?

Did poetry offer them unique approaches to studying the objects of their research, perhaps leading to more ethical and effective methodologies?

Or did poetry rather reinforce or amplify their own primitivist or evolutionary tendencies?

This comprehensive exploration of these ethnographic poems invites both cultural anthropologists and scholars of literature to reassess the Boasian legacy of cultural relativism, primitivism, and residual evolutionism in the twenty-first century. Moreover, this volume provides a fresh perspective on some of the critical texts that have shaped twentieth- and twenty-first-century discussions of culture and cultural relativism, making it a valuable contribution to readers interested in the dynamic field of multimodal anthropologies.

Weight: 520g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032211411