The Objects of Evidence
Anthropological Approaches to the Production of Knowledge
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Special Issue Book Series
1. Edition March 2009
170 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Part of The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Special Issue Book Series, the contributors to this volume
share the conviction that anthropology can no longer afford to
ignore the importance of the concept of evidence, either for the
ways in which anthropologists carry out their work (methodology) or
present and justify their findings (epistemology).
* Demonstrates that evidence is something that all
anthropologists must possess
* Shows how the collection of evidence in the field is still,
without doubt, one of the main ingredients of what Bronislaw
Malinowski once referred to as 'the ethnographer's
magic'
* Reveals how the concept of evidence has received little
sustained attention in print - especially when compared
to related concepts, such as 'fieldwork', 'truth', 'facts', and
'knowledge'
* Argued from a variety of theoretical perspectives and a rarity
in its ability to orchestrate some many different - and
vibrant - paradigms and points of view
Foreword ix
Preface xi
1 Matthew Engelke The objects of evidence 1
2 Maurice Bloch Truth and sight: generalizing without universalizing 21
3 Christopher Pinney The prosthetic eye: photography as cure and poison 31
4 Anthony Good Cultural evidence in courts of law 44
5 Sharad Chari The antinomies of political evidence in post-Apartheid Durban, South Africa 58
6 Stefan Ecks Three propositions for an evidence-based medical anthropology 74
7 Martin Holbraad Definitive evidence, from Cuban gods 89
8 Webb Keane The evidence of the senses and the materiality of religion 105
9 Charles Stafford Linguistic and cultural variables in the psychology of numeracy 122
10 Nicola Knight & Rita Astuti Some problems with property ascription 135
Index 151
evidence into a productive inquiry." (Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, January 2011)
'A satisfyingly complex and lucid collection, these essays
are ordered to create a ripple effect of themes and arguments that
emerge as related, overlapping and contingent to one another - a
nice reflection on the substance of the authors' concerns with
evidence. Compulsive, not just imperative, reading for anyone
engaged with the analysis of field materials.'
Marilyn Strathern, Girton College, University of
Cambridge
'Objects of Evidence provides signal advances to thinking
about two topics of fundamental importance, namely the anthropology
of epistemology - how people make claims to knowledge - and the
epistemology of anthropology - the claims on which anthropological
knowledge rests.'
Michael Lambek, University of Toronto
