Contrary to the negative assessments of the social order that have become prevalent in the media since 9/11, this wide-ranging collection of essays, mostly by social anthropologists, focuses instead on the enormous social creativity being invested as collective identities are reconfigured. Using fieldwork findings drawn from Africa, Asia, and Europe, special emphasis is placed on the reformulation of ethnic and gender relationships and identities in the cultural, social, political, and religious realms of public life. Under what circumstances does trust arise, paving the way for friendship, collegiality, knowledge creation, national unity, or emergence of leadership? How is social life constructed as a collective endeavour? Does the means towards sociability become its end? And what can be said about the agency and collegiality of women? The inspiration for examining these conundrums is the work and persona of Shirley Ardener, to whom the volume is dedicated.

Contributors: Jonathan Benthall, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Gina Buijs, Sandra Burman, Hilary Callan, Gaynor Cohen, Janette Davies, Tamara Dragadze, Ronnie Frankenberg, Peter Geschiere, Kirsten Hastrup, Paula Heinonen, Maria Jaschok, Grazyna Kubica, Rhian Loudon, Sharon Macdonald, Zdzislaw Mach, Fiona Moore, Judith Okely, Lidia D. Sciama, Shui Jingjun, Cecillie Swaisland, Jacqueline Waldren, Jonathan Webber.

Contrary to the negative assessments of the social order that have become prevalent in the media since 9/11, this wide-ranging collection of essays, mostly by social anthropologists, focuses instead on the enormous social creativity being invested as collective identities are reconfigured. Using fieldwork findings drawn from Africa, Asia, and Europe, special emphasis is placed on the reformulation of ethnic and gender relationships and identities in the cultural, social, political, and religious realms of public life. Under what circumstances does trust arise, paving the way for friendship, collegiality, knowledge creation, national unity, or emergence of leadership? How is social life constructed as a collective endeavour? Does the means towards sociability become its end? And what can be said about the agency and collegiality of women? The inspiration for examining these conundrums is the work and persona of Shirley Ardener, to whom the volume is dedicated.

Contributors: Jonathan Benthall, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Gina Buijs, Sandra Burman, Hilary Callan, Gaynor Cohen, Janette Davies, Tamara Dragadze, Ronnie Frankenberg, Peter Geschiere, Kirsten Hastrup, Paula Heinonen, Maria Jaschok, Grazyna Kubica, Rhian Loudon, Sharon Macdonald, Zdzislaw Mach, Fiona Moore, Judith Okely, Lidia D. Sciama, Shui Jingjun, Cecillie Swaisland, Jacqueline Waldren, Jonathan Webber.

Preface

Introduction: The Artistry of Social Life
Deborah Fahy Bryceson

PART I: FASHIONING IDENTITIES

Chapter 1. Changing Cultures, Changing Rooms: Fashioning Identities and Anthropological Research
Sharon Macdonald

Chapter 2. Identity at Play: Individuals, Characters, and Theatres of Action
Kirsten Hastrup

Chapter 3. Constructing Identities in a Post-Communist Society: Ethnic, National, and European
Zdzisław Mach

Chapter 4. Making Sense of the Past: Reflections on Jewish Historical Consciousness
Jonathan Webber

Chapter 5. A Sense of People and Place: The Chapel and Language in Sustaining Welsh Identity
Gaynor Cohen

Chapter 6. Towards an Ethnography of Colleagueship
Hilary Callan

PART II: GENDER AGENCY AND NETWORKS

Chapter 7. Thinking the Unheard, Writing the Unwritten: Reflecting on Marginality, Ethnography, and Texts
Maria Jaschok in dialogue with Shui Jingjun

Chapter 8. The Women’s Movement: The Formative Years, 1850–1930
Cecillie Swaisland

Chapter 9. A Good Lady, Androgynous Angel, and Intrepid Woman: Maria Czaplicka in Feminist Profile
Grażyna Kubica

Chapter 10. ‘Ritual Sisters’ or Female Rulers? Gender and Chiefship Revisited in Southern Africa
Gina Buijs

Chapter 11. Revolting, Revolutionary, and Rebellious Women: Symbolic Disruption of Traditional Femininity and the Liberation of Femineity and Other Muted Identities
Rhian Loudon and Ronnie Frankenberg

Chapter 12. What Women Really Want: Gender, Ethnicity, and Job Expectations on an Automobile Factory Assembly Line
Fiona Moore

Chapter 13. Can You Call This Fieldwork? September in Venice
Lidia D. Sciama

Chapter 14. Gendered Lessons in Ivory Towers
Judith Okely

AFTERWORDS: IN CELEBRATION OF SHIRLEY ARDENER

Gendering Oxford: Shirley Ardener and Cross-Cultural Research
Janette Davies and Jacqueline Waldren

Shirley Ardener’s Habitus
Jonathan Benthall

Circumstance, Personality, and Anthropology
Tamara Dragadze

Shirley in My Mind
Grażyna Kubica

Titi ikoli in the Academy
Sharon Macdonald

Going the Extra Mile
Sandra Burman

Her Powers of Persuasion
Fiona Moore

Shirley Ardener: Mentor and Friend
Paula Heinonen

The African Connection in Oxford
Gina Buijs

Shirley’s African Roots
Cecillie Swaisland

Returning to ‘The Mountain’
Peter Geschiere

Shirley’s Magic
Jonathan Webber

List of Published Works by Shirley Ardener
Notes on the Contributors
Index