Toward an Anthropology of the Will

Toward an Anthropology of the Will is the first book that systematically explores volition from an ethnographically informed anthropological point of view. While philosophers have for centuries puzzled over the degree to which individuals are free to choose how to act in the world, anthropologists have either assumed that the will is a stable, constant fact of the human condition or simply ignored it. Although they are usually quite comfortable discussing the relationship between culture and cognition or culture and emotion, anthropologists have not yet focused on how culture and volition are interconnected.

The contributors to this book draw upon their unique insights and research experience to address fundamental questions, including: What forms does the will take in culture? How is willing experienced? How does it relate to emotion and cognition? What does imagination have to do with willing? What is the connection between morality, virtue, and willing? Exploring such questions, the book moves beyond old debates about freedom and determinacy to demonstrate how a richly nuanced anthropological approach to the cultural experience of willing can help shape theories of social action in the human sciences.

Author: Keith M. Murphy
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 02/10/2010
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780804768870

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2011
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2010 pg. 11

About the Author
Keith M. Murphy is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. C. Jason Throop is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.