Table of Contents

Introduction. An Ethnographer among the Anthropologists  1
1. The World at Hand: Between Scientific and Literary Inquiry  15
2. A Method of Experience: Reading, Writing, Teaching, Fieldwork  44
3. For the Humanity Yet to Come: Politics, Art, Fiction, Ethnography  77
Coda. The Anthropologist as Critic  110
Acknowledgments  123
Notes  127
Bibliography  141
Index  155

About the Author

Anand Pandian teaches anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. His books include Reel World: An Anthropology of Creation and the coedited volume Crumpled Paper Boat: Experiments in Ethnographic Writing, both also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews

“Incorporating the current movements beyond 'writing culture' of twentieth-century anthropology, Anand Pandian reinstantiates the poetics of an ethnographic method that anticipates futures. In the midst of a surge of multimodal experimentation, Pandian stunningly reinvests in the narrative character of ethnography.” - George E. Marcus, coauthor of (Ethnography by Design: Scenographic Experiments in Fieldwork) “Offering the daring gambit of revisiting anthropology's past to make it new, and critically meditating, too, upon the field's latest theoretical moves, Anand Pandian's captivating book is a stirring brief for ethnography as a method for exploring that which is and may yet be possible.” - Stefan Helmreich, author of (Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond) "This is a book that practicing anthropologists and students of anthropology must both read." - Shweta Krishnan (Anthropology Book Forum) "A Possible Anthropology is bold, caring, and creative in trying to confront these issues head on, in trying to imagine some other kind of world." - Andrés Romero (Cultural Anthropology) "With a focus on figures in the discipline’s past and current practices, A Possible Anthropology contributes to debates about the future of anthropological inquiry (and the ethnographic method) in academia and the wider world. It is an evocative and inspired book, clearly written and rigorous." - Adam Fleischmann (Anthropological Quarterly) "This book is an inspirational joy and a read I recommend." - Robert Meckin (Qualitative Research) “Pandian has offered a strong work. . . . A Possible Anthropology is indeed a hopeful book for uneasy times, that encourages us to dive deeper into an anthropological way of engaging with the world.” - Julia Nina Baumann (Anthropos)