About the Author

James T. Siegel is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Cornell University. His most recent books are Naming the Witch; A New Criminal Type in Jakarta: Counter-Revolution Today; Fetish, Recognition, Revolution; and Solo in the New Order: Language and Hierarchy in an Indonesian City.

Reviews

"To read this book of essays by James Siegel is to embark on that rarest and most exciting of journeys; in the process of moving with him across the varied terrain of his own intellectual career, one's thought is transformed. Objects and Objections of Ethnography comprises old and new essays on classical topics in social anthropology, considered anew as contemporary questions and addressed with uncompromising originality. In places as far flung as Paris and Atjeh, Siegel meditates on the idea of the fetish, the relationship between the living and the dead, and the question of the stranger. Here too are analyses of the state and the politics of recognition, of the discourse of ethnicity, of trauma theory and the sublime, and of the anxieties afflicting museology today. At times startling, sometimes perplexing, always brave, frequently beautiful, and ultimately persuasive, this book is a challenge and a joy to read. In my opinion, no other anthropologist writing today can lay stronger claim to the word 'brilliant.'" -- -Rosalind C. Morris Columbia University "Jim Siegel is one of the strongest thinkers in the discipline of anthropology. Academic careers have been made on the basis of one good idea. Each of these essays develops a whole flotilla of good ideas, while placing the methods and objects of anthropology in an entirely new light. An outstanding work." -- -Danilyn Rutherford University of California, Santa Cruz