Breaking the Frames

CHAPTER 1

Framing History

AbstractRetrospective histories of anthropology often involve accounts
of how one viewpoint supersedes another, as for example, in the transition
between‘armchair anthropology’and the emphasis on‘fieldwork’in
British social anthropology. Such accounts conceal the continuity among
scholars such as Frazer, Malinowski, and Radcliffe-Brown. Nevertheless,
real changes do occur, as when Malinowski injected a theory of perfor-
mance into the study of magic instead of Frazer’s rationalist scheme
regarding magic as pseudoscience. I.C. Jarvie in turn criticized the work
of the functionalists, using the case of cargo cults in the Pacific, and
arguing that a new theory was needed to account for change, highlighting
situational logic.

KeywordsArmchair anthropology
Cargo cults
Fieldwork
I. C. Jarvie

Magic
Performance

In the history of anthropology, one of the standard transitions that has been
invoked has been the supposed shift from‘armchair anthropology’ to
intensive fieldwork. ‘Armchair’here carries the implication of distance
from the materials and concomitantly a lack of engagement with the lives
of the people studied.‘Fieldwork’implies the opposite:first-hand observa-
tion and participation, leading to more reliable and in-depth information.

© The Author(s) 2017
P.J. Stewart, A.J. Strathern,Breaking the Frames,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47127-3_

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