Breaking the Frames

CHAPTER 10

For a Mindful Anthropology

AbstractMindful anthropology brings together theory and description.
Thus, whatever theory we adopt should apply cogently to the data rather
than being foisted fashionably on it. It is based on engagement with the
data, and a raising of consciousness about it. We must not allow theory to
become a straitjacket or a dogma. As new theories come up, practitioners
should not reify them. A mindful anthropology remains open-ended in its
views of theories, and is open to new twists of analysis. Mindfulness maps
well onto embodiment theory as well as phenomenology, and depends
always on detail. Mindful anthropology promotes creativity and thought-
ful analysis, focusing on people and their actions. Mindful anthropology is
not a rigid form of theory but an orientation towards all forms of theoriz-
ing and analysis.

KeywordsConsciousness
Details
Dogma
Engagement
Marxism

Now time

Mindful anthropology is not a theory, but an aspiration for the discipline
as a whole which can influence the ways in which theories are constructed
and evaluated. Mindfulness implies keeping in mind that our topic of
enquiry is the lives that people lead, so the investigation has to be peo-
ple-centered, and it has to take into account that we deal both with
individuals and with collectivities. This may seem a needlessly obvious

© The Author(s) 2017
P.J. Stewart, A.J. Strathern,Breaking the Frames,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47127-3_10

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