Culture still matters: notes from the field

Varisco's Culture Still Matters: Notes from the Field is on the relationship between ethnographic fieldwork and the culture concept in the ongoing debate over the future of anthropology, drawing on the history of both concepts. Despite being the major social science that offers a methodology and tools to understand diverse cultures worldwide, scholars within and outside anthropology have attacked this field for all manner of sins, including fostering colonialism and essentializing others. This book revitalizes constructive debate of this vibrant field's history, methods and contributions, drawing on the author's ethnographic experience in Yemen. It covers complicated theoretical concepts about culture and their critiques in readable prose, accessible to students and interested social scientists in other fields

Introduction /Daniel Martin Varisco -- Culture is Not a Text /Daniel Martin Varisco -- On Not Reading against Culture /Daniel Martin Varisco -- On to the Logic of Being There /Daniel Martin Varisco -- Beyond the End of Anthropology /Daniel Martin Varisco.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword: Bodies of Culture: In Response to Daniel Varisco -- Foreword: Sorts of Culture -- Prologue: A Fable -- Introduction -- 1 Looking for and at Culture -- 2 In an Anthropological Mode -- 3 Anthropology Up against the Wall -- 4 Being in the Field -- 5 Writing for Cultural Concepts -- Chapter 1 Culture is Not a Text -- 1 Text as Pretext Out of Context -- 2 Texting Out of Context -- 3 Culture beyond Texts -- 4 So What is Culture? -- Chapter 2 On Not Reading against Culture -- 1 Culture vs Discourse -- 2 Writing against Culture -- Chapter 3 On to the Logic of Being There -- 1 Why Being There Matters -- 2 Reflecting after Yemen -- 3 Flies in the Ointment -- 4 Sick and Tired -- 5 A Matter of Fact -- 6 Picturing Fieldwork -- 7 Final Refractions -- Chapter 4 Beyond the End of Anthropology -- 1 Modern or Postmodern? -- 2 Back to the Tool Box -- Bibliography -- Index.