Description
Book SynopsisThe longing for authenticity, on an individual or collective level, connects the search for external expressions to internal orientations. What is largely referred to as production of authenticity is a reformulation of cultural values and norms within the ongoing process of modernity, impacted by globalization and contemporary transnational cultural flows. This collection interrogates the notion of authenticity from an anthropological point of view and considers authenticity in terms of how meaning is produced in and through discourses about authenticity. Incorporating case studies from four continents, the topics reach from art and colonialism to exoticism-primitivism, film, ritual and wilderness. Some contributors emphasise the dichotomy between the academic use of the term and the one deployed in public spaces and political projects. All, however, consider authenticity as something that can only be understood ethnographically, and not as a simple characteristic or category used t
Trade Review
"Debating Authenticity is an authentic representation of the state of play in contemporary anthropology." · American Anthropologist
“Debating Authenticity presents the reader with a rich collection of ethnographic case studies, unpacking the complexity of the concept in various social settings across the globe.” · The Australian Journal of Anthropology
Table of Contents Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Authenticity Aujourd’hui
Thomas Fillitz and A. Jamie Saris
PART I: AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHENTICATING
Chapter 1. Revisiting “Culture, Genuine and Spurious:” Reflections on Icons and Politics in Ireland
A. Jamie Saris
Chapter 2. Deceptive Tentacles of the Authenticating Mind: on Authenticity and Some Other Notions that are Good for Absolutely Nothing
Rajko Muršič
PART II: MORAL DISCOURSES OF AUTHENTICITY
Chapter 3. Authentic Wilderness: The Production and Experience of Nature in America
Lawrence J. Taylor
Chapter 4. The Moral Economy of Authenticity. And the Invention of Traditions in
Franche-Comté (France)
Jean-Pierre Warnier
Chapter 5. Oh, That’s So Typical!” Discussing Some Spanish “Authentic” Essential Traits
Jorge Grau Rebollo
PART III: AUTHENTICITY: POPULAR AND ACADEMIC DISCOURSES
Chapter 6. Is Form Really Primary or, What Makes Things Authentic? Sociality and Materiality in Afro Brazilian Ritual and Performance
Inger Sjørslev
Chapter 7. Cultural Search for Authenticity: Questioning Primitivism and Exotic Art
Paul Van der Grijp
Chapter 8. Wooden Pillars and Mural Paintings in the Saudi Southwest: Notes on Continuity, Authenticity, and Artistic Change in Regional Traditions
Andre Gingrich
Chapter 9. True to Life: Authenticity and the Photographic Image
Marcus Banks
PART IV: ENTANGLED SPACES OF AUTHENTICITY
Chapter 10. Questions of Authenticity and Legitimacy in the Work of Henri Gaden (1867-1939)
Roy Dilley
Chapter 11. Constructing Culture Through Shared Location, Bricolage and Exchange: the Case of Gypsies and Roma
Judith Okely
Chapter 12. Cultural Regimes of Authenticity and Contemporary Art of Africa
Thomas Fillitz
Notes on Contributors
Index
