Engaging Evil: A Moral Anthropology

by William C. Olsen (Editor), Thomas J. Csordas (Editor)

Overview

Anthropologists have expressed wariness about the concept of evil even in discussions of morality and ethics, in part because the concept carries its own cultural baggage and theological implications in Euro-American societies. Addressing the problem of evil as a distinctly human phenomenon and a category of ethnographic analysis, this volume shows the usefulness of engaging evil as a descriptor of empirical reality where concepts such as violence, criminality, and hatred fall short of capturing the darkest side of human existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789202144
Publisher:	Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/03/2019
Series:	Methodology & History in Anthropology , #36
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	322
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

William C. Olsen is a lecturer for anthropology and African studies at Georgetown University.

Thomas J. Csordas is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and James Y. Chan Presidential Chair in Global Health at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Introduction
William C. Olsen and Thomas Csordas

PART I: EVIL AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Chapter 1. From Theodicy to Homodicy: Evil as an Anthropological Problem
Thomas Csordas

Chapter 2. On the Concept of “Evil” in Anthropological Analyses and Political Violence
Byron Good

PART II: EVIL AND SUFFERING

Chapter 3. Speak No Evil: Inversion and Evasion in Indonesia
Andrew Beatty

Chapter 4. Mother Evil in Hell Valley: A Creole Transvalorisation of Evil in Trinidad
Roland Littlewood

Chapter 5. Satan on the Old Kent Road: Articulations of Evil in a Pentecostal Diaspora
Simon Coleman

Chapter 6. The Transformation of Evil in Nepal
David Gellner

Chapter 7. Radical Evil and the Notion of Conscience: A Buddhist Meditation on Christian Soteriology
Gananath Obeyesekere

Chapter 8. Are Spirits Satanic? The Ambiguity of Evil in Niger
Adeline Masqulier

PART III: EVIL AND VIOLENCE

Chapter 9. Engaging Evil and Excess in Palestine / Israel
Julie Peteet

Chapter 10. The Violence of Evil: A Biocultural Approach to Violence, Memory, and Pain
Ventura Perez

Chapter 11. The Intention of Evil: Asram in Asante
William C. Olsen

Chapter 12. Monsters, Sadists, and the Unspectacular Torture Experience
Nerina Weiss

Afterword
David Parkin
 

Editorial Reviews

“The volume brings nuance, complexity and ethnographic thickness to recent debates in moral anthropology, showing that anthropology is far from being ‘secure’ in its distinction between good and evil while studying suffering, and that an anthropology of evil must complement the anthropology of the good. The book is a must for anthropologists working on morality, but it is also an enticing invitation for those working on suffering, violence and structural injustice to explore the usefulness of evil as analytical category, beyond the study of emic notions.” • Social Anthropology

“The various contributions offer a rich and highly variegated overview of how anthropologists have dealt with ‘evil’ and thus give a good idea of the baffling variety hiding behind this notion.” • Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam

From the Publisher