“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

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.

Series: Volume 36, Methodology & History in Anthropology

Subject: Theory and Methodology Sociology Anthropology of Religion

Area:

LC: BJ1406 .E64 2019

BL: DS 5746.447700

BISAC: PHI005000 PHILOSOPHY/Ethics & Moral Philosophy; PHI008000 PHILOSOPHY/Good & Evil; SOC051000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Violence in Society

BIC: HPQ Ethics & moral philosophy; JFFE Violence in society