The pursuit of certainty
Subtitle: religious and cultural formulations
By: edited by Wendy James.
Contributors: James, Wendy.; Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth. Conference
Series: The uses of knowledge
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1995
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 316
Subjects: Philosophical anthropology; Religion -- Cross-cultural studies; Toleration -- Cross-cultural studies; Pluralism (Social sciences)
Description: The peoples of the world are now facing economic integration and social interaction on a wider scale than ever before. But has this produced a greater sense of common reason, or shared world citizenship? Contemporary global communication, itself celebrating diversity, has paradoxically stimulated local commitments to exclusive ethnic, cultural and religious identity.

The chapters in this book explore the ways in which anthropology can throw light on these diverging new 'certainties', often possessive of place, bodily substance or cultural heritage and often claiming divine justification.

The Pursuit of Certainty is a convincing demonstration of anthropology's relevance to the contemporary world and its turbulence. It offers ground-level insights into a growing global consensus about the primacy of cultural difference; into the shrill new certainties which are spreading in some areas though being resisted in others: and into the 'post-Enlightenment' rise of religious justification in human affairs.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Based on papers from the 4th Decennial Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth held in Oxford in 1993.