***Please circulate widely***
***Sincere apologies for cross-posting***
On the eve of the 2016 AAA Meetings, HAU Books (www.haubooks.or) is delighted to announce the release of our 14th and 15th books:
DICTIONARY OF INDO-EUROPEAN CONCEPTS AND SOCIETY
by Émile Benveniste
Foreword by Giorgio Agamben
594 pp. | 6x9 | 3 Halftones
The release of this classic title is part of HAU’s program to revitalize a bidirectional dialogue between anthropology and the humanities, which will continue with our forthcoming publication of THE MYTHOLOGY IN OUR LANGUAGE: REMARKS ON FRAZER’S GOLDEN BOUGH by Ludwig Wittgenstein (pre-order here: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo20552337.html).
Visit our stall at the UChicago Press Booth at the AAA Meetings in Minneapolis to browse a Preview Copy.
Deliveries for this title will begin from next week.
Purchase your copy here: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/D/bo25521264.html
Since its publication in 1969, Émile Benveniste’s Vocabulaire—here in English translation as the Dictionary of Indo-European Concepts and Society—has been the classic reference for tracing the institutional and conceptual genealogy of the sociocultural worlds of gifts, contracts, sacrifice, hospitality, authority, freedom, ancient economy, and kinship. A comprehensive and comparative history of words with analyses of their underlying neglected genealogies and structures of signification and designation—and this via a masterful journey through Germanic, Romance, Indo-Iranian, Latin, and Greek languages—Benveniste’s dictionary is a must-read for anthropologists, linguists, literary theorists, classicists, and philosophers alike.
This book has famously inspired a wealth of thinkers, including Roland Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Giorgio Agamben, François Jullien, and many others. In this new volume, Benveniste’s masterpiece on the study of language and society finds new life for a new generation of scholars. As political fictions continue to separate and reify differences between European, Middle Eastern, and South Asian societies, Benveniste reminds us just how historically deep their interconnections are and that understanding the way our institutions are evoked through the words that describe them is more necessary than ever.
***Praise for HAU’s new edition of Benveniste’s DICTIONARY***
"A great book, an indispensable book: une promesse de bonheur ('a promise of happiness') as Stendhal would have said, for any reader curious to explore the intricacies and depths of the language she or he speaks.”
— Carlo Ginzburg, author of The Cheese and the Worms
"Benveniste’s erudition impresses and enthralls: every entry in this monumental work of learning is revelatory of unsuspected origins and connections among languages, cultures, and worlds of thought. A fundamental work not only of reference but also of inspiration for all scholars and all readers who love the web of words.”
— Lorraine Daston, author of Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150–1750 (with Katharine Park)
"This masterpiece of the human sciences of the twentieth century is crossed by a genuinely poetic impulse. Indo-European institutions do not appear so much as 'states' or as 'substances' but as living relationships in motion in the minds of men who think and speak. . . . This is why, by setting itself apart from works that are only similar in appearance, Benveniste’s Dictionary remains a totally unique work, which no inquiry in the humanities could do without.”
— Giorgio Agamben, author of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life
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VALUES OF HAPPINESS: TOWARD AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF PURPOSE IN LIFE
Edited by Iza Kavedžija and Harry Walker
Afterword by Joel Robbins
363 pp. | 6x9 | 1 halftone
Purchase your copy here: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/V/bo25469954.html
How people conceive of happiness reveals much about who they are and the values they hold dear. Drawing on ethnographic insights from diverse field sites around the world, this book offers a unique window onto the ways in which people grapple with fundamental questions about how to live and what it means to be human. Developing a distinctly anthropological approach concerned less with gauging how happy people are than with how happiness figures as an idea, mood, and motive in everyday life, the book explores how people strive to live well within challenging or even hostile circumstances.
The contributors explore how happiness intersects with dominant social values as well as an array of aims and aspirations that are potentially conflicting, demonstrating that not every kind of happiness is seen as a worthwhile aim or evaluated in positive moral terms. In tracing this link between different conceptions of happiness and their evaluations, the book engages some of the most fundamental questions concerning human happiness: What is it and how is it achieved? Is happiness everywhere a paramount value or aim in life? How does it relate to other ideas of the good? What role does happiness play in orienting peoples’ desires and life choices? Taking these questions seriously, the book draws together considerations of meaning, values, and affect, while recognizing the diversity of human ends.
***Praise for VALUES OF HAPPINESS***
"Values of Happiness is a thoughtful, thought-provoking, and often very moving book. As we are taken through people’s reflections on happiness in a wide range of cultural contexts, we see the extent to which happiness is rarely—well—happy. The authors use the complexities and ambiguities of this state of being to explore the ways in which happiness as both idea and experience inescapably shapes time, personhood, and social life."
— Sherry B. Ortner, author of Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject
"It is a great accomplishment of this collection that it shows us that happiness without value appears to be a rare occurrence. Even if there are very few societies in which happiness itself is the primary, overriding value people seek to realize—it is rarely the supervalue that rallies all others to its cause—we now know that happiness is routinely tied up with the disclosure and realization of values, and hence with the complexities of the personal and social management of time. This unusually rich collection of articles puts this important point before us, and in doing so redeems its promise of showing why happiness is an important subject of anthropological investigation."
— Joel Robbins, author of Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society
"This is wonderfully rich and stimulating collection of essays by some of the most creative and perceptive anthropologists writing at the moment. And the theme works brilliantly to cast questions about values and ideals, virtues and vices, aspiration, interdependence, and responsibility in a new and thought-provoking light."
— James Laidlaw, author of The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom
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HAU: JOURNAL OF ETHNOGRAPHIC THEORY — CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR SPECIAL ISSUES (2018-2019)
The editors of Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory are delighted to launch an international competition for special issues to be published in 2018 or 2019. Selected special issues, after publication in the journal, will be made available in paperback by HAU Books (printed and distributed by the University of Chicago Press). Previous titles, released as both a journal issue and later in revised form in paperback, include:
2015. Translating Worlds:The epistemological space of translation.
Edited by Carlo Severi and William F. Hanks.
2016. Values of Happiness: Toward an anthropology of purpose in life.
Edited by Iza Kavedžija and Harry Walker.
We wish to reach out and engage the widest community of scholars working in or from any part of the world to contribute, with groundbreaking work, to the emergence of new ethnographically-inspired theories fostering advances in human sciences and the understanding of current changes in society and modes of thought.
On the basis of the proposals received, the editors of HAU, in consultation with Editorial Board members, will select a shortlist for further consideration, and will notify guest editors about the acceptance within six months after the submission of the complete manuscript. Those short-listed will be asked to give names and contact details of 3 referees who have agreed, if requested, to give their confidential appraisal of the entirety of the submitted manuscript. Review reports will be requested from only one of these nominated referees as well as external reviewers nominated by the journal. The failure of referees nominated by the proposers to produce a timely report may lead to the rejection of the manuscript for publication. Final reports will be evaluated by the editors and selected members of the Editorial Board and a winner of the competition will be nominated.
Proposals should be submitted by 1 March 2017.
Near complete manuscripts will be required by 30 September 2017
A final decision based on reader’s reports will be given by March 2018.
The winning collection will be published in Autumn or Winter 2018, or Spring 2019.
To inquire or submit a proposal, please contact Michael Lambek, Interim Editor at [log in to unmask] or Giovanni da Col, Editor-in-Chief at [log in to unmask]
Download Call for Proposals Here: http://www.haujournal.org/media/HAU_Call_for_Special_Issues_2018-2019.pdf
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AAA ANNOUNCEMENT REMINDER
INTRODUCING: THE ANNUAL DEBATE OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL KEYWORDS (ADAK)
A partnership between HAU, the American Ethnological Society, and L’Homme
Thursday, November 17th @ 4:00 pm - 5:45 pm — Salon B (Hilton) — Minneapolis
We are pleased to announce that three scholarly organizations and journals, all from different countries and intellectual traditions—the American Ethnological Society (AES), HAU, and L’Homme—have joined to launch a new annual event for the development of anthropological theory: the Annual Debate of Anthropological Keywords (ADAK). The aim is to hold an annual debate around keywords and terms playing a pivotal and timely role in discussions of different cultures and societies. We are pleased to launch the first debate at the 2016 AAA meetings in Minneapolis with the keyword: FAKE.
The term "fake" covers a wide and timely terrain—forgery, faking it, copies, counterfeiting, make believe, frauds, parody, fake theory, plagiarism, fake documents, and so on. Even within academia we often deal with fakes, hoaxes, and frauds (or the fear of being a fraud), and with issues of plagiarism that highlight a delicate boundary between theft of knowledge or its imitation to generate novel views. Thus imposter religious figures, fake goods, fake identities, corrupted foods, counterfeit medications, copyrights and “copy left,” can all be employed towards the service or revelation of truth. Where trust and truth have been deemed the glue of human relationships and the motor of cooperative interactions, this roundtable will question how deception and mistrust seem to produce effective, albeit opaque forms of sociality. The roundtable will be organized as follows: an introduction to the topic and organization of the debate, timed presentations by each of the debaters, and then short responses to each other’s presentations, followed by an open question and answer session with the audience. This is a timely topic considering that the current political climate across the globe is filled with figures surrounded with auras of fakery and impostership—charlatans and professionals alike.
Organizers: Giovanni da Col (SOAS), Hugh Gusterson (George Washington University), Carole McGranahan (Colorado), Caterina Guenzi (EHESS), and Cléo Carastro (EHESS)
With the participation of:
John L. Jackson Jr. (University of Pennsylvania)
Veena Das (Johns Hopkins)
Gabriella Coleman (McGill)
Carlo Severi (EHESS)
Alexei Yurchak (UC Berkeley)
Giovanni da Col (University of London, SOAS)
Graham Jones (MIT)
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AAA ANNOUNCEMENT: JOIN HAU AND SAVAGE MINDS FOR A GLAMOROUS CELEBRATION AT THIS YEAR’S AAA MEETINGS IN MINNEAPOLIS, MN
At this year's AAA Meetings in Minneapolis, HAU once again teams up with Savage Minds (www.savageminds.org) to bring you the most glamorous anthropological reception of the year. We will hold our reception (cash bar) on Saturday, November 19th at 9:30 pm at the Constantine Bar, in the Hotel Ivy, 1115 2nd Ave S., Minneapolis. The venue is a few minutes walk from the Convention Center. Join us to celebrate the release of new titles, old projects, and exciting plans for the future of our discipline.
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SEMINAR SERIES (2016-2017): MASTERHOOD HOSPITALITY, AND MOBILITY (A partnership between the Centre for Ethnographic Theory (SOAS) and the Monogolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (Cambridge)
The notion of the ‘master/owner’ (Mong. ezen, Tib. bdag) is extraordinarily prevalent across Inner Asia. It appears not only as a multi-scalar idea in social realms, as a way of conceptualising the ruler of a state, guardian of property, host, or manager of a household; it is also evidently a cosmological notion, spanning a vast range from spirit owner or master of a territory to the ‘masters’ of wild animal species, geological formations, or even human-made implements. This master/owner concept is relational, and it implies many of the positional switches found in hospitality: the generosity to others, including strangers, expected of the host, but on the cosmological plane something like a reversal, when offerings are made by a human host to an invited master or owning spirit to give thanks or in hope of gaining favour. The ambiguity about who (when) is a host/master/owner, and who the guest, may be related - we suggest for debate - to the nature of a mobile society, where both human and spirit masters/owners circulate. These alternating relations we suggest may bear on seemingly paradoxical concepts of landscape, in particular understandings of the sacred sites where spirit masters hold sway, such as the Mongolian oboo, the Tibetan lha-tse, the Tyvan ovaa or the Buriat barisa, where it is characteristic for such a site to be seen both as a centre and as a boundary marker. Following the idea that some regions provide the opportunity to pursue particular problems in anthropological theory, we would like this seminar to pose the idea of the ‘master/owner’ as a concept-cum-heuristic. We aim in this way to reflect on the wider potential of ethnographic theory emerging from Inner Asia as a path to reconfiguring debates on the relation between place and power, incorporation and exclusion, cosmology and action and examine how these concepts and subjectivities are reproduced or domesticated by gendered rituals practices and strategies of alliance in the region.
The first two seminars are scheduled as follows:
Tuesday, 15 November
HOSTING, NOT HOSPITALITY
Adam Yuet Chau (FAMES, University of Cambridge)
4:30-6:00 pm, Mond Building Seminar Room,
Division of Social Anthropology, The Mond Building,
Free School Lane, Cambridge.
Tuesday, 29 November
MASTERS, GRANDMOTHERS, INDIGENES AND INCOMERS: MEDIATING MIGRATION AND BELONGING THROUGH WESTERN BURYAT RITUAL PRACTICE
Joseph Long (University of Aberdeen)
4:30-6:00 pm, Mond Building Seminar Room,
Division of Social Anthropology, The Mond Building,
Free School Lane, Cambridge.
Download Poster Here: http://www.haujournal.org/images/masterhood.jpg
All are welcome to attend.
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THE CENTRE FOR ETHNOGRAPHIC THEORY (SOAS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON) TO HOST TWO EVENTS THIS FALL:
"Play and Luck: A Study Day"
Join the Centre for Ethnographic Theory for a group study session on themes of "Play" and "Luck," and to celebrate the recent HAU Books release of Roberte Hamayon’s WHY WE PLAY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY (http://haubooks.org/why-we-play/).
Participants: Roberte Hamayon (EPHE), David Graeber (LSE), Erica Lagalisse (McGill), Michael Puett (Harvard), Carlo Severi (EHESS), and Givoanni da Col (SOAS)
Saturday, 26 November 2016, 2:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Paul Webley Wing
[Senate House North Block]
SOAS, University of London
Russell Square Campus
Event is free
http://www.haujournal.org/images/playluck_Nov2016.png
"Two or Three Things I Love/Hate About Ethnography: A Debate”
Join the Centre for Ethnographic Theory for a critical and timely debate on the place of epistemology in anthropology today.
Speakers: Rita Astuti (LSE), Signe Howell (Oslo), Tim Ingold (Aberdeen), and Danny Miller (University College London)
Tuesday, 29 November 2016, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT), Main Buildings
SOAS, University of London
Event is free
Attendees must register: bit.do/soasdebate
http://www.haujournal.org/images/soasdebate_Nov2016.png
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FORTHCOMING TITLES FROM HAU BOOKS
All titles for HAU Books can be pre-ordered or purchased from the University of Chicago Press website: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/publisher/pu3432000_3432001.html
***Coming Soon***
CLASSIC CONCEPTS IN ANTHROPOLOGY by Valerio Valeri, edited by Giovanni da Col and Rupert Stasch.
WORLD: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXAMINATION by Joăo de Pina-Cabral (Malinowski Monographs Series).
ON KINGS by David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins.
***Winter 2016/2017***
MYTHOLOGY IN OUR LANGUAGE: REMARKS ON FRAZER’S GOLDEN BOUGH by Ludwig Wittgenstein, translated with a preface by Stephan Palmié, edited by Giovanni da Col, with critical contributions by Veena Das, David Graeber, Wendy James, Heonik Kwon, Michael Lambek, Michael Puett, and Carlo Severi.
FROM HOSPITALITY TO GRACE: THE JULIAN PITT-RIVERS OMNIBUS edited by Giovanni da Col and Andrew Shryock.
***Spring 2017***
THE ART OF LIFE AND DEATH: RADICAL AESTHETICS AND ETHNOGRAPHIC PRACTICE Andrew Irving (Malinowski Monographs Series).
MISTRUST: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC THEORY Matthew Carey (Malinowski Monographs Series).
TWO LENINS: A BRIEF ANTHROPOLOGY OF TIME by Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov (Malinowski Monographs Series).
THE FIRE OF THE JAGUAR by Terence S. Turner.
RECIPROCITY AND REDISTRIBTUION IN ANDEAN CIVILIZATIONS (THE 1969 LEWIS HENRY MORGAN LECTURES) by John V. Murra, prepared by Heather Lechtman and Freda Yancy Wolf.
***Previously Released Titles***
GIFTS AND COMMODITIES by Chris Gregory (with a foreword by Marilyn Strathern)
THE ANTI-WITCH by Jeanne Favret-Saada (Translated by Matthew Carey with a foreword by Veena Das)
THE CHIMERA PRINCIPLE by Carlo Severi (Translated by Janet Lloyd with a foreword by David Graeber)
THE MEANING OF MONEY IN CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES by Emily Martin (with a foreword by Eleana Kim and an afterword by Jane Guyer and Sidney Mintz)
MAGIC: A THEORY FROM THE SOUTH by Ernesto de Martino (Translated by Dorothy Louise Zinn)
FOUR LECTURES ON ETHICS by Michael Lambek, Veena Das, Didier Fassin, and Webb Keane
TRANSLATING WORLDS: THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL SPACE OF TRANSLATIONS, edited by William F. Hanks and Carlo Severi
THE RELATIVE NATIVE by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (with an afterword by Roy Wagner)
COMPARING IMPOSSIBILITIES by Sally Falk Moore (with a foreword by John Borneman)
THE GIFT: EXPANDED EDITION by Marcel Mauss (Selected, introduced, and translated by Jane I. Guyer and with a foreword by Bill Maurer)
BEFORE AND AFTER GENDER: SEXUAL MYTHOLOGIES OF EVERYDAY LIFE by Marilyn Strathern (Edited with an introduction by Sarah Franklin, and with an afterword by Judith Butler)
WHY WE PLAY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY by Roberte Hamayon (Translated by Damien Simon and with a foreword by Michael Puett)
THE SEX THIEVES: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF A RUMOR by Julien Bonhomme (Translated by Dominic Horsfall and with a foreword by Philippe Descola)
DICTIONARY OF INDO-EUROPEAN CONCEPTS AND SOCIETY by Émile Benveniste (with a foreword by Giorgio Agamben)
VALUES OF HAPPINESS: TOWARD AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF PURPOSE IN LIFE edited by Iza Kavedžija and Harry Walker.
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~The HAU Editorial Team
Download as much as you like.
Circulate.
Print it.
Post it.
Spread the News.
The Gift Remains Free.
HAU: Open Access, Copy Left, Peer Reviewed
www.haubooks.org
www.haujournal.org
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