Frienship Theme List

By Joshua Friesen

In an early publication of Cultural Anthropology Pierre Bourdieu asks, “What does the fact of thinking within a scholastic space, an academic space, imply? (1990, 380).  The production of this theme list was motivated by a variant of Bourdieu’s question.  As George Marcus made clear in his inaugural introduction to CA, this journal intends to engage its reader’s scholarly activities as much as it wishes to observe and comment on them (1986). In light of this emphasis on practice, Bourdieu’s question can be answered, at least in part, through an examination of the practiced relationships that permeate academia, and the field site.  This essay focuses on one such type of relationship – friendship.

As Paul Rabinow notes in his essay Science as Practice friendship, and more specifically the type of friendship Aristotle called philia, is a “primary site of thinking” (1996, 13).  Rabinow views philia as an “epistemological practice”, something that displaces the bilateral exchange between observers and observed advocated by, among others, the stoics (ibid, 15). Ultimately, philia replaces bilateral dualism with an “inherently triangular” relationship between two people and their common interest (ibid, 15). This short introduction to the theme-list of friendship attempts to notice some of the diverse perspectives on friendship as a ‘site for thinking’ found in just a few articles culled from CA’s publication history.

Working relationships between colleagues and the type of scholarship made possible by new forms of interpersonal dialogue and critique have been written about throughout CA’s history (see for instance Bourdieu 1990; Bruner 1986; Marcus 1987, 1991).  Friendship is also discussed by those who are interested in patterns of intellectual influence (Lurhman, 1990).  This ‘abstract’ type of friendship – a friendship without direct physical contact – is further explored by researchers studying online, and ‘imagined’ communities (Lysloff 2003; Ortner 1998).  An ethnographic investigation of inter-group friendship between physical communities is also available (for instance Levy, 2003), as are discussions of the ethical considerations that direct field relationships necessitate (Castañeda 2006 ; Kirschner 1987; Pazderic 2004).  Finally, many articles have been published about the mode in which anthropological information is transmitted. These articles often investigate how the dimensions of a particular ‘site of thinking’ impinge upon the results of that thinking, as well as the method used to convey those results (Foley 1986; Foster 1986; Keltey et al. 2008; Kondo 1986; Rogers 1999; Tyler 1986).  

Anthropology of/In Circulation: The Future of Open Access and Scholarly Societies
Christopher M. Kelty, Michael M. J. Fischer, Alex “Rex” Golub, Jason Baird Jackson, Kimberly Christen, Michael F. Brown, and Tom Boellstorff 
Cultural Anthropology 23, no. 3 (2008): 559–588.
Supplemental Material

Anthropology and the New Technologies of Communication
Brian Keith Axel
Cultural Anthropology 21, no. 3 (2006): 354–384.
Supplemental Material

Ethnography in the Forest: An Analysis of Ethics in the Morals of Anthropology
Quetzil E. Castañeda  
Cultural Anthropology 21, no. 1 (February 1, 2006): 121–145.

Changing the Subject: Conversation in Supermax
Lorna A. Rhodes
Cultural Anthropology 20, no. 3 (2005): 388–411.

Recovering True Selves in the Electro-Spiritual Field of Universal Love
Nickola Pazderic
Cultural Anthropology 19, no. 2 (May 1, 2004): 196–225.

Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance
Carolyn Rouse, and Janet Hoskins 
Cultural Anthropology 19, no. 2 (May 1, 2004): 226–249.

Notes on Jewish-Muslim Relationships: Revisiting the Vanishing Moroccan Jewish Community
André Levy 
Cultural Anthropology 18, no. 3 (2003): 365–397.

Musical Community on the Internet: An On-Line Ethnography
René T. A. Lysloff 
Cultural Anthropology 18, no. 2 (May 1, 2003): 233–263.

Interesting Friends and Faux Amis: An Introduction to New Directions in French Anthropology
Susan Carol Rogers
Cultural Anthropology 14, no. 3 (1999): 396–404.

Generation X: Anthropology in a Media-Saturated World
Sherry B. Ortner  
Cultural Anthropology 13, no. 3 (1998): 414–440.

Against Ethnography
Nicholas Thomas
Cultural Anthropology 6, no. 3 (1991): 306–322.

The Scholastic Point of View
Pierre Bourdieu
Cultural Anthropology 5, no. 4 (November 1, 1990): 380–391.

Our Master, Our Brother: Lévi-Strauss’s Debt to Rousseau
T.M. Luhrmann
Cultural Anthropology 5, no. 4 (November 1, 1990): 396–413.

Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson in Bali: Their Use of Photography and Film
Ira Jacknis
Cultural Anthropology 3, no. 2 (May 1, 1988): 160–177.

Tango
Julie Taylor
Cultural Anthropology 2, no. 4 (November 1, 1987): 481–493.

‘Then What Have I to Do with Thee?’: On Identity, Fieldwork, and Ethnographic Knowledge.”
Suzanne R. Kirschner
Cultural Anthropology 2, no. 2 (May 1, 1987): 211–234.

Bad Sauce, Good Ethnography Stoller
Paul, and Cheryl Olkes 
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 3 (1986): 336–352.

Emotion, Thought, and Estrangement: Emotion as a Cultural Category
Catherine Lutz
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 3 (1986): 287–309.

Tradition and the Collective Talent: Oral Epic, Textual Meaning, and Receptionalist Theory
John Miles Foley
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 2 (May 1, 1986): 203–222.

On Being Out of Words
Stephen A. Tyler
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 2 (May 1, 1986): 131–137

Anthropology and Human Studies
Edward M. Bruner
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 1 (February 1, 1986): 121–124.

Reading Pierre Bourdieu
Stephen W. Foster
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 1 (February 1, 1986): 103–110.

Dissolution and Reconstitution of Self: Implications for Anthropological Epistemology
Dorinne K. Kondo
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 1 (February 1, 1986): 74–88.

From Rules to Strategies: An Interview with Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Lamaison, and Pierre Bourdieu
Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 1 (February 1, 1986): 110–120.

George E. Marcus
“A Beginning.” Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 1 (February 1, 1986): 3–5.

“American Academic Journal Editing in the Great Bourgeois Cultural Revolution of Late 20th-Century Postmodernity: The Case of Cultural Anthropology.” Cultural Anthropology 6, no. 1 (February 1, 1991): 121–127.

“On Listening for Edifying Conversations: Resonant Discourses Within and Between Departments.” Cultural Anthropology 2, no. 1 (February 1, 1987): 3–4.

Additional Readings:

Rabinow, Paul. Essays on the Anthropology of Reason. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996.