The Worlds of Irish Anthropology

The Worlds of Irish Anthropology

Edited by Hana Cervinkova & Mark Maguire

Vol. 6 of the RAI Country Series.

The worlds of Irish Anthropology presents a selection of Irish abnthropological essays on themes ranging from migration and memory of social class and religious conflict.  Every chapter addresses contemporary disciplinary concerns.

As a collection, this bok offers a portrait of Irish Anthropology as a pluralistic and intellectually venturesome schorlarly scene.  In the past, it was portrayed as a minor tributary that would occasionally contribute to the ebb and flow of metropolitain concerns.  However, Ireland has produced an important body of research on conflict and its aftermaths, and on class and change in marginal communities.  In todays world , this is sufficient reason to revisit Irish anthropology and capture the innovation on display there.

Rather than finding anthropologists focussed on the ‘local’ – the post-conflict or marginal community – this volume showcases the work of several scholarly generations for whom locality is always problematic, always imbricated by that which lies beyond, and yet also the necessary scene for human drama and refelction.  This volume about irish anthropology , then, is a collection that reflects on the power and limitations of contemporary ethnography, a subject of significance for all anthropologists. 

Contents: Introduction – Hana Cervinkova and Mark Maguire; Chapter 1 – Situating the worlds of Irish anthropology – Mark Maguire and Hana Cervinkova; Chapter 2 – The view from Slieve League: Reflections on fieldwork, theory and the moral geographies of Ireland – Lawrence J. Taylor; Chapter 3 – From large farms to little Dublins: Political culture and political ethnography in suburban Meath – Thomas M. Wilson; Chapter 4 – Making medical anthropology in an out of the way place: Academic microclimates and one strand in the development of a national anthropology – A. Jamie Saris; Chapter 5 – Anthropology and ageing-in-place on the island of Ireland – David Prendergast; Chapter 6 – Stories and the ‘Troubles’: Memorial landscape in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland – Matthew A.L. Gault; Chapter 7 – Intersectional approaches to social class and sectarian identity: Lessons from Northern Ireland – Gordon Ramsey; Chapter 8 – Local (state) actors, trauma and the administration of care in post-conflict Northern Ireland – Chiara Magliacane; Chapter 9 – Controlling bodies still: An autoethnographic reflection on Ireland’s direct provision system – Abayomi Ogunsanya; Chapter 10 – ‘Came again’: Greyhounds as pets and the Irish family – Chrissy M. Skelton; Chapter 11 – Turning the anthropological lens inwards: Uncovering the story of a childhood in an Irish industrial school: an intimate ethnography – Fiona Murphy; Reflections: Learning about and from anthropology – Abdullahi Osman El-Tom; Contributors; Index.