Power and the Self

Power and the Self deals with an important but neglected topic: the ways in which power is experienced by individuals, both as agents and as objects of the exercise of power. Each contributor presents a series of case studies drawn from a variety of cultural contexts, including the analysis of the appeal of Japanese superhero toys for American children; the conditions that lead to dehumanising treatment of patients in an American nursing home; the experiences of a Turkish immigrant woman in the Netherlands; a contribution relating theories about the capacity to commit genocidal violence to ‘everyday forms of violence’, and other cases from New Guinea and Samoa. The introduction provides a readable historical review and synthesis of the theoretical ideas that provide the context for the work presented in the book.

• Applying self psychology to ideas of power is a new topic in anthropology • The book’s grounding in a wide range of transcultural case study material and its theoretical timeliness make it well suited for classroom use • Introduction provides readable historical review and synthesis of the theories that come together and provide the context for the work presented

Foreword Gananath Obeyesekere; 1. Introduction: Theorizing power and the self Jeannette Mageo and Bruce Knauft; Part I. Power Differentials in the US: 2. The genocidal continuum: peace time crimes Nancy Scheper-Hughes; 3. Intimate power, public selves: Bakhtin’s space of authoring William S. Lachicotte; Part II. Transitional Psychologies: 4. Playing with power: morphing toys and transforming heroes in kids’ mass culture Ann Allison; 5. Consciousness of the state and the experience of self: the runaway daughter of a Turkish guest worker Katherine Ewing; Part III. Colonial Encounters: Power/History/Self: 6. Spirit, self, and power: the making of colonial experience in Papua New Guinea Douglas Dalton; 7. Self models and sexual agency Jeannette Mageo; Part IV. Reading Power Against the Grain: 8. Eager subjects, reluctant powers: the irrelevance of ideology in a secret New Guinea male cult Harriet Whitehead; 9. Feminist emotions Catherine Lutz.

‘This sparkling collection of essays addresses the ways in which subjects experience power, both as agents of social process, and as the objects of such processes … As a collection these papers are remarkably well synthesized, presented a variety of approaches … many of the papers speak to one another, and actually illuminate complimentary perspectives … I found each of these papers interesting and rewarding …’. Cambridge Anthropology

‘… lucid and engaging, theoretically informed, and grounded in either ethnographic research or personal experiences … constitutes yet another useful contribution to anthropological understanding from members of the psychological anthropology clan.’ The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute