Michael D. Jackson’s Followers (45)

Michael D. Jackson

Born

New Zealand

Genre

Anthropology, Science, Nonfiction

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Michael D. Jackson (born 1940) is a post-modern New Zealand anthropologist who has taught in the anthropology departments at the University of Copenhagen and Indiana University and is currently a professor of world religions at Harvard Divinity School. He holds a BA from Victoria University of Wellington, an MA from the University of Auckland and a PhD from Cambridge University.

Jackson is the founder of existential/phenomenological anthropology, a sub-field of anthropology using ethnographical fieldwork as well as existential theories of being in order to explore modes of being and interpersonal relationships as they exist in various cultural settings throughout the world. In this way he creates an interdisciplinary approach that attempts t Michael D. Jackson (born 1940) is a post-modern New Zealand anthropologist who has taught in the anthropology departments at the University of Copenhagen and Indiana University and is currently a professor of world religions at Harvard Divinity School. He holds a BA from Victoria University of Wellington, an MA from the University of Auckland and a PhD from Cambridge University.

Jackson is the founder of existential/phenomenological anthropology, a sub-field of anthropology using ethnographical fieldwork as well as existential theories of being in order to explore modes of being and interpersonal relationships as they exist in various cultural settings throughout the world. In this way he creates an interdisciplinary approach that attempts to understand the human condition by examining the various ways in which this condition manifests itself cross-culturally. In so doing, he concentrates on concrete, individual, lived situations and attempts to recreate and explain these situations as they are perceived and experienced by the other. For example, rather than looking at what mythology or ritual may mean for a group of people, he looks at what mythology or ritual means for an individual existing in the group. In this way he is able to examine "being-in-the-world", a concept fundamental to the field of existentialism. This approach also allows him to address the problem of intersubjectivity, which has as a goal the understanding of the other in terms of the other's individual lifeworld. In this way the other's relationship with the world around them is explained in a manner not previously seen, and is fundamental to the project of understanding intersubjective existence (or the relation between two individual subjects).

A large part of Jackson's methodology is also his account of personal experiences he acquired during his fieldwork. This method of reflexivity is indicative of the current postmodern trend in the field of anthropology, which seeks to contextualize the ethnographer as a subjective participant in the field. This methodology allows him to explain very accurately his relation with the world around him, referencing frequently existential theories in the process.

His influences include: Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger, Claude Levi-Strauss, Hannah Arendt, Theodor Adorno, Pierre Bourdieu, William James, John Dewey, Edmund Husserl, Bronislaw Malinowski, Richard Rorty, Paul Ricoeur, Marcel Mauss.

He is in no way related to the famous singer, also named Michael Jackson.
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Michael D. Jackson’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 437 ratings · 36 reviews · 49 distinct works • Similar authors

	At Home in the World 4.15 avg rating — 98 ratings — published 1995 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression and Intersubjectivity 4.15 avg rating — 41 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Sierra Leone 3.61 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 2004 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lifeworlds: Essays in Existential Anthropology 4.36 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2012 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Life Within Limits: Well-being in a World of Want 3.69 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2011 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Minima Ethnographica: Intersubjectivity and the Anthropological Project 3.75 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 1998 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Existential Anthropology: Events, Exigencies, and Effects 4.21 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 2005 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Palm at the End of the Mind: Relatedness, Religiosity, and the Real 4.50 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2009 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Things As They Are: New Directions in Phenomenological Anthropology 4.50 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1996 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wherewithal of Life: Ethics, Migration, and the Question of Well-Being 3.81 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2013 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Michael D. Jackson…

Quotes by Michael D. Jackson (?)

“It is the character of lived experience I want to explore, not the nature of man.”
― Michael D. Jackson

tags: anthropology, experience, true-nature

3 likes

“When a writer uses his secret wounds as his starting point, he is, whether he is aware of it or not, putting great faith in humanity.”
― Michael D. Jackson, Life Within Limits: Well-being in a World of Want

2 likes

“before the advent of any particular cultural, religious, or philosophical ethics, ethics has existed. Not as a unified, normative body of maxims, obligations, duties, or categorical imperatives,6 but as a set of recurring quandaries and questions, a sense of ethical anxiety or disquiet about the very possibility of achieving a good life,”
― Michael D. Jackson, Life Within Limits: Well-being in a World of Want

1 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari...: The Please Add to the Disambig Thread Thread	1243	2027	Jan 19, 2011 12:51PM
Around the World ...: Sierra Leone	18	546	Aug 12, 2025 10:00PM

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