Senses of Place

by Steven Feld (Editor), Keith H. Basso (Editor), Karen I. Blu (Editor)

The complex relationship of people to places has come under increasing scholarly scrutiny in recent years as acute global conditions of exile, displacement, and inflamed borders-to say nothing of struggles by indigenous peoples and cultural minorities for ancestral homelands, land rights, and retention of sacred places-have brought the political question of place into sharp focus. But to date, little attention has been paid to the ethnography of place, to how people actually live in, perceive, and invest with meaning the places they call home.

In this compelling new volume, eight respected ethnographers explore and lyrically evoke the ways in which people experience, express, imagine, and know the places in which they live. Case studies range from the Apaches of Arizona's White Mountains to the residents of backwoods "hollers" in Appalachia and the Kaluli people of New Guinea's rain forests. As these writers confront the dilemmas and possibilities of an anthropological consideration of place, they make an important and moving contribution to our understanding of ourselves.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Ethnography, Geography, Philosophy, Anthologies, Academic

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[C. B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a charming and cerebral little book. Of course, as a collection of essays, the quality does vary. But there are some really unforgettable pieces: Edward S. Casey’s discussion of the differentiation between space and place – and what comes first; Miriam Kahn’s genuinely moving account of life in a coastal village in Papua New Guinea, and the local attitudes towards her sense of place and theirs; Charles O. Frake’s venerable attempt to get to grips with English senses of place and history in rural East Anglia (plus some fantastic musings on the eccentricities of Ordnance Survey maps!). This book makes an ideal starting point for thinking about place – the writers intend to spur thought in this direction. It seems that this book was quite novel in the field of Anthropology in doing this, and I hope that more has been written on the subject since the 1990s. It seems such an all-encompassing and important topic to me. As Clifford Geertz notes, “no one lives in the world in general” (262). Everyone is deeply immersed in the places they know.

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this book too late. Thirty years ago this book would have been eye-opening for me, and I suspect it will be for many readers. It reminds me of Yu Tu Fuan’s Space and Place in many ways. Readers familiar with cultural geography, cultural anthropology, systematics, and phenomenology won’t find anything new here. Interesting, perhaps, but not new.
It may be too much for the reader unfamiliar with these topics, though. However, if these topics interest you and you’re starting your explorations, it’s definitely a keeper.

[Frances Wilde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best chapter by far is Casey's Space to Place in a short space of time. Encompasses so much of contemporary thought on place in just a few pages. Other chapter on occupation was also good. Others' specificity irrelevant to my research.

[split zalv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic