Urbane legende
Urban Legends

Essays on American Folklore

Author(s): Ivan Kovačević
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Customs / Folklore, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Srpski genealoški centar
Summary/Abstract: The aim of the book is to demonstrate two major points: 1) that the long-lasting fieldwork of Anglo-American style is by far not a sine qua non of contemporary anthropological research, and 2) to explain how anthropological analyses of non-ethnographised phenomena could improve understanding of the transformative processes through which American popular culture comes to be global. In the context of the ongoing debate over significance and specificity of anthropological methods after the radical impact of the digital revolution on science-specific information patterns, this book is dedicated to rehabilitation of the so-called "armchair anthropology". "Armchair anthropology", as a comparative analysis of human cultural production based on ethnographic data gathered by anyone, and then selected and bricolaged by an anthropologist trained in sophisticated semiological analyses, is fine and well. Delusional waste of time and squandering of human and institutional resources during the so-called "crisis of anthropolog", poorly focused on pseudo-methodological and theoretically frivolous debates on "postmodern ethnography" is over. It is the right moment for anthropology to engage in social analysis by doing what it is best at.

• Details
• Contents