A01=Graham M. Jones
Algeria
anthropology
Author_Graham M. Jones
capitalism
Category=JHMC
colonialism
commodification
divinity
enchantment
entertainment
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnography
folk belief
folklore
France
hadra
history
hoax
illusion
isawi
jean eugene robert houdin
magic
magicians
medium
miracles
modernity
nonfiction
north africa
occult
paranormal
performing arts
popular culture
postcolonialism
primitive
rationality
reason
religion
ritual
shaman
sleight of hand
spirits
supernatural
superstition
trance
Product details
- ISBN 9780226518541
- Weight: 397g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 06 Dec 2017
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In Magic's Reason, Graham M. Jones tells the entwined stories of anthropology and entertainment magic. The two areas are not as separate as they may at first seem. As Jones shows, the endeavors not only matured around the same time, but they also shared stances towards modernity and rationality that fed into each other. As stage magic established for itself a circumscribed realm of suspension of disbelief, colonial ethnographers drew on the language of that realm in describing native ritual performers as charlatans, hoodwinking gullible people into believing their sleight of hand was divine. Using French magicians' engagements with North African ritual performers as a case study, Jones shows how their concept of magic became enshrined in anthropological practice. Ultimately, Jones argues, anthropologists should not dispense with the concept of magic, but, rather, they should think more sharply about it, acknowledging the residue of its colonial origins. Through this radical reassessment of classic anthropological ideas, Magic's Reason develops a new perspective on the promise and peril of cross-cultural comparisons.
Graham M. Jones is associate professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
