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The discipline of anthropology is, at its best, characterized by turbulence, self-examination, and inventiveness. In recent decades, new thinking and practice within the field has certainly reflected this pattern, as shown for example by numerous fruitful ventures into the \"politics and poetics\" of anthropology. Surprisingly little attention, however, has been given to the simple insight that anthropology is composed of claims, whether tacit or explicit, about anthropos and about logos--and the myriad ways in which these two Greek nouns have been, might be, and should be, connected.Anthropos Todayrepresents a pathbreaking effort to fill this gap. Paul Rabinow brings together years of distinguished work in this magisterial volume that seeks to reinvigorate the human sciences. Specifically, he assembles a set of conceptual tools--\"modern equipment\"--to assess how intellectual work is currently conducted and how it might change. Anthropos Todaycrystallizes Rabinow's previous ethnographic inquiries into the production of truth about life in the world of biotechnology and genome mapping (and his invention of new ways of practicing this pursuit), and his findings on how new practices of life, labor, and language have emerged and been institutionalized. Here, Rabinow steps back from empirical research in order to reflect on the conceptual and ethical resources available today to conduct such inquiries. Drawing richly on Foucault and many other thinkers including Weber and Dewey, Rabinow concludes that a \"contingent practice\" must be developed that focuses on \"events of problematization.\" Brilliantly synthesizing insights from American, French, and German traditions, he offers a lucid, deeply learned, original discussion of how one might best think about anthropos today.

YuriLotman was one of the most prominent and influential scholars ofthe twentieth century working in the Soviet Union. This approachable collectionof translations provides a primer to his vast intellectual legacy with a choiceof works that address contemporary concerns such as gender, memory,performance, world literature, and urban life.

01 02 In this introduction to the semiotic theory of one of the most innovative theorists of the twentieth century, the Russian literary scholar and semiotician Yuri Lotman, offers a new look at Lotman's profound legacy by conceptualizing his ideas in modern context and presenting them as a useful tool of cultural analysis. Semenenko demonstrates how Lotman's holistic theory, transcending the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, offers a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to culture. This study covers a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence to the role of an individual in history. 31 02 An introduction to the theory of Russian literary scholar and semiotician Jurij Lotman. 13 02 Aleksei Semenenko is a research fellow in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Stockholm University. He holds a PhD in Russian Literature from Stockholm University. He is the author of Hamlet the Sign: Russian Translations ofHamlet and Literary Canon Formation (2007) and other research publications in semiotics, literature, and translation. 08 02 \"Aleksei Semenenko's book The Texture of Culture is dedicated to Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (1922-1993), one of the most original and important thinkers and cultural scholars of the twentieth century. Yuri Lotman was a figure capable of combining the history of Russian cultural theory and creating its synthetic meta-language. Lotman's theory of semiotic mechanisms of culture discusses, for example, eternal unpredictability of human mind and cultural activity. In Semenenko's contextual treatment, Lotman's cultural theory proves inspiring and applicable even in understanding today's culture and human life.\" - Tomi Huttunen, professor of Russian Literature, University of Helsinki \"The first book in English to clearly and accessibly elucidate the complete oeuvre of Yuri Lotman, this penetrating, masterly exposition nimbly draws upon source material from various languages and disciplines - including philosophy, cybernetics, neuroscience, linguistics, and literary theory. It maps out the continuities and the nuances of Lotman's multivalent theories, assessing them both for their own time and for the promise they hold out for future development. An important and fascinating study of culture as an external representation of the mind.\" - Irena R. Makaryk, University of Ottawa and general editor and compiler, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory 19 02 A FIRST: The first comprehensive introduction to Lotman's theory that includes his last books and archive materials. ACCESSIBLE: Addresses a broad readership and presents Lotman's semiotic theory of culture in a clear, accessible manner. COMPREHENSIVE: Develops Lotman's unique idea of culture as a reflection of human mind and covers a wide range of topical questions, such as: Is artificial intelligence possible? What is mind and how is it related to the brain? What is meaning? What is the role of an individual in history? What is myth? Why do we have favorite texts? 04 02 Contexts Culture as System Culture as Text Semiosphere Universal Mind Conclusion: The World as Text 02 02 In this introduction to the semiotic theory of one of the most innovative theorists of the twentieth century, the Russian literary scholar and semiotician Yuri Lotman, offers a new look at Lotman's profound legacy by conceptualizing his ideas in modern context and presenting them as a useful tool of cultural analysis.

Scripting Addictiontakes readers into the highly ritualized world of mainstream American addiction treatment. It is a world where clinical practitioners evaluate how drug users speak about themselves and their problems, and where the ideal of \"healthy\" talk is explicitly promoted, carefully monitored, and identified as the primary sign of therapeutic progress. The book explores the puzzling question: why do addiction counselors dedicate themselves to reconciling drug users' relationship to language in order to reconfigure their relationship to drugs? To answer this question, anthropologist Summerson Carr traces the charged interactions between counselors, clients, and case managers at \"Fresh Beginnings,\" an addiction treatment program for homeless women in the midwestern United States. She shows that shelter, food, and even the custody of children hang in the balance of everyday therapeutic exchanges, such as clinical assessments, individual therapy sessions, and self-help meetings. Acutely aware of the high stakes of self-representation, experienced clients analyze and learn to effectively perform prescribed ways of speaking, a mimetic practice they call \"flipping the script.\" As a clinical ethnography,Scripting Addictionexamines how decades of clinical theorizing about addiction, language, self-knowledge, and sobriety is manifested in interactions between counselors and clients. As an ethnography of the contemporary United States, the book demonstrates the complex cultural roots of the powerful clinical ideas that shape therapeutic transactions--and by extension administrative routines and institutional dynamics--at sites such as \"Fresh Beginnings.\"

\"A fascinating investigation that explains semiotics, the science of signs, and shows how it can help us understand the way marketing and advertising shape our behavior as consumers and the way we use brands to help create our public identities. Semiotics deals with the messages we are always sending about ourselves by the clothes we wear, our facial expressions, our body language, and the objects we purchase. It also helps us learn how to interpret the messages that others are always sending to us. The book also analyzes a number of the \"objects of our affection\" such as toasters, teddy bears, hamburgers and computers. In the appendix, there are a number of learning games and activities that involve using semiotics to better understand consumer culture\"--Provided by publisher.

\"Just as rhetoric is founded in culture, culture is founded in rhetoric\" - the first half of this central statement from the International Rhetoric Culture Project is abundantly evidenced. It is the latter half that this volume explores: how does culture emerge out of rhetorical action, out of seemingly dispersed individual actions and interactions? The contributors do not rely on rhetorical \"text\" alone but engage the situational, bodily, and often antagonistic character of cultural and communicative practices. The social situation itself is argued to be the fundamental site of cultural creation, as will-driven social processes are shaped by cognitive dispositions and shape them in turn. Drawing on expertise in a variety of disciplines and regions, the contributors critically engage dialogical approaches in their emphasis on how a view from rhetoric changes our perception of people's intersubjective and conjoint creation of culture.