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Magic's Reason: An Anthropology of Analogy
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Magic's Reason: An Anthropology of Analogy Paperback - 2017

by Graham M. Jones


From the publisher

In Magic's Reason, Graham M. Jones tells the entwined stories of anthropology and entertainment magic. The two pursuits are not as separate as they may seem at first. As Jones shows, they not only matured around the same time, but they also shared mutually reinforcing stances toward modernity and rationality. It is no historical accident, for example, that colonial ethnographers drew analogies between Western magicians and native ritual performers, who, in their view, hoodwinked 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 magic became enshrined in anthropological reasoning. Acknowledging the residue of magic's colonial origins doesn't require us to dispense with it. Rather, through this radical reassessment of classic anthropological ideas, Magic's Reason develops a new perspective on the promise and peril of cross-cultural comparison.

Details

  • Title Magic's Reason: An Anthropology of Analogy
  • Author Graham M. Jones
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 240
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press
  • Date 2017
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • ISBN 9780226518688 / 022651868X
  • Weight 0.7 lbs (0.32 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 in (22.61 x 15.24 x 1.52 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Magic - Social aspects
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2017015013
  • Dewey Decimal Code 306.4

About the author

Graham M. Jones is associate professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician's Craft.
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Magic's Reason: An Anthropology of Analogy

Magic's Reason: An Anthropology of Analogy

by Graham M. Jones

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Magic's Reason
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Magic's Reason

by Graham M. Jones

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  • Paperback
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Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780226518688 / 022651868x
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Paperback / softback. New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; 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
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Magic's Reason : An Anthropology of Analogy by Graham M. Jones

Magic's Reason : An Anthropology of Analogy by Graham M. Jones

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9780226518688 / 022651868x
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ISBN: 9780226518688
University of Chicago Press, 06 December 2017
 Paperback | 240 pages
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,… Read More
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A$17.97
A$49.02 shipping to USA