Free (DRM-free PDF) Antropologiens idéhistorie [Danish Anthro Identity Ideas History]

[ATDrake]

Antropologiens idéhistorie: 2500 års konstruktion af os selv og de fremmede by Ole Høiris, a member of the Department of Ethnography and Anthropology at Aarhus University, is his academic book discussing Exactly What It Says In The Title if you happen to read a compatible Scandinavian language the long-running history of particular anthropological ideas of identity formed from the "us and them" contrast of self and stranger, it would seem, part of the Acta Jutlandica series, free courtesy of Aarhus University Press in Denmark.

This is their featured Danish-language free ebook of the month for May; a bilingual programme which apparently they've been offering for several years now which no one who knew about it seems to have ever bothered posting any mention of on MR.

Currently free, probably just for the rest of the day until midnight Danish time (approx 3 PM Pacific) directly @ the Aarhus University Press website (DRM-free PDF available worldwide).

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because even though I reiterate the that I didn't find out about AUP's long-running freebie ebook programme until now, I am nevertheless about discovering that there's another reasonably regular source of quality academic offerings, and not just one per month, but two, and both in languages that not only I personally have an interest in reading (I freely admit that my grasp of written Danish is completely dependent on my grasp of written Norwegian, which could use vast amounts of improvement) in the subject area as well as generally (yay, anthropology historiography! …I think), but also for the benefit of other international Gentle Readers worldwide who are interested in quality academic offerings (and likely read Dano-Norwegian far, far better than I ever will).

No seriously, decent quasi-academic freebie books are rare enough — getting non-public domain multilingual freebies are even rarer — and the combination of both is like stumbling across reasonably not-obviously-faked traces of some cryptozoological creature even rarer than a unicorn. I'm thinking maybe Nessie.

Enjoy!

Beskrivelse på dansk
En del af serien Acta Jutlandica (Humanistisk serie 2010:1) og fagområderne Antropologi og Idéhistorie

Ethvert individ og samfund opfatter sig selv som enestående og gør de andre til fremmede - grænsen for ens identitet standser der, hvor den fremmedes begynder. Dette spil mellem identiteter og fremmedhad har lige siden antikken optaget filosoffer, forfattere og opdagelsesrejsende.

Men fra antropologiens perspektiv skifter individer og menneskegrupper også mellem at definere sig selv som helt unikke og som brikker i et større universelt projekt om f.eks. kristendommens udbredelse eller udvikling af civilisation.

Antropologiens idéhistorie følger diskussionerne om "os og dem" hele vejen op til det 20. århundrede og viser, hvordan ideen om den fremmede har tjent mange forskellige formål. I beskrivelsen af den fremmede som enten dyrisk eller ædel skabes fundamentet for egen selvforherligelse eller en indadrettet kulturkritik.

Via disse hovedspor optegner forfatteren de 2500 år lange linjer bag vores identitetsdannelse samt konstruktionen af de eksistentielle byggesten, som karakteriserer vores forskelligartede kulturer.