Current Anthropological Debates

Abstract

Debates have been integral to the development of anthropological theories. Since 1988, British social anthropologists have gathered to debate motions pivotal to their disciplinary subject, rganized by the Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory ( GDAT) based in Manchester. Various questions have been investigated in the debates including the relationship between anthropology and science, the concept of society in relation to notions of individual, how anthropologists view the past in relation to the present, and the location of ontology vs. culture in ethnography. By tracing these debates, this paper argues that the various issues addressed in the discussions reflect anthropological anxieties and self-critique. Three limits including the limit of existence, the limit of conceptualization, and the limit of political and social engagement have constituted the key disciplinary concerns which have, in turn, shaped the course of the anthropological trajectory.