America Observed

Virginia R. Dominguez is Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor of Anthropology, Jewish Studies, Global Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the U.S.  She is a recent past president of the American Anthropological Association, recent past editor of American Ethnologist, and co-founder of the International Forum for U.S. Studies.

• Introduction: Can the US Be “Othered” Usefully? On an International Anthropology of the United StatesVirginia R. Dominguez and Jasmin HabibPART I: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN? THE US AS FIELDSITEChapter 1. Manhattan as a Magnet: Place and Circulation among Young SwedesHelena WulffChapter 2. Is It Un-American to Be Critical of Israel? Criticism and Fear in the US ContextJasmin HabibChapter 3. Biosecurity in the US: “The Scientific” and “the American” in Critical Perspective”Limor Samimian-DarashChapter 4. American Theater State: Reflections on Political CultureUlf HannerzChapter 5. Observing American Gay Organizations and Voluntary Associations: An Outsider’s ExpositionMoshe ShokeidPART II: FROM THE INSIDE OUT? REFLECTIONS ON AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE USChapter 6. Who Cares? Why It’s Odd and Why It’s Not?Geoffrey WhiteChapter 7. Power and the Trafficking of Scholarship in International American StudiesKeiko IkedaAfterword: The Sounds of Silence: Commissions, Omissions, and Particularity in the Global Anthropology of the United StatesJane C. DesmondIndex

“America Observed poses and answers a critical question for anthropology today: why do so few scholars from outside the United States write ethnographies about ‘America’, and what are the consequences of this lacuna?” · Andrew P. Lyons, Wilfrid Laurier University“This book serves to generate a much-needed discussion about the absence of international ethnographic research in the U.S. and about the nature of the discipline that discourages this kind of research. Furthermore, the ethnographies presented here teach us something substantial about ‘American’ culture and illustrate that ethnographic research undertaken by non-U.S. anthropologists can be particularly insightful.” · James Armstrong, SUNY Plattsburgh