A Companion to Moral Anthropology

A Companion to Moral Anthropology represents the first collective effort to bring together the various currents, approaches, and issues in this emerging field. Didier Fassin and an international group of experts examine the multiple dimensions of morals, moralities and ethics. Their inquiry reflects a rapidly growing interest in the ethnography of moralities, the study of moral subjectivities, and the exploration of moral economies. A scholar who has pioneered research in the field of moral anthropology, Didier Fassin discusses its diverse genealogies and its epistemological questions. The distinguished contributors to the volume explore the formation of moral facts (including values, virtues, and sentiments); local moralities in various contexts (around piety, poverty, or sexuality); perspectives on historically and culturally situated social worlds (such as religion, science, or finance); and the frontier between moralities and politics (in relation to humanitarianism, punishment, or borders). These original essays engage a dialogue with neighboring disciplines, from moral philosophy to the cognitive sciences. A Companion to Moral Anthropology offers a timely and thought–provoking glimpse into the current state and future directions of an important new area of research for the 21st–century world.

Notes on Contributors viii Introduction: Toward a Critical Moral Anthropology 1 Didier Fassin Part I Legacies 19 1 Durkheim and the Moral Fact 21 Bruno Karsenti 2 Weber and Practical Ethics 37 Isabelle Kalinowski 3 E. P. Thompson and Moral Economies 49 Marc Edelman 4 Foucault and the Genealogy of Ethics 67 James D . Faubion 5 Relativism and Universalism 85 Richard A. Shweder 6 Anthropology and Ethics 103 Carolyn Fluehr–Lobban Part II Approaches 115 7 Cultural Values 117 Joel Robbins 8 Ordinary Ethics 133 Veena Das 9 Moral Sentiments 150 C . Jason Throop 10 Moral Reasoning 169 Karen M . Sykes 11 Virtue 186 Thomas Widlok 12 Narratives 204 Jarrett Zigon Part III Localities 221 13 Ethics and Piety 223 Saba Mahmood 14 Care and Disregard 242 João Biehl 15 Mourning 264 Everett Yuehong Zhang 16 Poverty 283 Harri Englund 17 Inequality 302 Caroline Humphrey 18 Sexuality 320 Stacy Leigh Pigg Part IV Worlds 339 19 Religion and Morality 341 Michael Lambek 20 Charity 359 Jonathan Benthall 21 Medicine 376 Adriana Petryna 22 Science 395 Michael M . J . Fischer 23 Finance 413 Karen Ho 24 Law 432 Carol J. Greenhouse Part V Politics 449 25 Humanitarianism 451 Peter Redfield 26 Human Rights 468 Mark Goodale 27 War 482 Catherine Lutz and Kathleen Millar 28 Violence 500 Alexander Hinton 29 Punishment 519 Roger Lancaster 30 Borders 540 Josiah M. Heyman and John Symons Part VI Dialogues 559 31 Moral Philosophy 561 Kwame Anthony Appiah 32 Moral Psychology 578 James Dungan and Liane Young 33 Neuroethics 595 Massimo Reichlin 34 Evolutionary and Cognitive Anthropology 611 Nicolas Baumard and Dan Sperber Index of Names 628 Subject Index 641

Didier Fassin is the James D. Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. Trained as a physician in internal medicine and public health, Fassin dedicated his early research to medical anthropology, before developing a domain he terms political and moral anthropology. He is the Director–founder of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Social Issues (IRIS, Paris), former  Chair of the Social Science and Humanities Committee of the French National Research Agency, and former Vice–President of Médecins sans Frontières.