Kerim Friedman at Savage Minds recently announced a new series about classical works in anthropology which are available online. The idea, he writes, is to "both encourage newbies to read some classical anthropological texts as well as allow those with Ph.D.s in the discipline to debate the contemporary value of these works".
The first entry: Laura Bohannon: “Shakespeare in the Bush” - the essay that turned Kerim on to anthropology:
It explores how difficult it is to translate Shakespeare’s Hamlet into the cultural idiom of the Tiv in West Africa (the Tiv are mostly located in Nigeria). While the article takes on a straw-man argument (the idea that there is something universal about Shakespeare’s plays overlooks just how hard it is for even American school kids to learn to appreciate Hamlet), it is a well written article which I believe holds up to the test of time.
>> read the whole post at Savage Minds
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