
The Anthropology of Intensity
Language, Culture, and Environment
Paul Kockelman(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 19. May 2022
Book
Hardback
402 pages
978-1-316-51972-1 (ISBN)
Description
What counts as too close for comfort? How can an entire room suddenly feel restless at the imminence of a yet unknown occurrence? And who decides whether or not we are already in an age of unliveable extremes? The anthropology of intensity studies how humans encounter and communicate the continuous and gradable features of social and environmental phenomena in everyday interactions. Focusing on the last twenty years of life in a Mayan village in the cloud forests of Guatemala, this book provides a natural history of intensity in exceedingly tense times, through a careful analysis of ethnographic and linguistic evidence. It uses intensity as a way to reframe Anthropology in the age of the Anthropocene, and rethinks classic work in the formal linguistic tradition from a culture-specific and context-sensitive stance. It is essential reading not only for anthropologists and linguists, but also for ecologically oriented readers, critical theorists, and environmental scientists.
Reviews / Votes
'... offers a thorough framework for understanding how speakers make sense of shifting degrees of change in a starkly mutable world.' Sean P. Smith, Language in SocietyMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
731 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-316-51972-1 (9781316519721)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
05/2022
Cambridge University Press
€37.50
Shipment within 15-20 days

E-Book
05/2022
Cambridge University Press
€23.49
Available for download

E-Book
04/2022
Cambridge University Press
€23.49
Available for download
Person
Paul Kockelman is Professor of Anthropology at Yale University. His books include Kinds of Value: An Experiment in Modal Anthropology (Prickly Paradigm Press) and The Art of Interpretation in the Age of Computation (Oxford University Press).
Content
Introduction; Part I. Grounds: 1. Comparative grounds; 2. Casual grounds; 3. Grounding experience: Grounding the anthropocene; Part II. Tensors: 5. Intensifiers; 6. The history of Mas; The comparative complex; 8. More, also, only; Part III. Thresholds: 9. Temporality and replacement; 10. Temporal thresholds; 11. Modality and worlding; 12. Modal thoughts; Conclusion: the ecological self.