Journal article
Old questions for the new anthropology of morality: A commentary
Anthropological theory, v 14(3), pp 356-370
01 Sep 2014
Abstract
The return of anthropological interest to the descriptive study of the moral foundations of social life is a very welcome development. Nevertheless, if there is going to be a new anthropology of morality, it must have something new to say about some very old questions. The first is the analytic question: what counts as a morality? The second and third are descriptive questions: is some idea of an objective moral charter a feature of human social life and individual judgment; and what is the scope, generality and detail with which various aspects or domains of the social order (from gender relations to food customs) are understood and experienced as extensions of a moral order from the 'native point of view'? Finally, why do the many peoples of the world apparently disagree with each other so much in both their spontaneous-habitual-unreflective-internalized-'embodied' (and hence implicit) judgments and in their reflective-reasoned-thoughtful-spelled out (and hence explicit) judgments about the rightness or wrongness of specific actions? Those are questions that no anthropology of morality, old or new, can or should avoid.
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Details
- Title
- Old questions for the new anthropology of morality: A commentary
- Creators
- Richard A. Shweder - University of ChicagoUsha Menon - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Anthropological theory, v 14(3), pp 356-370
- Publisher
- Sage
- Number of pages
- 15
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Global Studies and Modern Languages
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000340950600007
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84906730935
- Other Identifier
- 991019167536204721
InCites Highlights
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Anthropology