(Ebook) Self in the World: Connecting Life's Extremes by Keith Hart ISBN 9781800734203, 1800734204

(Ebook) Self in the World: Connecting Life's Extremes by Keith Hart ISBN 9781800734203, 1800734204

Eminent anthropologist Keith Hart draws on the
humanities, popular culture and his own experiences to help readers
explore their own place in history.

We each embark on two life journeys – one out into the world, the other
inward to the self. With these journeys in mind, anthropologist,
amateur economist and globetrotter Keith Hart reflects on a life of
learning, sharing and remembering to offer readers the means of
connecting life’s extremes – individual and society, local and global,
personal and impersonal dimensions of existence and explores what it is
that makes us fully human.

“This is a work of great originality. Keith Hart has had an unorthodox
academic career and it has liberated him in many ways from academic
pieties. His background in African ethnography gives him a fascinating
angle on all sorts of things, not least the possibility of a more
African-influenced global future. The book is full of surprises and
mind-shifting observations. I actually couldn't put it down.”—Sherry B.
Ortner, UCLA

From the introduction:
People have many sides, but I will focus here on two. Each of us is a
biological organism with a historical personality that together make us a
unique individual. But we cannot live outside society which shapes us
in unfathomable ways. Human beings must learn to be self-reliant (not
self-interested) in small and large ways: no-one will brush your teeth
for you or save you from being run over while crossing the street. We
each must also learn to belong to others, merging personal identity in a
plethora of social relations and categories. Modern ideology insists
that being individual and mutual is problematic. The culture of
capitalist societies anticipates a conflict between them. Yet they are
inseparable aspects of human nature.