Transatlantic Parallaxes

Anthropological inquiry developed around the study of the exotic. Now that we live in a world that seems increasingly familiar, putatively marked by a spreading sameness, anthropology must re-envision itself. The emergence of diverse national traditions in the discipline offers one intriguing path. This volume, the product of a novel encounter of American anthropologists of France and French anthropologists of the United States, explores the possibilities of that path through an experiment in the reciprocal production of knowledge. Simultaneously native subjects, foreign experts, and colleagues, these scholars offer novel insights into each other''s societies, juxtaposing glimpses of ourselves and a familiar "other" that productively unsettle and enrich our understanding of both.

Anthropological inquiry developed around the study of the exotic. Now that we live in a world that seems increasingly familiar, putatively marked by a spreading sameness, anthropology must re-envision itself. The emergence of diverse national traditions in the discipline offers one intriguing path. This volume, the product of a novel encounter of American anthropologists of France and French anthropologists of the United States, explores the possibilities of that path through an experiment in the reciprocal production of knowledge. Simultaneously native subjects, foreign experts, and colleagues, these scholars offer novel insights into each other’s societies, juxtaposing glimpses of ourselves and a familiar “others” to productively unsettle and enrich our understanding of both.

Preface
List of Contributors

Introduction: Toward reciprocal anthropology
Anne Raulin and Susan Carol Rogers

PART I: DISTINCTIONS: CLASS, RACE, CULTURE

Chapter 1. Homeless People (Paris, Los Angeles): The principle of equality seen from below
Patrick Gaboriau

Chapter 2. The Moral Public Sphere: Integration and discrimination in a French New Town
Beth Epstein

Chapter 3. Creolization, Racial Imagination and the Music Market in French Louisiana
Sara Le Menestrel

Chapter 4. Claiming Culture, Defending Culture: Perspectives on culture in France and the United States
David Beriss

PART II: KEY WORDS: COMMUNITY, HEALING

Chapter 5. Gay Activism and the Question of Community                
William Poulin-Deltour

Chapter 6. Confronting “Community”: From Rural France to the Vietnamese Diaspora
Deborah Reed-Danahay

Chapter 7. Healing the Community: Ethics and ancestry in Orisha religious practices in the United States 
Stefania Capone

Chapter 8. Healing at the Foot of the Twin Towers: Beyond the trauma of 9/11
Anne Raulin

PART III: MYTHS: ENDLESS POSSIBILITY, COUNTRYSIDES

Chapter 9. To Live in a World of Possibilities: A New Age version of the American Myth
Christian Ghasarian

Chapter 10. Faux Amis in the Countryside: Deciphering the familiar
Susan Carol Rogers

Index