Signe Howell

It may be predictable that one piece stood head and shoulders above the others for me – by Caroline Humphrey, certainly my goddess in Mongolian studies. She has made a pdf of her chapter available:
http://www.innerasiaresearch.org/CHsite/pdfs/Humphrey.%201997.%20Exemplars%20and...

It’s called ‘Exemplars and rules’. Between the two, it is in exemplars that a Mongolian’s moral significance lies; these are not of blanket application but are more of a personal quest, and it can be the show more quester who invests them with meaning. A morality structured this way is not expected to be consistent across society. There is an outlook that every existence will pursue its self-fulfillment, and the harmony of these is not assumed to be achievable. Before I crudify this essay any more, you can go and read it instead.

The introduction, by the brains behind the book, made me keen on the titular concept, and is worth reading in itself. Anthropologists have been shy to study moralities (plural) head-on, but she makes a case for it and talks about the difficulties.

The rest of the pieces seemed meagre and perhaps haven’t grasped the nettle or at once achieved the goals set in the introduction. There’s a later, larger book, though not a collection of case studies, A Companion to Moral Anthropology -- also with Caroline Humphrey’s involvement.

Entries from Zimbabwe, PNG, Mexico, Yemen (‘Inside an Exhausted Community’ – I’ll have to say I found this one judgmental). If you’re into football I bet you’ll love the one on Argentinian football and the moralities of sport. I couldn’t make myself read much about anti-outsider attitudes in an English village called Wanet – the subject matter was too dire. The strange inclusion, however, was the last, on Eve in Genesis. show less