New directions in the anthropology of morality

Cassaniti, Julia; Hickman, Jacob R.

doi:10.1177/1463499614534371

Cited by 35 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…While psychological anthropology has long been concerned with moral development (e.g., Briggs 1998;Shweder, Mahapatra, and Miller 1987), the broader field of anthropology has only recently returned its focus to the domain of morality (Cassaniti and Hickman 2014). Of particular interest within this burgeoning literature has been "ordinary ethics," the way in which everyday discursive interactions construct the moral good rather than looking for the moral good within the realm of philosophical ideals or explicitly delineated moral judgments (Das 2012;Lambek 2010Lambek , 2015Lempert 2013).…”

Section: The Psychological Anthropology Of Youth Socialization and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing “The Middle”: The Socialization of Monastic Youth in Buddhist Northern Thailand

Chladek¹

2018

Ethos

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Temporary Buddhist monasticism is an important institution in Thailand for the socialization of boys and young men. By ordaining for some time, they learn the ideals of Thai Buddhist morality. Scholarship on youth's socialization into cultural models has often suggested a linear, unidirectional process in which “agents of socialization” instill in younger generations notions of what it means to be morally good. Such models presume consistent reinforcement of cultural models, often with the help of socially entrenched institutions. How young monastics experience divergent notions of what it means to be a good monastic, though, demonstrates that such a unidirectional model does not adequately address the ways in which morality and cultural models are constructed within interactions. I argue that religious institutions act as not only sites for the cultural reproduction of moral ideals but also as sites of everyday interactions where young monastics and their lay supporters reconstruct moral ideals anew. [morality, cultural models, youth, Thailand]

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Section: The Psychological Anthropology Of Youth Socialization and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing “The Middle”: The Socialization of Monastic Youth in Buddhist Northern Thailand

Chladek¹

2018

Ethos

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“…Laidlaw 2002Robbins 2007) and Boas in the United States (Kluckhohn 1955), mistakenly assumed, as epitomized by Ruth Benedict, that "morality is a convenient term for socially approved habits" (Benedict 1934). In light of these theoretical commitments, there was just nothing for moral anthropologists to study -the field has been left with a "domain gap" in which morality disappeared from focus (Cassaniti and Hickman 2014). 2 Moreover, many anthropologists have been in the grips of a normative interpretation of ethical relativism, according to which it would be morally wrong to evaluate or even describe the moral code of another culture (cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By having studied, for example, the various religious, gender and kinship systems from around the world, anthropology implicitly shed light on morality Parkin (1986); cf. Barker (2007); Cassaniti and Hickman (2014). To illustrate, Evan-Pritchard (1937) never explicitly discusses morality in his ethnography on Azande witchcraft, but treats witchcraft as implying something about the moral world of the Azande when he writes that "it is witchcraft" may often be translated simply as "it is bad" Evans-Pritchard (1937).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral Philosophy and the ‘Ethical Turn’ in Anthropology

Klenk

2019

ZEMO

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Moral philosophy continues to be enriched by an ongoing empirical turn, mainly through contributions from neuroscience, biology, and psychology. Thus far, cultural anthropology has largely been missing. A recent and rapidly growing 'ethical turn' within cultural anthropology now explicitly and systematically studies morality. This research report aims to introduce to an audience in moral philosophy several notable works within the ethical turn. It does so by critically discussing the ethical turn's contributions to four topics: the definition of morality, the nature of moral change and progress, the truth of moral relativism, and attempts to debunk morality. The ethical turn uncovers a richer picture of moral phenomena on the intersubjective level, one akin to a virtue theoretic focus on moral character, with striking similarities of moral phenomena across cultures. Perennial debates are not settled but the ethical turn strengthens moral philosophy's empirical turn and it rewards serious attention from philosophers.

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“…In contrast, moral development theories have long moved past Piagetian and Kohlberg paradigms, but even those that put culture and cross‐culture comparative thinking at the center of analyses (Shweder, Mahapatra, and Miller ; Shweder et al. ) have yet to gain traction in the new anthropology of morality (Cassaniti and Hickman , 252; Shweder and Menon ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning “Merit” in a Chinese Preschool: Bringing the Anthropological Perspective to Understanding Moral Development

Jing

2019

American Anthropologist

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Moral development in early childhood has recently raised heightened interest across social sciences.Integrating controlled methods into ethnographic fieldwork, this article investigates how Chinese preschool children develop their understanding of "merit," an important fairness principle in resource allocation, through socialization of biaoxian hao. Whereas the experimental data taps into distributing reward based on how much one contributes to collective work, a standard attribute of "merit" in psychology literature, ethnographic analysis reveals how children's understanding of merit is mediated by the cultural discourse of biaoxian hao, a significant moral framework in contemporary China that refers to self-presentation in authority-evaluation contexts, with a hierarchical dimension.Ethnography further demonstrates the developmental trajectory of learning biaoxian hao and the powerful disciplinary mechanism of overt social comparison and moral evaluation. By showing how two basic moral concerns, sensitivity to fairness and inclination to impress authority, intersect in early development in cultural contexts, this mixed-methods research provides a direction for cultural anthropology to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of moral development. [merit, fairness, biaoxian, moral development, China] RESUMEN El desarrollo moral en la niñez temprana ha aumentado recientemente un acentuado interés a través de las ciencias sociales. Integrando métodos controlados en el trabajo de campo etnográfico, este artículo investiga cómo niños chinos de preescolar desarrollan su entendimiento de "mérito", un principio importante de equidad en la asignación de recursos a través de la socialización de biaoxian hao. Mientras los datos experimentales ganan acceso a la distribución de recompensas basadas en cuánto uno contribuye al trabajo colectivo, un atributo estándar de "mérito" en la literatura de psicología, el análisis etnográfico revela cómo el entendimiento de mérito de los niños es mediado por el discurso cultural de biaoxian hao, un marco moral significativo en la China contemporánea que se refiere a la autopresentación en contextos de autoridad-evaluación, con una dimensión jerárquica. La etnografía además demuestra la trayectoria del desarrollo del aprendizaje biaoxian hao y el mecanismo disciplinario poderoso de comparación social abierta y evaluación moral. Al mostrar cómo dos preocupaciones morales básicas, sensibilidad a la equidad e inclinación a impresionar a la autoridad, intersectan en el desarrollo temprano en contextos culturales, esta investigación de métodos mixtos provee una dirección a la antropología cultural para contribuir al estudio interdisciplinario del desarrollo moral. [mérito, equidad, biaoxian, desarrollo moral, China]

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New directions in the anthropology of morality

Cited by 35 publications

References 17 publications

Constructing “The Middle”: The Socialization of Monastic Youth in Buddhist Northern Thailand

Constructing “The Middle”: The Socialization of Monastic Youth in Buddhist Northern Thailand

Moral Philosophy and the ‘Ethical Turn’ in Anthropology

Learning “Merit” in a Chinese Preschool: Bringing the Anthropological Perspective to Understanding Moral Development

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