Beyond A Room With A View: Jack Goody And The Future Of Comparative Anthropology

In 1991, Jack Goody published what then tantamounted to a synthesis of his thought: ‘Towards a Room with a View: a personal Account of Contributions to Local Knowledge, Theory, and Research in Fieldwork and Comparative Studies’. Recent developments in anthropology have reassessed Anthropology’s founding stance of Cultural Relativism to the effect of scuppering the agenda of Comparative Anthropology, of which Jack Goody was arguably the last practitioner of the Classic School. The Lecture will illustrate and criticize present dominant trends in Anthropology in that direction.


Dr Cesare Poppi - Bio:
Born in Bologna in 1953, Dr Cesare Poppi obtained a Laurea in Filosofia at the University of Bologna with Bernardo Bernardi. Subsequently, he was awarded an MPhil and PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, UK, with Sir Jack Goody. CP has conducted research among the Ladins of the Val di Fassa (Dolomites) since 1974. From 1983, he has been engaged in research on masks and secret societies in NW Ghana. Since 2003, he has conducted fieldwork on winter masquerades in Europe (www.carnivalkingofeurope.it). He has lectured at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK), Bologna, Trent, Bozen/Bolzano, Pollenzo, Udine (I), Malta, and Lugano (CH), besides holding positions in Cameroon, and the US (University of Washington (Seattle) and Austin (Texas). Currently, Dr Poppi lives and works in a deserted hamlet in the Eastern Dolomites - and sails the Adriatic whenever possible.

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