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Anthropologists have expressed wariness about the concept of evil even in discussions of morality and ethics, in part because the concept carries its own cultural baggage and theological implications in Euro-American societies. Addressing the problem of evil as a distinctly human phenomenon and a category of ethnographic analysis, this volume shows the usefulness of engaging evil as a descriptor of empirical reality where concepts such as violence, criminality, and hatred fall short of capturing the darkest side of human existence.
“The volume brings nuance, complexity and ethnographic thickness to recent debates in moral anthropology, showing that anthropology is far from being ‘secure’ in its distinction between good and evil while studying suffering, and that an anthropology of evil must complement the anthropology of the good. The book is a must for anthropologists working on morality, but it is also an enticing invitation for those working on suffering, violence and structural injustice to explore the usefulness of evil as analytical category, beyond the study of emic notions.” • Social Anthropology
“The various contributions offer a rich and highly variegated overview of how anthropologists have dealt with ‘evil’ and thus give a good idea of the baffling variety hiding behind this notion.” • Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam
William C. Olsen is a lecturer for anthropology and African studies at Georgetown University.
Introduction
William C. Olsen and Thomas Csordas
PART I: EVIL AND ANTHROPOLOGY
Chapter 1. From Theodicy to Homodicy: Evil as an Anthropological Problem
Thomas Csordas
Chapter 2. On the Concept of “Evil” in Anthropological Analyses and Political Violence
Byron Good
PART II: EVIL AND SUFFERING
Chapter 3. Speak No Evil: Inversion and Evasion in Indonesia
Andrew Beatty
Chapter 4. Mother Evil in Hell Valley: A Creole Transvalorisation of Evil in Trinidad
Roland Littlewood
Chapter 5. Satan on the Old Kent Road: Articulations of Evil in a Pentecostal Diaspora
Simon Coleman
Chapter 6. The Transformation of Evil in Nepal
David Gellner
Chapter 7. Radical Evil and the Notion of Conscience: A Buddhist Meditation on Christian Soteriology
Gananath Obeyesekere
Chapter 8. Are Spirits Satanic? The Ambiguity of Evil in Niger
Adeline Masqulier
PART III: EVIL AND VIOLENCE
Chapter 9. Engaging Evil and Excess in Palestine / Israel
Julie Peteet
Chapter 10. The Violence of Evil: A Biocultural Approach to Violence, Memory, and Pain
Ventura Perez
Chapter 11. The Intention of Evil: Asram in Asante
William C. Olsen
Chapter 12. Monsters, Sadists, and the Unspectacular Torture Experience
Nerina Weiss
Afterword
David Parkin