The Problem of Context

The apparently simple notion that it is contextualization and invocation of context that give form to our interpretations raises important questions about context definition. Moreover, different disciplines involved in the elucidation and interpretation of meanings may construe context in different ways. How do these ways differ? And what analytical strategies are adopted in order to suggest that the relevant context is "self-evident"? The notion of context has received less attention than is due such a central, key concept in social anthropology, as well as in other related disciplines.This collection of contributions from a group of leading social anthropologists and anthropological linguists addresses the question of how the idea of context is constructed, invoked, and deployed in the interpretations put forward by social anthropologists. The ethnographic focus embraces peoples from regions such as Bali, Europe, Malawi, and Zaire. Primarily theoretical in its aims, the work also draws onexpertise from anthropological linguistics and philosophy in order to set the issue as much in a comparative disciplinary perspective as in a comparative cross-cultural one.

Roy Dilley is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. Johannes Fabian holds the Chair of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. Penelope Harvey is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. Sandor Hervey was Reader in Linguistics in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. Mark Hobart is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Ladislav Holy was Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. Brian Morris teaches Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Ruth Prince is a Research Associate, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews. Nigel Rapport is Professor of Anthropological and Philosophical Studies at the University of St Andrews. David Riches is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. Elzbieta Tabakowska is Professor of Linguistics at the Institute of English, Jagiellonian University of Krakow.