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Social Science General

Obedient Autonomy

Chinese Intellectuals and the Achievement of Orderly Life

by (author) Erika E.S. Evasdottir

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2005
Category
General, Cultural
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774809306
    Publish Date
    Jan 2005
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774809290
    Publish Date
    Feb 2004
    List Price
    $95.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774829717
    Publish Date
    Sep 2015
    List Price
    $99.00

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Where to buy it

Description

This original anthropological study explores a type of “obedient” autonomy that thrives on setbacks, blossoms as more rules are imposed, and flourishes in adversity and, in conjuction, examines the specialized and highly organized discipline of archaeology in China. It follows Chinese students on their journey to becoming full-fledged archaeologists in a bureaucracy-saturated environment. A masterly contextualization of archaeology in China, Obedient Autonomy shows how the discipline has accommodated itself to a Chinese social structure, and uncovers the moral, ethical, political, and economic underpinnings of that context.

About the author

Awards

  • Winner, K.D. Srivastava Award, UBC Press

Contributor Notes

After receiving her doctorate in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, Erika E.S. Evasdottir was a Killam post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. Her research focus is now Chinese law, including issues of bureaucracy and authority within the Chinese legal community.

Editorial Reviews

After extended research in the last nineties, Evasdottire worked out a model, or many patterns of behaviour, of archaeologists, which she illustrates with a great variety of portraits and stories. The result is of the highest interest, and very readable. The book opens new windows to understanding relationships among the Chinese, the ambitions and frustrations of the intellectuals, as well as the personal rewards of hard word and finding one’s proper place in society

Chinese Cross Currents, Summer 2005

What stands out in this well-written and most interesting book is the lucidity and straightforward approach of its author. From experience gained as the result of intensive fieldwork, Erika Evadottir has become extremely well acquainted with the archaeology of China, and yet she has kept enough distance from her object of study to give us a confident picture of the field based on an analysis of the facts as well as a creative approach to theoretical speculation. That is why this book is not only worth reading by archaeologists interested in China but also an important contribution to research on intellectuals in China and their attitude towards the Chinese state and society.

China Review International, vol.12, no.2, Fall 2006

The author is pioneering a new field, using politically neutral social anthropology and its theoretical constructs to examine Chinese intellectual life. This approach makes this an important work with no lack of sound observations and it should initiate further enquiry.

The China Quarterly, Fall 2005