27 Post Modernism

Chatali Tandon

Contents

Introduction

1. Modernism – A background to Understand Post-Modernism

2. What is Post Modernism?

2.1 Postmodernism – Attempting a Definition.

2.2 The Main Thinkers of the Post Modernism.

2.4 Principal Tenets of Postmodernism

2.5 Post Modernism in relation to Post Structuralism

2.5 The Postmodern Condition, Replacing Grand with the Local

2.6 Post modernism and Deconstruction

3. Critique of Post Modernism

4. Conclusion

Learning Objectives

This module will introduce the reader to

the theory of Postmodernism in anthropological thought. through a background of modernism which is indispensible in understanding the postmodern. After understanding modernism, the work will further
discuss ‘postmodernism’ and will try attempting a definition of postmodernism
the principle tenets of post modernism, important perspectives by postmodernists
the critique of the theory of Postmodernism

Introduction

Postmodernism in Anthropology is one of the exceedingly debated theories in contemporary times. It is seen as a kind of intellectual movement with the main purpose of challenging, its immediate passing stage of modernism prevalent in 19th century. Postmodern or postmodernity is a culture in the contemporary time frame of history, While postmodernism is a set of critiques who are inspired by this postmodern culture.

1. Modernism – A background to Understand Post-Modernism

At the time of enlightenment (a movement in Europe during 17th and 18th century), the supremacy from the traditional institutions, supernatural, and the blind faith, shifted to the human reason and its since then, one could see the advent of modernity. Modernity came with renaissance. Over the centuries, science, technology and human reason became most important with extreme authority.

Modernism is a movement that is philosophical and artistic in nature. The very term finds its origin in the western context that relates with the cultural and social changes due to revolutions and alterations in the western civilization. Modernism came around end of 19th century (period around 1890’s) to the starting of 20th century, the period around 1945 as ending phase of modernism by its proponents.

Modernism was like a philosophy that stressed on a particular ‘way of thinking’, a new and progressive outlook towards society that was made by breaking shackles of orthodoxy and traditions that were irrational in nature. ‘Self-consciousness’ was considered the main characteristic of this movement.

Modernism led to a new form of art, philosophy, architecture, lifestyle, economy and Politics replacing the old systems of social, economic, political organizations.

The main aim of modernism was ‘progress. It facilitated a new attitude towards life that was more rational. Industrial revolution and capitalistic values from the west promoted the philosophy of modernism to a great extent. Modernism started a new form of social and cultural life , thinking , art and literature . The modernism artists were innovative and believed in new forms of experimentation that was never attempted or practiced before by artists of the previous centuries.

Some of the major thinkers and protagonists of this movement were like Sigmund Freud with his work on theories of psychoanalysis and dreams, Friedrich Nietzsche and his work on the role of ‘will’ in psychological motivations, important literary works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Henry James and August Stringberg. All the works of the Modernist era, be it artistic or literary, represented and displayed rationality, culture and freedom from the ‘Past’.

With all this above context of Modernism, it becomes easy for one to situate and understand the advent of Post Modernism as a stage, a philosophy, a movement that followed Modernism.

2. What is Post Modernism?

The word ‘post’ is a prefix which means ‘after’ or “later”, so the word Post Modernism refers to a philosophical movement that came after ‘Modernism’. The movement started in the late decades of 20th century .

Post Modernism was a term for a philosophy that was applicable to all facets of society like economic , political , social , cultural , art, literature , music , fiction and history. Post modernism was a reaction to modernism.

Postmodern school of thought has nothing to do with the historical developments. In post modernism, the nature becomes secondary and prime importance is given to a more human world . It meant breaking barriers with everything that existed before in the human civilization.

Post modernism thus inspired and grew from post-structuralism and its ideas. Postmodern thought reappraised the entire system of western civilization.

If modernism is understood with the advent of capitalism , post modernism deals with what comes after capitalism.

2.1 Postmodernism – Attempting a Definition.

One of the very important facet of post modernism is that, the post modernists do not believe in fixed , identifiable definitions . They do not have strict boundaries of defining anything as everything is based on one’s personal subjectivity and interpretation. More or less, it’s like a belief system that is indefinite and confusing in nature.

For post-modernist theorists, reality is always incomprehensible, truth is something that is socially constructed, and its ever dynamic in nature.

Sometimes, the main problem in studying post modernism is distinguishing it from what we call as ‘modernity’ as , postmodern exponents still investigate the areas that were studied by the modernist like parody, ambiguity , self-consciousness and irony.

So we can say that post modernism is an extension of modernism in terms of investigation. The term postmodern was coined by an historian named Arnold Toynbee in the forties.

2.2 The Main Thinkers of the Post Modernism.

Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976), Michel Foucault (1926- 1984), Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), Jean Francois Lyotard (1924-1998), Richard Rorty (1931-2007), Fredric Jameson (1934) were important thinkers/philosophers of the post modernism discourse.

2.3 Principal Tenets of Postmodernism

One of the very important features of Postmodernism is its disenchantment with Modernism. It developed in reaction to the Modernist perspective on social life.

The philosophy of post modernism supports globalization. Like globalization , post modernism feels that any form of borders be it social , political , economic are hindrance in development of human society and its communication within it. Post Modernists believe in breaking down all sorts of walls that restrict humans in any way . They promote a free world

Post-Modernist feel that ethics is a subject matter of the individual and it is not something that is collective. Every individual has his or her set of moral rules which can be different from one another. Therefore morality is a private affair.

Post modernism is considered a very liberal philosophical movement, where all religions are considered effective and important. It does not lays stress importance on any one religion and is quite liberal and secular in approach. No one religion is important. It believes in plurality of religions.

Postmodernism says No one way of life is correct. Everyone has equal rights to live the way one wants to, without any restriction This movement also supports the cause of homosexuals and the feminists. For them, every person has different social, intellectual and biological preferences..

Post modernists believe that there is no absolute truth , everything is relative and in accordance to how one wants to interpret the reality . For instance , there can be hundred interpretations of a single painting and still all hundred interpretations would be right and valid. It values human subjectivity and thus for in Post Modernism everything relative and nothing is absolute. Truth is ever changing and has no one explanation. There are multiple truths and not one ultimate truth.

Post modernism supports rationality and self-subjectivity. It considers individual’s opinion supreme and believes that everything is ever changing. For Post Modernists traditional knowledge is of no use in a postmodern world. It should be completely discarded. for them age old traditions bounds , imposes constraints on humans decelerating their development.

The nature of this philosophy is atheist in nature. All its major exponents of post modernism are atheists like Guattari , Foucault , Bataille, and Derrida. For many, the future of religion was atheism.

The Post Modernists believe that every individual constructs his or her reality according to it culture, environment and experience. Nothing appears real to the post modernists, for them there are billions and billions of subjective realities and there is no single objective reality. A Post Modern is not convinced with the objectivity of the science as promoted in the modernist era. Science studies facts and according to the post-modernist view, facts can be understood and interpreted in more than one way depending upon the nature and subjectivity of the scientist.

Post modernism is against traditional historical approach. For them past is something that is blur and does not help in any understanding of the present. History is rendered as an undefined past which is more like a fiction. Thinker like Foucault challenged history and the norm where study of past is considered unavoidable and important but at the same time, he said that history should be written as part of some philosophy and not merely as historical account.

Everything is considered as a social construction in term of post modernism. There is no unified and permanent self. There is no fixed human nature and all humans keep trying to receive acceptance and acknowledgment in society.

Political values in post modernism comes from the Marxist ideology. For instance. Foucault was under the influence of Marxist understanding relations based on economic inequality. Foucault along with Porty used the leftist thought in their works.

Post-modernist were supportive of the concept of ‘’free love’’. They considered Christian marriages to be root cause of evils in the society. They had utopian view of sexual relations that knew no burden of society or tradition.

Post modernists do not get stuck in the categories of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, as they are against the notion of absolute truth in post modernism.

2.4 Post Modernism in relation to Post Structuralism

Structuralism was a movement that started in 1950’s in reaction to French existentialism.

If structuralism dealt with finding logic in the language, post structuralism was about the poetic or the expressive sub-conscious of that logic .

If Post structuralists did not belived in stringent and authoritarian interpretations. For many, post structuralism was a movement that was considered to be a part of a broader philosophical and intellectual movement of Post Modernism.

Post structuralists like Jacquas Derrida, Jean Francious Lyotard, and pierre Bourdieu were considerednt post modernist too. Post modernists and post structuralists belong to two different schools of thought, and cannot be seen as one. Post structuralists can be understood as a product of an offshoot from the philosophy of post structuralism that was born under the philosophical movement of the post modern.

2.5 The Postmodern Condition, Replacing Grand with the Local

Jean Francious Lyotard in 1979, wrote an important book “ The Post Modern Condition : A Report on Knowledge” this book introduced the term ‘post modern’ which was previously discussed and used only by the art critics. Lyotard discussed the notion of knowledge in an postmodern world. He discussed what type of knowledge and what meaning of knowledge exists in a postmodern set up.

The notion of knowledge in post modern condition meant to terminate the ‘grand’ theories and the metanarratives that were prevalent in the modern condition. Post modernism outrighly rejected the use of Metanarratives which included narrative historical accounts , meanings derived out of experience or one’s knowledge .

Lyotard proposed that Post Modernism should break the shackles of metanarratives and grand universal theories and should start understanding the local narratives, which are specific and non-universal in nature and deal with single events. Local narratives would result in understanding varied forms of human experiences.

2.6 Post modernism and Deconstruction

One of the highlighting and very unique feature of post modernism is the style of writing the literature. Post modernists have a very specific kind of language. They believe in deconstruction. For instance , according to Jacques Derrida deconstruction is a literary method in which the latent meanings of the text are exposed. Deconstruction forms the very significant aspect of post modernism. This was found in the work of Jacquas Derrida. It is a kind of analysis based on philosophical and literary features. Deconstruction doesn’t belive or support: “pure existence” or pure presence of anything. According to deconstruction, nothing in the world has one and a constant meaning. Every meaning changes in different contexts.

Deconstruction is used in different areas of humanities and social sciences like in anthropology, law, psychoanalysis, linguistics, feminism, histography, political theory, and homo sexual studies. It is interesting for one to know that, one can experience or use the analysis of deconstruction in art, architecture and music .deconstruction forms the crux of the textual approach of Derrida.

One of the most important concerns of Derrida’s deconstruction was to contribute, assert and re-evaluate all the western values. Another important concern or rather apprehension of Derrida was not to mix deconstruction with the dialectics by Hegel, as finding contradictions can lead to a a stage where synthesis of contradictions take place in the later stage , so it’s important to differentiate between deconstruction and the dialectics.

The term deconstruction according to Derrida was first used in the context of structuralism. Derrida was against deconstruction being called as method, as method is more like a mechanical action . for Derrida , deconstruction is neither a critique nor an analysis Literary criticism of postmodern rejects that objective meanings and true interpretations of the texts. All the meanings have to be deconstructed, to understand them in a better way

3. Critique of Post Modernism

Starting with the contribution of post modernism , it replaced modernism which was a very strong paradigm based on empirical investigation to look for absolute truths.post modernism helped in bridging the dichotomy between faith and ultimate rationality , which was helpful to the Christian beliefs. For many, Post Modern school of thought is vague and worthless. It adds nothing analytical to the present system of knowledge.

According to Felix Guattari a post-modernist himself, the theory of post structuralism and post modernism were not flexible to explain the social, environmental and psychological aspects of life. For Danniel Dennett, (a philosopher) post modernism leads to multiple interpretations of a single phenomenon contributing to the confusion and absurdities, which disrespect the historical evidences.

Post modernists do not give any regard to historical developments of civilizations of the past. For many, post modernism promotes a philosophy that is unreliable and erratic in nature, depending upon such a free philosophy does not guarantee concrete knowledge of any phenomenon.

Art and literature of Modernism movement was considered ‘high art’, it was sophisticated and ceremonial whereas in post modernism, it was more like a popular art, which was neither sophisticated nor well-wrought. It was fragmented, confusing to many, giving value to the subjective aesthetics.

Keith Jenkins did epistemological critique of post modernism. He critiqued post modernism and asserted the role of history, along with the aesthetic. According to him, epistemological grounding is important to ground any philosophy .According to Jenkins, there was a problem in ‘deconstruction’ as, it lead to a radical ambiguity. If there are multiple truths or no absolute truth then there is just cynicism and disbeliefs in the ideology of post modernism.

Post modernism rejected everything that was modern and instead gave new form and understanding of politics and culture which was unstable and informal in approach. For the post-modernist, the world outside him is an error, for them truth of anyone except themselves is an error. This leads to a situation of chaos, as no one has the authority to define standards of the right or wrong in a postmodern society.

Post modernists do not support a unified, influential all-inclusive worldview. They believe in local and multiple stories and they are against classical, formal, big narrations. During modernity , importance was given to rational thought and reason , that helped in progress of society , technology , medicine etc whereas , post modernism has added more skepticism in understanding society by avoiding the use of human reason .

For post modernism science is also based on prejudices and specific motives so, it was not ‘objective’ in pure sense of the term. Post modernism highlights the role of language and culture as powerful weapons. The power of language and culture was suppressed in modernity and importance was given to science and technology. Many scholars feel that post modernism was all about the fall of objectivity and conviction rather Post modernism only led to skepticism, never ending interpretations leading to chaos.

Post modernism includes all the critiques that attempts that try to define the ‘modern’. For post modernists grand, abstract and universal theories are vague and not to be trusted, they misguide and there is nothing which can be called as an comprehensive ethnographic study.

Post modernists believe in individual reflexivity and the notion of embodiment. Post modernism therefore is so much derived and influenced from relativism and interpretivism that post modernism looks like a logical development from the two, it is yet very difficult to demarcate post modernism from relativism and interpretivism by any means of timeline , style of writing or the literary jargons.

As the enlightenment promised a whole new world, post modernism too believes in the same. Post moderns are liberals in accepting all forms of interpretations, truths and forms culture equally. Every subjective understanding seems legitimate for post modernism.

4. Conclusion

Though one cannot define the term post modernism, it’s something that is a way of looking at things around us, it’s a perspective or more of an intellectual movement that sees there is no absolute truth and every text has many meanings in it. This is a philosophy that is famous for its playfulness. For Post moderns, there is no truth, no fact, so one right way to understand nature or a text, and ultimately objectivity is a myth for a post-modernist. It is liberal in nature and believes in breaking all the shackles of science and a system of authoritative truth. It believes in subjectivities and not objectivity and empiricism. Despite post modernism being absurd to many, confusing to others, it’s a very significant paradigm in the theories of development. Therefore , influence of the Post Modern theory is so influential that even those who are anti-post modernism have fallen prey to or have been captivated to what is called as the “postmodern”.

Summary

This lecture will introduce you to the theory of Postmodernism in anthropological thought through a background of modernism which is indispensible in understanding the postmodern.

After understanding the theory of modernism, we will further discuss ‘postmodernism’ and will try attempting a definition of postmodernism, following that we will then discuss the principle tenets of post modernism, important perspectives by postmodernists and in the end of the lecture we will discuss over the critique of the theory of Postmodernism, so let me start , by introducing you to the concept of postmodernism.

To understand ‘Post-Modernism’ it becomes essential and important to first understand theory of Modernism. Understanding Post Modernism is only possible with contextual placement of Post Modernism as a stage that comes after Modernism. At the time of enlightenment (a movement in Europe during 17th and 18th century), the supremacy from the traditional institutions, supernatural, and the blind faith, shifted to the human reason and its since then, one could see the advent of modernity. Modernity came with renaissance. Over the centuries, science, technology and human reason became most important with extreme authority. Modernism is a movement that is philosophical and artistic in nature. The very term finds its origin in the western context that relates with the cultural and social changes due to revolutions and alterations in the western civilization. Modernism came around end of 19th century ( period around 1890’s) to the starting of 20th century. The period around 1945 as ending phase of modernism by its proponents).

Modernism was related to the industrial growth and decline in the beliefs regarding religion , superstitions, backwardness of all kinds that made the society ‘less modern’ or traditional in approach Modernism was like a philosophy that stressed on a particular ‘way of thinking’, a new and progressive outlook towards society that was made by breaking shackles of orthodoxy and traditions that were irrational in nature. ‘Self-consciousness’ was considered the main characteristic of this movement. Modernism led to a new form of art, philosophy, architecture, lifestyle, economy and Politics replacing the old systems of social , economic , political organizations. Thus The main aim of modernism was ‘progress’. Some of the major thinkers and protagonists of this movement were like Sigmund Freud with his work on theories of psychoanalysis and dreams, Friedrich Nietzsche and his work on the role of ‘will’ in psychological motivations, important literary works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Henry James and August Stringberg. All the works of the Modernist era, be it artistic or literary, represented and displayed rationality, culture and freedom from the ‘Past’.

With all this above context of Modernism, it becomes easy for one to situate and understand the advent of Post Modernism as a stage, a philosophy, a movement that followed Modernism.

After Modernism, lets come to Postmodernism.The word ‘post’ is a prefix which means ‘after’ or “later”, so the word Post Modernism refers to a philosophical movement that came after ‘Modernism’.

The movement started in the late decades of 20th century . Post Modernism was a term for a philosophy that was applicable to all facets of society like economic , political , social , cultural , art, literature , music , fiction and history. Post modernism was a reaction to modernism. Postmodern school of thought has nothing to do with the historical developments. In post modernism, the nature becomes secondary and prime importance is given to a more human world . It meant breaking barriers with everything that existed before in the human civilization. Post modernism thus inspired and grew from post-structuralism and its ideas. Postmodern thought reappraised the entire system of western civilization.If modernism is understood with the advent of capitalism , post modernism deals with what comes after capitalism.

It is difficult to define postmodernism. One of the very important facet of post modernism is that, the post modernists do not believe in fixed , identifiable definitions . They do not have strict boundaries of defining anything as everything is based on one’s personal subjectivity and interpretation. More or less, it’s like a belief system that is indefinite and confusing in nature. For post-modernist theorists, reality is always incomprehensible, truth is something that is socially constructed, and its ever dynamic in nature. we can still say that post modernism is an extension of modernism in terms of investigation. The term postmodern was coined by an historian named Arnold Toynbee in the forties.The Main Thinkers of the Post Modernism are Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976), Michel Foucault (1926- 1984), Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), Jean Francois Lyotard (1924-1998), Richard Rorty (1931-2007), Fredric Jameson (1934

Let us now discuss the Principal Tenets of Postmodernism

One of the very important features of Postmodernism is its disenchantment with Modernism. It developed in reaction to the Modernist perspective on social life.The philosophy of post modernism supports globalization. Post Modernists believe in breaking down all sorts of walls that restrict humans in any way . They promote a free world. In post modernism, morality is a private affair. Postmodernism says No one way of life is correct. Everyone has equal rights to live the way one wants to, without any restriction for instance , This movement also supports the cause of homosexuals and the feminists. For them, every person has different social, intellectual and biological preferences.Post modernists believe that there is no absolute truth , everything is relative and in accordance to how one wants to interpret the reality . For instance , there can be hundred interpretations of a single painting and still all hundred interpretations would be right and valid for a Postmodern there are multiple truths and not one ultimate truth. Post modernism supports rationality and self-subjectivity. It considers individual’s opinion supreme and believes that everything is ever changing. The nature of this philosophy is atheist in nature . All its major exponents of post modernism are atheists like Guattari , Foucault , Bataille, and Derrida. For many , the future of religion was atheism .The Post Modernists believe that every individual constructs his or her reality according to it culture, environment and experience. Nothing appears real to the post modernists, for them there are billions and billions of subjective realities and there is no single objective reality. A Post Modern is not convinced with the objectivity of the science as promoted in the modernist era. Science studies facts and according to the post-modernist view, facts can be understood and interpreted in more than one way depending upon the nature and subjectivity of the scientist.Post modernism is against traditional historical approach. For them past is something that is blur and does not help in any understanding of the present. Everything is considered as a social construction in term of post modernism. There is no unified and permanent self. There is no fixed human nature and all humans keep trying to receive acceptance and acknowledgment in society.

For many , post structuralism was a movement that was considered to be a part of a broader philosophical and intellectual movement of Post Modernism as Post structuralists did not believed in stringent and authoritarian interpretations.

Jean Francious Lyotard in 1979, wrote an important book “ The Post Modern Condition : A Report on Knowledge” this book introduced the term ‘post modern’. According to him,Post modernism outrighly rejected the use of Metanarratives which included narrative historical accounts , meanings derived out of experience or one’s knowledge . Lyotard proposed that Post Modernism should break the shackles of metanarratives and grand universal theories and should start understanding the local narratives, which are specific and non-universal in nature and deal with single events. Local narratives would result in understanding varied forms of human experiences.

One of the highlighting and very unique feature of post modernism is the style of writing the literature . Post modernists have a very specific kind of language They believe in deconstruction. for instance , according to Jacques Derrida deconstruction is a literary method in which the latent meanings of the text are exposed. Deconstruction forms the very significant aspect of post modernism. This was found in the work of Jacquas Derrida. It is a kind of analysis based on philosophical and literary features. Deconstruction doesn’t belive or support: “pure existence” or pure presence“of anything. According to deconstruction, nothing in the world has one and a constant meaning. every meaning changes in different contexts.

Deconstruction means to pursue a meaning of a particular text to a level that all its inherent contradictions and oppositions are exposed to show that every form of text has not just one meaning , but every text is a potential piece of understand multiple truths hidden within it , which can be revealed by the used of the deconstruction analysis. Language is considered a system of signs , which is decoded with help of deconstruction. Deconstruction forms the crux of the textual approach of Derrida. The term deconstruction according to Derrida was first used in the context of structuralism. Derrida was against deconstruction being called as method, as method is more like a mechanical action . for Derrida , deconstruction is neither a critique nor an analysis Literary criticism of postmodern rejects that objective meanings and true interpretations of the texts. All the meanings have to be deconstructed, to understand them in a better way.

Now lets come to the Critique of Post Modernism

Like any other school of thought, Post Modern is also not free of criticism. The impact of post modernism in western context is highly debatable. There are different opinions on post modernism for some is a new temporary fashion and for others it’s a new influential paradigm that will stay for long and for rest, the theory of post modernism is highly confusing and detrimental to use. Few of the very important criticism of this philosophy are as follows. Starting with the contribution of post modernism, it replaced modernism which was a very strong paradignm based on empirical investigation to look for absolute truths. For Danniel Dennett, (a philosopher) post modernism leads to multiple interpretations of a single phenomenon contributing to the confusion and absurdities, which disrespect the historical evidences. Post modernists do not give any regard to historical developments of civilizations of the past. For many, post modernism promotes a philosophy that is unreliable and erratic in nature, depending upon such a free philosophy does not guarantee concrete knowledge of any phenomenon.Keith Jenkins did epistemological critique of post modernism. He critiqued post modernism and asserted the role of history, along with the aesthetics . according to him , epistemological grounding is important to ground any philosophy .According to Jenkins , there was a problem in ‘deconstruction’ as , it lead to a radical ambiguity. If there are multiple truths or no absolute truth then there is just cynicism and disbeliefs in the ideology of post modernism.

Post modernists do not support a unified, influential all-inclusive worldview. They believe in local and multiple stories and they are against classical, formal , big narrations. For post modernism science is also based on prejudices and specific motives so, it was not ‘objective’ in pure sense of the term . Post modernism highlights the role of language and culture as powerful weapons. The power of language and culture was suppressed in modernity and importance was given to science and technology. Many scholars feel that post modernism was all about the fall of objectivity and conviction rather Post modernism only led to skepticism, never ending interpretations leading to chaos.

British Anthropologist, Ernest Geller attacked Post Modernism by saying the post modernism was self-absorbed and was highly subjective in Nature. For Gellner , Post Modernism was nothing but form of relativism. Post modernism was considered as a form of romanticist, which believed in replacing the classical set up of enlightened Europe. . For post modernists grand , abstract and universal theories are vague and not to be trusted, they misguide and there is nothing which can be called as an comprehensive ethnographic study. Post modernists believe in individual reflexivity and the notion of embodiment. Every subjective understanding seems legitimate for post modernism.

So I here conclude our understanding of Postmodernism, by sayin that Though one cannot define the term post modernism, it’s something that is a way of looking at things around us, it’s a perspective or more of an intellectual movement that sees there is no absolute truth and every text has many meanings in it. This is a philosophy that is famous for its playfulness and liberal nature. objectivity is a myth for a post-modernist. Therefore , influence of the Post Modern theory is so influential that even those who are anti-post modernism have fallen prey to or have been captivated to what is called as the “postmodern”.

you can view video on Post Modernism

References :

Anthrobase Postmodernism Page:http://www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/def/postmodernism.htm (An encyclopedia of Theory of Postmodernism in Anthropology.
Greenfield, P. (2000) What Psychology can do for anthropology, or why anthropology took postmodernism on the chin. American Anthropologist, 102(3).
Harris, Marvin. (1999) Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Roseneau, Pauline (1993) Postmodernism and the Social Sciences
Tester, Keith (1993) The Life and Times of Postmodernity. London: Routledge
Turner, Bryan S. (1990) Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity. London: SAGE Publications.