Michael D. Jackson
New Zealand-born anthropologist, poet, and novelist noted for his work in existential anthropology; conducted fieldwork in Sierra Leone and Aboriginal Australia and held academic posts including at the Australian National University and Harvard Divinity School.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. What Is Existential Anthropology?
A concise manifesto for an anthropology rooted in lived experience, it critiques abstract, system-driven models and centers the ordinary, contingent, and relational facets of life. Emphasizing intersubjectivity, narrative, and the ethical stakes of fieldwork, it shows how people improvise meaning, sustain agency, and endure suffering amid uncertainty. Drawing on existential and phenomenological insights, it reframes ethnography as a collaborative practice of attending to movement, betweenness, and transformative thresholds. The approach privileges practical wisdom over theory, seeking to understand how possibilities are opened and constrained in everyday worlds.
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