| The Mana of Mass Society Contributor(s): Mazzarella, William (Author) |
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ISBN: 022643611X ISBN-13: 9780226436111 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $98.01 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Social Science | Sociology - Social Theory - Social Science | Media Studies |
| Dewey: 301.01 |
| LCCN: 2016058492 |
| Series: Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.7" W x 8.6" (0.85 lbs) 224 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: We often invoke the "magic" of mass media to describe seductive advertising or charismatic politicians. In The Mana of Mass Society, William Mazzarella asks what happens to social theory if we take that idea seriously. How would it change our understanding of publicity, propaganda, love, and power? Mazzarella reconsiders the concept of "mana," which served in early anthropology as a troubled bridge between "primitive" ritual and the fascination of mass media. Thinking about mana, Mazzarella shows, means rethinking some of our most fundamental questions: What powers authority? What in us responds to it? Is the mana that animates an Aboriginal ritual the same as the mana that energizes a revolutionary crowd, a consumer public, or an art encounter? At the intersection of anthropology and critical theory, The Mana of Mass Society brings recent conversations around affect, sovereignty, and emergence into creative contact with classic debates on religion, charisma, ideology, and aesthetics. |
Contributor Bio(s): Mazzarella, William: - William Mazzarella is the Neukom Family Professor of Anthropology and the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. |