The Rhetorical Emergence of Culture

“On balance, this volume [like others in the series] leans toward the theoretical. In this setting, even the ethnographic contributions may provide occasions for refreshing our styles of anthropological inquiry and expression. The volume is also –again like the other volumes –very effectively interdisciplinary: with only a pair of exceptions, the chapters can be read with profit by any anthropologist, or any scholar in contiguous social science disciplines. The overall virtue of this volume, though, is that it adds appropriately to the Rhetoric Culture Project, and so places in the hands of scholars a rich reservoir of ideas for describing human societies from their expressive face.”  ·  Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“The volume’s best asset is being comprehensive enough to deal with traditional views on rhetoric, while at the same time bringing these issues up to date by linking the orator to the crowd that surrounds him…It is an excellent exploratory volume for the field, and one that will definitely provide food for thought for both researchers and students in the area.”  ·  Discourse Studies

“This collection, as well as others in the series, charts out a theoretical and ethodological path for anthropologists, sociologists, political theorists, rhetoricians, and others who are interested in ethnographically understanding the power of rhetoric to both structure our lives and provide the resources to restructure it anew.”  ·  Anthropos

“[A]n engaging, thought-provoking, and generative volume. Simultaneously wide-ranging and coherent, these essays explore the complex roles that rhetorical engagements - artful, resonant, and often transcending the solely verbal - play in shaping social life and the always emergent cultures at the heart of anthropological inquiry.”  ·  Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz

“This volume is a welcome continuation of the Rhetoric Culture Project’s efforts to bring anthropology and rhetorical studies together. It does an excellent job illustrating the way that ‘culture is founded in rhetoric’ just as 'rhetoric is founded in culture’… The specific anthropological perspectives offered by the collection [is] extremely useful and thought provoking, especially valued for the theoretical models and case studies that illustrate the shaping of culture by particular rhetorical activities.”  ·  Steven Mailloux, University of California, Irvine