Anthropology, Human Rights, and Legal Knowledge: Culture in the Iron Cage

American Anthropologist, Vol. 108, No. 1, March 2006

Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 05-032

48 Pages Posted: 11 Nov 2005

Abstract

In this article, I draw on ethnography in the particular zone of engagement between anthropologists, on the one hand, and human rights lawyers who are skeptical of the human rights regime, on the other hand. I argue that many problems anthropologists encounter with the appropriation and marginalization of anthropology's analytical tools can be understood in terms of the legal character of human rights. In particular, discursive engagement between anthropology and human rights is animated by the pervasive instrumentalism of legal knowledge. I contend that both anthropologists who seek to describe the culture of human rights and critical lawyers who critically engage the human rights regime share a common problem - that of the iron cage of legal instrumentalism. I conclude that an ethnographic method reconfigured as a matter of what I term circling back - as opposed to cultural description - offers a respite from the hegemony of legal instrumentalism.

Suggested Citation

Riles, Annelise and Riles, Annelise, Anthropology, Human Rights, and Legal Knowledge: Culture in the Iron Cage. American Anthropologist, Vol. 108, No. 1, March 2006, Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 05-032, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=846285

Annelise Riles (Contact Author)

Buffett Institute of Global Affairs ( email )

1902 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL
United States

Northwestern Law School ( email )

375 E. Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
United States
(312) 503-1018 (Phone)
(312) 988-6579 (Fax)

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