Originally published in German, Christoph Wulf’s Anthropology sets its sights on a topic as ambitious as its title suggests: anthropology itself. Arguing for an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to anthropology that incorporates science, philosophy, history, and many other disciplines, Wulf examines—with breathtaking scope—all the ways that anthropology has been understood and practiced around the globe and through the years. Seeking a central way to understand anthropology in the midst of many different approaches to the discipline, Wulf concentrates on the human body. An emblem of society, culture, and time, the body is also the result of many mimetic processes—the active acquisition of cultural knowledge. By examining the role of the body in the performance of rituals, gestures, language, and other forms of imagination, he offers a bold new look at how culture is produced, handed down, and transformed. Drawing such examinations into a comprehensive and sophisticated assessment of the discipline as a whole, Anthropology looks squarely at the mystery of humankind and the ways we have attempted to understand it.

Given the complexity of education, educational science can only focus on a limited number of research areas. This book suggests a few new research topics, all of which have not received adequate attention. In the first part of the book, these topics are related to the rhetoric of education, in the second to rituals in education.

Educational science (one of the most developed disciplines in the humanities and social sciences) developed as a scientific discipline in its own right when humanist pedagogics, empirical educational science and the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School merged. This book reconstructs and critically reflects their convergence.

Educational anthropology constitutes a new and important field of education. It deals with central educational concepts from an anthropological perspective. As historical and cultural anthropology, it takes into account the historicity and culturality of education. The book focuses on major issues of education: The Problem of Human Perfectibility and the Difficulty of Human Change, Mimesis in Education, Culture and Anthropology, Global and Intercultural Education, and Educational Anthropology: A New Perspective on Education. Christoph Wulf is professor of educational anthropology and member of the Interdisciplinary Center for Historical Anthropology at the Freie Universitt, Berlin.

"A fundamental historical account of the much-cited but little-studied concept of mimesis, and an essential starting point for all future discussions of this crucial critical concept."—Hayden White

Repetition is constitutive of human life. Unlike simple recall, repetition is permeated by the past and the present and is oriented toward the future. This book investigates the significance of different forms of repetition in literature, culture, and society through studies of the function and importance of an array of repetitive phenomenon.

Bringing the image into dialogue with the imagination, mimesis and performativity, Christoph Wulf illuminates the historical, cultural and philosophical aspects of the relationship between images and human beings, looking both at its conceptual and physical manifestations. Wulf explores the cultural power of the image. He shows that images take root in our personal and collective imaginaries to determine how we feel, how we perceive the arts and culture, and how our bodies respond with physical actions, in games and dance to rituals and gesture. By showing how imagination occupies an essential place in our daily conduct, Wulf makes a significant contribution to how we think about the role of images in culture, the arts and society.

This book examines the concepts of the Anthropocene and globalisation in our society and the changes that these are bringing about in education and human learning. The book argues that there needs to be reflexive approach to issues that affect the fate of the planet and the future of humans, brought about by an education that looks to the future. Wulf argues that a change in education and socialization can only succeed based on an understanding of previous educational ideas, and considers the significance of Confucianism and spiritual education that emerged in the East. The book traces key educational ideas throughout history to show how education and human knowledge are closely linked, highlighting the need for us to pay careful attention to repetition, mimesis and the imagination in learning. It shows how a future-oriented education must engage with issues of peace and violence, global citizenship and sustainable development. This timely and compelling book will be of great interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of philosophy of education, the history and anthropology of education, sustainability education and global citizenship education