Greg Urban, Metaphysical community: The interplay of the senses and the intellect. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. Pp. xvi, 288. Hb $40.00, pb $19.95.

Abstract

Urban's book may be regarded, at one level, as an exploration of certain traditional anthropological themes – such as social structure, myth, and ritual – in the context of an Amerindian community in Brazil. What makes the book highly non-traditional, however, is how these themes are worked into a discussion of very basic epistemological and methodological concerns: the nature of ethnographic inquiry, criteria for the truth or correctness of ethnographic claims, and the role played by discourse in organizing cultural experience and shaping the outcome of fieldwork.