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Front and Back Covers. Volume 21, Number 1. February 2005
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/j.0268-540x.2005.021c1.x
Subject(s) - law , incitement , sociology , islam , hatred , constitution , legislation , political science , politics , history , archaeology
Front and back cover caption, volume 21 issue 1 POLICY AND ISLAM: TOWARDS A PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY The front cover shows an extract from House of Commons Research Paper 04/89 on The Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, discussing the proposal, introduced by the British Home Secretary, to make incitement to religious hatred a new offence. The back cover shows the preamble and the first page of the Draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, 25 June 2004. Both these legal measures, if enacted, have major implications for our society, and in this issue ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY focuses on their significance for anthropologists. In their guest editorial, Janine R. Wedel and Gregory Feldman argue that public policy issues lie at the heart of anthropology. Policy‐makers increasingly seek to shape our lives in areas where anthropologists have much expertise. Maryon McDonald focuses on the European Union as a specific instance, arguing that as the proposed Constitution moves the EU towards greater policy powers and legal competences, there is a danger of ill‐judged decisions based on outmoded ideas about the economy, society and culture, and about cultural, ethnic and religious identities. She urges anthropologists to contribute their perspectives. In Europe as elsewhere, Islam has become a central issue for public policy‐makers. Pnina Werbner is ambivalent towards the proposed UK law against incitement to religious hatred as a response to Islamophobia, questioning whether mainstream British attitudes towards Islam will be improved through legislation. Jonathan Benthall argues that an anthropological approach to the history of religious toleration in Islam and Christianity respectively may yield insights into differences between the two traditions that remain surprisingly significant today. Magnus Marsden brings us down to earth by asking more closely ethnographic questions about the role played by Islam in the lives of village and small‐town Muslims in the mountainous and politically sensitive Chitral region of North Pakistan.