The Accompaniment
Assembling the Contemporary
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Part One: Men of Knowledge in Search of Redemption or Salvation
1. Humanism as Nihilism: The Bracketing of Truth and Seriousness in American Cultural Anthropology
2. Chicken or Glass: Between Clifford Geertz and Paul Hyman
3. Foucault’s Untimely Struggle: Toward a Form of Spirituality
4. Michel Foucault: A Philosopher’s Morality? Toward a Bios Technika
Part Two: In Search of a Contemporary Anthropology
5. Collaboration, Concepts, and Assemblages
6. Venues: The Labinar and the Anthropology of the Contemporary Research Collaboratory
7. An Experiment in Discordancy: Reflections on Familiarity, Trust, and Confidence in Synthetic Biology
8. Why There Is No Contemporary Bioscience, Only a Modern One
9. The Accompaniment: On the Contemporary and the Untimely
Conclusion: The Demands of the Day: An Untimely Accompaniment
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“One of our most vividly original thinkers, Paul Rabinow has produced a richly informed meditation on collaboration. It is, in its own terms, an ‘untimely’ book in the best sense, immersed in history, focused on the present, and dedicated to the ‘demands of the day.’ With reflections on art, music, philosophy, biology, as well as on his teachers, mentors, and collaborators, The Accompaniment is the culminating book of an extraordinary career, and secures Rabinow’s place as our leading anthropologist of knowledge.”
“Sophisticated, historically and philosophically grounded, and engaging, Rabinow’s vision of what anthropology might be provides food for thought and deserves careful consideration and debate.”
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
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