Michael Jackson is a post-modern Australian anthropologist who has taught in the anthropology departments at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Inidiana and is currently teaching at Harvard Divinity School serving as a professor of world religions[1]. He holds a BA from Victoria University of Wellington, an MA from Auckland University and a PhD from Cambridge University.

He is the founder of existential/phenomenological anthropology, which is a sub-field of anthropology that uses ethnographical fieldwork as well as existential theories of being and interpersonal relationships in order to explore modes of being and inter-personal relationships as they exist in various cultural settings throughout the world. In this way he creates an inter-disciplinary approach that attempts to understand the human condition by examining the various ways in which this condition manifests itself cross-culturally. In so doing, he concentrates on concrete, individual, lived situations and attempts to recreate and explain these situations as they are perceived and experienced by the other. For example, rather than looking at what mythology or ritual may mean for a group of people, he looks at what mythology or ritual means for an individual existing in the group. In this way he is able to examine 'being in the world,' a concept fundamental to the field of existentialism. This approach also allows him to address the problem of inter-subjectivity, which has as a goal the understanding of the other in terms of the other's individual lifeworld.

A large part of Jackson's methodology is also his account of personal experiences he acquired during his fieldwork. In this way, he breaks from traditional anthropology, which has always seen the role of the ethnographer as an objective observer who does not necessarily interact with the group they are studying. This methodology blurs the line between observer and participant and challenges anthropology's claims at being an 'objective' social science.

He is the author of numerous books, including Paths Towards a Clearing (1989)[2], Minima Ethnographica (1998)[3] [4][5], and Existential Anthropology (2005)[6] [7].

influences:Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger, Claude Levi-Strauss, Hannah Arendt, Theodor Adorno, Pierre Bourdieu, William James, John Dewey, Edmund Husserl, Bronislaw Malinowski, Richard Rorty, Paul Ricoeur, Marcel Mauss Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Maurice Merleau-Ponty (March 14, 1908 – May 4, 1961) was a French phenomenologist philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl. ... Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) (pronounced ) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... Claude L vi-Strauss (born November 28, 1908) is a French anthropologist who became one of the twentieth centurys greatest intellectuals by developing structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture Biography Claude L vi-Strauss was born in Brussels and studied law and philosophy at the... Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975) was a German Jewish political theorist. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ... Pierre Bourdieu (August 1, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was an acclaimed French sociologist whose work employed methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines: from philosophy and literary theory to sociology and anthropology. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... John Dewey (October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have been greatly influential in the United States and around the world. ... Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (April 8, 1859, Prostějov – April 26, 1938, Freiburg) was a German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology. ... For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronislaw Malinowski (athlete). ... Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 in New York City – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. ... Paul Ricœur (February 27, 1913 Valence France – May 20, 2005 Chatenay Malabry France) was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutic interpretation. ... Marcel Mauss (May 10, 1872 – February 10, 1950) was a French sociologist best known for his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle Émile Durkheim and the Année Sociologique. ...

see also Philosophical Anthropology Philosophical anthropology is the discipline that seeks to unify the several empirical investigations of human nature in an effort to understand individuals as both creatures of their environment and creators of their own values. ...