Comparing Impossibilities ─ Selected Essays of Sally Falk Moore

Few scholars have had a more varied career than Sally Falk Moore. Once a lawyer for an elite New York law firm, she has found her way to the Nuremberg trials, to Harvard, to the mountains of Peru where she has worked as an anthropologist studying the Inca, and to the mountain of Kilimanjaro where she studied the politics of Tanzanian socialism. This book offers a compelling tour of Moore’s diverse experiences, a history of her thought as she reflects on her life and thought in the disciplines of anthropology, law, and politics.

The essays range from studies of myths of incest and sexuality to those of economic development projects, from South America to Africa. The result is an astonishing assortment of works from one of the most respected legal anthropologists in the field, one who brought together disparate places and ideas in enriching comparisons that showcase the possibilities—and impossibilities—of anthropology. 

Sally Falk Moore is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Anthropology emerita at Harvard University and an appointed affiliated professor of international legal studies at Harvard Law School. She is the author or editor of many books, includingLaw as Process, Anthropology and Africa, and Law and Anthropology.