Paper short abstract:

This paper provides a brief history of and theory on utopia within anthropology arguing for its theoretical utility in propelling our discipline forward and away from dystopian inevitability, an alter-anthropology.

Paper long abstract:

In concert with Ortner's (2016,66) call for "studies that emphasize thinking about alternative political and economic futures" this paper interrogates the role of anthropology in the 21st century by invoking the literary and political frame of utopia. "Utopia" is a bad word; we critical theorists inherited our knee-jerk reaction to the word from Marx. But what exactly irks those of us trained in the era of "dark anthropology" about practices toward an ideal vision or "the good"? This paper provides a brief history of and theory on utopia within anthropology arguing for its theoretical utility in propelling our discipline forward and away from dystopian inevitability, an alter-anthropology. I do this by fusing history of utopian thought with ethnography from a religious utopia project in India. I analyze everyday narratives of Bengali and international converts to a Hindu fundamentalist religious movement located in Mayapur, a village in West Bengal. Theirs is a conversion nested in renunciation of the "material world" and investment in a city-making project designed to showcase to the world a "spiritual United Nations." Mayapur has survived over fifty years with its third generation of children born in the community—a rare feat for utopian and intentional community projects. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic research, this paper interrogates the everyday narrative of mothers who migrated to Mayapur to give their children a "higher taste" of life. How can intentionally designed communities impact anthropology's critical theory on the future, change, and feasibility of the good life within dark times?