Is Western Civilization Disintegrating or Reconstituting? is a book that explores the ruins of early twentieth century anthropology.

The book consists entirely of text, and the text consists of five poems. Each poem is mostly derived from a different essay by Alfred Kroeber, one of California's first professional anthropologists, who wrote and lectured extensively from the early to mid-twentieth century. A pillar of a previous era of the discipline, Kroeber is currently a highly contested figure. The texts are decomposed, condensed, and interpolated into something like free verse.

The fragments and word-images rebound against the complexities that emerge from basic questions posed by Kroeber and his cohort. What is an artwork? What is a document? How do we determine the intention of an object? How can we ascertain the source of an idea? Is a handcrafted "aesthetic" work (like, for example, a moccasin or an oil painting) primarily a personal expression of its maker, or a collective product of society? Should a cultural artifact primarily be evaluated by members of the particular social context that produced it, or can it be more objectively judged by an outsider? What, if any, are the rules of cultural inheritance? Should we apply our own ethical and artistic sensibilities to objects and histories from radically different cultures? As Western science, technology, and culture decisively envelop the globe, to what extent is it possible to sustain a truly non-Western perspective? What do we owe to the past?

Kroeber's generation invented modern cultural relativism. For the current era of mass amnesia, Is Western Civilization Disintegrating or Reconstituting? presents the fossilized remains of this notion, for aesthetic appreciation in its own right.

2018. 7.5 x 9.625" 50 pages. Printed on cotton paper. Black and white interior. Gold paper cover with gold foilstamp. Hand-assembled perfect binding. Edition of 150.