Linda L. Layne - Selfishness and Selflessness

James Laidlaw, William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge

Joel Robbins, Sigrid Rausing Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

Social Anthropology is a vibrant discipline of relevance to many areas economics, politics, religion, science, business, humanities, health and public policy. This series, published in association with the Cambridge Department of Social Anthropology but open to all scholars, focuses on key interventions in Social Anthropology, based on innovative theory and research of relevance to contemporary social issues and debates.

Edited by Linda L. Layne

John Fahy

Edited by Keping Wu and Robert P. Weller

Edited by Catherine Alexander and Andrew Sanchez

Paolo Heywood

Edited by Cheryl Mattingly, Rasmus Dyring, Maria Louw, and Thomas Schwarz Wentzer

Jonathan Taee

Edited by Joanna Cook, Nicholas J. Long and Henrietta L. Moore

Edited by Nicholas J. Long and Henrietta L. Moore

Edited by Nicholas J. Long and Henrietta L. Moore

New Approaches to Understanding Morality

Edited by
Linda L. Layne

First published in 2020 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com

2020 Linda L. Layne

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Names: Layne, Linda L., editor.

Title: Selfishness and selflessness : new approaches to understanding morality / edited by Linda L. Layne.

Description: New York : Berghahn, 2020. | Series: Wyse series in social anthropology; volume 10 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020002013 (print) | LCCN 2020002014 (ebook) | ISBN 9781789205497 (hardback) | ISBN 9781789205503 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Selfishness. | Altruism.

Classification: LCC BJ1535.S4 S35 2020 (print) | LCC BJ1535.S4 (ebook) | DDC 179/.8--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002013

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002014

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78920-549-7 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78920-550-3 ebook

LINDA L. LAYNE

LINDA L. LAYNE

G.J. BARKER-BENFIELD

LUCY DELAP

CHARLOTTE FAIRCLOTH

SUSANNA GRAHAM AND LINDA L. LAYNE

SEBASTIAN MOHR

MARILYN STRATHERN

BARBARA BODENHORN

LINDA L. LAYNE

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Thanks are due to all those who participated in this extended exploration, especially Susanna Graham and Irenee Daily who co-organized the first set of meetings in 2012 and CRASSH for their sponsorship, Lucy Delap who organized the second meeting and St. Catherines College and Cambridge Gender Studies for their sponsorship. The book benefited from the constructive feedback and guidance offered by Lucy Delap, James Laidlaw, Marilyn Strathern Fennella Cannell, an anonymous reviewer who gave meticulous, constructive feedback, and the editorial staff at Berghahn, especially Charlotte Mosedale and Dr Caroline Kuhtz. Thanks also go to Michael Banner for trying to keep me on the straight and narrow with regards to Christian ethics, and Barbara Bodenhorn, whose generous disposition and scholarly expertise on generosity have enhanced this volume in countless ways. G.J. Barker-Benfield has given me the benefit of his wide-ranging knowledge and unlimited, loving support.

I became interested in selfishness soon after I began studying single mothers by choice (SMCs). When I told my father that a close friend was planning to have a child on her own, using sperm she bought from a sperm bank, he replied, Thats selfish. How odd that of all the responses he might have had Oh boy, shes got her work cut out for her!, or I wish her well, or Shell make a great parent, this is what he thought.

I came to discover that his was not an idiosyncratic view, but that selfish was the most frequent criticism of women in the US and UK who choose to make families without a male partner. Why was this slur applied to women who were prepared to devote themselves to the raising of children under any circumstances, let alone without the help of a co-parent? Why selfish, and not some other label, foolish perhaps, or nave, or even irresponsible?

Thus began our problematization of selfishness, a stepping back and presenting it to oneself as an object of thought to question it as to its meaning, its conditions, and its goals (Foucault 2000: 117). This initial puzzle led to a multi-year exploration among anthropologists and historians. Together we asked: What work do these moral judgements do, and for whom? Do selfish and selfless always have a negative or positive moral charge? What does the rhetoric of selfishness and selflessness tell us about the nature of selfhood at given moments in history? What role do these concepts play in social and cultural change? How does gender enter in? In addition to addressing these empirical questions, we forge a fresh, multi-disciplinary approach, something I discuss in the Conclusions.