Synthesizing British, French and American traditions, this stimulating and accessible text presents a comprehensive and fascinating introduction to social and cultural anthropology. It offers an original approach through integrating knowledge produced from a variety of perspectives, placing cultural and social anthropology in a wider context including macro-sociological concepts and reference to biological evolution. Written in a clear and concise style, it conveys to the student the complexities of a discipline focusing on the structure, evolution and cultural identity of human societies up to the present day.
The text consists of four major parts: the scope and method of anthropology, a conceptual and institutional overview, the evolution of the structure of human societies, and the cultural politics of race, ethnicity, nationalism and multiculturalism.
Tabella dei contenuti
Introduction
Aims
Bibliography
MODULE 1
The scope and method of anthropology
Introduction
Aims
1. Definitions
2. The sub-disciplines of anthropology
3. The concept of culture
4. Ethnography
5. The uses of history in anthropology
6. Sociology and social/cultural anthropology
7. The historical and comparative method
8. Fads and foibles of anthropology
Summary
Essay questions
Test questions
Bibliography
Answers to test questions
MODULE 2
Conceptual and institutional overview
Introduction
Aims
1. Economics
2. Kinship
3. Person, self and individual
4. Religion
Summary
Essay questions
Test questions
Bibliography
Answers to test questions
MODULE 3
The evolution and structure of human societies
Introduction
Aims
1. Darwin’s theory of evolution
2. The human legacy: adapted mind or adaptable mind?
3. The study of humanity: assumptions, theories and typologies
4. Hunting and gathering, horticultural and pastoral societies
5. Agrarian societies
6. Industrial societies: the making of the mpdern world
Summary
Essay questions
Test questions
Bibliography
Answers to test questions
MODULE 4
The politics of cultural identity: nationalism, ethnicity, race and multiculturalism
Introduction
Aims
1. Definitions
2. Nations and nationalism
3. Ethnicity
4. Race
5. The politics of multiculturalism
Summary
Essay questions
Test questions
Bibliography
Answers to test questions
EPILOGUE
Anthropology and the contemporary world
1. The anthropology of Europe
2. The process of cultural globalisation
3. Looking at the future: a clash of civilisations?
Bibliography
Index
Circa l’autore
Josep R. Llobera (1939-2010) was born in Havana and brought up in Catalonia. He made Britain his home in 1969. He was a visiting Professor of Anthropology at University College London and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
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