Social and Cultural Anthropology (Brief Insights) (A Brief Insight) - Hardcover

Monaghan, John; Just, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1402768818 ISBN 13: 9781402768811

Publisher: Union Square & Co., 2010

Synopsis

Drawing on intriguing, vivid examples from their own research in Indonesia and Mexico, John Monaghan and Peter Just examine ways in which anthropology has advanced our understanding of human society and culture. They also provide a concise and accessible account of the big” questions that have traditionally concerned anthropologists: What is unique about human beings? How are groups of people family, class, tribe, nation formed and maintained? What is the nature of belief, economic exchange, the self?

 

About this title

About the Author:

A professor at Vanderbilt University, JOHN MONAGHAN has carried out many ethnographic research projects among the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Guatemala. PETER JUST teaches anthropology at Williams College and has done extensive research on the Dou Donggo of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia.

Review:

"I cannot imagine a better short introduction to anthropology... it is firmly anchored in the traditional concerns of fieldwork and participant observation."--Kent V. Flannery, University of Michigan

"The most original introduction to anthropological thinking I have seen... The reader is made to experience anthropology as it is practiced, as a process that begins in the field of observations and continues on as an explanatory, interpretive, theoretical, and finally disciplinary activity-- anthropology as it is done rather than talked about. The writing is notably lucid, simple, and unpretentious. The book gives the reader a sense of unique achievements of anthroplogy amopng the social disciplines, and of its position as evolving and never finished business."--Igor Kopytoff, University of Pennsylvania

About this edition

• Publisher: Union Square & Co.
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1402768818
• ISBN 13: 9781402768811
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216