Social anthropology. This item is unavailable.Social anthropology

How do societies hold together, and why do they change? D. F. Pocock makes the question urgent. Start with real human worlds. Social Anthropology is a clear-minded introductory anthropology textbook that brings classic problems into focus: how people organise family life, authority, belief, and obligation; how kinship and descent systems shape everyday decisions; and how ethnographic fieldwork methods turn lived experience into evidence. Written with the brisk intelligence of a born teacher, it works equally well as a social science course reader and as a steady companion for private study, with ideas framed to support careful social structure analysis rather than vague generalities. Pocock writes from the tradition of British social anthropology, when twentieth century anthropological theory was being tested against close description and hard comparison. The book sits in conversation with structural functionalism theory and the line of thinking associated with evans-pritchard anthropology, while keeping its eye on what students most need: usable concepts, clear distinctions, and a sense of how anthropologists build arguments. For undergraduate anthropology students, it remains a dependable anthropology exam study guide; for collectors of foundational works, a compact statement of a discipline at a defining moment. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today -- a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.