Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 168 pages
• Published by: Oxford University Press, USA June 15, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0192853465
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0192853462
• Book Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 5.6 ounces

Product Description
"If you want to know what anthropology is, look at what anthropologists do," write the authors of Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction. This engaging overview of the field combines an accessible account of some of the discipline's guiding principles and methodology with abundant examples and illustrations of anthropologists at work.
Peter Just and John Monaghan begin by discussing anthropology's most important contributions to modern thought: its investigation of culture as a distinctively human characteristic, its doctrine of cultural relativism, and its methodology of fieldwork and ethnography. Drawing on examples from their own fieldwork in Indonesia and Mesoamerica, they examine specific ways in which social and cultural anthropology have advanced our understanding of human society and culture. Including an assessment of anthropology's present position, and a look forward to its likely future, Social and Cultural Anthropology will make fascinating reading for anyone curious about this social science.

About The Author

Peter Just is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Williams College. He is the author of Dou Donggo Justice: Conflict and Morality in an Indonesian Society.
John Monaghan is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of The Covenants With Earth and Rain: Exchange, Sacrifice, and Revelation in Mixtec Sociality.


Reader Reviews
This is a great little book to get a first impression of anthropology. The two authors present different historical developments and schools of thought. I had not know anything about this academic field before, but this book made me want to read more. Especially helpful with that were the examples that pertained to the authors' own fieldwork in Mexico and Indonesia. Reading about bee larvas and onion soup just makes the ideas presented more "real".