The Anthropological Lens: Harsh Light, Soft Focus

by James L. Peacock

• ISBN13: 9780521808385
• ISBN10: 0521808383
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Anthropology is a complex, wide-ranging, and ever-changing field. This clear, coherent, and well-crafted book is a revised version of a very successful text first published in 1986, designed to supplement standard textbooks and monographs. It covers the central concepts, distinctive methodologies, and philosophical as well as practical issues of cultural anthropology, and it is accessible to the anthropological novice, and of value to the professional. The updated version covers current issues in cultural anthropology, and includes topics such as globalization, gender, post-modernism and public issues, and reflects changes in perspective and language.

Table of Contents

Preface to the first edition	vii
Preface to the second edition	xv
Substance	1	(62)
It's real! Culture beheld	1	(7)
Anthropology defined: a holistic discipline	8	(3)
Perceiving holistically	11	(9)
Wholes differentiated into parts: analytical constructs	20	(3)
Culture and experience	23	(1)
The concept of culture in relation to nature	24	(12)
Society	36	(6)
The exotic location of community and culture	42	(3)
Culture and community in relation to individual and meaning	45	(4)
Globalization, power, and gender	49	(6)
Power	55	(2)
Essentialism and gender	57	(4)
Overview	61	(2)
Method	63	(50)
Travel	64	(5)
Fieldwork	69	(9)
Fieldwork and related endeavors	78	(7)
Interpretation	85	(10)
Generalization	95	(5)
The middle ground: ethnographic generalization	100	(4)
Deduction, experimentation, and introspection	104	(5)
Fieldwork, ethnography, and theory	109	(4)
Significance	113	(33)
The greatest story ever told	114	(6)
The evolutionary and the interpretive perspectives	120	(3)
Implications for practice: the mastery of our future and the future of our mastery	123	(21)
Harsh light and soft focus	144	(2)
Notes	146	(7)
Index	153