Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction

by Monaghan, John; Just, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780192853462
• ISBN10: 0192853465
• Edition: 9th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

"If you want to know what anthropologyis, look at what anthropologistsdo," write the authors ofSocial 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 andCultural Anthropologywill make fascinating reading for anyone curious about this social science.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
List of Maps	xi
A Very Short Introduction	1	(12)
A Dispute in Donggo: Fieldwork and Ethnography	13	(21)
Bee Larvae and Onion Soup: Culture	34	(18)
A Brief Encounter: Society	52	(21)
Fernando Seeks a Wife: Sex and Blood	73	(14)
La Bose Becomes Bakar: Caste, Class, Tribe, Nation	87	(18)
A Feast in Nuyoo: People and Their Things	105	(12)
A Drought in Bima: People and Their Gods	117	(11)
Nanuu Maria Gets Hit by Lightning: People and Their Selves	128	(12)
Afterword: Some Things We've Learned	140	(3)
Further Reading	143	(6)
Index	149