Visions of Culture : An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists

by Moore, Jerry D.

• ISBN13: 9780759104112
• ISBN10: 0759104115
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-03-01
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc

Summary

This new edition of Jerry D. Moore's Visions of Culture presents introductory anthropology students with a brief, readable, and balanced treatment of theoretical developments in the field. New to this edition are pieces on Sherry Ortner, Pierre Bourdieu and Eric Wolf, an Epilogue that describes key current debates over theory. This is an ideal text for classes on the theory or the history of anthropology.

Author Biography

Jerry D. Moore is professor of anthropology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: What's the Point?	xi
PART I: FOUNDERS	1	(60)
1 Edward Tylor: The Evolution of Culture	5	(13)
2 Lewis Henry Morgan: The Evolution of Society	18	(15)
3 Franz Boas: Culture in Context	33	(13)
4 Emile Durkheim: A Science of Society	46	(15)
PART II: THE NATURE OF CULTURE	61	(56)
5 Alfred Kroeber: Configurations of Culture	65	(13)
6 Ruth Benedict: Patterns of Culture	78	(10)
7 Edward Sapir: Culture, Language, and the Individual	88	(16)
8 Margaret Mead: The Individual and Culture	104	(13)
PART III: THE NATURE OF SOCIETY	117	(58)
9 Marcel Mauss: Elemental Categories, Total Facts	121	(13)
10 Bronislaw Malinowski: The Functions of Culture	134	(13)
11 A.R. Radcliffe-Brown: The Structures of Society	147	(14)
12 Edward Evans-Pritchard: Social Anthropology, Social History	161	(14)
PART IV: EVOLUTIONARY, ADAPTATIONIST, AND MATERIALIST THEORIES	175	(52)
13 Leslie White: Evolution Emergent	179	(14)
14 Julian Steward: Cultural Ecology and Multilinear Evolution	193	(10)
15 Marvin Harris: Cultural Materialism	203	(13)
16 Eleanor Burke Leacock: Feminism, Marxism, and History	216	(11)
PART V: STRUCTURES, SYMBOLS, AND MEANING	227	(58)
17 Claude Levi-Strauss: Structuralism	231	(16)
18 Victor Turner: Symbols, Pilgrims, and Drama	247	(11)
19 Clifford Geertz: An Interpretive Anthropology	258	(12)
20 Mary Douglas: Symbols and Structures, Pollution and Purity	270	(15)
PART VI: STRUCTURES, PRACTICE, AGENCY, AND POWER	285	(75)
21 James Fernandez: The Play of Tropes	291	(12)
22 Sherry Ortner: Symbols, Gender, Practice	303	(17)
23 Pierre Bourdieu: An Anthropology of Practice	320	(18)
24 Eric Wolf: Culture, History, Power	338	(22)
Postscript: Current Controversies	360	(13)
Index	373	(6)
About the Author	379