Visions of Culture : An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists

by Moore, Jerry D.

• ISBN13: 9780759111455
• ISBN10: 0759111456
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-30
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc

Summary

"This new edition of Jerry D. Moore's Visions of Culture presents anthropology students with a brief, readable, and balanced treatment of theoretical developments in the field. The key ideas of major theorists, with Marshall Sahlins as a new addition, are briefly described and - unique to this textbook - linked to the biographical and fieldwork experiences that helped shape their theories. The impact of each scholar on contemporary anthropology is presented, along with numerous examples, quotes from the theorists' writings, and a description of the broader intellectual setting in which these anthropologists worked."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

What's the point?
Founders	p. 1
Edward Tylor: the evolution of culture	p. 5
Lewis Henry Morgan : the evolution of society	p. 18
Franz Boas : culture in context	p. 33
Emile Durkheim : the organic society	p. 46
The nature of culture	p. 61
Alfred Kroeber : configurations of culture	p. 65
Ruth Benedict : Patterns of culture	p. 78
Edward Sapir : culture, language, and the individual	p. 88
Margaret Mead : the individual and culture	p. 104
The nature of society	p. 117
Marcel Mauss : elemental categories, total facts	p. 121
Bronislaw Malinowski : the functions of culture	p. 134
A. R. Radicliffe-Brown : the structures of society	p. 147
Edward Evans-Pritchard : social anthropology, social history	p. 161
Evolutionary, adaptationist, and materialist theories	p. 175
Leslie White : evolution emergent	p. 179
Julian Steward : cultural ecology and multilinear evolution	p. 194
Marvin Harris : cultural materialism	p. 204
Eleanor Burke Leacock : feminism, Marxism, and history	p. 217
Structures, symbols, and meaning	p. 227
Claude Levi-Strauss : structuralism	p. 231
Victor Turner : symbols, pilgrims, and drama	p. 247
Clifford Geertz : an interpretive anthropology	p. 259
Mary Douglas : symbols and structures, pollution and purity	p. 272
Structures, practice, agency, power	p. 289
James Fernandez : the play of tropes	p. 295
Sherry Ortner : symbols, gender, practice	p. 307
Pierre Bourdieu : an anthropology of practice	p. 325
Eric Wolf : culture, history, power	p. 343
Marshall Sahlins : culture matters	p. 365
Current controversies	p. 385
Index	p. 393
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.