Abstract

This is a thoroughly updated and revised edition of a popular classic of modern anthropology. The authors provide summaries of 'Enlightenment', 'Romantic' and 'Victorian' anthropology, from the cultural theories of Morgan and Taylor to the often neglected contributions of German scholars. The ambiguous relationship between anthropology and national cultures is also considered.

The book provides an unparalleled account of theoretical developments in anthropology from the 1920s to the present, including functionalism, structuralism, hermeneutics, neo-Marxism and discourse analysis. There are brief biographies of major anthropologists and coverage of key debates including totemism, kinship and globalisation.

This essential text on anthropology is highly engaging, authoritative and suitable for students at all levels.
'A well written and informative book on a subject of great importance for all social anthropologists. A work which offers a sober and balanced account of the historical growth of anthropology'. It certainly deserves to be widely read'
The European Journal of Developmental Research
'The authors describe this book as an ambitious but unpretentious attempt to 'cover all the major traditions in social and cultural anthropology'. They achieve this in nine pithy chapters that follow the development of anthropological ideas from the ancient Greeks to the end of the 1990s.
The Australian Journal of Anthropology