Engaging Anthropological Theory

Engaging Anthropological Theory PDF Author: Mark Moberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415699991
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This text offers a fresh look at the history of anthropological theory. Anthropological ideas about human diversity have always been rooted in the socio-political conditions in which they arose, and exploring them in context helps students understand how and why they evolved, and how theory relates to life and society.

Engaging Anthropological Theory

Engaging Anthropological Theory PDF Author: Mark Moberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415699991
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This text offers a fresh look at the history of anthropological theory. Anthropological ideas about human diversity have always been rooted in the socio-political conditions in which they arose, and exploring them in context helps students understand how and why they evolved, and how theory relates to life and society.

A History of Anthropological Theory, Fourth Edition

A History of Anthropological Theory, Fourth Edition PDF Author: Paul A. Erickson
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442606614
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description
In the latest edition of their popular overview text, Erickson and Murphy continue to provide a comprehensive, affordable, and accessible introduction to anthropological theory from antiquity to the present. A new section on twenty-first-century anthropological theory has been added, with more coverage given to postcolonialism, non-Western anthropology, and public anthropology. The book has also been redesigned to be more visually and pedagogically engaging. Used on its own, or paired with the companion volume Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory, Fourth Edition, this reader offers a flexible and highly useful resource for the undergraduate anthropology classroom. For additional resources, visit the "Teaching Theory" page at www.utpteachingculture.com.

Schools and Styles of Anthropological Theory

Schools and Styles of Anthropological Theory PDF Author: Matei Candea
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315388243
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
This book presents an overview of important currents of thought in social and cultural anthropology, from the 19th century to the present. It introduces readers to the origins, context and continuing relevance of a fascinating and exciting kaleidoscope of ideas that have transformed the humanities and social sciences, and the way we understand ourselves and the societies we live in today. Each chapter provides a thorough yet engaging introduction to a particular theoretical school, style or conceptual issue. Together they build up to a detailed and comprehensive critical introduction to the most salient areas of the field. The introduction reflects on the substantive themes which tie the chapters together and on what the very notions of ‘theory’ and ‘theoretical school’ bring to our understanding of anthropology as a discipline. The book tracks a core lecture series given at Cambridge University and is essential reading for all undergraduate students undertaking a course on anthropological theory or the history of anthropological thought. It will also be useful more broadly for students of social and cultural anthropology, sociology, human geography and cognate disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.

The Rise of Anthropological Theory

The Rise of Anthropological Theory PDF Author: Marvin Harris
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759101333
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 824

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Book Description
The best known, most often cited history of anthropological theory is finally available in paperback! First published in 1968, Harris's book has been cited in over 1,000 works and is one of the key documents explaining cultural materialism, the theory associated with Harris's work. This updated edition included the complete 1968 text plus a new introduction by Maxine Margolis, which discusses the impact of the book and highlights some of the major trends in anthropological theory since its original publication. RAT, as it is affectionately known to three decades of graduate students, comprehensively traces the history of anthropology and anthropological theory, culminating in a strong argument for the use of a scientific, behaviorally-based, etic approach to the understanding of human culture known as cultural materialism. Despite its popularity and influence on anthropological thinking, RAT has never been available in paperback_until now. It is an essential volume for the library of all anthropologists, their graduate students, and other theorists in the social sciences.

Anthropological Theory

Anthropological Theory PDF Author: R. Jon McGee
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description
A comprehensive and accessible survey of the history of theory in anthropology, this anthology of classic and contemporary readings contains in-depth commentary in introductions and notes to help guide students through excerpts of seminal anthropological works. The commentary provides the background information needed to understand each article, its central concepts, and its relationship to the social and historical context in which it was written.

Anthropological Theory for the Twenty-First Century

Anthropological Theory for the Twenty-First Century PDF Author: A. Lynn Bolles
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 148753907X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
Anthropological Theory for the Twenty-First Century presents a critical approach to the study of anthropological theory for the next generation of aspiring anthropologists. Through a carefully curated selection of readings, this collection reflects the diversity of scholars who have long contributed to the development of anthropological theory, incorporating writings by scholars of color, non-Western scholars, and others whose contributions have historically been under-acknowledged. The volume puts writings from established canonical thinkers, such as Marx, Boas, and Foucault, into productive conversations with Du Bois, Ortiz, Medicine, Trouillot, Said, and many others. The editors also engage in critical conversations surrounding the "canon" itself, including its colonial history and decolonial potential. Updating the canon with late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century scholarship, this reader includes discussions of contemporary theories such as queer theory, decolonial theory, ontology, and anti-racism. Each section is framed by clear and concise editorial introductions that place the readings in context and conversation with each other, as well as questions and glossaries to guide reader comprehension. A dynamic companion website features additional resources, including links to videos, podcasts, articles, and more.

Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value

Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value PDF Author: D. Graeber
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0312299060
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Now a widely cited classic, this innovative book is the first comprehensive synthesis of economic, political, and cultural theories of value. David Graeber reexamines a century of anthropological thought about value and exchange, in large measure to find a way out of ongoing quandaries in current social theory, which have become critical at the present moment of ideological collapse in the face of Neoliberalism. Rooted in an engaged, dynamic realism, Graeber argues that projects of cultural comparison are in a sense necessarily revolutionary projects: He attempts to synthesize the best insights of Karl Marx and Marcel Mauss, arguing that these figures represent two extreme, but ultimately complementary, possibilities in the shape such a project might take. Graeber breathes new life into the classic anthropological texts on exchange, value, and economy. He rethinks the cases of Iroquois wampum, Pacific kula exchanges, and the Kwakiutl potlatch within the flow of world historical processes, and recasts value as a model of human meaning-making, which far exceeds rationalist/reductive economist paradigms.

Anthropological Theory Today

Anthropological Theory Today PDF Author: Henrietta L. Moore
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745620237
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This important book makes a bold statement about the nature and value of anthropological theory at the beginning of the 21st century.

Anthropological Theory

Anthropological Theory PDF Author: Robert Alan Manners
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 0202364194
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
Anthropological theory has been much discussed in recent years, yet the crucial questions still remain--how can it be defined, how is it developed, how is it to be applied, and how can one confirm it? The editors of Anthropological Theory answer these questions by presenting essays relating to various aspects of anthropological theory. Their selections from widely scattered and often difficult-to-obtain sources present a comprehensive set of writings that describe the current position and issues involved in theory. The development of field work in anthropology generated a tremendous emphasis on empirical data and research. The plethora of information awaiting collection and the enthusiasm with which the field embraced it so immersed anthropologists that they were unable to relate this new information to the field as a whole. Manners and Kaplan believe that this lack of generalization had a profoundly negative effect upon the discipline. Therefore, they look closely into the relationship between field work and theory in an opening essay and go on to present material that demonstrates the value and the necessity of theory in anthropology. Essays by anthropologists and other social scientists deal with "explanation," evolution, ecology, ideology, structuralism, and a number of other issues reflecting throughout the editors' conviction that anthropology is a science, the goal of which is to produce generalizations about sociocultural phenomena. The book provides necessary perspective for examining and evaluating the crucial intellectual concerns of modern anthropology and will therefore be important for the work of every anthropologist. Robert A. Manners (1913-1996) received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and carried on field work in the Caribbean, among American Indians in the Southwest, and in East Africa. He wrote numerous articles and reviews for anthropological journals as well as many books. He was professor of anthropology, Brandeis University where he started up the department. David Kaplan is professor emeritus of anthropology at Brandeis University. He has contributed articles and reviews to various journals. He has also done field work in Mexico and his areas of specialty include economic anthropology, method and theory, and peasant culture of Mesoamerica.

Art and Agency

Art and Agency PDF Author: Alfred Gell
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191037451
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He argues that existing anthropological and aesthetic theories take an overwhelmingly passive point of view, and questions the criteria that accord art status only to a certain class of objects and not to others. The anthropology of art is here reformulated as the anthropology of a category of action: Gell shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency. He explores the psychology of patterns and perceptions, art and personhood, the control of knowledge, and the interpretation of meaning, drawing upon a diversity of artistic traditions--European, Indian, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian. Art and Agency was completed just before Alfred Gell's death at the age of 51 in January 1997. It embodies the intellectual bravura, lively wit, vigour, and erudition for which he was admired, and will stand as an enduring testament to one of the most gifted anthropologists of his generation.