History and Theory in Anthropology

History and Theory in Anthropology

Anthropology is a discipline very conscious of its history, and Alan Barnard has written a clear, balanced, and judicious textbook that surveys the historical contexts of the great debates in the discipline, tracing the genealogies of theories and schools of thought and considering the problems involved in assessing these theories. The book covers the precursors of anthropology;evolutionism in all its guises; diVusionism and culture area theories, functionalism and structuralfunctionalism; action-centred theories; processual and Marxist perspectives;
the many faces of relativism, structuralism and post-structuralism; and recent interpretive and postmodernist viewpoints.

alan barnard is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His previous books include Research Practices in the Study of Kinship (with Anthony Good, 1984), Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa (1992), and, edited with Jonathan Spencer, Encyclopedia of Social
and Cultural Anthropology (1996).

history & theory of anth.pdf

Cambridge University Press (2004), The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom