Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

"If you want to know what anthropology is , look at what anthropologists do ," write the authors of Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction . This engaging overview of the field combines an accessible account of some of the discipline's guiding principles and methodology with abundant examples and illustrations of anthropologists at work. Peter Just and John Monaghan begin by discussing anthropology's most important contributions to modern thought: its investigation of culture as a distinctively human characteristic, its doctrine of cultural relativism, and its methodology of fieldwork and ethnography. Drawing on examples from their own fieldwork in Indonesia and Mesoamerica, they examine specific ways in which social and cultural anthropology have advanced our understanding of human society and culture. Including an assessment of anthropology's present position, and a look forward to its likely future, Social and Cultural Anthropology will make fascinating reading for anyone curious about this social science. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam. "Using examples from their own research in Indonesia and Mexico, John Monaghan and Peter Just give the reader a sense of what it is like to be an anthropologist doing the unique fieldwork that sets anthropology apart from other social sciences. They also provide an account of the 'big' questions that have concerned anthropologists since the beginnings of the field: What is unique about human beings? How are groups of people - family, class, tribe, nation - formed, and what holds them together? What is the nature of belief, economic exchange, the self?"--Jacket 1. FIELDWORK AND ETHNOGRAPHY 2. CULTURE 3. SOCIETY 4. SEX AND BLOOD 5. CLASS AND CASTE, VILLAGE AND CITY, HOME AND THE WORLD 6. LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL LIFE 7. THE CULTURALLY CONSTRUCTED SELF 8. THE FUTURE OF ANTHROPOLOGY FURTHER READING INDEX