Social Anthropology in Perspective: The Relevance of Social Anthropology

This is a new, revised edition of a highly acclaimed and widely used general introduction to social anthropology, first published in 1976. In a clear, lively, and entertaining fashion, it offers teachers and students a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to social anthropology, combining British structural-functionalism with the leading ideas of Marx, Freud and Lévi-Strauss, and joining forces with historians, political scientists, and psychologists. One of his particuair concerns is to reveal how insights from 'traditional' cultures illuminate what we take for granted in contemporary industrial and post-industrial society. He shows how, in the pluralist world in which we all now live, those who study 'other' cultures ultimately learn about themselves. This is the relevance of social anthropology today.