Product Description

This Encyclopedia provides description and analysis of the terms, concepts and issues of social and cultural anthropology. International in authorship and coverage, this accessible work is fully indexed and cross-referenced.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69119 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Review

'This is one of those few privileged works that may actually redefine a field. Situating current debates in the context of the historical development of anthropology ... it charts a contemporary discourse that is vibrant, sophisticated and unexpectedly coherent. This is what post postmodernist anthropology looks like.' - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

'An intelligent, informative and entertaining addition to the deplorably small number of reference works in the field.' - Choice

From the Back Cover
The Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
provides a unique guide to the ideas, arguments and history of the discipline which discusses human social and cultural life in all its diversity and difference.
Theory, ethnography and history are combined in over 200 substantial entries on topics as wide ranging as race, postmodernism, witchcraft and essentialism, magic and methodology.
Structure of entries
Authoritative entries have been commissioned from among the world's leading specialists. Alphabetically organised, the main entires contain clear, concise and provocative explanations of key anthropological themes and ideas, as well as surveys of the most important regional traditions of ethnographic research. Each entry contains cross-references and a bibliographic guide to further reading. The encyclopedia also contains a bibliographic appendix, with details of the lives and works of over 250 important figures in the history of anthropology and a glossary with short explanations of over 600 terms and concepts.
Areas covered
* History of anthropological research, colonialism, orientalism and occidentalism, theories of culture and societies
* Kinship, gender and family, marriage, the body
* Ritual and religion, mythology , belief, cognition, rationality
* Language and linguistics , poetics, literacy, aesthetics, film, museums
*Relations with other disciplines (e.g. archaeology, sociology)

About the Author
Alan Barnard studied at George Washington, McMaster and London Universities and is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. He has done extensive fieldwork and is author of Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa (Cambridge University Press, 1992), Research Practices in the Study of Kinship (with Anthony Good, Academic Press, 1984), and numerous articles on hunter-gatherers, kinship and the history of anthropology.
Jonathan Spencer studied anthropology at the Universities of Edinburgh, Chicago and Oxford and is now Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. He has carried out extensive research in Sri Lanka and is the author of A Sinhala Village in a Time of Trouble (Oxford University Press, 1990) and many articles on politics, nationalism and religion.

Advisory Board
Marshall Sahlins, University of Chicago, USA; Maurice Bloch, London School of Economics and Political Science; Signe Howell, University of Oslo; Ralph Grillo, Sussex University;
Contributors
M. Abeles, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie, CNRS, Paris; J. Agassi, York University, Canada; W. Arens, State University of New York, USA; Lawrence Babb, Amherst College, USA; Marcus Banks, ISCA, Oxford University, UK; Gerd Baumann, Research Centre Religion and Society, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; P. Baxter, Manchester, UK; Barbara Bender , University College London; B. Bernardi, Rome, Italy; Andre Beteille, Delhi School of Economics; Maurice Bloch, London School of Economics; R.F. Byron, University College of Swansea, UK; Jeanne Canizzo, University of Edinburgh, UK; James Carrier, University of Durham, UK; Michael Carrithers, University of Durham, UK; Paul Cartledge, Clare College, University of Cambridge ;H.J.M. Claessen, University of Leiden; Elizabeth Copet-Rougier, Laboratoire d'anthropologie, Paris, France; Thomas Crump, The Netherlands; F.H. Damon, University of Virginia, USA; Michael Dietler, University of Chicago, USA; Roy Dilley, University of St Andrews, UK; Dale F. Eickelman, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA; R. Ellen, Eliot College, University of Kent, UK; Richard Fardon, SOAS, UK; James Ferguson, University of California, Irvine, USA; Ruth Finnegan, Open University, USA; Robin Fox, Rutgers University, USA; Sarah Franklin, New York University, USA; C.J. Fuller, London School of Economics, UK; J. Galaty, McGill University, USA;David Gellner, Brunel University, UK; Thomas Gibson, University of Rochester, New York, USA; Lisa Gilad, Immigration and Refugee Board, Newfoundland, Canada; Andre Gingrich, Institut fur Volkerkunde, University of Vienna; A. Good, University of Edinburgh, UK; Ralph Grillo, University of Sussex, UK; Stephen Gudeman, University of Minnesota, USA; Ornulf Gulbrandsen, University of Bergen, Norway; C.M. Hann, Eliot College, University of Kent Judith Lynn Hanna, University of Maryland, USA; Ulf Hannerz, Stockholm University, Sweden; Simon Harrison, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland; P. Harvey, University of Manchester, UK; Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University, USA; Signe Howell, University of Oslo, Norway; Mary Huber, Carnegie Fund for Advancement, Princeton, USA; I. Jarvie, York University, Toronto, Canada; M.C. Jedrej, University of Edinburgh, UK; R. Khare, University of Virginia, USA; V. King, University of Hull; Ann Kingsolver, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA; C.D. Knight, University of East London, UK; Henrika Kuklick, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Michael Lambek, University of Toronto, Canada; Helen Lambert, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK; R. Layton, University of Durham; John Leavitt, University of Montreal; Pierre Lemmonier, IRSEA/CNRS, France; I.M. Lewis, London School of Economics, UK; Lamont Lindstrom, University of Tulsa, USA; Roland Littlewood, University College Centre for Medical Anthropology, UK; Kenneth Maddock, Macquarrie University, Sydney, Australia; Marit Melhuus, University of Oslo, Norway; Jon Mitchell, University of Edinburgh, UK; S. Nugent, Goldsmiths' College, London; Francis Pine, Cambridge; Johan Pottier, SOAS, UK; Aparna Rao, Universitat Koln, Germany; Nig