About the Book
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.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Plan of the Book, Notes on Theory and Non-Theory in Anthropology, 1. On the Concept of Culture, 2. The Superorganic: Science or Metaphysics, 3. The Difficulties, Achievements, and Limitations of Social Anthropology, 4. Social Anthropology: Past and Present, 5. Social Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Comparison, 6. On Explanation, 7. The Natural Science Ideal in the Social Sciences, 8. Explanation and Comparative Dynamics in Social Science, 9. The Phenomenological and Naturalistic Approaches to the Social, 10. Causes, Functions, and Cross-Cousin Marriage: An Essay in Anthropological Explanation, 11. Understanding and Explanation in Social Anthropology, 12. Levels of Sociocultural Integration: An Operational Concept, 13. Zufii: Some Observations and Queries, 14. A Chinese Phase in Social Anthropology, 15. Functionalism, Realpolitik, and Anthropology, in Underdeveloped Areas, 16. Some Criticisms of Cultural Relativism, 17. Observation and Generalization in Cultural Anthropology, 18. Residence Rules, 19. Conflict and Congruence in Anthropological Theory, 20. Limits to Functionalism and Alternatives to It in Anthropology, 21. Functional Analysis of Change, 22. Function and Cause, 23. On Social Structure, 24. Evolution: Specific and General, 25. Multilinear Evolution: Evolution and Process, 26. On the Evolution of Social Stratification and the State, 27. Language and Evolution, 28. History and Science in Anthropology, 29. Some Issues in the Logic of Historical Analysis, 30. Indian-European Relations in Colonial Latin America, 31. Closed Corporate Peasant Communities in Mesoamerica and Central Java, 32. The Influence of Linguistics on Early Culture and Personality Theory, 33. Personality and Social Structure, 34. Behavioral Evolution and the Emergence of the Self, 35. Cultural and Cognitive Discontinuity, 36. Culture and Environment: The Study of Cultural Ecology, 37. The Frontier in History, 38. Ecologic Relations of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan, 39. Tappers and Trappers: Parallel Process in Acculturation, PART VII: IDEOLOGY, LANGUAGE, AND VALUES, 40. Sociological Aspects of the Relation between Language and Culture, 41. Language, Thought, and Culture, 42. Linguistic Relativity: The Views of Benjamin Lee Whorf, 43. Belief and Knowledge, 44. Social Beliefs and Individual Thinking in Tribal Society, 45. On Norms and Values, 46. Studies in Ethnoscience, 47. The Psychic Unity of Human Groups, 48. The Ethnographic Study of Cognitive Systems, 49. Cognition and Componential Analysis: God's Truth or Hocus-Pocus?, 50. Some Comments on Formal Analysis of Grammatical and Semantic Systems, 51. Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology, 52. Claude Levi-Strauss-Anthropologist and Philosopher, 53. The Cerebral Savage: On the Work of Claude Levi-Strauss, Selected Bibliography
About the Author :
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.
