One Discipline, Four Ways
British, German, French, and American Anthropology
408 pages
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6 x 9
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© 2005
One Discipline, Four Ways offers the first book-length introduction to the history of each of the four major traditions in anthropology—British, German, French, and American. The result of lectures given by distinguished anthropologists Fredrik Barth, Andre Gingrich, Robert Parkin, and Sydel Silverman to mark the foundation of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, this volume not only traces the development of each tradition but considers their impact on one another and assesses their future potentials.
Moving from E. B. Taylor all the way through the development of modern fieldwork, Barth reveals the repressive tendencies that prevented Britain from developing a variety of anthropological practices until the late 1960s. Gingrich, meanwhile, articulates the development of German anthropology, paying particular attention to the Nazi period, of which surprisingly little analysis has been offered until now. Parkin then assesses the French tradition and, in particular, its separation of theory and ethnographic practice. Finally, Silverman traces the formative influence of Franz Boas, the expansion of the discipline after World War II, and the "fault lines" and promises of contemporary anthropology in the United States.
Moving from E. B. Taylor all the way through the development of modern fieldwork, Barth reveals the repressive tendencies that prevented Britain from developing a variety of anthropological practices until the late 1960s. Gingrich, meanwhile, articulates the development of German anthropology, paying particular attention to the Nazi period, of which surprisingly little analysis has been offered until now. Parkin then assesses the French tradition and, in particular, its separation of theory and ethnographic practice. Finally, Silverman traces the formative influence of Franz Boas, the expansion of the discipline after World War II, and the "fault lines" and promises of contemporary anthropology in the United States.
George Marcus | George Marcus
"This is an absorbing and much needed volume that has considerable potential as a teaching tool. It is the first cross national review of history of anthropology in its Euro-American experience. This is an excellent source for anyone who might want to know how anthropology arose in different settings, where it has been, and where it might be going."
Adam Kuper | Adam Kuper
"The history of anthropology is the central arena in which debates about theory are clarified and thrashed out. One Discipline, Four Ways explores the development of anthropology's richest national traditions, and will advance the development of a truly cosmopolitan discipline."
Emilie Bickerton | Times Literary Supplement
"A substantial resource (with extensive bibliographies and further reading references) for students and enthusiasts of anthropology today."
Andrew D. Evans | Journal of Anthropological Research
"The book's originality is immediately apparent: this is the first work to present compact and readable analyses of these rich national traditions side by side. This approach not only allows for illuminating comparisons, it also widens the scope of inquiry by including anthropological traditions usually ignored in general histories of the discipline. . . . A significant and original volume that contributes to our understanding of anthropology's past, and possibly its future."
Aleksander Boskovic | Anthropos
"A monumental contribution to understanding some key moments in the shaping of anthropology, as well as points where it might proceed in the future. Also, it is presented here as a series of stories, in the best narrative tradition of scholars who know how to address a general public. . . . A true jewel of the anthropological scholarship--provocative for practitioners and informative for students."
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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