Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History

Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, Seventh Edition, presents a selection of critical essays in anthropology from 1860 to the present day. Classic authors such as Marx, Durkheim, Boas, Radcliffe-Brown, Benedict, Rappaport, Geertz, and Turner are joined by contemporary thinkers including Das, Ortner, Kwiatkowski, and Mattingly.

What sets McGee and Warms’s text apart from other collections are its introductions, footnotes, and index. Detailed introductions examine critical developments in theory, introduce key people, and discuss historical and personal influences on theorists. In extensive footnotes, the editors provide commentary that puts the writing in historical and cultural context, defines unusual terms, translates non-English phrases, identifies references to other scholars and their works, and offers paraphrases and summaries of complex passages. The notes identify and provide background information on hundreds of scholars and concepts important in the development of anthropology. This makes the essays more accessible to both students and current day scholars. An extensive index makes this book an invaluable reference tool.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

• Zora Neale Hurston: From Of Mules and Men (1935)
• Roy Rappaport: Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations among New Guinea People (1967)
• James P. Spradley: A Bucket Full of Tramps (1970)
• Eric R. Wolf: Facing Power—Old Insights, New Questions (1990)
• Tom Boellstorff: The Emergence of Political Homophobia in Indonesia: Masculinity and National Belonging (2004)
• Lynn Kwiatkowski: Feminist Anthropology: Approaching Domestic Violence in Northern Viet Nam (2016)
• Veena Das: Engaging with the Life of the Other: Love and Everyday Life (2010)
• Cheryl Mattingly: Luck, Friendship, and the Narrative Self (2014)