Key Debates in Anthropology

Front Cover
Tim Ingold
Psychology Press, 1996 - Social Science - 302 pages

Every year, leading social anthropologists meet to debate a motion at the heart of current theoretical developments in their subject and this book includes the first six of these debates, spanning the period from 1988 to 1993. Each debate has four principal speakers: one to propose the motion, another to oppose it, and two seconders.
The first debate addresses the disciplinary character of social anthropology: can it be regarded as a science, and if so, is it able to establish general propositions about human culture and social life? The second examines the concept of society, and in the third debate the spotlight is turned on the role of culture in people's perception of their environments. The fourth debate focuses on the place of language in the formation of culture. The fifth takes up the question of how we view the past in relation to the present. Finally, in the sixth debate, the concern is with the cross-cultural applicability of the concept of aesthetics.
With its unique debate format, Key Debates in Anthropology addresses issues that are currently at the top of the theoretical agenda, which register the pulse of contemporary thinking in social anthropology. It will be of value to students who are not only introduced to the different sides of every argument, but are challenged to join in and to develop informed positions of their own.

 

Selected pages

Contents

General introduction
1
debate Social anthropology is a generalizing science
15
The presentations
21
The debate
41
Introduction
57
The presentations
60
The debate
83
Introduction
101
Introduction
149
The debate
176
Introduction
201
For the motion 2
218
Introduction
251
The debate
276
Index
294
Copyright

The debate
129

Other editions - View all

Key Debates in Anthropology
Tim Ingold
Limited preview - 2003
Key Debates in Anthropology
Tim Ingold
Limited preview - 2003
Key Debates in Anthropology
Tim Ingold
Limited preview - 1996
View all »

Common terms and phrases

Abelam academic activity aesthetics Alfred Gell anthro argue argument art objects beauty become behaviour capacity CHRISTINA TOREN claim cognitive communication concept of aesthetics concept of society concerned consciousness context course cross-cultural category culturally constructed David Parkin debate dichotomy Dinka discipline discourse distinction environment essence of culture ethnographic everyday example existence experience FEELEY-HARNIK foreign country human worlds idea individual Ingold intellectual issue JOHN PEEL judgement KEITH HART kind knowledge L. P. Hartley language linguistic live Marilyn Strathern meaning Melanesia memory metaphor modern modernist Morphy motion nature opposition organism ourselves Oxford paradigm particular past Paul Richards perception persons Peter Gow Piaroa political practice present problem production proposition question reality relations relationships ritual scientists seems sense social anthropology speakers specific talking theoretical theory things thought Tim Ingold tradition understand verbal WENDY JAMES Western aesthetic words Yolngu Yoruba

References to this book

About the author (1996)

Tim Ingold is the Max Gluckman Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester

Bibliographic information

TitleKey Debates in Anthropology
Issues 1-6 of GDAT debate
Management of Innovation and Change
Social anthropology
EditorTim Ingold
Editionreprint
PublisherPsychology Press, 1996
ISBN0415150205, 9780415150200
Length302 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Social Science / Anthropology / General
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan