History and Theory in Anthropology

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History and Theory in Anthropology

Anthropology is a discipline very conscious of its history, and Alan Barnard has written a clear, balanced, and judicious textbook that surveys the historical contexts of the great debates in the discipline, tracing the genealogies of theories and schools of thought and considering the problems involved in assessing these theories. The book covers the precursors of anthropology; evolutionism in all its guises; diVusionism and culture area theories, functionalism and structuralfunctionalism; action-centred theories; processual and Marxist perspectives; the many faces of relativism, structuralism and post-structuralism; and recent interpretive and postmodernist viewpoints. al a n b a r n ar d is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His previous books include Research Practices in the Study of Kinship (with Anthony Good, 1984), Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa (1992), and, edited with Jonathan Spencer, Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology (1996).

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History and Theory in Anthropology
Alan Barnard
University of Edinburgh

          The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom    The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Alan Barnard 2004 First published in printed format 2000 ISBN 0-511-03464-4 eBook (Adobe Reader) ISBN 0-521-77333-4 hardback ISBN 0-521-77432-2 paperback

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Contents

List of Wgures List of tables Preface 1 Visions of anthropology 2 Precursors of the anthropological tradition 3 Changing perspectives on evolution 4 DiVusionist and culture-area theories 5