For over twenty years, A History of Anthropological Theory has provided a strong foundation for understanding anthropological thinking, tracing how the discipline has evolved from its origins to the present day. The sixth edition of this important text offers substantial updates throughout, including more balanced coverage of the four fields of anthropology, an entirely new section on the Anthropocene, and significantly revised discussions of public anthropology, gender and sexuality, and race and ethnicity. Written in accessible prose and enhanced with illustrations, key terms, and study questions in each section, this text remains essential reading for those interested in studying the history of anthropology.On its own or used with the companion volume, Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory, sixth edition, this text provides comprehensive coverage in a flexible and easy-to-use format for teaching in the anthropology classroom.
Paul A. Erickson is a past professor in the Department of Anthropology at Saint Mary’s University. Liam D. Murphy is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Sacramento.
List of FiguresPrefaceTimeline Introduction Part One: The Early History of Anthropological Theory Anthropology in AntiquityThe Middle AgesThe Renaissance Voyages of Geographical DiscoveryThe Scientific RevolutionThe EnlightenmentThe Rise of Positivism MarxismClassical Cultural Evolutionism Evolutionism versus Diffusionism Archaeology Comes of AgeCharles Darwin and Darwinism Sigmund FreudÉmile DurkheimMarcel Mauss Max WeberFerdinand de SaussurePart Two: The Earlier Twentieth Century American Cultural Anthropology Franz Boas Robert Lowie and Alfred Louis Kroeber Margaret Mead and Ruth BenedictZora Neale HurstonEdward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf The Development of Psychological Anthropology British Social Anthropology A.R. Radcliffe-Brown Bronislaw Malinowski E.E. Evans-Pritchard Edmund LeachMax Gluckman and the "Manchester School" The Legacy of British Social Anthropology Part Three: The Later Twentieth CenturyFrench Structural AnthropologyClaude Lévi-Strauss Mary Douglas Latter-Day StructuralistsStructural Marxists Marshall Sahlins The Legacy of French Structural Anthropology Cognitive AnthropologyEthnoscience and the "New Ethnography" Cultural Neo-evolutionism Leslie WhiteJulian Steward Marshall Sahlins and Elman Service The New ArchaeologyCultural Materialism Marvin Harris Nature versus Nurture Biology of Behaviour The New Physical Anthropology Ethology and Behavioural Genetics Sociobiology The Symbolic Turn Victor Turner and Symbolic Anthropology Clifford Geertz and Interpretive Anthropology Post-processual Archaeology The Influence of Symbolic and Interpretive Approaches Transactionalism Fredrik Barth Anthropology and Feminism Political EconomyMarx and the World System Sins of the Fathers Ideology, Culture, and Power Postcolonialism Linguistic Anthropology Comes of AgeSpeech Acts and the Ethnography of CommunicationEthnolinguistics and Sociolinguistics Postmodernity Paul Feyerabend Michel Foucault Pierre Bourdieu Anthropology as Text Critical Medical Anthropology Part Four: The Early Twenty-First Century Globalization Culture, Gender, and Sexualities Public Anthropology Development and ControversyDistinguishing Public from Applied AnthropologyDebating Fieldwork Ethics and the MilitaryServing a Global PublicWorld Traditions and Collaborative Anthropology National Traditions and the Dominance of Anglo-America Collaboration with "Other" Voices Anthropologies of the Digital Age