Marc Auge and Jean-Paul Colleyn teach at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Both have published widely in Anthropology and Marc Auge is author of the bestselling, Non-places: an introduction to the anthropology of supermodernity.

• Introduction 1. Understanding the Contemporary World * Confusions over terms * The stakes of anthropology * The contemporary world 2. Objects of Anthropology * From salvage ethnography to general anthropology * Diversification of domains * Construction of objects * Kinship * Economy, environment, ecology * Anthropology of politics * Anthropology of religion * Anthropology of performance * Ethnographic film and visual anthropology * Applied anthropology * Ethnographies and anthropology of science * Inside and outside the field of anthropology 3. The Field 4. Reading 5. Writing 6. Avoiding Blind Alleys

'This is perhaps the only book I could recommend to almost anybody with an intelligent interest in human society. I read it on the plane from London to Tokyo with plenty of time to spare; if it were available at airport bookshops and people bought it on their travels, it could be a useful vehicle for increased understanding between peoples.'Stanley J. Ulijaszek, University of Oxford and St Cross College, Oxford, Journal of Biosocial Science (No. 40, 2008)

Marc Auge and Jean-Paul Colleyn teach at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Both have published widely in Anthropology and Marc Auge is author of the bestselling, Non-places: an introduction to the anthropology of supermodernity.

• Introduction 1. Understanding the Contemporary World * Confusions over terms * The stakes of anthropology * The contemporary world 2. Objects of Anthropology * From salvage ethnography to general anthropology * Diversification of domains * Construction of objects * Kinship * Economy, environment, ecology * Anthropology of politics * Anthropology of religion * Anthropology of performance * Ethnographic film and visual anthropology * Applied anthropology * Ethnographies and anthropology of science * Inside and outside the field of anthropology 3. The Field 4. Reading 5. Writing 6. Avoiding Blind Alleys

'This is perhaps the only book I could recommend to almost anybody with an intelligent interest in human society. I read it on the plane from London to Tokyo with plenty of time to spare; if it were available at airport bookshops and people bought it on their travels, it could be a useful vehicle for increased understanding between peoples.'Stanley J. Ulijaszek, University of Oxford and St Cross College, Oxford, Journal of Biosocial Science (No. 40, 2008)

Marc Auge and Jean-Paul Colleyn teach at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Both have published widely in Anthropology and Marc Auge is author of the bestselling, Non-places: an introduction to the anthropology of supermodernity.

• Introduction 1. Understanding the Contemporary World * Confusions over terms * The stakes of anthropology * The contemporary world 2. Objects of Anthropology * From salvage ethnography to general anthropology * Diversification of domains * Construction of objects * Kinship * Economy, environment, ecology * Anthropology of politics * Anthropology of religion * Anthropology of performance * Ethnographic film and visual anthropology * Applied anthropology * Ethnographies and anthropology of science * Inside and outside the field of anthropology 3. The Field 4. Reading 5. Writing 6. Avoiding Blind Alleys

'This is perhaps the only book I could recommend to almost anybody with an intelligent interest in human society. I read it on the plane from London to Tokyo with plenty of time to spare; if it were available at airport bookshops and people bought it on their travels, it could be a useful vehicle for increased understanding between peoples.'Stanley J. Ulijaszek, University of Oxford and St Cross College, Oxford, Journal of Biosocial Science (No. 40, 2008)