Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction

Elementaire Deeltjes #18

by John Monaghan, Peter Just

"If you want to know what anthropology is, look at what anthropologists do," write the authors of Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction. This engaging overview of the field combines an accessible account of some of the discipline's guiding principles and methodology with abundant examples and illustrations of anthropologists at work.
Peter Just and John Monaghan begin by discussing anthropology's most important contributions to modern thought: its investigation of culture as a distinctively human characteristic, its doctrine of cultural relativism, and its methodology of fieldwork and ethnography. Drawing on examples from their own fieldwork in Indonesia and Mesoamerica, they examine specific ways in which social and cultural anthropology have advanced our understanding of human society and culture. Including an assessment of anthropology's present position, and a look forward to its likely future, Social and Cultural Anthropology will make fascinating reading for anyone curious about this social science.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Sociology, Science, History, Social Science, Philosophy

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Over the last twenty years John Monaghan has carried out a number of ethnographic research projects among the indigenous people of Mexico and Guatemala. His most recent book on the subject is The Covenants With Earth and Rain: Exchange, Sacrifice, and Revelation in Mixtec Sociality. He is currently a professor at Vanderbilt University.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I've read quite a few anthropology books, this was still interesting. One thing I learned was that the main tool of anthropologists was long holidays in exotic locations periods spent in hard conditions with interesting people who might get to be real friends people of a very different and often difficult culture. The main tool of sociologists is .. the survey and statistics. Well I know which one I'd rather be.

I lived up the Amazon with Caboclo Indians for three months at one point. Do you thinks someone might fund me to go and live with them for a couple of years? They have such lovely lives and I could do with a good long holiday. I'm not bad at writing and I'm ok at statistics too, so I'm sure I could come up with a report at the end of it. Now how to get that grant!

[فؤاد · Rating 4 out of 5]

چند وقت پيش چند تا عكس بى نظير ديدم از مجله ى نشنال جئوگرافى. عكاس يه ايرانى بود به نام حميد سردار افخمى. عكس ها مربوط به بيابانگردهاى مغول بود. اون دوره زياد شيفته ى مغول ها و تبتی ها و باقى ساكنان آسياى ميانه بودم و مى گشتم دنبال عكس هاشون.
توى اين عكس ها، قبيله هاى مغولی نشون داده شده بودن، با گوزن هاى بزرگ سفيدی كه مثل اسب اهلى كرده بودن و به عنوان مَركَب ازشون استفاده مى كردن. توى يه عكس يه دختر بچه ى مغول سوار بر يك گوزن بود. توى يه عكس ديگه يه گوزن نشسته بود، و يه پسر بچه بهش تكيه داده و خوابش برده بود. توى فيلم هابيت صحنه اى هست كه اِلف ها گوزن سوار شدن؛ اما اين عكس ها واقعى بودن، جايى توى همين دنيا.

هر چقدر اين عكس ها نفسگير بودن، ايرانى بودن عكاس باعث دو برابر شدن هيجان مى شد: حميد سردار افخمى. با خودم فكر مى كردم يعنى كى بوده؟ چى شده كه سر از مغولستان درآورده؟ علاقه مند شدم و جستجوى مختصرى كردم و ديدم اين آقاى محترم، ماه ها رفته بين اين قبايل بيابانگرد زندگى كرده، اون هم بدون اين كه از دوربين عكاسى استفاده كنه، چون موجب بى اعتمادى بومى ها مى شده، تا عاقبت به عنوان يه دوست بين مغول ها پذيرفته شده و بالاخره تونسته عكاسى رو شروع كنه و اين صحنه هاى باشكوه رو ثبت كنه.

از اون موقع، اين زندگى برام شده بود يه جور رؤيا. از اون دست رؤياهايى كه مى دونى هيچ وقت براى تو محقق نميشن، اما دوست دارى توى جيبت نگه شون دارى و هر از چندى در بيارى و بین دوتا دست بگیری و تماشاشون كنى، تا درخشش شون سينه ت رو پر كنه.

اين كتاب چيزى از جنس همون درخشش رو بين صفحاتش داشت.

[Dafydd · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a relief from the turgid and paranoid academic writing I usually have to pile through. Yes, there are problems with Anthropological approaches, and yes there is no end to ethics discussions about representation, but how wonderful to read a book that states a confident belief in the worth and usefulness of stepping out of your cultural boundaries and attempting to see through the eyes of others.

This book resonated with Barenboim & Said's 'Parallels and Paradoxes'; I think its about trying to grapple with rationality without losing a perspective that is both intimately emotional and cosmically scientific - or perhaps with what Barenboim calls 'meta-rationality'. For me, this means using reason, but moving beyond its blandishments of final resolutions and infinite growth/progress and accepting that to be human is to be able to glimpse that which is not wholly knowable. We live for 70 odd years, but can understand the distance between stars, and the time it took continents to form. As individuals, we cannot take part in that history (our species' history will probably only amount to a ripple on the lake of eternity) but we can glimpse it. This is the wonder and pain of being human, and as Barenboim says, the lesson music has to give is that we must learn to yield as much as to manipulate.

This attitude shines through in this book. Arguments are made in language, language is a tool of power. Arguments can defeat the purposes and processes of Anthropology. But there is no substitute for being there, there is nothing else.

[Fatemeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب رو به سختی تموم کردم اما نه به خاطر اینکه کتاب بدی بود صرفا دوستش نداشتم .
یه جاهایی به شدت کتاب جذابه و یه جاهایی به شدت حوصله سر بر .

من هیچ ایده ایی از انسان شناسی ندارم و به نظرم برای کتابی که به صورت مختصر و‌مفید میخواد یه سری مفاهیم رو به مخاطب عام بده ،زیادی سردرگم کننده بود ،بعضی جمله ها برام نامفهوم بود و بعضی هاشون خیلی طولانی.

در کل کتاب بدی نبود ،مثال هایی که از جوامع مختلف میزد خوب بود و تصاویر هم جذاب
اما این کتاب متاسفانه برای من مناسب نبود.

[Donakrap Dokrappom · Rating 3 out of 5]

ถ้าถามว่ามานุษยวิทยาคืออะไร สำหรับผมแล้วบอกได้คำเดียวครับว่า ใบ้แดก!!

ต้องบอกก่อนว่า ผมค่อนข้างมีความหลังที่ไม่ค่อยดีนักกับหนังสือชุด ความรู้ฉบับพกพา ไม่อยากใช้คำว่าแขยงเลย พกพาจริงครับ พาไปไกล ๆ เลย... ชิบหายมึนหัวไปหมด อ่านไม่จบซักเล่ม!!!

จนมาเห็นคุณ Phakin N. (ขออนุญาตเอ่ยนาม) เพื่อนใน goodreads นี่แหละที่บอกว่าเล่มนี้ใคร ๆ ก็อ่านได้...

อ่าว ๆ ๆ ท้าทายผมเหรอ

จริงครับ หนังสือเล่มเล็ก ๆ เล่มนี้เหมาะมากกับการเปิดโลกทางด้านมานุษยวิทยาสำหรับคนทั่วไป เพราะมันได้พาเราไปรู้จักว่ามานุษยวิทยาคืออะไร มีคำกล่าวว่าถ้าอยากรู้ว่ามานุษยวิทยาคืออะไรให้ดูว่านักมานุษยวิทยาทำอะไรบ้าง หนังสือเล่มนี้พาเราไปถึงจุดนั้นครับ

ผู้เขียนได้เล่าภาพกว้าง ๆ ของศาสตร์ทางด้านนี้ผ่านประสบการณ์ของตัวเองในฐานะนักมานุษยวิทยา โดยมุ่งเน้นให้เห็นถึงลักษณะการทำงาน รูปแบบวิธีการศึกษาและเป้าหมายของการศึกษามนุษย์ในเชิงสังคมและวัฒนธรรมผ่าน case study ที่ผู้เขียนได้ลงพื้นที่ไปทำการศึกษา ซึ่งมันทำให้เราเห็นภาพของการทำงานมากขึ้น

และตอนนี้หากมีใครมาถามผมว่ามานุษยวิทยาคืออะไร ผมก็จะตอบว่า เป็นศาสตร์ที่ทำให้เราเข้าใจคนอื่นมากขึ้นยังไงละครับ

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short, clear, intelligent introduction to anthropology. I would recommend it to anyone taking an anthropology course, and to any teacher looking for a brief and affordable introduction to use in a class. This book only costs $10.00 from the publisher, compare to those huge $80 to $100 textbooks. For its size -- 160 small pages or so -- it contains a lot, including use of key theories (Durkheim, etc.), the cultural vs. social anthropology distinction, what distinguishes anthropology from sociology (these days, not much), and interesting examples from the authors' fieldwork in Oaxaca and Sumba, Indonesia.

[Robert Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down

When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
(The Doors)

We're all strangers somewhere. No matter how much we consider ourselves to be 'children of the world', there's always going to be someone that thinks of us as strangers, complete with eerie mood music.

To me, anthropology is about these strangers - which means that it is about each and every one of us.

You might have the impression that anthropology is all about studying hitherto undiscovered people living in jungles or remote valleys - cut off from the world - and it is! But there's more.

You remember that movie - Crocodile Dundee, where this guy from the Australian Outback visits New York and has all kind of adventures and strange experiences with the 'natives' of New York? Well - the Outback guy is pretty much doing what an anthropologist would.

In fact, this is happening all the time. As well as 'advanced' civilisations monitoring, cataloguing and preserving information about 'primitive' civilisations, the opposite is happening too.

Judging by the rate at which we are using this planet up, we could do with being studied and preserved for posterity.

Perhaps a bit of pickling wouldn't go amiss too.

I couldn't really get into this book. It seemed to be written by old guys - people that learned their trade from people that studied their trade in the 1950s. It could have done with a fresher eye really.

A better approach would be to explain anthropology in terms of Science Fiction movies. All those Alien and Predator movies would be ideal to start with, not to mention Avatar and ... and pretty much any Sci-Fi movie really.

In fact - when I think about it - aren't all movies about strangeness?

Let's take a random movie - 'Pretty Woman' - one culture meets another culture and they study and ultimately save each other - that's the essence of anthropology really I guess.

Yeah - skip this book and go to the movies instead.

As I sit here and tipperty-tap my fingers on the keyboard, I'm thinking about the new Terminator movie - Arnie's going to be back!

Yay for strangeness.

[Kin · Rating 5 out of 5]

เป็น VSI ที่สนุก ตัวอย่างเยอะตามสไตล์นักมานุษยวิทยา และที่สำคัญคืออ่านง่ายมากๆ เป็นหนึ่งในไม่กี่เล่มที่ทำอยู่แล้วรู้สึกว่าเป็นหนังสือสำหรับ general audience 555555 เชิญชวนครับ

[HAMiD · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب تنها بسنده مي‌كند به ديدگاههايي به تعبيري اساسي در رشته‌ي انسان شناسي و اتفاقن خيلي به جا و مختصر اين چنين مي‌كند. مجموعه كتابهاي مختصر مفيد نشر ماهي در مجموع پسنديد‌ه اند

[Mint · Rating 4 out of 5]

ในฐานะคนที่ไม่มีพื้นฐานด้านมานุษวิทยา และสังคมวิทยา อ่านจบละอยากต่อยอดความรู้ด้านนี้ และหาเล่มอื่นๆมาอ่านต่อเลย

[David Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I read to research this post was Social & Cultural Anthropology A Very Short Introduction by John Monaghan which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book looks at various cultures and contrasts them and looks at what they have in common. In particular they try to look at a culture for what it is and not pass judgement on whether it's better or worse than another. In a lot of cultures we have seen a kind of westernisation as they have often converted to either islam or christianity and members have tried to get jobs and get modern luxuries. In many places we have seen the laying on of electricity and water supplies etc. One group in particular they study is a group in Indonesia who are quite close knit and have refused to be inducted into this westernisation mostly. They don't have utilities like electricity and stick with their religion and laws. They live in teak houses on stilts in a remote part of Bali & view our culture with great suspicion. Some members have converted to christianity and islam and got jobs but are seen as outcasts. They have their own laws and traditions and their own kind of medicine. The witch doctors sort a lot of their problems out. There was one case where one man threatened a lady because she was betrothed to someone else and she falsely accused him of hitting her and although everyone knew he hadn't he was fined and forced to beg her forgiveness to keep with tradition. He had broken their etiquette in a very serious way. In many cultures there has also been problems with western diseases and even enslavement as they have been integrated with the west as well.

[Pawarut Jongsirirag · Rating 5 out of 5]

เหมาะมากกับการเป็นหนังสือเล่มเเรกในการเข้าใจโลกของมานุษยวิทยา

ในเเต่ละบท จะอธิบายถึงคอนเซปคร่าวๆถึงสิ่งที่มานุษยวิทยาได้ศึกษา เช่น ชาติพันธุ์ วัฒนธรรม ชนชั้น เพศ ศาสนา เเละอื่นๆมากมาย พวกเขามีมุมมองต่อสิ่งเหล่านี้ยังไง มีเเง่มุมใดบ้างที่น่าลงลึกศึกษา

เเม้เนื้อหาจะดูหนักหน่วง เเต่การร้อยเรียงอธิบายทำได้ดีมากครับ ไม่ยากจนเกินไปเเละไม่ง่ายจนเกินไป ถ้าคุ้นเคยกับกรอบทางสังคมวิทยาเเละมานุษยวิทยามาบ้าง การอ่านจะลื่นไหลมากเลย เเต่ถ้าไม่เคยผ่านตางานสายนี้เลย ผมคิดว่าก็อ่านได้เข้าใจไม่ยากนะครับ มีบ้างจุดที่ต้องใช้สมาธิมากๆอยู่บ้าง เเต่ก็ส่วนน้อย นอกนั้นอ่านเพลินมากจริงๆ

สิ่งที่นักมานุษยวิทยาพยายามบอกเราก็คือ ไม่มีสิ่งใดคือความจริงสากล ทุกสิ่งทุกอย่างมีความหลากหลายอยู่ในตัว ไม่มีความคิดความเชื่อใดที่จะดำรงอยู่ในลักษณะที่เป็นความจริงเเท้เเน่นอน

ความหลากหลายคือความจริง เเต่เป็นความจริงที่คนเราไม่ยอมรับมันเท่าไหร่เลย...

[Saied Davoodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

این سومین کتاب از مجموعه مختصر و مفید بود که خوندم.
حقیقتاً مختصر و مفید به علم انسان‌شناسی پرداخته. با این همه کتاب رو به انتها نرسوندم. چرا؟ چون قرار نیست همه کتاب‌ها رو تا انتها خوند. چون ممکنه بعضی کتاب‌ها برای ما نوشته نشده باشه. سرنوشت این کتاب هم همین بود. کتابی نبود که به کار من بیاد. به همین خاطر تنها به خوندن برخی قسمت‌های کتاب بسنده کردم و در نهایت ناتمام موند.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended reading for anybody with an interest in or embarking on a course in social anthropology. A rather nice introduction into the world of social and cultural anthropology. What was particularly great about this little book was the outlining of the historical pathway of anthropology as a discipline and its identification of the dilemmas that have cropped up therein. Ethical considerations that will always arise are covered; an absolute minefield without a doubt. But the importance of being and of observing is still of high regard - despite the difficulty of being able to truly relate to others and to other cultures, whatever the culture may be, putting aside one’s own biases and judgement. Some interesting subjects appear in this book and some brilliant references for those of you who wish to read on.

[Paul, · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthropology is a very easy subject to describe and a very difficult one to define. What does an anthropologist do? How does that job get done? That is a question that John Monaghan and Peter Just do an admirable job of answering. More than that, they provide a slew of helpful secondary reading to follow up. This book was easy to read, insightful, and true to my own cross-cultural experiences. It also helps that Peter did his field work on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, where I happen to have been personally and worked. The story of local justice was EXACTLY what I needed to help other Westerners understand some of the subtexts that happen in this part of the world. Highly recommended introduction to a fascinating subject!


Here are some of my favorite quotes:

If the way one perceives the world is a product of one’s culture, then even more so are the beliefs, values, and social norms that govern one’s behaviour. On what basis, then, can any one society claim a monopoly on moral truth or claim to have discovered a superior set of norms and values? Behaviour that might be nonsensical, illegal, or immoral in one society might be perfectly rational and socially accepted in another. ... One wonders, ultimately, if it is logically possible to simultaneously subscribe to both the notion of universal human rights and a belief in the relativity of cultures. (p. 60,62)

In the same way, anthropologists have long regarded the ‘outsider’s perspective’ they bring to their subjects as one of the principal advantages of ethnographic method. A person studying his or her own culture can be likened to a fish trying to describe water. While the insider is capable of noticing subtle local variations, the outsider is far more likely to notice the tacit understandings that local people take for granted as ‘common sense’ or ‘natural’ categories of thought. (p.41)

The ethnographer faces more subtle difficulties, too. Locally powerful individuals may try to use the ethnographer as a prize or a pawn in their rivalries. Members of the community may have an exaggerated idea of what the ethnographer can do for them, and make persistent demands that cannot be met. At the same time, the ethnographer often experiences the great joy of making new friends and the thrill of seeing and doing things he or she would never otherwise have been able to see or do. As a day-to-day experience, fieldwork can be filled with abruptly alternating emotional highs and lows. (p. 33)

Dialogue is the backbone of ethnography. While anthropologists make use of a variety of techniques to elicit and record data, the interview is by far the most important. Interviews can range in formality from highly structured question-and-answer sessions with indigenous specialists, to the recording of life histories, to informal conversations, or to a chance exchange during an unanticipated encounter. Ultimately, the key to ethnographic success is being there, available to observe, available to follow up, available to take advantage of the chance event. (p. 34)

Among the moral, philosophical, and political consequences of the emergence of the concept of culture has been the development of a doctrine of ‘cultural relativism’. We start from the premise that our beliefs, morals, behaviours – even our very perceptions of the world around us – are the products of culture, learned as members of the communities in which we are reared. If, as we believe, the content of culture is the product of the arbitrary, historical experience of a people, then what we are as social beings is also an arbitrary, historical product. Because culture so deeply and broadly determines our worldview, it stands to reason that we can have no objective basis for asserting that one such worldview is superior to another, or that one worldview can be used as a yardstick to measure another. In this sense, cultures can only be judged relative to one another, and the meaning of a given belief or behaviour must first and foremost be understood relative to its own cultural context. That, in a nutshell, is the basis of what has come to be called cultural relativism. (p. 59)

It is important to understand that many anthropologists, especially in the United States, regard relativism not as a dogma or an ideological desideratum, but, at heart, as an empirical finding. (p. 59)

[Dafna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of my professors use this book to teach Intro to Anthropology class for non-anthro majors. As I am a TA for such a class, I decided to read it as well. I must say that the book is very nicely organized - it focuses around main topics in anthropology (e.g. fieldwork, society and culture, kinship, gender, caste and class, religion, exchange) and presents a lot of funny fieldwork stories that are mashed up with theory. I must say it is a pretty neat way of organizing the material. I even used some of the fieldwork stories in my classes to start discussions, and must say that it worked quite well. If you are not well-versed in anthropological theory, this book comes in really handy. But if you are - it is still useful to skim through it in order to understand how you can teach theory with very concrete examples from fieldwork.

[Takumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having prepared for my specialization of anthropology, I found that I'd never read an introductory book of it written in English. So I chose this one for the first step.
This short introduction shows how anthropologists think rather than what anthropology is. It refers to almost all major topics with abundant examples some of which are from authors' own fields. If you want the overview of the history of anthropology, this might be inadequate. But still, a well-written nice introduction for beginners.

[Damir · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, clear, intelligent introduction to the discipline of anthropology.
Usually inroductions are compiled as textbooks serving the reader with definitions and typologies of the basic scientific language.
This short book however, approaches some of the most interesting study subjects of anthroplogy by offering an example from the career of the writers, and then deconstructing it through several different scientific theories and viewpoints.
Easy to read and easy to understand, a great starting point for anyone seriously interested in cultural anthropology and its many facets.

[Joe Iacovino · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for my anthropology class and it served me well. It is interesting, informative, and even funny. This is a well-written book for those who need to get their arms around the basics on anthropology.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great intro to the breadth of anthropology outlining its development as a discipline, its fascinations, its dilemmas...written from a very humanistic perspective with good examples from the author's own work.

[Budi Kurniawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introductory book on Social & Cultural Anthropology. It's very concise, and pretty easy to understand.

[Deidre · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first of these VSIs that I decided to read that is far removed from my formal discipline. It has also been my least favorite so far, but I don't believe one observation to be the explanation for the other.
I read some of the other reviews. Many deem this too pedantic, too academic. I found it to be not nearly as intellectually stimulating as the other VSIs that I have read. There are some good thoughts, but nothing earth shattering. I have never taken a course in anthropology or sociology for that matter. Thus I expected to learn a fair amount, but alas, was unfulfilled.
I expected a history of the discipline with highlights of the contribution of key players. There is some of that but less than anticipated. When the authors were focusing on explaining the research practices of anthropologists, I thought perhaps I would get an explanations with applications from within their research. A trifle, but certainly not the focus. Okay, so perhaps a history of the discipline and the applications to many other cultures? Again, some mentions, but not the focus.
In terms of the language used to educate the lay person or undergraduate, this is a lovely text. I have marveled at the skill of the other VSI writers to summarize their disciplines so succinctly. I feel as though these chaps didn't draw out the blue prints before starting construction and changed their contractors a couple times.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Very Short Introduction series excels in its ability to distill complex academic disciplines into their core ideas, while still providing enough context and detail that an outsider can understand the material and find new pathways to pursue. This volume is no exception. The authors describe what anthropology is, how it differs from similar disciplines, the ethical issues anthropologists face, and the strengths and weaknesses of their approaches. They also explain the findings of key contributors to the field, as well as how their ideas influenced both contemporaneous anthropologists and those that came afterward.

I only have one small note: the authors tried to refrain from making moral judgements about the cultures they discussed, but they let the mask slip once or twice. They said one particular group's gender-segregated housing resulted in misogynistic cults. Generally, when they came to cultural habits/ideas that those of us in the U.S. might find questionable, they pointed out our differences in moral reckoning. I don't begrudge the authors for making that judgement though. It's only human. (They might flay me for making such a statement lol. One of the takeaways from the book is that there's nothing that's fundamentally human besides the fact that we are all trying to figure out how to navigate our environments.)

I learned more in this short introduction than in my required 4-semester undergraduate course covering sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and political science. Yes, it was one course that was spread over two entire years, but instead of organizing the content by discipline, we learned a little bit of everything in every semester. I tried to find through-lines and research background information, but being 18/19 year old from the U.S., I didn't even know where to begin and my efforts were largely unsuccessful. This Very Short Introduction unexpectedly tied all those ideas together. I guess the fact that the names sounded familiar after spending over a decade gathering dust in the back of my mind means I probably did learn a thing or two in college, lol.

I'm tempted to by this book to use as a quick-reference. I listened to the audiobook (recorded by Tantor Media, 2021), which may have positively impacted my experience. I'm not sure what it would be like to read the text myself. I'd still like to try, and I suggest others try as well.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the most interesting “Very Short Introduction” books -- of the many titles in the series that I’ve read. The authors use stories and examples to convey the basics of the subject in way that’s not mind-numbingly dry (i.e. the scholarly norm) – in fact, there’s a fair amount of humor laced throughout the book.

Most of the examples come from the two tribes that these two authors study – i.e. one in Mexico and the other in Indonesia. However, those two groups provide a rich arena of interesting anecdotes, and the authors do use social groups outside their research focus when necessary.

In addition to learning about the nature of ethnographic fieldwork and what anthropologists do, there’s an exploration of culture, the various ways in which people are socially organized (i.e. kinship, castes, societies, etc.,) and how different societies view religious belief, economic activity, and selfhood.

If you’re starting from zero and are seeking an introduction to anthropology, I’d highly recommend this one.

[Milky way · Rating 3 out of 5]

هرچقدر سعی می‌کنم روی کتاب‌های رشته خودم متمرکز بشم باز می‌رسم به انسان‌شناسی آه.
بزرگ‌ترین حسن کتاب وجود مثال‌های فراوانی بود که مطلب را ملموس و قابل فهم می‌کرد، آشنایی با جوامعی که در آن‌ها انسان‌هایی مثل ما زندگی می‌کنند اما فقط به جهت زیستن در فرهنگی متفاوت، با ما بسیار فرق می‌کنند، گویی که در سیاره‌ای دیگر زندگی می‌کنند جالب است. کتاب به‌صورت مختصر اما مفید انسان‌شناسی را توضیح می‌دهد. همچنین روش‌های تحقیق و افرادی که بیشترین تاثیر را بر روی انسان‌شناسان داشته‌اند را معرفی کرد.
در کل کتاب خوبی برای آشنایی با این رشته بود. اما تناقض‌هایی با کتاب مبانی ‌انسان‌شناسانی پیتر متکاف داشت، مثلا در کتاب متکاف جوامع مادرسالار مشاهده شده‌بود. گویا عدم قطعیت ویژگی همیشه‌همراه علوم اجتماعی است.

[Mohammad Mirzaali · Rating 4 out of 5]

انسان‌شناسی در پی مشاهده و دست‌گذاشتن بر روی تنوع زیست آدم‌ها ست. به تعبیر دو مؤلف دید انسان‌شناختی به مخاطب خود می‌آموزد که زیر بار الفاظی چون طبیعت انسان و ذات بی‌تبدل او نرود. با وجود سختی‌های تألیف کتاب در دیسیپلینی که بر کار میدانی و قوم‌نگاری‌ها و... متکی ست، دو نویسنده کتاب را خواندنی نوشته‌اند و بصیرت‌هایی در انسان‌شناسی اجتماعی و فرهنگی، از قبیل موضوعاتی چون دین، ازدواج، جنسیت، طبقه یا قوم و... به دست می‌دهند

[Poshi Getoshi]

Most introductory texts are oriented on theories and have more encyclopaedic structure. This book differs from that style by mostly telling stories from two ethnographies by the authors themselves, while using these stories to illustrate anthropological theories.
A very short though very rich intro to anthropology and absolute pleasure to read even if you're already familiar with these theories.

[Valerie Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a more fun to read book of the series as it includes a lot of specific examples of different cultural things. But it was published in 2000 and I feel like there’s been a ton more focus lately in social sciences on the ethical aspects of the disciplines, so it probably could use an update.

[Chant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction for people interested in this field. I would even suggest for people that are interested in pursuing this as an academic career.

[flaams · Rating 4 out of 5]

this very brief introduction has just saved my gpa lol