History & Philosophy Books - Page 5

Essays on Individualism: Modern Ideology in Anthropological Perspective

Louis Dumont

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Editorial Review:

Louis Dumont's Essays on Individualism is an ambitious attempt to place the modern ideology of individualism in a broad anthropological perspective. The result of twenty years of scholarship and inquiry, the interrelated essays gathered here not only trace the genesis and growth of individualism as the dominant force in Western philosophy, but also analyze the differences between this modern system of thought and those of other, nonmodern cultures. The collection represents an important contribution to Western society's understanding of itself and its place in the world.

History of Anthropological Theory, A

Paul A. Erickson, Liam D. Murphy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An excellent introduction to the history of Anthropology 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I found this to be a highly readable introductory text, which outlines all the major developments in anthropology, from antiquity to postmodernism. The work is, in my opinion, suitable for anyone interested in the broad study of human origins, and of the societies and cultures humans create. I would DEFINITELY buy this book if I were taking an introductory course. A real undiscovered gem for most readers!

Editorial Review:

Recognizing that anthropology -- the study of human beings and culture -- has deep roots in Western experience, this concise introduction to the topic begins in antiquity, with such writers as Herodotus and Aristotle, then moves forward through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the nineteenth century, when anthropological thought took on a more disciplined form. The twentieth century is, however, the central focus of the text -- the authors cover all of the main stands, including American, British, and French anthropological traditions. It also features chapters on the theory of archaeology, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology. A History of Anthropological Theory is thus a remarkably comprehensive, accessible introduction to the field.

Introducing Levi-Strauss

Boris Wiseman

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Editorial Review:

Explores and illuminates the major contribution that Claude Levi-Strauss has made to contemporary aesthetic theory.

The Study of Human Nature: A Reader

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Now in a new edition, this exceptional anthology provides an introduction to a wide variety of views on human nature. Drawing from diverse cultures over three millennia, Leslie Stevenson has chosen selections ranging from ancient religious texts to contemporary theories based on evolutionary science. An ideal companion to the editor's recent book, Ten Theories of Human Nature, 3/e (OUP, 1998), this interdisciplinary reader can also be used independently.
The Study of Human Nature, 2/e offers substantial selections illustrating the ten perspectives discussed in Ten Theories of Human Nature, 4/e--The Bible, Hinduism, Confucianism, Plato, Kant, Marx, Freud, Sartre, B.F. Skinner's behaviorism, and Konrad Lorenz's ethological diagnosis of human aggression. The Islamic tradition is represented by a selection from the 20th-century Iranian philosopher Ayatullah Murtaza Mutahhari. The 17th- and 18th-century philosophers Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Rousseau, and Kant are also represented. Selections from Rousseau, J.S. Mill, and Nancy Holmstrom discuss alleged differences between women and men, and a paper by Henry Bracken deals with racial issues. Examples from E.O. Wilson's sociobiology and his critics are also included, together with material from Chomsky and from recent evolutionary psychology.
This new edition includes more substantial selections from the Hindu, Confucian, and Christian traditions and provides more accessible extracts from Marx, Sartre, and Lorenz. An excellent reader for introductory courses in philosophy, religious studies, human nature, and intellectual history, The Study of Human Nature, 2/e, is also an essential resource for anyone interested in ancient, modern, and contemporary perspectives on human nature.

Applied Anthropology in Canada: Understanding Aboriginal Issues

Edward J. Hedican

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Editorial Review:

Since many of us still picture anthropologists as people in khaki-coloured safari clothes peering at fossils or scribbling notes on kinship theory, it is fair to say that public perception of anthropology lags a little behind the times. In fact anthropologists have much to say about a range of contemporary issues but are themselves often reluctant to present their research in a wider social context. In this book Edward Hedican takes stock of anthropology's research on current indigenous affairs and offers an up-to-date assessment of aboriginal issues in Canada from the perspective of applied anthropology.

In his central thesis Hedican underlines the opportunity of anthropology to make a significant impact on the way aboriginal issues are studied, perceived, and interpreted in Canada. He contends that anthropologists must quit lingering on the periphery of debates concerning land claims and race relations, and become more actively committed to the public good. His study ranges over such challenging topics as advocacy roles in aboriginal studies, the ethics of applied research, policy issues in community development, the political context of the self-government debate, and the dilemma of aboriginal status and identity in Canada.

This book is an impassioned call for a revitalized anthropology -- one more directly attuned to the practical problems faced by First Nations peoples. Hedican's focus on aboriginal issues gives his work a strong contemporary relevance that bridges the scholarly and the public spheres.

Margaret Mead: A Life

Jane Howard

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Editorial Review:

Howard's definitive biography of the woman who was one of the giants of the 20th century covers Mead's professional accomplishments, three marriages, intense friendships, and groundbreaking travels. 16-page photograph insert.

Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon

Patrick Tierney

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A finalist for the 2000 National Book Award in non-fiction.

What Guns, Germs, and Steel did for colonial history, this book will do for present-day anthropology. Darkness in El Dorado is an explosive account of how ruthless journalists, self-serving anthropologists, and obsessed scientists placed one of the Amazon basin's oldest tribes on the cusp of extinction. First coming to prominence in the 1960s, the "savage" Yanomami Indians were the subject of anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon's multi-million-copy bestseller Yanomamo: The Fierce People and many award-winning films. These exemplars of human ferocity, however, did not arrive at such dispositions naturally. Patrick Tierney describes how the Yanomami's internecine warfare was triggered by repeated visits of leading anthropologists from around the world as well as by the Atomic Energy Commission, which wished to use Yanomami blood in radiation studies in the mid-1960s. This is an epic, compelling work, sure to shake the very foundations of American anthropology.

Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great introduction to the breadth of feminist discourse! 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

While this book suffers the fate of SO many feminist compilations...the apparent inability of the editor to separate completely pointless articles from truly meaningful discourse...it still remains one of my favorites and an oft-quoted text. It's diversity is at once a compelling trait...and a somewhat annoying one. The topic is a bit broad and submissions range from discussion of women's sexuality as a tool of imperialism to linguistic power over gender boundaries.

Editorial Review:

Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge brings feminist anthropology up to date, highlighting the theoretical sophistication that characterizes recent research. Twelve essays by outstanding scholars, written with the volume's concerns specifically in mind, range across the broadest anthropological terrain, assessing and contributing to feminist work on biological anthropology, primate studies, global economy, new reproductive technologies, ethno-linguistics, race and gender, and more. The editor's introduction not only sets two decades of feminist anthropological work in the multiple contexts of changes in anthropological theory and practice, political and economic developments, and larger intellectual shifts, but also lays out the central insights feminist anthropology has to offer us in the postmodern era. The profound issues raised by the authors resonate with the basic interests of any discipline concerned with gender, that is, all of the social sciences and humanities.

Racial Theories

Michael Banton

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Defining Race and Society 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I had to read this particular work for my American Race Relations Class at Rutgers University. If you are interested in how the concept of "race" developed, and Western society has used it through history, this work is useful in understanding those concepts and theories that would be applied in Western society. You will learn how the concepts would become corrupted into what we know today as racism and such. Honestly, the book is fairly bland academic reading, with very little "real life" situations. The author attempts as much objectivity as possible, but the text tends to be even more philosophical about the definitions regarding society and race than necessary. In essence, a detailed account of how race is used in and it affects society. However, its more than dense enough to turn off the average reader. There are more interesting works that describe the same concepts through the way people use them and interact with each other. However, in understanding the theory and the concept behind the social construct, this work is reccommendable.

Editorial Review:

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Michael Banton's classic book reviews historical theories of racial and ethnic relations and contemporary struggles to supersede them. It shows how eighteenth- and nineteenth-century concepts of race attempted to explain human difference in terms of race as a permanent type and how these were followed by social scientific conceptions of race as a form of status. In a new concluding chapter, "Race as Social Construct," Michael Banton makes the case for a historically sensitive social scientific understanding of racial and ethnic groupings that operates within a more general theory of collective action and is, therefore, able to replace racial explanations as effectively as they have been replaced in biological science. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand contemporary debates about racial and ethnic conflict. This new edition is thoroughly updated and contains a new chapter on developments in recent years.

Margaret Mead and Samoa

Derek Freeman

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Coming of Age in America 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 17 people found this review helpful.

The is a most important book because it sets the record straign about Margaret Mead. Her book on Samoa created a false understanding of primitive peoples. She went to Samoa to do her PhD dissertation and came back with a myth that supported the prejudices and biases of her graduate advisor, Franz Boas. She purportedly discovered that the Samoans were the personification of Jean Jacque Roussoue's "Noble Savage." There were unspoiled by the vices of Western Civilization. The biggest vice was supposedly the West's repressive sexuality that gave rise to social aggression of various kinds. Derek Freeman blows all of this out of the water. He points out among other things that Mean did not know the language and stayed there only a few weeks. This does not come up to the standards of methodology that anthropologists have come to accept to accurately understand and describe a culture.

Mead demolished. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Freeman's classic has revolutionized our conception of anthropology, and thrown this field, and others, into complete confusion on university campuses throughout the world.
Mead had a fantastically large influence on the thought of the 20th century, and it has been horribly misleading. The real origin of this ridiculous view of humanity was written about 1750 by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his most influential "Emile, or on Education". In this absurd invitation to Utopia, Rousseau, father of modern socialist and collectivist idealogy, postulated that "love", or humanistic altuism, is the only natural instinct in the human species. Any other emotional drive is antithetical to social progress, and has been caused by the nefarious influence of "bourgeois" values. (See Bloom's recent translation of Rousseau)
Believe that, and I will sell you a large and famous bridge at an unbelievable price!
God bless Derek Freeman! Maybe some day our world will recover from Mead and from Rousseau!!