Arguing with Anthropology: An Introduction to Critical Theories of the GiftArguing with Anthropology is a fresh and wholly original guide to key elements in anthropology, which teaches the ability to think, write and argue critically. Using the classic 'question of the gift' as a master-issue for discussion, and drawing on a rich variety of Pacific and global ethnography, it provides a unique course in methods, aims, knowledge, and understanding. The book's highly original hypothetical approach takes gift-theory - the science of obligation and reciprocity - as the paradigm for a virtual enquiry which explores how the anthropological discipline has evolved historically, how it is applied in practice and how it can be argued with critically. By asking students to participate in projected situations and dilemmas, and in arguments about the form and nature of enquiry, it offers working practice of dealing with the obstacles and choices involved in anthropological study. * From an expert teacher whose methods are tried and tested * Comprehensive and fun course ideal for intermediate-level students * Clearly defines the functions of anthropology, and its key theories and arguments * Effectively teaches core study skills for exam success and progressive learning. |
Contents
PART I | 12 |
PART III | 15 |
Gathering thoughts in fieldwork | 38 |
Keeping relationships meeting obligations | 59 |
Exchanging people giving reasons | 76 |
PART II | 95 |
Mistaking how and when to give | 112 |
critiques of subjectivity | 131 |
Giving beyond reason | 151 |
Virtually real exchange | 171 |
Interests in cultural property | 187 |
Giving anthropology alway | 205 |
222 | |
237 | |
Other editions - View all
Arguing With Anthropology: An Introduction to Critical Theories of the Gift Karen Sykes Limited preview - 2004 |
Arguing With Anthropology: An Introduction to Critical Theories of the Gift Karen Sykes Limited preview - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
aimed analysis anthro anthropologists argued argument Berber Bourdieu bourgeois subject bride wealth Cambridge camera obscura ceremonial exchange chapter claims clan colonial contemporary create critical critique debate describe discipline discussion early economic essay ethical ethnographic European everyday example exchange of women experience expose feast feminist fieldwork Fiji Fijian film forms Geertz gender gift exchange give Godelier habits inequality insight intellectual Iroquoian islands kinship knowledge kula kula ring Kwakiutl labour legacy Lévi-Strauss lifestyle live London malanggan Malinowski Manchester Maori mapula Marilyn Strathern marriage Mauss means Melanesia nature Noble Savage obligations Pacific participant observation person political postcolonial potlatch practice Press problem question reason reciprocity ritual Rousseau Sahlins scholars shared social relations social relationships society Strathern structuralist structuralist theory structures taonga thought tion total social fact trade transactions Trobriand Trobriand islands understanding University village virtual reality wealth Weiner woman Yanomami