Research Catalog

Title

The anthropological lens : harsh light, soft focus / James L. Peacock.

Author

Peacock, James L.

Publication

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvii, 156 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

"Anthropology is a complex, wide-ranging, and ever-changing field. This clear, coherent, and well crafted book is a revised version of a very successful text first published in 1986, designed to supplement standard textbooks and monographs. It covers the central concepts, distinctive methodologies and philosophical as well as practical issues of cultural anthropology, and it is accessible to the anthropological novice while being of value to the professional. The updated version covers current issues in cultural anthropology, and includes topics such as globalization, gender, post-modernism and public issues, and reflects changes in perspective and language."--Jacket.

Subject

Anthropology > Philosophy

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1 Substance 1 -- It's real! Culture beheld 1 -- Anthropology defined: a holistic discipline 8 -- Perceiving holistically 11 -- Wholes differentiated into parts: analytical constructs 20 -- Culture and experience 23 -- The concept of culture in relation to nature 24 -- Society 36 -- The exotic location of community and culture 42 -- Culture and community in relation to individual and meaning 45 -- Globalization, power, and gender 49 -- Power 55 -- Essentialism and gender 57 -- Travel 64 -- Fieldwork 69 -- Fieldwork and related endeavors 78 -- Interpretation 85 -- Generalization 95 -- The middle ground: ethnographic generalization 100 -- Deduction, experimentation, and introspection 104 -- Fieldwork, ethnography, and theory 109 -- 3 Significance 113 -- The greatest story ever told 114 -- The evolutionary and the interpretive perspectives 120 -- Implications for practice: the mastery of our future and the future of our mastery 123 -- Harsh light and soft focus 144.

ISBN

• 0521808383
• 0521004594 (pb.)

LCCN

^^2001037560

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library