From Anthropology to Social Theory
Subtitle: Rethinking the Social Sciences
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: Mar 07, 2019
Language: eng
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 294
ISBN-13: 9781108438384
Description: Presenting a ground-breaking revitalization of contemporary social theory, this book revisits the rise of the modern world to reopen the dialogue between anthropology and sociology. Using concepts developed by a series of 'maverick' anthropologists who were systematically marginalised as their ideas fell outside the standard academic canon, such as Arnold van Gennep, Marcel Mauss, Paul Radin, Lucien Levy-Bruhl and Gregory Bateson, the authors argue that such concepts are necessary for understanding better the rise and dynamics of the modern world, including the development of the social sciences, in particular sociology and anthropology. Concepts discussed include liminality, imitation, schismogenesis and trickster, which provide an anthropological 'toolkit' for readers to develop innovative understandings of the underlying power mechanisms of globalized modernity. Aimed at graduate students and researchers, the book is clearly structured. Part I introduces the 'maverick' anthropologists, while Part II applies the maverick-tool-kit to revisit the history of sociological thought and the question of modernity.
Notes: Source title: From Anthropology to Social Theory: Rethinking the Social Sciences