One Discipline, Four Ways: British, German, French, and American Anthropology

by Fredrik Barth, Sydel Silverman, Andre Gingrich, et al.

Book Overview

One Discipline, Four Ways offers the first book-length introduction to the history of each of the four major traditions in anthropology-British, German, French, and American. The result of lectures given by distinguished anthropologists Fredrik Barth, Andre Gingrich, Robert Parkin, and Sydel Silverman to mark the foundation of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, this volume not only traces the development of each tradition but...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226038297
• ISBN13: 9780226038292
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Recommended reading for anthro students

This book is very helpful in describing the four different schools of (primarily sociocultural) anthropology. I'm a grad student in public anthro who majored in international relations in college, so I really liked the overview of the discipline that it provided. Unless you have a strong interest in Germany, you can probably skip that section; however, the chapters on French anthropology offer an insightful contrast to the British and American traditions. Frederik Barth (Boston U) writes about British anthro in a detailed yet clear manner. Sydel Silverman (who was married to the late and influential Eric Wolf) also does a good job discussing the American school. I would have liked to have read more about contemporary topics/anthropologists and about applied/public anthropology. However, this book is meant to be a historical overview, so I don't really hold the lack of recent topics against them. Even my boyfriend, who is a grad student in international relations, liked this book. Recommended for anthro students as well as those who would like to learn more about the subject and prominent anthropologists.