Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology

by Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Book Overview

This concise introduction to social and cultural anthropology has become a modern classic, revealing the rich global variation in social life and culture.

The text provides a clear overview of anthropology, focusing on central topics such as kinship, ethnicity, ritual and political systems, offering a wealth of examples that demonstrate the enormous scope of anthropology and the importance of a comparative perspective. Unlike other texts...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745330495
• ISBN13: 9780745330495
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Good resource

This book is currently being utilized by my daughters' 11th grade IB Antropology class. She refers to it frequently and finds it to be very informative.

Good Anthropology Book

Book is good for anyone that needs an introduction for anthropology book. Each chapter covers several subjects.

Its okay

the whole book is full of markings... luckily, it helped me in studying for my exams. thanks.

Informative and thought-provoking; however not an easy read

"Small Places, Large Issues" is an introductory textbook on the topic of Social Anthropology: the comparative study of humans in a social and cultural context. Dr Eriksen is a professor of Social Anthropology, and therefore the book is written more or less on an academic style and perspective. It covers most possible aspects: kinship, gender and age, politics and power, local organisation, religion and rituals, nationality and minorities, etc. In addition it contains brief biographies of the most important Anthropologists, quotes and references of Anthropologists and other renown Sociologists (Durkheim, Weber, Marx, etc.) as well as numerous examples and case studies -both from "traditional" and "modern" societies- relevant each time on the topic concerned. I believe apart from being informative, it is a highly stimulative book catapulting the reader with food for thought. For example, did you know that all humans have 99.8% of their genes in common or that even our feelings can be social products and not natural! However, sometimes it tends to be overwhelming and tiring with all that amount of information and theories on so many different levels.