This is the first work to cover the entire history of social and cultural anthropology in a single volume. The authors provide a summary of the discipline in the nineteenth century, from the cultural theories of Herder, Morgna, and Tylor to the often neglected contributions of the German scholars of the period. The work of early-twentieth century anthropologists such as Boas and Malinowski in the US and Britain, and the sociology of Durkheim and Mauss in France, is examined. The ambiguous relationship between anthropology and national cultures--many of the discipline's founders were migrants or Jews--also receives consideration.

The principal focus of the book is on themes characteristic of post First-World-War anthropology, from structural functionalism , via structuralism, to hermeneutics, cultural ecology, and discourse analysis. Each major anthropologist is provided with a capsule biography, and key controversies arecovered, such as the debates on alliance and descent models of kinship, the puzzle of totmism, the problems of neo-Marxism and cultural ecology and the current battles over representations of the ''Other'' and deconstruction. This volume provides a timely, concise, and comprehensive history of a major intellectual discipline, in an engaging and thought-provoking narrative that will appeal to students of the discipline worldwide.

这是第一部以单卷形式涵盖整个社会和文化人类学历史的作品。作者对十九世纪的学科进行了总结，从赫尔德、莫尔纳和泰勒的文化理论到这一时期德国学者经常被忽视的贡献。二十世纪初人类学家的工作，如美国和英国的博厄斯和马林诺夫斯基，以及法国的杜克海姆和莫斯的社会学，都被研究。人类学和民族文化之间的暧昧关系--该学科的许多创始人都是移民或犹太人--也得到了考虑。

本书的主要重点是第一次世界大战后人类学的特色主题，从结构功能主义到结构主义，再到解释学、文化生态学和话语分析。本书为每一位主要的人类学家提供了传记，并涵盖了关键的争议，如关于亲属关系的联盟和血统模式的辩论、图腾主义的难题、新马克思主义和文化生态学的问题以及当前关于 "他者 "的表述和解构的争论。本书以引人入胜、发人深省的叙述方式，为一门重要的知识学科提供了一部及时、简明、全面的历史，将吸引全世界该学科的学生。