Overview

From the 1930s, British anthropology was dominated by social anthropologists, an achievement of the two founding fathers, Bronislaw Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. However, the field of ethnology had originated in Britain in the 1840s and was well established before the rise of social anthropology. The essays in this volume explore the development of British anthropology in the period from 1880 to 1920, and deal with such diverse issues as the establishment of new research methodologies, the development of ethnographic reporting, institutional change and the professionalization of the subject, and the connection between anthropology and imperialism. These essays reveal how the establishment of social anthropology involved a narrowing of a field which at first involved not just the study of custom, but also included archaeology, physical anthropology and philology. The emergence of the new approaches of the 1920s and 1930s and the triumph of social anthropology as an academic, intellectual and professional discipline in post-war Britain also led to the subsequent loss of a broader and more holistic vision of anthropology.

Full Product Details

9783718652921

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Dr James Urry is a Reader in Anthropology at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available