Arguing With Anthropology: Introduction To Critical Theor

Description:
Arguing with Anthropology is a fresh and wholly original guide to key elements in anthropology, which teaches the ability to think, write and argue critically. Using the famous 'question of the gift' as a master-issue for discussion, and drawing on a rich variety of methods, aims, knowledge and understanding. The books' unique hypothetical approach takes gift-theory - the science of obligation and reciprocity - as the theme of a virtual enquiry which explores how the discipline has evolved historically, how it is applied in practice and how it can be argued with critically. By asking readers to participate in projected situations and dilemmas, and in arguments about the form and nature of enquiry, this distinctive book offers working practice of dealing with the obstacles and choices involved in anthropological study.

Table of Contents:
1. Trials of Reason Part One: Modernist nostalgia 2. The Legacy of the Noble Savage 3. Collecting Rvidence 4. Keeping Obligations 5. Exchanging Peoples Part Two: Post-modern reflection 6. Debts and Indebtedness in Postcolonial Contexts 7. The Practice of Passing Time and False Currency 8. Bourgeois Subjects 9. Giving Too Much Part Three: Post-nostalgic reflection 10. 'My aim is true' or Giving the Social Context in Virtual Reality 11. Losing Interests in Global Property Caims on Culture 12. Giving Anthropology a Way in Contemporaneous Societies