Product Description

A comprehensive and accessible survey of the history of theory in anthropology, this anthology of classic and contemporary readings contains in-depth commentary in introductions and notes to help guide students through excerpts of seminal anthropological works. The commentary provides the background information needed to understand each article, its central concepts, and its relationship to the social and historical context in which it was written. Six of the 45 articles are new to this edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108819 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 684 pages

About the Author
R. Jon McGee is a professor of Anthropology at Southwest Texas State University. He began his work with the Lacandon Maya of Mexico in 1980, and received his Ph.D. from Rice University in 1983. McGee is married, has a son and daughter, and has taught at Southwest Texas State since 1985. He is the author of numerous works on the Lacandon including Life, Ritual and Religion Among the Lacandon Maya, and Watching Lacandon Maya Lives. He is also the coauthor of the texts Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History and Many Worlds: Essays in Religious Practices, Beliefs, and Culture. Richard L. Warms is professor of anthropology at Southwest Texas State University. He has done original fieldwork in West Africa, has published numerous scholarly articles and is co-author, with Jon McGee, of Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History and with Serena Nanda of Cultural Anthropology, 7th edition.

Customer Reviews

extremely useful text
I used this text for an upper division undergraduate course in social theory. In general, I found the selection of articles to be wise and helpful; I didn't use all of them but used more than I would from any other compilation. The book doesn't adequately cover the recent period, but no text could, and the teacher should choose her own supplements to the core texts found herein. Unlike the first reviewer, my students and I found the extensive footnotes to be the book's most valuable resource. They kept the students' attention, contextualized obscure references, and clearly explained more challenging passages. I did not find that these footnotes interfered with the role of the teacher; instead, they freed the class to spend more time in fruitful interrogation of the authors' ideas and less time buried in minutae. I highly recommend this book for teachers of upperdivision theory courses, and for graduate students looking for an unfair advantage on their rivals as they take their core courses.

Comprehensive Intro to Theory
This is a book valuable to the upper division undergraduate and new gratuate student. The authors are very good at showing how the theory underlying anthropological ideas have developed through the writings of the greatest thinkers in different periods of history. A great benefit in this book is the extensive footnotes that are quite helpful to the reader. This text is a must for anyone interested in why anthropologists think the way they do.

Good collection of readings
This book contains works by most of the classic anthropological theorists. And very importantly, it contains footnotes, which are very helpful. However, it contains few current readings. Also, this edition of the book removes some of the better, more current selections from the older edition. If you are looking for a solid anthropological reader, then you can't go wrong with this text, BUT...try and get the earlier edition if you can.