A History of Anthropology

This is the first book to cover the entire history of social and cultural anthropology in a single volume. Beginning with a summary of the discipline in the nineteenth century, exploring such major figures as Morgan and Taylor, it goes on to provide a comprehensive overview of the discipline in the twentieth century. The bulk of the book is devoted to themes and controversies characteristic of post First World War anthropology, from structural functionalism via structuralism to hermeneutics, cultural ecology and discourse analysis. The authors also look at the ambiguous relationship between anthropology and national cultures. This is a timely, concise history of a major intellectual discipline, in engaging and thought-provoking narrative that will appeal to students of the discipline world wide.