Small places, large issues: an introduction to social and cultural anthropology

Cover -- Contents -- Series Preface -- Preface to the Fourth Edition -- 1. Anthropology: Comparison and Context -- 2. A Brief History of Anthropology -- 3. Fieldwork and Ethnography -- 4. The Social Person -- 5. Local Organisation -- 6. Person and Society -- 7. Kinship as Descent -- 8. Marriage and Relatedness -- 9. Gender and Age -- 10. Caste and Class -- 11. Politics and Power -- 12. Exchange and Consumption -- 13. Production, Nature and Technology -- 14. Religion and Ritual -- 15. Language and Cognition -- 16. Complexity and Change -- 17. Ethnicity -- 18. Nationalism and Minorities -- 19. Anthropology and the Paradoxes of Globalisation -- 20. Public Anthropology -- Epilogue: Making Anthropology Matter -- Bibliography -- Index.

Ranging from the Pacific islands to the Arctic north and from small villages to modern nation states, this concise introduction to social and cultural anthropology reveals the rich global variation in social life and culture. The text also provides a clear overview of anthropology, focusing on central topics such as kinship, ethnicity, ritual and political systems, offering a wealth of examples that demonstrate the enormous scope of anthropology and the importance of a comparative perspective. Unlike previous texts on the subject, Small Places, Large Issues broadens the study to incorporate the anthropology of complex modern societies, thus providing a unique key text for all students of social and cultural anthropology. Using reviews of key monographs to illustrate his argument, Eriksen's lucid and accessible text remains an established introductory text in anthropology. This new edition is updated throughout and includes a new chapter on the history of anthropology. It also shows clearly and comprehensively, through numerous new examples, why classic studies of small-scale societies are relevant for the study of complex phenomena such as nationalism, consumption and the Internet. In this way, the book bridges an often perceived gap between "classic" and "contemporary" anthropology.