An Introduction to Social Anthropology: Other People’s Worlds PDF
Preview An Introduction to Social Anthropology: Other People’s Worlds
An Introduction to Social Anthropology Other People's Worlds Also by Joy Hendry Marriage in ChangingJapan: Community and Society BecomingJapanese: The World ofthe Pre-School Child UnderstandingJapanese Society Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation and Power in Japan and Other Societies InterpretingJapaneseSociety:AnthropologicalApproaches (editor) An Anthropologist in Japan An Introduction to Social Anthropology Other People's Worlds Joy Hendry * co JoyHendry1999 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionof thispublicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noparagraphofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedor transmittedsavewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewith theprovisionsoftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988, orunderthetermsofanylicencepermittinglimitedcopying issuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency,90TottenhamCourt Road,londonW1POlP. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorisedactinrelationtothis publicationmaybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivil claimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedherrighttobeidentifiedastheauthor ofthisworkinaccordancewiththeCopyright,Designs andPatentsAct1988. Publishedby PAlGRAVE Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRGZ1 6XSand 175FifthAvenue,NewYork.N.Y.10010 Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld PAlGRAVEisthenewglobalacademicimprintof St.Martin'sPressllC ScholarlyandReferenceDivisionand PalgravePublishersltd (formerlyMacmillanPressltd). ISBN978-0-333-74472-7 ISBN978-1-349-27281-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-27281-5 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingand madefromfullymanagedandsustainedforestsources. Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailable fromtheBritishLibrary. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 Copy-editedandtypesetbyPovey-Edmondson TavistockandRochdale To my Mother, who worried and waited Contents List ofFigures and Maps x List of Photographs xi Acknowledgements Xlll Introduction 1 A new encounter 1 What social anthropologists do 2 A history ofsocial anthropology 7 The contemporary importance of social anthropology 11 1 Seeing the World 17 Souvenirs and handkerchiefs 17 Learning to classify 19 Life, death and burial alive 21 Cultural relativism and the anthropologists' bias 23 Changes in systems ofclassification: the issue of gender 29 2 Disgusting, Forbidden and Unthinkable 34 Some areas ofobservation 34 Taboo 35 Pollution 39 Purity and classification 40 Animal categories and verbal abuse 43 3 Gifts, Exchange and Reciprocity 47 The anthropologist's arrival 47 Gifts 48 The Indian gift 52 Exchange 53 Reciprocity 56 Objects inalienable, entangled and wrapped 59 Vll Contents Vlll 4 The Ritual Round 65 Shoes and the empty ritual 65 Definitions of ritual 66 Rites ofpassage 68 5 Society: A Set of Symbols 82 What is a symbol? 82 Bodily symbols 84 Symbolizing relationships 89 Group symbols and their interpretation 91 Anthropological interpretation ofsymbolism 92 6 Beauty and Bounty, Treasure and Trophies 97 Seeing and value 97 Living art 98 Art for gaining access to 'seeing the world' 102 Art and status: the status of art 103 Art and meaning 108 Aesthetics 110 Definitions of art 111 7 Cosmology I: Religion, Magic and Mythology 115 Religion, science and cosmology 115 Definitions and distinctions 116 Origins ofreligion 119 Explanations of religious phenomena 122 Cults: the persistence of religious movements 128 8 Cosmology II: Witchcraft, Shamanism and Syncretism 132 Indigenous categories of cosmology 132 Terminology 133 The roles ofwitchcraft and sorcery beliefs 135 Reactions and other theories of witchcraft 137 Possession and shamanism 140 Syncretism 142 9 Law, Order and Social Control 148 Rules and norms 148 Sanctions 151 Order and dispute 156 Contested norms and social control in a context 159 Contents lX 10 The Art ofPolitics 164 Political possibilities 164 Types ofpolitical system 166 Acquiring and achieving political power and status 177 11 Family, Kinship and Marriage 181 Varieties ofkinship 181 Classifying kin relations 185 Unilineal descent groups 188 Kinship in a multicultural context: a case study 191 Marriage 195 12 Economics and the Environment 207 Drawing to a conclusion 207 Subsistence and survival 208 Property and land tenure 213 Market economics 214 Social views ofthe environment 217 Environmental influence in social life 222 Conclusion 224 Filmography 227 Index ofAuthors and Film-Makers 230 Index ofPeoples and Places 233 General Index 236 World Map 249 List of Figures and Maps Figures 1.1 English and Welsh colour classifications 27 3.1 Reciprocity and kinship residential sectors 58 10.1 A representation ofthe social and political organization ofthe Nuer 174 10.2 The segmentary system 174 11.1 A standard English family 186 11.2 Patrilineal and matrilineal descent 188 11.3 A unilineal descent group 189 11.4 Cross-cousins and parallel-cousins 191 11.5 Direct (sister) exchange 201 11.6 Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage 202 Maps 12.1 A view ofthe world from the Southern hemisphere 224 World Map Peoples and places mentioned in this book 249 x
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