Social Theory

This guide contains bibliographic references and links to internet resources for social theory in anthropology.

Recommended Reading:

Age and Sex Categories by Ralph Linton 1993

Anthropology and Modern Life by Franz Boas (reprint)1987

The Anthropology of Performance by Victor Turner 1988

Anthropology and Politics: Revolution in the Sacred Grove by Ernest Gellner 1996

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx (reprint) with introduction by J.M. Cohen 1992

Course in General Linguistics by Ferdinand De Saussure, et al (reprint)1988

Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches: The Riddles of Culture by Marvin Harris 1989

Claude Levi-Strauss and the Making of Structural Anthropology by Marcel Henaff, Mary Baker (Translator) 1998

The Cultural Background of Personality by Ralph Linton 1981

Darwinian Myths: The Legends and Misuses of a Theory by Edward Caudill 1998

The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim (reprint) 1997

The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski by Robert J. Thornton & Peter Skalnik (Editors) 1993

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim (reprint) 1995

The Enigma of the Gift by Maurice Godelier 1999

High Points in Anthropology by Paul Bohannan & Mark Glazer (editors) 1988

Introducing Levi-Strauss by Boris Wiseman 1998

Jealous Potter by Claude Levi-Strauss 1988

Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech by Edward Sapir 1955

Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma by Ernest Gellner 1998

Lewis Henry Morgan and the Invention of Kinship by Thomas R. Trautmann 1988

Look, Listen, Read by Claude Levi-Strauss 1998

Looking Down the Road: A Systems Approach to Futures Studies by Douglas Raybeck 2000

Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays by Bronislaw Malinowski (reprint)1992

On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson 1988

Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We Are Going by Marvin Harris 1990

Primitive Art by Franz Boas 1927

The Savage Mind by Claude Levi-Strauss 1966

Structural Anthropology by Claude Levi-Strauss 2000

The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz 2000

Talk, Thought, and Thing: The Emic Road Toward Conscious Knowledge by Kenneth L. Pike 1993

Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution by Julian H. Steward 1972

Theories of Man and Culture by Elvin Hatch 1974

Theories of Primitive Religion by Edward E. Evans-Pritchard 1968

 

Links:

  1. Alliance Theory: The formulation of alliance theory is one of Levi-Strauss' major contributions to kinship studies and general ethnology.
  2. Center for Social Theory and Comparative History was established at UCLA in the autumn of 1987. It's aim, broadly speaking is to encourage the development of social theory that is historically rooted and comparative history that is theoretically informed.
  3. Ernest Gellner Page: a resource page for individuals interested in the thoughts, ideas and works of the late Ernest Gellner. It is widely understood that Gellner actively participated in a variety of discussions; from the nature of modernity, the causes of nationalism, the role of philosophy in modern life, the rise of Islam, to the nature of industrialism and rationalism.
  4. Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology: a course module from the University of Manitoba.
  5. Postmodern Anthropology