Social and Cultural Anthropology A Very Short Introduction

Using vivid examples from their own Research in Indonesia and Mexico, John Monaghan and Peter Just give the reader a Sense of what it is like to be an Anthropologist doing the unique fieldwork that sets Anthropology apart from other social sciences. They also provide a concise and accessible Account of the 'big' questions that have concerned Anthropologists since the beginnings of the field : What is unique about human beings? How are Groups of people - family, class, tribe, and nation - formed, and what holds them together? What is the Nature of belief, economic exchange the self?

Over the last twenty years John Monaghan has carried out a number of Ethnographic Research projects among the indigenous people of Mexico and Guatemala. His most recent Book on the subject is The Covenants with Earth and Rain : Exchange, Sacrifice and Revelation in Mixtec Society (1995). He is currently a professor at Vanderbilt University.

Peter Just has done extensive research among the Dou Donggo of Sunbawa Island in Indonesia. His research interests include dispute Settlement and law. Kinship and social organization, and Religion ritual. He is author of Dou Donggo Justice, and is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Williams College.

List of Illustration
List of Maps

A Very Short Introduction
1. A Dispute in Donggo : Fieldwork and Ethnography
2. Bee Larvae and Onion Soup : Culture
3. A Brief Encounter : Society
4. Fernando Seeks a Wife : Sex and Blood
5. La Bose Becomes Bakar : Caste, Class, Tribe, and Nation
6. A Feast in Nuyoo : People and Their Things
7. A Drought in Bima : People and Their Gods
8. Nanuu Maria Gets Hit by Lightning : People and Their Selves

Afterword : Some Things We've Learned
Further Reading