Anthropology and Egalitarianism: Ethnographic Encounters from Monticello to Guinea-Bissau [Paperback]

Anthropology and Egalitarianismis an artful and accessible introduction to key themes in cultural anthropology. Writing in a deeply personal style and using material from his fieldwork in three dramatically different localesIndonesia, West Africa, and Monticello, the historic home of Thomas JeffersonEric Gable shows why the ethnographic encounter is the core of the discipline's method and the basis of its unique contribution to understanding the human condition. Gable weaves together vignettes from the field and discussion of major works as he explores the development of the idea of culture through the experience of cultural contrast, anthropology's fraught relationship to racism and colonialism, and other enduring themes.

Contributing interestingly to what has become a fairly unusual anthropological genre, Gable (Univ. of Mary Washington) draws on the diversity of fieldwork experience that comes only with time and maturity in the discipline to produce a volume that seeks to explain anthropological knowledge and understandings for not just other anthropologists, but anyone interested in how one can attempt to understand other cultures and people. Any given anthropologist will probably find something here to disagree with, but the value of the overarching projectopening up ways of working and thinking about human diversity for a broader audienceoverrides such quibbles. Fieldwork in West Africa, Indonesia, and Virginia forms the foundation, and theoretical approaches including those of Clifford Geertz and Marshall Sahlins (and their critics) form the framework for this clear, accessible discussion. Because of the intended audience, Gable does not include citations throughout the text, but instead provides a set of notes on sources to suggest further readings. . . Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. Choice

A provocative introduction to fieldwork and the concept of culture

Eric Gable teaches anthropology at the University oflƒž