The Scope of Anthropology Maurice Godeliers Work in Context [Paperback]

Some of the most prominent social and cultural anthropologists have come together in this volume to discuss Maurice Godeliers work. They explore and revisit some of the highly complex practices and structures social scientists encounter in their fieldwork. From the natureculture debate to the fabrication of hereditary political systems, from transforming gender relations to the problems of the Christianization of indigenous peoples, these chapters demonstrate both the diversity of anthropological topics and the opportunity for constructive dialogue around shared methodological and theoretical models.

Laurent Doussetis Associate Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) and is former Director of the CREDO (Centre for Research and Documentation on Oceania) in Marseilles. He has done research in Aboriginal Australia and in Vanuatu and has also developed several IT knowledge systems for the social sciences.

This is an extremely welcome addition to the literature -- unfortunately, too many English-speakers today think of Godelier as a footnote in the history of Marxist anthropology. This volume helps us remember the importance of Godelier as a thinker of the first order and a major bridge between the Anglophone and Francophone anthropology.?????Alex Golub,University of Hawaii, Manoa

List of Tables and Figures

Introduction
Laurent DoussetandSerge Tcherk?zoff

Chapter 1.Some Things You Say, Some Things You Dissimulate, and Some Things You Keep To Yourself: Linguistic and Material Exchange in the Construction of Melanesian Societies
Joel Robbins

Chapter 2.The Enigma of Christian Conversion: Exchange and the Emergence of New Great Men among the Maisin of Papua New Guinea
John Barker