Synopsis
What makes this book unique is its attempt to integrate theory and method within a single work. Starting with nthropology's foundations in the late nineteenth century, Stanley R. Barrett brings the reader up to date on such topics as the influence of postmodern and feminist criticism, changes in ethnographic style, and the shift from scientific to humanistic discourse. He discusses the power relationships between anthrolpologists and thei subjects, from the era of colonialism through that of contemporary cultural pluralism. Barrett shows that, in recent decades, a serious gap has emerged between theory and method - a gap that will untilately have to be addressed by today's students.
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Review
'Barrett's book weaves ably through the uncertainty of its own time, positing that conventional ethnography may outlast the assault from postmodernism and feminist anthropology, much of which Barrett sees as 'meta-theory and meta-method'(p.180). In the meantime this book provides tangible assistance in guiding approaches to field research, namely by avoiding an overly scientistic methodology while asserting that there is 'more going on in the discipline than postmodernism and feminist anthropology' (p. 177).' -- Ross Pearson, Anthropology, Macquarie University
Synopsis
An accessible guide for anthropology students providing an overview of theory and method beginning with the 19th century and continuing to the present. The text investigates method and fieldwork in the colonial phases and its disintegration when new theories of the scientific study of culture were established and in turn supplanted by the dominatin
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