Pathways of Power: Building an Anthropology of the Modern World / Edition 1

by Eric R. Wolf, Aram Yengoyan, Sydel Silverman

Overview

This collection of twenty-eight essays by renowned anthropologist Eric R. Wolf is a legacy of some of his most original work, with an insightful foreword by Aram Yengoyan. Of the essays, six have never been published and two have not appeared in English until now. Shortly before his death, Wolf prepared introductions to each section and individual pieces, as well as an intellectual autobiography that introduces the collection as a whole. Sydel Silverman, who completed the editing of the book, says in her preface, "He wanted this selection of his writings over the past half-century to serve as part of the history of how anthropology brought the study of complex societies and world systems into its purview."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520223349
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/03/2001
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	483
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	1420L (what's this?)

About the Author

Eric R. Wolf(1923-1999) had an illustrious and influential career as Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at H. Lehman College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. His books previously published by California include Europe and the People Without History (reprint with new preface, 1997), Envisioning Power (1999), and The Hidden Frontier (with John W. Cole; reprint with new introduction, 1999). Sydel Silverman is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the City University of New York. She was president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research from 1987 to 1999.

Table of Contents

	Foreword: Culture and Power in the Writings of Eric R. Wolf	vii
	Preface	xix
	Introduction: An Intellectual Autobiography	1
Part I.	Anthropology	11
1.	American Anthropologists and American Society	13
2.	Kroeber Revisited	23
3.	Remarks on The People of Puerto Rico	38
4.	On Fieldwork and Theory	49
5.	Anthropology among the Powers	63
Part II.	Connections	81
6.	Building the Nation	83
7.	The Social Organization of Mecca and the Origins of Islam	100
8.	Aspects of Group Relations in a Complex Society: Mexico	124
9.	The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol	139
10.	Closed Corporate Peasant Communities in Mesoamerica and Central Java	147
11.	The Vicissitudes of the Closed Corporate Peasant Community	160
12.	Kinship, Friendship, and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies	166
13.	Ethnicity and Nationhood	184
Part III.	Peasants	191
14.	Types of Latin American Peasantry: A Preliminary Discussion	193
15.	Specific Aspects of Plantation Systems in the New World: Community Subcultures and Social Classes	215
16.	Peasants and Revolution	230
17.	Phases of Rural Protest in Latin America	241
18.	Is the "Peasantry" a Class?	252
19.	On Peasant Rent	260
20.	The Second Serfdom in Eastern Europe and Latin America	272
21.	Peasant Nationalism in an Alpine Valley	289
Part IV.	Concepts	305
22.	Culture: Panacea or Problem?	307
23.	Inventing Society	320
24.	The Mills of Inequality: A Marxian Approach	335
25.	Incorporation and Identity in the Making of the Modern World	353
26.	Ideas and Power	370
27.	Facing Power--Old Insights, New Questions	383
28.	Perilous Ideas: Race, Culture, People	398
	References	413
	Index	447