Classic Concepts in Anthropology

by Valerio Valeri, Giovanni da Col (Editor), Rupert Stasch (Editor)

Overview

The late anthropologist Valerio Valeri (1944–98) was best known for his substantial writings on societies of Polynesia and eastern Indonesia. This volume, however, presents a lesser-known side of Valeri’s genius through a dazzlingly erudite set of comparative essays on core topics in the history of anthropological theory. Offering masterly discussions of anthropological thought about ritual, fetishism, cosmogonic myth, belief, caste, kingship, mourning, play, feasting, ceremony, and cultural relativism, Classic Concepts in Anthropology, will be an eye-opening, essential resource for students and researchers not only in anthropology but throughout the humanities.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912808557
Publisher:	HAU
Publication date:	12/26/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Valerio Valeri (1944–98) was an Italian anthropologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii, published by the University of Chicago Press. Rupert Stasch is a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge and the author of Society of Others: Kinship and Mourning in a West Papuan Place. Giovanni da Col is a research fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oslo and the founder of HAU Books and HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment and sources

Chapter One: Belief and worship

Chapter Two: Caste

Chapter Three: Ceremonial

Chapter Four: Cosmogonic myths and order

Chapter Five: Cultural relativism

Chapter Six: Feasting and festivity

Chapter Seven: The fetish

Chapter Eight: Kingship

Chapter Nine: Mourning

Chapter Ten: Play

Chapter Eleven: Rite

Appendix: Marcel Mauss and the New Anthropology

Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Marcos P. D. Lanna

“A great and unique master. . . . Valeri had an ability for amazement and wonder that came from a practice of ethnography which, rather than being a nominalist search for historical details, looked to life itself as a source of percepts as well as a producer of concepts.”

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

“Any superlative diminishes Valeri and his scholarship, which is characterized by rich, subtle, and complex ethnographic and historical information, underscored by theoretical rigor based on extensive fieldwork.”

Editorial Reviews

“A great and unique master. . . . Valeri had an ability for amazement and wonder that came from a practice of ethnography which, rather than being a nominalist search for historical details, looked to life itself as a source of percepts as well as a producer of concepts.”

— Marcos P. D. Lanna, Universidade Federal de São Carlos

“Any superlative diminishes Valeri and his scholarship, which is characterized by rich, subtle, and complex ethnographic and historical information, underscored by theoretical rigor based on extensive fieldwork.”

— Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, University of Wisconsin–Madison

From the Publisher