Description and Comparison in Cultural Anthropology

Description and Comparison in Cultural Anthropology
ISBN-10
0521237408
ISBN-13
9780521237406
Category
Social Science
Pages
173
Language
English
Published
1980
Publisher
CUP Archive
Author
Ward H. Goodenough

Description

How are different cultures to be described and compared? This book provides a clear and concise discussion of the theoretical issues involved in ethnographic description and comparative study. Taking up the classic problems in the study of of social organisation, Professor Goodenough describes the major issues in the cross-cultural study of kinship and the family, revealing the kinds of constants, both formal and functional, on which such study must be based. The result is new definitions of marriage, family and parenthood for use in cross-cultural analysis and a greater understanding of this form of analysis itself. The statement on the interdependence of description and comparison in cultural anthropology and its implications for a science of culture, provides fresh insights into cross-cultural analysis for both the theoretical and the practical anthropologist.

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