A genealogy of method : anthropology's ancestors and the meaning of culture / Sondra L. Hausner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hausner, Sondra L., author.

Series:

Anthem Impact Series

Anthem Impact Series ; Volume 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (81 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London : Anthem Press, 2024.

Summary:

What is culture? The history of our discipline - whether we call it ethnology or social anthropology - shows that there is not a constant answer to this question or even a constant object of study. How can we search for a unifying answer to what makes us human even as we observe how immensely varied we are? And how can we explain that such difference is the very core of what makes us similarly human?<br><br>This book explores the idea of ethnography as a method for understanding cultural flow in particular contexts and suggests that anthropology can do its most important work by tracing the history of social formations. Nothing about culture is static, yet something best-called culture sustains itself over time. At the heart of anthropology is the attempt to understand the concept of culture, even as we continue to challenge its definition in our field.<br><br>This short volume presents the Jensen Memorial Lectures delivered at the Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology at Goethe University, Frankfurt, in 2019. The lectures reflect on the current moment in contemporary anthropology to consider the discipline's basic premises, through the lens of its classical thinkers. Through a set of four lectures and an introduction, this book takes up anthropology's most basic question - the meaning of culture - and asks how it is that our unique method is able to elicit both fine-grained particularities about specific social orders and speak to the definition of that which makes us human.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction The Culture of Anthropology

Lecture One The Question of Religion

Lecture Two The Serendipity of Method

Lecture Three The Relevance of History

Lecture Four The Meaning of Culture

Bibliography

Index Generated by AI.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Jun 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

Other Format:

Print version: Hausner, Sondra L. A Genealogy of Method

ISBN:

9781839986505

OCLC:

1438596276