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Invitataion to Anthropology: A Guide to Basic Concepts
Invitataion to Anthropology A Guide to Basic Concepts Author:Douglas L. Oliver Anthropology is far more than a study of curious primitive customs or a museum collection of potsherds and exotic headgear. It is a complex arm of the social sciences, growing in sophistication and in the number of proactitioners, capable of studying an emerging nation as well as a remote jungle village - and vital to an understanding of today's... more » shrinking world.
In this book, a well-known anthropologist guides the layman and student through the labyrinth of present-day anthropology, explaining briefly and succinctly its fundamental ideas and methods and its differing schools of thought. With numerous specific examples, ranging from the Dobu Islanders to the wedding plans of a fashionable American bride, the author discusses the concepts of anthropology - culture, function, structure, acculturation - explaining them in terms of their historical development and their usage and relevance today.
Douglas L. Oliver is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Oceanic Ethnology at Harvard University. He spent two years in New Guinea and the SOlomon Islands as an anthropologist, worked for the governemnt throughout Oceania during the war as a special representative of the Foreign Economic Administration, Pacific Ocean Area, and directed the United States Commercial Company's Economic Survey of Micronesia in 1946. Professor Oliver's books include The PAcific ISlands and A Solomon Island Society« less