Symbolic Anthropology: A Reader in the Study of Symbols and Meanings

A comprehensive and foundational reader, "Symbolic Anthropology: A Reader in the Study of Symbols and Meanings" brings together essential essays exploring the theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of symbols and meaning in cultural contexts. Edited by Janet L. Dolgin, David S. Kemnitzer, and David Murray Schneider, this volume from Columbia University Press, published in 1977, is a crucial resource for students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies. This hardcover edition is in Very Good condition, presenting a sturdy and well-preserved copy for its age. Please note that this copy does not include a dust jacket. The book's strength lies in its diverse selection of influential texts, offering insights from key thinkers across various disciplines. The extensive contents include contributions from such luminaries as Karl Marx, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alfred Schutz, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marshall Sahlins, Victor W. Turner, Clifford Geertz, Roman Jakobson, and many others, covering a wide array of topics: INTRODUCTION -- As people express their lives, so they are -- KINSHIP AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION -- Kinship and culture: affinity and the role of the father in the Trobriands / Karen I. Blu -- Kinship, nationality, and religion in American culture: toward a definition of kinship / David M Schneider -- Caste, racism, and "stratification" reflections of a social anthropologist / Louis Dumont -- ART -- Cézanne's doubt / Maurice Merleau-Ponty -- Making music together: a study in social relationship / Alfred Schutz -- Lévi-Strauss, literarily / James A. Boon -- THE ORGANIZATION OF PERCEPTION -- Cultural factors for spatial organization / A. Irving Hallowell -- Lineal and nonlineal codifications of reality / Dorothy Lee -- Colors and cultures / Marshall Sahlins -- RITUAL AND MYTH -- Symbols in African ritual / Victor W. Turner -- Ritual communication: some considerations regarding meaning in Navajo ceremonials / David W. Murray -- The "wife" who "goes out" like a man: reinterpretation of a Clackamas Chinook myth / Dell H. Hymes -- IDEOLOGY AND MYTH -- The Fetishism of Commodities and the secret thereof / Karl Marx -- Ideology and the sociology of knowledge / Henri Lefebvre -- Identity choice and caste ideology in contemporary South India / Steve Barnett -- Sexuality as a social form: performance and anxiety in America / David S. Kemnitzer -- Person, hierarchy, and autonomy in traditional Yapese theory / John T. Kirkpatrick -- The Whiteness of the whale / Herman Melville -- Role Models / Esther Newton -- HISTORY AND MYTH (TIME) AS CULTURAL CATEGORIES -- The Invisible event / Janet L. Dolgin and Joann Magdoff -- Industrialization and capitalism in the work of Max Weber / Herbert Marcuse -- LANGUAGE AND CODES -- Shape in grammar / Paul Friedrich -- The Semantics of money-uses / Karl Polanyi -- Navajo categories of objects at rest / Gary J. Witherspoon -- On aphasia / Roman Jakobson -- THE PERSON -- Making sense: a study of a Banaban meeting / Martin G. Silverman -- "From the native's point of view": on the nature of anthropological understanding / Clifford Geertz -- Culture as creativity / Roy Wagner. This reader is an invaluable resource for anyone studying the symbolic dimensions of human culture and social life.

• Author: Dolgin, Janet L.; Kemnitzer, David S.; Schneider, David Murray
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 1977
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• ISBN: 9780231040334