Bücher der Reihe Routledge Classic Texts in Anthropology

Originally published: 1993. With new preface.

Anthropology is a kind of debate between human possibilities -- a dialectical movement between the anthropologist as a modern man and the primitive peoples he studies. This brilliant, tough-minded book contains chapters ranging from encounters in the field to essays on the nature of law, schizophrenia and civilization, and the evolution of the work of Claude Levi-Strauss. Diamond views the anthropologist who refuses to become a searching critic of his own civilization as not merely irresponsible, but a tool of Western civilization.

This book examines evolution being handled in anthropology from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

This expanded and radically revised new edition should prove useful reading for those who are interested in anthropological theory and current post-colonial debates, or simply curious about the ways in which we systematically misunderstand other peoples.