Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology

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This book is invaluable. Whatever be your interest in anthropology, this will serve as a comprehensive guide and jumping off point for all areas of the discipline. It is easy to follow, well-written and full of references for further reading. Although it is not suitable for in-depth study (as the title suggests, it is an encyclopedia), it is a fantastic aid for clarifying and summarizing a broad spectrum of topics. For students and the novice, this book is a gem, just don't rely on it to get you through your exams.

The Kindle edition of this encyclopedia does not have live links between the table of contents and the entries in the main text. Consequently it is impossible to look for an entry on a particular subject, which makes it rather useless as an encyclopedia. The publishers should figure out how to format digital content before trying to sell it.

I am studying anthropological courses in the university and bought the encyclopedia to help and guide me through the new terms I encountered. For these purposes I found this book extremely unhelpful. This is definitely not a book for students, those who start studying anthropology, but rather for those who already know a lot about the science.

For example, here is the definition of essentialism:

"Essentialism commonly appears as both a violation of anthropological relativism and one of the besetting conceptual sins of anthropology. Exemplified by such totalizing ideologies as nationalims and biological determinism, it is also frequently conflated with reification, objectivism and literalism". Etc.

For me in order to understand this definition, I need to read 3-4 page articles in the same encyclopedia about: relativism, biological determinism, objectivism, literalism. And even after that I don't think I will be able to understand what the authors wanted to say by this definition. And its the same almost about every other term or concept I was looking up.

Of course, if you are familiar with all these terms - it is easy, but then do you really need this encyclopedia.

A frustrating experience for me. This publication is collecting dust on a shelf now, and I turned to more popular publications, like "What is anthropology" (terms are explained in a much more accessible language), "Understanding social and cultural anthropology", etc. And... never underestimate wikipedia, the best for me as a student.

Would strongly not recommmend this book for students and whoever is starting to learn anthropology. Will advise it to my anthropology university professor with 20 years teaching experience, he may find it interesting.

Max