Unity versus Interdisciplinarity: A Future for Anthropology

• Autores: Alan Barnard
• Localización: Current anthropology: A world journal of the sciences of man, ISSN 0011-3204, Nº. Extra 13, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Reintegrating Anthropology: From Inside Out), págs. 145-153
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper explores the failure of anthropology, at least since the 1970s, to look at the big picture: what the four fields can contribute to each other. It focuses on kinship as a key example, on other aspects of sociality, and on language and symbolic thought. I argue that an understanding of humanity as a whole, and especially hunter-gatherers, is important for grasping the nature of the human species. Cultural or social anthropology progressed to a large extent through kinship studies, and it is here also that we should look. The transformation of a Ju/�hoan kinship structure to a Khoe one is used as one key example. The deeper history of language itself is another. After these examples, I return to general issues, including the ways in which the diverse branches of anthropology, especially social anthropology and linguistic anthropology, serve to enlighten each other.