Small places, large issues : an introduction to social and cultural anthropology

Introduction : comparison and context -- A brief history of anthropology -- Fieldwork and its interpretation -- The social person -- Local organisation -- Person and society -- Kinship as descent -- Marriage and alliance -- Gender and age -- Social hierarchies -- Politics and power -- Exchange and consumption -- Production and technology -- Religion and ritual -- Modes of thought -- Complexity and change -- Ethnicity -- The politics of identity : nationalism and minorities -- The global, the local, and the glocal -- Epilogue : and so what?

Ranging from Pacific islands to the Arctic north, and from small villages to modern nation states, this concise introduction to social anthropology reveals the rich global variation in social life and culture.