Anthropology and Egalitarianism is a provocative and accessible introduction to key ideas in cultural anthropology, focusing on the experience of fieldwork and the concept of culture. Writing in a deeply personal style and using material from his field work in three dramatically different locales–Indonesia, West Africa and Monticello the historic home of Thomas Jefferson–Eric Gable shows why the ethnographic encounter is the core of the discipline’s method and the basis of its unique contribution to understanding the human condition. Gable weaves together vignettes from the field and discussion of major works as he explores the development of the idea of culture through the experience of cultural contrast, anthropology’s fraught relationship to racism and colonialism, and other enduring themes.
Indiana University Press
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