Synopses & Reviews
"The main thrust of this book is to deliver a major critique of materialist and rationalist explanations of social and cultural forms, but the in the process Sahlins has given us a much stronger statement of the centrality of symbols in human affairs than have many of our 'practicing' symbolic anthropologists. He demonstrates that symbols enter all phases of social life: those which we tend to regard as strictly pragmatic, or based on concerns with material need or advantage, as well as those which we tend to view as purely symbolic, such as ideology, ritual, myth, moral codes, and the like. . . ."—Robert McKinley, Reviews in Anthropology
About the Author
Marshall Sahlins is the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. The author of numerous books, Sahlins is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Marxism and Two Structuralisms
2. Culture and Practical Reason
Two Paradigms of Anthropological Theory
3. Anthropology and Two Marxisms
Problems of Historical Materialism
4. La Pensée Bourgeoise
Western Society as Culture
5. Conclusion
Utility and the Cultural Order
References
Index