Dear all,
Many thanks for the useful suggestions that people have made off-list. Below is a copy-and-paste of the various suggestions for those interested...
Take care,
Ant
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a good starter is Levi-Strauss' Tristes Tropiques. it's his most non-academic work. Race and History is also great and very straightforward. there are also some ethnographies which can be easily read by the general interested public, I recommend The Nuer, by Evans-Pritchard. and Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict - are both pretty easy to capture. patterns of culture + coming of age in samoa could be very helpful.
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This is not intro but very readable, interesting, at the edge of Anthropology and other commentary, i.e. very critical.
2006 Global Shadows:Africa in the Neoliberal World Order., Duke University Press. - See more at: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/anthropology/cgi-bin/web/?q=node/97#sthash.K2TniSjN.dpuf
This is just so, so interesting in terms of anthropology and more.
JAMES H. SMITH (2011) ‘Tantalus in the Digital Age: Coltan ore, temporal dispossession, and “movement” in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’ AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 17–35
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Marc Augé and Jean Paul Colleyn's The world of the anthropologist is an excellent little book on the subject.
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From: Anthony Ince
Sent: 25 March 2013 06:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Introductory anthropology text for non-academic
Hi Critters,
Slightly off the topic of critical geographies, but thought some might have ideas on this...
I have a request for help from someone who is interested in taking a Masters-level course in anthropology, particularly social and cultural anthropology. She has been out of the university system for over a decade, and would like to know about a good introductory text on the subject as a "way in" to the subject in which she has had a non-academic interest for some time.
Ideally something relatively short, available online or as a PDF, and in accessible language!
Thanks in advance,
Take care,
Ant
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