An Anthropological Toolkit: Sixty Useful Concepts

David Zeitlyn's book "How to Write about Anthropological Theory without Making a Specific Theoretical Argument" offers sixty theoretical ideas to help researchers avoid becoming theoretical partisans. The book celebrates the muddled inconsistencies in the ways that humans live their messy lives and encourages an eclectic, multi-faceted anthropology in which multiple approaches are applied to gain limited insights. Zeitlyn promotes the mixing up or combining of different ideas and approaches to produce results that are productive for anthropology and other social sciences, reflecting the endless complexities of real life.

Format: Hardback
Length: 150 pages
Publication date: 13 September 2022
Publisher: Berghahn Books

Introduction:
This book advocates for an eclectic and multifaceted approach to anthropology, where multiple approaches are employed to gain limited insights from each. I do not endorse any one of these ideas as providing an exclusive path to enlightenment; rather, I aim to provide material, ammunition, and support to those engaged in nuanced anthropological analysis (and their counterparts in related disciplines). As a devout nonconformist, I hope that the following sections offer valuable resources for those seeking to explore the complexities of real life through a diverse range of ideas and approaches.

Theoretical Ideas:
David Zeitlyn presents sixty theoretical ideas in this book, each offering a unique perspective on the field. These ideas cover a wide range of topics, including cultural relativism, structuralism, post-structuralism, feminism, psychoanalysis, and more. Zeitlyn encourages readers to mix and combine these ideas to produce results that are both broad and rich, reflecting the endless complexities of real life.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, this book promotes an eclectic and multi-faceted anthropology, where multiple approaches are applied to gain limited insights from each. By mixing up or combining different ideas and approaches, we can produce results that are productive for anthropology and other social sciences, reflecting the endless complexities of real life. This is my response to the death of grand theory, and I hope that this book will provide valuable resources for those seeking to resist the siren lures of those promising synoptic overviews.

Weight: 282g
Dimension: 134 x 210 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800734708