Human thought and social organization [ anthropology on a new plane
Human beings have two outstanding characteristics compared to all other species: the apparently enormous elaboration of our thought through language and symbolism, and the elaboration of our forms of social organization. The view taken in Human Thought and Social Organization: Anthropology on a New...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Published: |
Lanham, Maryland :
Lexington Books ,
c2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | IG Publishing |
| Summary: | Human beings have two outstanding characteristics compared to all other species: the apparently enormous elaboration of our thought through language and symbolism, and the elaboration of our forms of social organization. The view taken in Human Thought and Social Organization: Anthropology on a New Plane is that these are intimately interconnected. To understand this connection, the book compares the structure of the systems of thought that organizations are built upon with the organizational basis of human thinking. An experimental method is used, leading to a new science of the structure of human social organizations in two senses. First, it gives rise to a new kind of ethnology that has the combination of empirical solidity and formal analytical rigor associated with the "paradigmatic" sciences. Second, it makes evident that social organizations have distinctive properties and require distinctive explanations of a sort that cannot be reduced to the explanations drawn from, or grounded in, these other sciences. While focusing primarily on kinship, Human Thought and Social Organization shows how the analysis applies with equal precision to other social areas ranging from farming to political factionalism -- Book jacket |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xvii, 458 p.) : ill |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 425-447) and index |
| ISBN: | 0739170287 0739170295 (ebook) 9780739170281 9780739170298 (ebook) 9780739197974 |