Hey folks
I'm trying to help a friend track down a book that looks at the ways different societies posit basic empirical categories, and structure their sense of world. He's interested in learning more about the variability in how different societies construe the fundamental facts of the universe. I would direct him to Levi-Strauss's "The Raw and the Cooked", but I think it's too technical. I'm wondering if anyone can recommend something in that ballpark written more for a layperson.
Thanks!
I'm trying to help a friend track down a book that looks at the ways different societies posit basic empirical categories, and structure their sense of world. He's interested in learning more about the variability in how different societies construe the fundamental facts of the universe. I would direct him to Levi-Strauss's "The Raw and the Cooked", but I think it's too technical. I'm wondering if anyone can recommend something in that ballpark written more for a layperson.
Thanks!
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Thu, July 27, 2006 - 2:25 AMTry Weston LaBarre's Ghost Dance. -
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Thu, July 27, 2006 - 9:48 AMI'm not finding a book by that name and author on Amazon.... -
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Thu, July 27, 2006 - 10:07 AMSorry! It may be out of print. -
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Thu, July 27, 2006 - 10:35 AMThanks anyway! I'll look at the second-hand stores.
Still open for other recommendations! -
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Thu, July 27, 2006 - 3:01 PMHave you tried Jack Weatherford's "Savages and Civilizations"?
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Sat, July 29, 2006 - 5:47 AMI don't understand what you're looking for. :)
But the word "empirical" makes me think of the statistical approach of sociology.. -
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Sun, July 30, 2006 - 8:13 PMSorry if I was unclear. What I'm looking for is a book that examines how groups of people create conceptual categories that are taken as objective descriptors and used to describe the world. A simple example, drawing from L-S, is "raw" and "cooked". These terms, while used as though they describe primary qualities in the John Locke sense, actually refer to culture-bound judgments, and their application varies from culture to culture. Does this make sense?
Maybe this kind of thing isn't addressed within formal anthropology, outside of eclectic scholars like Levi-Strauss. -
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Thu, August 3, 2006 - 10:30 AMIf you're look for conceptual categories, I suggest you google for "cognitive anthropology" which has come a long way since Levi-Strauss (though he's still fundamental).
Roy -
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Re: looking for book on the anthropology of empirical categories
Thu, August 3, 2006 - 11:00 AMRoy , I did some looking, and that's EXACTLY what I'm looking for. Thank you!
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