William Robertson Smith Paperback / softback

by Aleksandar Boskovic

Part of the Anthropology's Ancestors series

Paperback / softback

Out of stock

Description

The life and career of one of anthropologyâ€™s most important ancestors, William Robertson Smith in the context of the history of anthropology. William Robertson Smithâ€™s influence on anthropology ranged from his relationship with John Ferguson McLennan, to advising James George Frazer to write about â€œTotemâ€ and â€œTabooâ€ for the Encyclopaedia Britannica that he edited.

This biography places a special emphasis on the notes and observations from his travels to Arabia, as well as on his influence on the representatives of the â€œMyth and Ritual School.â€ With his discussion of myth and ritual, Smith influenced generations of scholars, and his insistence on the connection between the people, their God, and the land they inhabited inspired many of the concepts later developed by Ã‰mile Durkheim. â€œThis is a clear, well-informed and interesting account of Robertson Smithâ€™s central ideas.

The theories are set in the context of debates of the day, and their influence on anthropology and bible studies is discussed.

An original and fascinating section reviews Robertson Smithâ€™s field work in the Middle East, which was much more extensive and intensive than is, I think, generally appreciated.â€â€”Adam Kuper, London School of Economics From the introduction: Although respected and studied, especially since the 1990s, Smith has a somewhat paradoxical position in the history of social and cultural anthropology.

Anthropologists educated in the twentieth century admire him, but many contemporary scholars are not quite sure what to make of him.