If you want to know what anthropology is, look at what anthropologists
do. This Very Short Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology
combines an accessible account of some of the disciplines guiding
principles and methodology with abundant examples and illustrations of
anthropologists at work.
Peter Just and John Monaghan begin by discussing anthropology's most
important contributions to modern thought: its investigation of culture
as a distinctively human characteristic, its doctrine of cultural
relativism, and its methodology of fieldwork and ethnography. They then
examine specific ways in which social and cultural anthropology have
advanced our understanding of human society and culture, drawing on
examples from their own fieldwork. The book ends with an assessment of
anthropology's present position, and a look forward to its likely
future.