The life and career of one of anthropology's most important ancestors,
William Robertson Smith in the context of the history of anthropology.
William Robertson Smith's influence on anthropology ranged from his
relationship with John Ferguson McLennan, to advising James George
Frazer to write about "Totem" and "Taboo" 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 "Myth and Ritual School."
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 Émile Durkheim.
"This is a clear, well-informed and interesting account of Robertson
Smith'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 Smith's
field work in the Middle East, which was much more extensive and
intensive than is, I think, generally appreciated."--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.
