'Remains among the most brilliant summaries of key ideas animating anthropology. In his
famously accessible writing style Eriksen introduces fundamental questions that shape human
life and provides an overview of the discipline's contribution to the pressing issues of our
times. A must-read' Ursula Rao Director Anthropology of Politics and Governance Max Planck
Institute for Social Anthropology 'This is not just another book in the library of
anthropology it is an entire anthropological library in one book' Tim Ingold Emeritus
Professor University of Aberdeen 'A masterful introduction' Vered Amit Professor Emerita
Concordia University This introduction to social and cultural anthropology has become a
modern classic revealing the rich global variation in social life and culture across the
world. Presenting a clear overview of anthropology it focuses on central topics such as
kinship ethnicity ritual and political systems offering a wealth of examples that
demonstrate the enormous scope of anthropology and the importance of a comparative perspective.
Using reviews of key works to illustrate his argument for over 25 years Thomas Hylland
Eriksen's lucid and accessible textbook has been a much respected and widely used
undergraduate-level introduction to social anthropology. This fully updated fifth edition
features brand new chapters on climate and medical anthropology along with rewritten sections
on ecology nature and the Anthropocene. It also incorporates a more systematic engagement with
gender and digitalisation throughout the text. Thomas Hylland Eriksen is Professor of Social
Anthropology at the University of Oslo and former President of the European Association of
Social Anthropologists (EASA). He is the author of numerous classics of anthropology including
Ethnicity and Nationalism and What is Anthropology?
