Scope of Anthropology

DOUSSET L. & TCHERKÉZOFF S., Laurent & Serge 2012. The Scope of Anthropology: Maurice Godelier’s Work in Context. Oxford, New York: Berghahn.

On the 3rd of May 2012, Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkézoff were able to hand over to Maurice Godelier a present that we had prepared for years: A book in honour of his work entitled The Scope of Anthropology: Maurice Godelier's work in context [see below for more information on this book].

Here a few photos of the moment when he receives the book.

 

 

 

 

 

Maurice Godelier opening his present

 

Maurice Godelier: great surprise

 

Maurice Godelier reading the table of contents

 

Maurice Godelier 40 years later

 

Maurice Godelier and Laurent Dousset

 

THE SCOPE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Maurice Godelier’s Work in Context
Edited by Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkézoff

Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2012

Summary

Some of the most prominent social and cultural anthropologists have come together in this volume to discuss Maurice Godelier’s work. They explore and revisit some of the highly complex practices and structures social scientists encounter in their fieldwork. From the nature–culture debate to the fabrication of hereditary political systems, from transforming gender relations to the problems of the Christianization of indigenous peoples, these chapters demonstrate both the diversity of anthropological topics and the opportunity for constructive dialogue around shared methodological and theoretical models.

“This is an extremely welcome addition to the literature -- unfortunately, too many English-speakers today think of Godelier as a footnote in the history of Marxist anthropology. This volume helps us remember the importance of Godelier as a thinker of the first order and a major bridge between the Anglophone and Francophone anthropology.” ·  Alex Golub, University of Hawai’i, Manoa

About the Editors

Laurent Dousset is Associate Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) and is director of the CREDO (Centre for Research and Documentation on Oceania) in Marseilles. He has done research in Aboriginal Australia and has also developed several IT knowledge systems for the social sciences. He is currently preparing the biography of an Aboriginal woman.

Serge Tcherkézoff is Professor of Anthropology at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris-Marseille. With Maurice Godelier and Pierre Lemonnier, he founded the CREDO (Centre for Research and Documentation on Oceania), a research unit member of CNRS, EHESS and the University of Provence and is currently organising an EHESS Branch at the Australian National University.

For List of Contents:

http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=DoussetScope

Introduction
Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkézoff

Chapter 1. Some Things You Say, Some Things You Dissimulate, and Some Things You Keep To Yourself: Linguistic and Material Exchange in the Construction of Melanesian Societies
Joel Robbins

Chapter 2. The Enigma of Christian Conversion: Exchange and the Emergence of New Great Men among the Maisin of Papua New Guinea
John Barker

Chapter 3. Alienating the Inalienable: Marriage and Money in a Big-man Society
Polly Wiessner

Chapter 4. Anthropology and the Future of Sexuality Studies: An Essay in Honour of Maurice Godelier
Gilbert Herdt

Chapter 5. Material and Immaterial Relations: Gender, Rank and Christianity in Vanuatu
Margaret Jolly

Chapter 6. The Making of Chiefs: Hereditary Succession, Personal Agency and Exchange in North Mekeo Chiefdoms
Mark S. Mosko

Chapter 7. What is left out in Kinship
Robert H. Barnes

Chapter 8. Maurice Godelier and the Asiatic Mode
Jack Goody

Chapter 9. The Dialectic of Cosmopolitanization and Indigenization in the Contemporary World System: Contradictory Configurations of Class and Culture
Jonathan Friedman