Social anthropology, defined operationally in terms of what
social anthropologists have done in the last fifty years, is the
study and comparison of tribal societies and of small fields of
social life with emphasis on the role of custom. When a social
anthropologist's research leads him into any field, which belongs
to other disciplines, what line should he adopt? What use may he
make of the results that other scholars have already achieved? Must
he knowingly make naive assumptions concerning events, which they
have regarded as complex? In each of the fascinating essays which
in turn form the core of this book-V. W. Turner's on symbols in
Ndembu ritual; F. G. Bailey's on disputes which occurred in two
Orissa villages; A. L. Epstein's on urban communities in Africa; T.
Lupton's and S. Cunnison's on the relationship between behaviour in
three Manchester workshops and certain events which happened
outside; and W. Watson's on social mobility and social class in a
coalmining Scottish burgh-several social anthropologists attempt to
answer these questions by discussing the problems of method that
they have encountered in their own recent research; and in the
searching discussion which follows Ely Devons and Max Gluckman sum
up the results. To analyze one first has to circumscribe one's
field, and then simplify within the area of circumscription. Both
circumscription and simplification may involve procedures of
absorbing, abridging, and making nave assumptions. The contributors
draw attention to the attempt to distinguish between psychical
facts (emotions, thoughts, etc.) and psychological, which we
believe should apply only to statements within the science of
psychology, and not to be used by the former. They similarly
distinguish between social facts and sociological or
social-anthropological statements. "Psychological" and
"sociological" are so well established in common parlance as
adjectives to categorize facts that attempts to specialize them as
hopeless. Max Gluckman (1911-1975) was head of the Department of
Social Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Manchester.
He is well known for his many books and articles on the peoples of
South and Central Africa and on social anthropology in general. He
was a political activist and was strongly against the use of
colonies. He directly took on social problems and cultural
discrepancies such as colonialism with racism, urbanization, and
labor migration.
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