Gewertz

The Handbook of Sociocultural Anthropology presents a state of the art overview of the subject - its methodologies, current debates, history and future. It provides the ultimate source of authoritative, critical descriptions of all the key aspects of the discipline as well as a consideration of the general state of the discipline at a time when there is notable uncertainty about its foundations, composition and direction.

Divided into five core sections, the Handbook examines the changing theoretical and analytical orientations that have led to new ways of carrying out research; presents an analysis of the traditional historical core and how the discipline has changed since 1980; considers the ethnographic regions where work has had the greatest impact on anthropology as a whole; outlines the people and institutions that are the context in which the discipline operates, covering topics from research funding to professional ethics.

Bringing together leading international scholars, the Handbook provides a guide to the latest research in social and cultural anthropology. Presenting a systematic overview - and offering a wide range of examples, insights and analysis - it is an invaluable resource for researchers and students in anthropology as well as cultural and social geography, cultural studies and sociology.

James G. Carrier is Hon. Research Associate at Oxford Brookes University, UK and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Indiana, USA . He is editor of Meanings of the Market (1997), and co-editor with Daniel Miller of Virtualism (1998).

Deborah B. Gewertz is G. Henry Whitcomb Professor of Anthropology at Amherst College, USA.