Consciousness and Change
Symbolic Anthropology in Evolutionary Perspective
By James L. Peacock
282 pp., 5.5 x 8.25, bibl., index
-
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-6599-3
Published: April 2021
Buy this Book
This title is not eligible for UNC Press promotional pricing.
Distributed for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Retired Faculty Association
The book opens with an analysis of symbols, discussing some of their essential qualities. The author then proceeds to examine the Durkheimian and Weberian schools of thought, as reflected in the works of anthropologists ranging from Lévi-Strauss to Clifford Geertz; next, he considers the development of Protean symbolism, using material material derived from his own field experience in the U.S. South and elsewhere. He concludes with a typology relating different types of symbols to different periods of history, from the primitivism of the Australian aborigine to the quasi-primitivism of the modern commune-dweller. While it is not intended as a comprehensive textbook, Consciousness and Change provides student and lay reader alike with an introductory overview of the anthropology of symbols.