Books in the LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology series

Contains fourteen lectures and essays dealing with mainly, though not exclusively, with Africa, and among the topics discussed are land tenure, chieftainship, 'clientship', messianic movement, witchcraft, and 'race, tribalism and nationalism'.

Presents a study of Anlo, part of the Ewe people divided between Ghana and Togo. This book describes the complex system of landholdings made necessary by the high density of population. Adjustments are made by the exercise of claims through maternal kin, contradicting that patrilineal claims are asserted strongly where there is pressure on land.

A collection of some of Maurice Bloch's most important work, including essays on power, hierarchy, death and fertility.

Presents a description of everyday life in order to explore the concept of performance for an anthropology of gender. This title offers an account of the lives of men and women in a South Indian fishing community that reveals fresh ways of framing gender relations, the body and kinship.

A collection of essays from Edmund Leach, one of the original voices in the social anthropological tradition.

Through a range of ethnographic case studies focusing on the Portuguese recovery after the economic crisis, this book begins a conversation about the experience of recuperation and repair.

When humans cooperate, what are the social and psychological mechanisms that enable them to do so successfully? Is cooperativeness something natural for humans, built in to our species over the course of evolution, or rather something that depends on cultural learning and social interaction? This book addresses these central questions.

Drawing on a wide range of anthropological case studies, this book focuses on ordinary ethics in contemporary China. The book examines the kinds of moral and ethical issues that emerge (sometimes almost unnoticed) in the flow of everyday life in Chinese communities.

Introduces gender theory to the analysis of African ethnography, exploring the ways in which ideational gender categories permeate African systems of thought and ritual practices. This book provides a framework to evaluate ethnographic material on Africa. It also presents case studies of hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists, and pastoralists.

Anthropology seems to shy away from the big, comparative questions that ordinary people in many societies find compelling. This title contains essays that explore birth, death and sexuality, puzzles about the relationship between science and religion, questions about the nature of ritual, work and genocide, and our personal fears and desires.

Presents an anthropological overview of industrialisation in both Western and non-Western societies. This book unpacks the 'world of industry' in the context of the shop floor, the family, and the city, revealing the rich social and political texture underpinning economic development.

Anthropology seems to shy away from the big, comparative questions that ordinary people in many societies find compelling. This title contains essays that explore birth, death and sexuality, puzzles about the relationship between science and religion, questions about the nature of ritual, work and genocide, and our personal fears and desires.

This volume provides an international analysis of the core metaphors and practices of human sexual and social reproduction in their personal, social and cosmological contexts.

In this volume Professor Firth has brought together and commented upon a number of his papers on anthropological subjects published over the last thirty years.

An ethnographic exploration of the rise of new forms of leadership at community and national levels with islanders are synthesising traditional and Western models.

In 1947 members of the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, under the leadership of Professor Firth, made a study of kinship in a South London borough.

Mrs van der Sprenkel was led to undertake this journey by her experiences while living in China. lt is a detailed sociological analysis of the whole complex of legal and quasi-legal institutions during the Manchu period.

Drawing on a wide range of anthropological case studies, this book focuses on ordinary ethics in contemporary China. The book examines the kinds of moral and ethical issues that emerge (sometimes almost unnoticed) in the flow of everyday life in Chinese communities.

Whether initiating girls or healing cattle, many in Africa share a vision of a world where the cultural, symbolic and cosmic categories of 'male' and 'female' serve, through ritual, to reimagine and transform the world. This work provides a framework with which to evaluate previous ethnographic material on Africa.

This volume in honour of Professor Mair reflects the range of her interests, and those of the Department in which she taught, in many areas of social anthropology.