Books in the Themes in the Social Sciences series

The preparation, serving and eating of food are common features of all human societies, and have been the focus of study for numerous anthropologists - from Sir James Frazer onwards - from a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives. It is in the context of this previous anthropological work that Jack Goody sets his own observations on cooking in West Africa. He criticises those approaches which overlook the comparative historical dimension of culinary, and other, cultural differences that emerge in class societies, both of which elements he particularly emphasises in this book. The central question that Professor Goody addresses here is why a differentiated 'haute cuisine' has not emerged in Africa, as it has in other parts of the world. His account of cooking in West Africa is followed by a survey of the culinary practices of the major Eurasian societies throughout history - ranging from Ancient Egypt, Imperial Rome and medieval China to early modern Europe - in which he relates the differences in food preparation and consumption emerging in these societies to differences in their socio-economic structures, specifically in modes of production and communication. He concludes with an examination of the world-wide rise of 'industrial food' and its impact on Third World societies, showing that the ability of the latter to resist cultural domination in food, as in other things, is related to the nature of their pre-existing socio-economic structures. The arguments presented here will interest all social scientists and historians concerned with cultural history and social theory.

This 1979 text addresses the strong criticism of dominant theories in large areas of Western social science.

In this book, the author provides a detailed analysis of kinship, household and family relations in early modern France.

Professor Goody's research in West Africa resulted in finding an alternative way of thinking about 'traditional' societies.

Based on a study of the commune movement in Britain, this 1976 book attempts to explore the ability of sociology to understand the 'alternative society' and to examine the implications of the success and failure of communal projects for fundamental sociological theories about the nature of social solidarity and cohesion.

This 1976 book provides a systematic exposition of the principle components of exchange theory, and goes on to give a critique of these theories, paying particular attention to the success of their empirical applications. It concludes that exchange theory has an important part to play in the development of social science.

Both biologists and social scientists have much to say about human behaviour. Yet attempts to combine their approaches to provide a deeper understanding of human nature have not so far been generally successful. First published in 1987, this book offered an original way of bridging the gap between them.

Dr Lane addresses four distinct, though related, topics: Lenin's analysis of revolution; Leninism as an ideology legitimating the Russian Revolution; a detached analysis of the revolutionary process; and the relevance of Lenin and the Russian Revolution for social and political change.

Reviewing the course of English population history from 1066 to the eighties, this book challenges orthodoxies about the evolution of English family forms, and offers a bold interpretation of the inter-connections between social, economic, demographic and family history.

The notion of distinct mentalities has been used extensively by historians to describe and explain cultural diversity. Professor Lloyd believes it is communication, not mentalities, that explains cultural diversity. Discussing apparently irrational beliefs and behaviour, he shows how different forms of thought coexist in a single culture but within conventionally defined contexts.

The first systematic comparative study of these interpersonal relations and makes the first attempt to relate them to central aspects of social structure. It will therefore be an important contribution to both comparative analysis and social theory and will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists.

The thesis of this original and provocative book is that representative government should be understood as a combination of democratic and undemocratic (indeed, aristocratic) elements. Challenging the conventionally held views on the subject, Professor Manin reminds us that representative government originally was designed in opposition to democracy proper.

This is a critical assessment of recent experiments designed to impact a language, either natural or invented, to an ape. The ape's performance is compared with the course of semantic and syntactical development in children, both speaking and signing. The book also examines what is known of the neurological, cognitive, and specifically linguistical attributes of our species that subverse language.

Why do any human beings choose to be socialists? Why has socialist politics proved in practice so frequently disappointing? This book is an attempt to confront problems which have arisen largely from the practice of socialist politics itself and to locate their sources within the confusions and equivocations of existing understandings of socialism.

This original and innovative study of the pre-eminently social character of human ecological relations will be of considerable interest to all students and researchers concerned with understanding the nature of the relationship between human beings and their environments.

This book considers the contexts in which people tell lies and explores the consequences.

In treating memory as a cultural rather than an individual faculty, this book provides an account of how bodily practices are transmitted in, and as, traditions. Most studies of memory as a cultural faculty focus on written, or inscribed transmissions of memories. Paul Connerton, on the other hand, concentrates on bodily (or incorporated) practices, and so questions the currently dominant idea that literary texts may be taken as a metaphor for social practices generally. The author argues that images of the past and recollected knowledge of the past are conveyed and sustained by ritual performances and that performative memory is bodily. Bodily social memory is an essential aspect of social memory, but it is an aspect which has until now been badly neglected. An innovative study, this work should be of interest to researchers into social, political and anthropological thought as well as to graduate and undergraduate students.

Edmund Leach's book investigates the writings of 'structuralists,' and their different theories: the general incest theory and of animal sacrifice. This book is designed for the use of teaching undergraduates in anthropology, linguistics, literary studies, philosophy and related disciplines faced with structuralist argument. It provides the prolegomena necessary to understand the final chapter of Levi-Strauss's massive four-volume Mythologiques. Some prior knowledge of anthropological literature is useful but not essential. The principal ethnographic source is the Book of Leviticus; this guide should help anyone who is trying to grasp the essentials of 'seminology' - the general theory of how signs and symbols come to convey meaning. The author's core thesis is that: 'the indices in non-verbal communication systems, like the sound elements in spoken language, do not have meaning as isolates, but only as members of set'; the book's special merit is that it makes this kind of jargon comprehensible in terms of our everyday experience.

Originally published in 1981, this book explores the ethnic separatisms and 'neo-nationalisms' that, at the time, threatened to undermine the fragile stability of the world order and to annul liberal and cosmopolitan dreams of world government and a universal scientific culture.

Haim Hazan, a specialist on old age in anthropology, focuses on the reality of the experience of old age as opposed to the stereotyped image. He examines the subject from a social constructionist perspective, drawing on ethnographic accounts to produce a sophisticated and highly original book.