Landmarks [electronic resource] : reflections on anthropology / Andrew Strathern.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

1. Anthropology and the Study of Social Change in Papua New Guinea / 1974 -- 2. Anthropology as Self-Analysis: Some Reflections / 1980 -- 3. Fieldwork and Theory in Social Anthropology / 1981 -- 4. The Limits of Understanding in Anthropology / 1986 -- 5. Emics, Etics, and Systemics: Theoretical Kicks and Pitches in Anthropology / 1989 -- 6. Anthropology's Odyssey / 1989 -- 7. Reconstructing Anthropology / 1990.

Landmarks addresses a wide range of questions relevant to the recent history of anthropology and its importance to contemporary issues. These questions include the significance of anthropology for Third World studies; the debate on whether anthropology is a scientific or a humanistic subject; anthropology as a means of reflecting on ourselves as well as others; and the criticisms of anthropological work that have emerged out of postmodernism. Drawing on his research findings in Papua New guinea since 1964 and his more recent work on the cross-cultural study of medicine, the author examines the extent to which we can achieve understanding between different cultures and the relative merits of approaches that stress indigenous categories or those of the observer. He concludes that the discipline now requires reconstruction rather than deconstruction, and advances the call for holistic models of human behavior which re-conceptualize the relationship between body and mind.