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Volume 2
Anthropology's Ancestors
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William Robertson Smith
Aleksandar Bošković
120 pages, 10 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-80073-157-8 $145.00/£107.00 Hb Not Yet Published (August 2021)
ISBN 978-1-80073-158-5 $24.95/£19.95 Pb Not Yet Published (August 2021)
eISBN 978-1-80073-159-2 eBook Not Yet Published
Reviews
“This is a clear, well-informed and interesting account of Robertson Smith’s central ideas. The theories are set in the context of debates of the day, and their influence on anthropology and bible studies is discussed. An original and fascinating section reviews Robertson Smith’s field work in the Middle East, which was much more extensive and intensive than is, I think, generally appreciated.” • Adam Kuper, London School of Economics
Description
William Robertson Smith’s influence on anthropology ranged from his relationship with John Ferguson McLennan, to advising James George Frazer to write about “Totem” and “Taboo” for the Encyclopaedia Britannica that he edited. This biography places a special emphasis on the notes and observations from his travels to Arabia, as well as on his influence on the representatives of the “Myth and Ritual School.” With his discussion of myth and ritual, Smith influenced generations of scholars, and his insistence on the connection between the people, their God, and the land they inhabited inspired many of the concepts later developed by Émile Durkheim.
Aleksandar Bošković is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade (Serbia). He is also Professor of Anthropology at the University of Belgrade and at the University of Donja Gorica (Montenegro). He is the author or editor of fifteen books, including Other People's Anthropologies: Ethnographic Practice on the Margins (Berghahn, 2008).
Subject: Anthropology (General)
Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on Text
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Life of William Robertson Smith
Chapter 2. Smith’s Travels and Ethnographies
Chapter 3. A Journey in the Hijaz
Chapter 4. Anthropology, Religion, and Myth
Chapter 5. Myth, its Meaning and some of its Explanations
Chapter 6. Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Myth
Chapter 7. “Myth and Ritual School”
Chapter 8. Methodology and Literary Criticism
Chapter 9. Sociological Aspects of Old Testament Religion
Conclusion: Concluding Remarks
References
Index