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A detailed and sympathetic understanding of the contemperory socil and cultural institutions of other peoples has never been more needed than it is today. The comparatively new science of social anthropology claims to contribyte modestly but significantly to this understanding. Although the subject has grown up mostly in the study of relative small-scale communities lacking advanced technologies and written histories, its findings can contribute also to the understanding of more complex culture, and its methods are being incerasingly applied in the investigation of modern communities. in the first part of this book, john beattie cconsiders what kind of study social anthropology is, what sort of things it is intereested in, the types of questions which social anthropologists ask, and the ways in which they go about obtaining answers. in the second part he discusses the more important fields in which social anthropologists have advanced our knowledge of other cultures. these fields include kinship and marriage, the maintaining of social order, economic relations, and magical and religious institutions. the important theme of social change is also examined. in the final chapter the uses that have been and can be made of social anthropology are discussed.
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