Anthony Cohen explores the concept of community in social theory.

Traditionally the self and the individual have been treated as micro-versions of larger social entities by the social sciences in general, and by anthropology in particular. In Self Consciousness, Cohen examines this treatment of the self, arguing that this practice has resulted in the misunderstanding of social aggregates precisely because the individual has been ignored as a constituent element. By acknowledging the individual's self awareness as author of their own social conduct and of the social forms in which they participate, this informs social and cultural processes rather...

A study which attempts to formulate an anthropological approach to consciousness. This text explores the importance of the conscious self, and of the conscious collectively, in the construction and interpretation of social relations and process. It asks the question: to what extent is the consciousness of individuals modelled by the cultures and social structures within which they live?.

The question of how identity is formed and what it means is a central question within anthropology. Just as significant is the concept of boundaries, the things which distinguish the identity of one group from another.

This collection of extended papers examines the ways in which relations between national, ethnic, religious and gender groups are underpinned by each group's perceptions of their distinctive identities and of the nature of the boundaries which divide them. Questions of frontier and identity are theorised with reference to the Maori, Australian aborigines and Celtic groups.
The theoretical arguments and ethnographic perspectives of this book place it at the cutting edge of contemporary anthropological scholarship on identity, with respect to the study of ethnicity, nationalism, localism,...

First published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.