Contemporary problems of economic and social change have obliged social scientists from different fi elds to learn much about each others' work as well as about the specifi c problems they are together seeking to solve. The bearing of economic conditions on the character of a social system has become more apparent to anthropologists, and, similarly, economists have become more aware of the relevance of social factors to economic decisions. This pioneering book is at the point of contact between these two disciplines, presenting detailed studies from many societies of the interaction between...

Religion: A Humanist Interpretation represents a lifetime's work on the anthropology of religion from a rather unusual personal viewpoint. Raymond Firth treats religion as a human art, capable of great intellectual and artistic achievements, but also of complex manipulation to serve the human interests of those who believe in it and operate it. His study is comparative, drawing material from a range of religions around the world. Its findings are a challenge to established beliefs.
This anthropological approach to the study of religion covers themes ranging from; religious belief...

The social, economic and political impact of the decline of the old colonial powers in Africa, India and the Middle East are still areas of vast research and debate. Much of the key issues concerning this area are discussed in this book.

The formation and management of capital are among the central issues in economic growth, especially in 'under-developed' countries, and form the main theme in this volume.

Sir Raymond Firth is the most distinguished living British anthropologist, and one also internationally acclaimed. His latest work forms part of one of the fullest and most professional ethnographic accounts by any anthropologist of a nonindustrial people, an account which extends over many years. This book is about the songs of a Western Pacific people, the Tikopia, who until recently lived entirely on a small remote island of the Solomons. Their songs vary from lively dance chants to mournful funeral laments. All are novel to western ears. The book provides about 100 examples in text and in...

Sir Raymond Firth is the most distinguished living British anthropologist, and one also internationally acclaimed. His latest work forms part of one of the fullest and most professional ethnographic accounts by any anthropologist of a nonindustrial people, an account which extends over many years. This book is about the songs of a Western Pacific people, the Tikopia, who until recently lived entirely on a small remote island of the Solomons. Their songs vary from lively dance chants to mournful funeral laments. All are novel to western ears. The book provides about 100 examples in text and in...

In 1947 members of the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, under the leadership of Professor Firth, made a study of kinship in a South London borough. Professor Garigue investigated kinship patterns among Italian immigrants in London. The results of these two pioneering studies are presented in this book.

Provides an account by a social anthropologist of a Polynesian ritual cycle. This single-volume includes a theoretical introduction, and supplies postscripts to some of the chapters comparing the performances of 1928-29 with those witnessed by Professor Firth on his second visit to Tikopia in 1952.