Arguing with Anthropology is a fresh and wholly original guide to key elements in anthropology, which teaches the ability to think, write and argue critically. Using the classic 'question of the gift' as a master-issue for discussion, and drawing on a rich variety of Pacific and global ethnography, it provides a unique course in methods, aims, knowledge, and understanding. The book's highly original hypothetical approach takes gift-theory - the science of obligation and reciprocity - as the paradigm for a virtual enquiry which explores how the anthropological discipline has evolved...

Arguing with Anthropology is a fresh and wholly original guide to key elements in anthropology, which teaches the ability to think, write and argue critically. Using the classic 'question of the gift' as a master-issue for discussion, and drawing on a rich variety of Pacific and global ethnography, it provides a unique course in methods, aims, knowledge, and understanding. The book's highly original hypothetical approach takes gift-theory - the science of obligation and reciprocity - as the paradigm for a virtual enquiry which explores how the anthropological discipline has evolved...

"This collection of essays is the product of a series of workshops over a long period where the organizing themes were debated and modified and drafts of the articles discussed and revised"--P. [189].