Anthropology at the Time of the Anthropocene: A Personal View of What Is to Be Studied

Eleven essays that explain the core concepts of the discipline, from caste, kingship and the fetish to ritual, mourning and play. A rigorous guide to the ideas anthropologists still argue about.

Valerio Valeri

A sharp critique of how academic anthropology works and why it so often fails to help the people it studies. Rob Borofsky makes the case for a public anthropology that tackles real problems.

Rob Borofsky

David Graeber's short, provocative essay on what anthropology can teach us about societies without the state, from gift economies to direct democracy. One of the most read anthropology texts of this century.

David Graeber

A practical guide to the ethical questions of fieldwork: consent, privacy, vulnerability, harm and online research. Useful for anyone planning an ethnographic project.

Ron Iphofen

A clear history of the tense relationship between anthropologists and development work, from colonial advisers to today's aid agencies, and the positions anthropologists take toward it.

David Lewis