Tim Ingold is Max Gluckman Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. The presentations, by leading anthropologists of both older and younger generations, are clear, original and provocative. Can there be an anthropology of aesthetics, or is the term so wedded to Western standards of evaluation as to make any such endeavour hopelessly ethnocentric? With its unique format, Key Debates in Anthropology addresses issues that are currently at the top of the theoretical agenda, and registers the pulse of contemporary thinking in social anthropology.

Finally, in the sixth debate, the concern is with the cross-cultural applicability of the concept of aesthetics. The fifth takes up the question of how we view the past in relation to the present, touching on the difference between history and memory. The fourth debate focuses on the place of language in the formation of culture, highlighting the problematic distinction between verbal and non-verbal communication. In the third debate the spotlight is turned on the concept of culture, and on the role of culture in people’s perception of their environments. The first debate addresses the disciplinary character of social anthropology: can it be regarded as a science, and if so, is it able to establish general propositions about human culture and social life? The second examines the concept of society, in relation to such terms as individual, community, nation and state. These debates give unprecedented insight into the process of anthropological theory in the making, as the many contributors both engage with each other’s positions and respond to wider intellectual currents of the time. For each debate there are four principal speakers: one to propose the motion, another to oppose it, and two seconders. Key Debates in Anthropology collects together the first six of these debates, spanning the period from 1988 to 1993. Key Debates in Anthropology Every year, leading social anthropologists meet in Manchester to debate a motion at the heart of current theoretical developments in their subject.

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