Description: The anthropology of ethics has become an important and fast-growing field in recent years. This book argues that it represents not just a new subfield within anthropology but a conceptual renewal of the discipline as a whole, enabling it to take account of a major dimension of human conduct which social theory has so far failed adequately to address. An ideal introduction for students and researchers in anthropology and related human sciences. - Shows how ethical concepts such as virtue, character, freedom and responsibility may be incorporated into anthropological analysis - Surveys the history of anthropology's engagement with morality - Examines the relevance for anthropology of two major philosophical approaches to moral life.
Brief description: James Laidlaw is Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology and Fellow of King's College at the University of Cambridge.
Review Quotes: Advance Praise: "James Laidlaw's book, which has the advantage of being elegantly written, is bound to transform the anthropological study of morality and ethics. Along the way, he helps us rethink many of our most important ideas, models and theories, including those related to practice, to relativism, to agency and - above all - to freedom." --Charles Stafford, London School of Economics