Description: Presenting prehistoric, historic, and ethnographic data from Mongolia, China, Iceland, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, The Anthropological Study of Class and Consciousness offers a first step toward examining class as a central issue within anthropology. Contributors to this volume use the methods of historical materialism, cultural ecology, and political ecology to understand the realities of class and how they evolve.
Review Quotes: "A refreshing and hard-hitting take on class and its importance for anthropology. This is a book that needs to be read."--Charles Menzies, University of British Columbia
"Class power structures life in absolutely fundamental ways, yet public discourse and even most academic debate is remarkably resistant to serious discussion of class as a concept and analytical tool. The various contributors to The Anthropological Study of Class and Consciousness take this contradiction head on by exploring the relationships between how people experience their worlds, how they understand those worlds, and how those experiences and understandings are connected to people's class locations within the broader capitalist system. . . . It can be read with great benefit by scholars of American Studies or anyone interested in how the world works and is understood."--American Studies