This essay is the work of a social anthropologist but it is not based upon field work. It is concerned with Chinese matters but it is not written by a sinologue. In this essay are the author’s reflections on certain aspects of southeastern Chinese society during the last hundred and fifty years, with attention on the Fukien and Kwangtung region of China has it has specialized not only in large-scale unilineal organization but also in sending people overseas.
The essays included in Social Organization and Peasant Societies were written in honor of the man who taught their authors. Each entry is about different problems within the general field of "social organization."They were composed in many styles; and deal ethnographically with a heterogeneous collection of peoples and countries. Together they illustrate an important aspect of Firth's influence as a teacher: the range of his interests and his success in promoting social anthropological research on the broadest front.The breadth and the variety in the work of his students reflect Firth's own catholicity. From economics he reached into every corner of the field covered by social anthropology, and many of his interests can be traced in these essays on themes in kinship and marriage (by Baric, Benedict, Kaberry, and Leach) and on religious subjects (by Freedman, Morris, and Stanner). Still more detail the study of modern social change (by Little and Mayer). There is even one is on art (by Forge). Three are devoted to subjects in economic anthropology (by Belshaw, Swift, and Ward). On all of these varied and complex topics Raymond Firth has written extensively and taught untiringly. Many of the contributors to his festschrift are themselves leading anthropologists.Raymond Firth's importance in the history of social anthropology is undisputed. He came into the profession when it was small and unformed, when it existed only in the tiny groups of people around Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown. He urged it on, by intellectual leadership, by careful organization, and by devoted service. He was one of a small band of scholars; he created a large school. He inherited an esoteric seminar from Malinowski; he turned it into a great class where, over the years, hundreds of students marveled at his skill and learned their craft as analysts and field workers. His protege listened to his formulation of problems, his critique of methods, and his courteous but un
This book takes the argument first set out in Lineage Organization in South-Eastern China a step further. It incorporates some of Professor Freedman's field data (gathered in the Hong Kong New Territories in 1963) and draws on a wide variety of written sources. As in his first book on the subject, the author seeks to analyse certain crucial institutions of Chinese society within the framework of contemporary anthropological theory.
Seldom out of the news for long, code-breaking has had a bad time in the media so far, readers and viewers often finding it as perplexing as it is intriguing. As one of the greatest achievements of the century, code- breaking is a fascinating story, but all too often misunderstood and felt to be obscure. The author covers the story from the early code-breaking efforts through the rickety structure of the pre-war Government Code and Cypher School to Bletchley Park where a large powerful organisation arose, unscrambling thousands of secret enemy messages every day. Detailing how these amazing discoveries were actually used, taking us briefly into some of the battles of the Second World War, and in some detail the Battle of the Atlantic, when Britain was in danger of starving and where the war was nearly lost.For the first time, the code-breaking story with all its complexities is told in a straightforward and readable manner, whilst at the same time it will not fail to intrigue and astonish readers.
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