Abstract

Historians and anthropologists are seldom seen in one another’s company. Recently, however, they have come to realize that even a desultory courtship might be to their mutual advantage. Professor Evans-Pritchard on the one side and Keith Thomas on the other have stressed how much might be gained in this way. Thus, it might perhaps be illuminating, for example, to examine Burckhardt’s historical Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy as a fine piece of cultural anthropology. The book under review, however, will do little to bring these hopes near performance. It was published presumably as an act of pietas. It purports to bring together the significant pronouncements of a great anthropologist. But the effect it leaves is of a mass of vague pronouncements often couched in the most disconcerting style. The author illustrates the use of literary jargon in the process of denouncing it. This is sad. The cause is a good one but it will not be furthered by this particular collection.