Adam Kuper

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From one of the world’s most distinguished anthropologists, an important and timely work of cultural history that looks at the origins and much debated future of anthropology museums “A provocative look at questions of ethnography, ownership and restitution . . . the argument [Kuper] makes in The Museum of Other People is important precisely because just about no one else is making it. He asks the questions that others are too shy to pose. . . . Required reading.” –Financial Times (UK) In this deeply researched, immersive history, Adam Kuper tells the story of how foreign and prehistoric peoples and cultures were represented in Western museums of anthropology. Originally created as colonial enterprises, their halls were populated by displays of plundered art, artifacts, dioramas, bones, and relics. Kuper reveals the politics and struggles of trying to build these museums in Germany, France, and England in the mid-19th century, and the dramatic encounters between the very colorful and eccentric collectors, curators, political figures, and high members of the church who founded them. He also details the creation of contemporary museums and exhibitions, including the Smithsonian, the Harvard’s Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and the famous 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago which was inspired by the Paris World Fair of 1889. Despite the widespread popularity and cultural importance of these institutions, there also lies a murky legacy of imperialism, colonialism, and scientific racism in their creation. Kuper tackles difficult questions of repatriation and justice, and how best to ensure that the future of these museums is an ethical, appreciative one that promotes learning and cultural exchange. A stunning, unique, accessible work based on a lifetime of research, The Museum of Other People reckons with the painfully fraught history of museums of natural history, and how curators, anthropologists, and museumgoers alike can move forward alongside these time-honored institutions.

From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions

The Museum of Other People

الثقافة 

Fellow of the British Academy Adam Kuper

am Kuper

Both a critical history of anthropological theory and methods and a challenging essay in the sociology of science, The Invention of Primitive Society shows how anthropologists have tried to define the original form of human society.

Transformations of an Illusion

The Invention of Primitive Society

An expanded and radically revised new edition that is essential reading for those who are interested in anthropological theory and current post-colonial debates, or simply curious about the ways in which we systematically misunderstand other peoples.

Transformations of a Myth

The Reinvention of Primitive Society

The Social Science Encyclopedia, first published in 1985 to acclaim from social scientists, librarians and students, was thoroughly revised in 1996, when reviewers began to describe it as a classic. This third edition has been radically recast. Over half the entries are new or have been entirely rewritten, and most of the balance have been substantially revised. Written by an international team of contributors, the Encyclopedia offers a global perspective on the key issues within the social sciences. Some 500 entries cover a variety of enduring and newly vital areas of study and research methods. Experts review theoretical debates from neo-evolutionism and rational choice theory to poststructuralism, and address the great questions that cut across the social sciences. What is the influence of genes on behaviour? What is the nature of consciousness and cognition? What are the causes of poverty and wealth? What are the roots of conflict, wars, revolutions and genocidal violence? This authoritative reference work is aimed at anyone with a serious interest in contemporary academic thinking about the individual in society.

The Social Science Encyclopedia

On its first publication in 1973 Adam Kuper's entertaining history of half a century of British social anthropology provoked strong reactions. But his often irreverent account soon established itself as one of the introductions to anthropology. Since the second revised edition was published in 1983, important developments have occurred within British and European anthropology. This third, enlarged and updated edition responds to these fresh currents. Adam Kuper takes the story up to the present day, and a new final chapter traces the emergence of a modern European social anthropology in contrast with developments in American cultural anthropology over the last two decades. Anthropology and Anthropologists provides a critical historical account of modern British social anthropology: it describes the careers of the major theorists, their ideas and their contributions in the context of the intellectual and institutional environments in which they worked.

The Modern British School

Anthropology and Anthropologists

This is the first collection of Radcliffe-Brown's work chosen to represent his books as well as his essays. It includes some classic pieces, and also one or two lesser-known items. Radcliffe-Brown was a pioneer who established structural, sociological anthropology, in the face of the entrenched traditions of ethnology and social evolutionism. First published in 1977.

The Social Anthropology of Radcliffe-Brown

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Conceptualizing Society

The Invention of Primitive Society, Adam Kuper’s best selling critique of ideas about the origins of society and religion that have been much debated since Darwin, has been hugely influential in anthropology and post-colonial studies. This topical new edition, entitled The Reinvention of Primitive Society, has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of new research in the field. It coincides with a revival of the myth of primitive society by the ‘indigenous peoples’ movement’, which taps into a widespread popular belief about the noble savage and reflects a romantic reaction against ‘civilisation’ and ‘science’. By way of fascinating accounts of classic texts in anthropology, classical studies and law, the book reveals how wholly mistaken theories can become the basis for academic research and political programmes. In new chapters, Kuper challenges this most recent version of the myth of primitive society and traces conceptions of the barbarian, savage and primitive back through the centuries to ancient Greece. Lucidly written and student friendly, this is the must-have text for those interested in anthropological theory and current post-colonial debates.

Adam Kuper’s iconoclastic intellectual history argues that the idea of “primitive society” is a western myth. The “primitive” is imagined as the opposite of the “civilised”. But this is a protean myth. As ideas about civilisation change, so the image of primitive society must be adjusted. By way of fascinating account of classic texts in anthropology, ancient history and law, Kuper reveals how this myth underpinned academic research and inspired political programmes. Its ancestry is traced back to classical western beliefs about barbarians and savages, and Kuper also tackles the latest version of the myth, the idea of a global identity of “indigenous peoples”. The Reinvention of Primitive Society is a key text in the history of anthropology, and will interest anyone who has puzzled about the very idea of “primitive society” – and so, by implication, about “civilisation”.

L'anthropologie sociale britannique est au cœur du projet ethnologique et anthropologique du XXe siècle. Les grands acteurs de cette histoire ont participé activement à la mise au point de l'image aussi bien institutionnelle qu'empirique et théorique de la discipline. Cette image influencera fortement les autres traditions européennes et même l'anthropologie culturelle américaine. Cet essai de sociologie ou d'anthropologie historique de la connaissance interroge plusieurs des mythes et lieux communs fondateurs de l'anthropologie. A commencer par celui du charisme de Bronislow Malinowski, fondateur auto-proclamé de l'observation participante et de l'enquête de terrain, théoricien d'un fonctionnalisme sommaire, lecteur de Freud mais surtout maître de toute une génération de disciples. Alternant des portraits de chercheurs comme Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Leach, Gluckman et d'autres avec des approches plus thématisées portant sur les relations avec le colonialisme, le rôle des concepts de fonction et de structure, l'influence de Lévi-Strauss, Adam Kuper fait ressortir progressivement l'esprit de famille de cette anthropologie, ses ambitions comme ses routines, ses innovations comme ses impasses. L'épuisement de ce mouvement à la fin des années 1970 n'a pas sonné le glas de l'anthropologie et un dernier chapitre nous présente les transformations en cours à la fin du XXe siècle.

L'anthropologie britannique au XXe siècle

Like many gentlemen of his time, Charles Darwin married his first cousin. In fact, marriages between close relatives were commonplace in nineteenth-century England, and Adam Kuper argues that they played a crucial role in the rise of the bourgeoisie. This groundbreaking study brings out the connection between private lives, public fortunes, and the history of imperial Britain.

Incest and Influence

Anthropology and Anthropologists provides an entertaining and provocative account of British social anthropology from the foundations of the discipline, through the glory years of the mid-twentieth century and on to the transformation in recent decades. The book shocked the anthropological establishment on first publication in 1973 but soon established itself as one of the introductions for students of anthropology. Forty years later, this now classic work has been radically revised. Adam Kuper situates the leading actors in their historical and institutional context, probes their rivalries, revisits their debates, and reviews their key ethnographies. Drawing on recent scholarship he shows how the discipline was shaped by the colonial setting and by developments in the social sciences.

The British School in the Twentieth Century

Is there a Darwinian explanation for the evolution of human nature? The great debates about human origins, cultural history, and human nature confront us with two opposing, often irreconcilable images of human beings: biology vs. culture. Now Kuper reframes these debates and reconsiders fundamental questions of anthropology. 21 halftones.

Human Nature and Cultural Diversity

The Chosen Primate

Jessica Kuper

This reference has been written by an international team of contributors presenting a global understanding of the key issues within social sciences. A board of advisory editors has worked closely with the editors in determining the most important concepts, thinkers and techniques in each field.

Adam Kuper

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