Against the background of the problems involved in the comparative study of human society, the essays in this book show the comparative ideal in practice, which combines elements from both…

Originally published in 1971 this book argues that certain aspects of traditional African social systems have been misunderstood because of a failure to appreciate what is implied by important differences…

The importance of writing as a means of communication in a society formerly without it, or where writing has been confined to particular groups, is enormous. It objectifies speech, provides…

A history of the family in Europe from antiquity to the present day. It examines the effects on domestic life of key social, political and economic developments in European history.

In this series of essays Jack Goody examines the complex relationship between oral and literate modes of communication. A substantial corpus of anthropological, historical and linguistic evidence is produced in…

Distinguished social scientist Jack Goody addresses a core historical question: does the European Renaissance deserve its status at the heart of our notions of modernity? Goody scrutinises the European model…

Jack Goody, one of the world’s most distinguished anthropologists, undertakes an ambitious and broad-ranging account of the search for metals in Europe and the Near East from the Bronze Age…

With studies of China, India, West Africa, South America and Europe, this book provides a global perspective on food consumption in the modern world. Combing ethnographic, historical and comparative analyses…