The East in the West

New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 1996. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. First Edition (1996) , so stated. Fine in Near Fine DJ: The Book is flawless; the binding is secure; the text is clean. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome, like-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing no discernible imperfections. Bright and clean. Corners sharp. Virtually 'As New'. The DJ shows a bit of very faint wrinkling to the top of the front panel; else flawless; unclipped. Clean, intact, and attractive. Very close to "As New". NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (9.25 x 6.25 x 0.9 inches). Language: English. Weight: 20 ounces. Hardback with DJ. Sir John Rankine "Jack" Goody FBA (1919–2015) was an English social anthropologist. He was a prominent lecturer at Cambridge University, and was William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology from 1973 to 1984. Goody has pioneered the comparative anthropology of literacy, attempting to gauge the preconditions and effects of writing as a technology. He also published about the history of the family and the anthropology of inheritance. More recently, he has written on the anthropology of flowers and food. Goody explained social structure and social change primarily in terms of three major factors. The first was the development of intensive forms of agriculture that allowed the accumulation of surplus – surplus explained many aspects of cultural practice from marriage to funerals as well as the great divide between African and Eurasian societies. Second, he explained social change in terms of urbanisation and growth of bureaucratic institutions that modified or overrode traditional forms of social organisation, such as family or tribe, identifying civilisation as "the culture of cities". And third, he attached great weight to the technologies of communication as instruments of psychological and social change. He associated the beginnings of writing with the task of managing surplus and he advanced the argument that the rise of science and philosophy in classical Greece depended on the invention of the alphabet. As these factors could be applied to any contemporary social system or to systematic changes over time, his work has proven relevant to many disciplines. ; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall; x, 295 pages. pages .