Julian A. Pitt-Rivers (1919-2001) was a British social anthropologist and ethnographer of Andalusian and Mediterranean societies. Giovanni da Col is a research fellow in the department of anthropology at the University of Oslo and is the founder of HAU Books and HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. Andrew Shryock is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.
"Despite his passion for promoting the anthropological study of the
Mediterranean, [Pitt-Rivers'] stage was not the narrow one of "area
studies" alone; he had much broader goals. The Zeitgeist of his era
did not make it easy for a Europeanist to break into the
Africanist-dominated world of British anthropological
theory-making, even if that was the tradition in which he had been
trained. But no man of honor (for it is clear that in much of his
analysis he is musing on his own values and predilections) would
have refused the challenge. . . . Far from being an antiquarian
curiosity, as its period-specific style might initially suggest,
his work is resonant with implications for the anthropology we
practice today. . . . This collection is indeed an act of
grace."--Michael Herzfeld, Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social
Sciences Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
"Pitt-Rivers' writings have a supple and subtle quality of style
and argument, the flow of a fine essay. He draws the reader, only
seemingly easily for these papers are cleverly and tightly argued,
into wide-ranging reflections on founding patterns and structures,
codes, customs and practices that he suggests should frame our
understanding of major topics and fields for inquiry such as
kinship, hospitality, honour and sacrifice. He moves across
ethnographic and historical domains, classical and biblical sources
with remarkable scholarship and a capacity for creative
speculation. Like Georg Simmel, he opens our minds to thought and
to rethinking with grace and economy."--Michael Gilsenan, Kriser
Professor in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies New York
University
"This omnibus collection of the writings of Julian Pitt-Rivers is
not only welcome but also timely. An avid student of Mediterranean
and European history, and an anthropologist often cited for his
classical accounts of Spanish culture and authoritative writings on
honor, Pitt-Rivers retained a deep interest in what makes
communities, despite differences and conflicts, cohere and endure
through time. His insights regarding intimate social relations, the
role of ritual in public life, and the dynamics of making credible
moral claims, seem to me invaluable to an understanding of
"community," today."--Jane Schneider, Professor Emeritus, Graduate
Center CUNY
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