---
title: Anthropological Theory
description: This subject traces the intellectual history and theoretical frameworks used to analyze human cultures, societies, and behaviors. Learners will understand key schools of thought, from cultural evolutionism to post-structuralism, and how anthropologists interpret human diversity and social structures.
category: humanities
subcategory: anthropology
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/anthropological-theory
---

# Anthropological Theory

This subject traces the intellectual history and theoretical frameworks used to analyze human cultures, societies, and behaviors. Learners will understand key schools of thought, from cultural evolutionism to post-structuralism, and how anthropologists interpret human diversity and social structures.

## Available Resources

4 Books • 2 Websites

## Books

### 1. Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (8th ed.)

**Author:** R. Jon McGee, Richard L. Warms

Anthology of foundational theory essays, mostly unabridged, from Spencer, Tylor, Morgan, Durkheim and Boas through Lévi-Strauss, Geertz, Ortner and recent work. Primary-source companion to the narrative histories: the original arguments with expert notes. Editors add section introductions and explanatory footnotes; the 2025 edition adds decolonization sections.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1538183919?tag=edmonddante07-20

### 2. A History of Anthropology (2nd ed., open access)

**Author:** Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Finn Sivert Nielsen

Intellectual history of anthropology from Enlightenment, Romantic and Victorian precursors through Boas, Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown to functionalism, structuralism, hermeneutics, neo-Marxism and discourse analysis. Ties schools to their national/institutional contexts that US-centred texts underplay. The full text is a free PDF under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/45623

### 3. Gods of the Upper Air

**Author:** Charles King

Group biography of Franz Boas and his students Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ella Deloria. Explains how their fieldwork established cultural relativism and dismantled scientific racism, giving readers the intellectual origins of modern cultural anthropology.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525432329?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** history-of-anthropology, franz-boas, cultural-relativism, margaret-mead, scientific-racism

### 4. Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology

**Author:** David Graeber

A short essay by anthropologist David Graeber arguing that anthropology's ethnographic record of stateless societies offers resources for anarchist theory, and sketching what a non-vanguardist anarchist social science might look like. Readers gain a provocative perspective on power, states, and anthropological method.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0972819649?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, anthropology

## Websites

### 1. Anthropological Theories: A Guide Prepared by Students for Students

**Author:** Michael D. Murphy (ed.) and University of Alabama graduate students

University of Alabama reference guide with 16 entries on theoretical schools, from social evolutionism and functionalism to structuralism, Marxist, feminist and interpretive anthropology and postmodernism. Each entry covers key figures, core principles, critiques and further reading.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://anthropology.ua.edu/anthropological-theories/

### 2. culanth.org

Cultural Anthropology (culanth.org) is the official site of the scholarly journal Cultural Anthropology, a leading venue for anthropological theory and ethnography. It offers peer‑reviewed articles, essays and features on theory and method, book reviews, and blog posts and news related to contemporary cultural anthropology.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://culanth.org

**Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, anthropology

---

*This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge*

*Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).*

View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/anthropological-theory