British Subjects

'With the publication of "British Subjects" the recent work which has been done on the Anthropology of Britain will at last receive the recognition it has long deserved. Nigel Rapport has brought together a number of eminent scholars who have already made substantial contributions to our anthropological understanding of contemporary British society. In specially written chapters deriving directly from their fieldwork they demonstrate how anthropological research can throw light not only on small communities and interest groups, but on institutions such as primary education and professional performing companies, as well as on cultural domains such as the nature of social knowledge and the pursuit of leisure and entertainment. Those who associate anthropology only with an interest in simple societies in remote corners of the globe are in for a pleasant intellectual surprise. Those who have long been aware that anthropology is as much interested in "us" as in "them" will find welcome confirmation of the discipline's capacity to make us radically reconsider what we thought were familiar aspects of our everyday lives.' C.W. Watson, University of Kent at Canterbury, author of "Multiculturalism". 'British Subjects certainly justifies Britain as an anthropological subject.' Times Literary Supplement 'A first-rate collection that celebrates 'sameness in diversity'.' The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 'This book will be a landmark in the history of the discipline. It is formidable in a host of ways: in the range of scale and approaches, in the subtlety and richness of its observations, in the issues it develops and by its critical acuity with regard, for example, to the selective tendencies of certain anthropolgists in their study of minorities.' L'Homme