The Science of Culture: A Study of Man and Civilization

by Leslie White

Leslie White was one of the most important and controversial figures in American anthropology. This classic work, initially published in 1949, contains White's definitive statement on what he termed "culturology." In his new prologue to this reprint of the second edition, Robert Carneiro outlines the key events in White's life and career, especially his championing of cultural evolutionism and cultural materialism.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology, Science

Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Leslie Alvin White was an American anthropologist known for his advocacy of theories of cultural evolution, sociocultural evolution, and especially neoevolutionism, and for his role in creating the department of anthropology at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. He was president of the American Anthropological Association (1964).

Reviews

[Honey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazingly insightfull- wait-thats cliche'. It gets pretty epistemilogical about doing anthropology, and sees Anthropology as a verb, not a noun "science is scienceing".
Sometimes i think some ideas are unformed, but those do not detract from the concepts that White finds important, like the idea that culture and cultural phenomena can never be EXPLAINED in terms of psychology, oly DESCRIBED in terms of psychology. This book gives what many have promised and failed to deliver. Modern in the post modern sense.