Best of Anthropology Today

The journal "Anthropology Today" has been and remains extremely influential in anthropological studies. Between 1974 and 2000 it was in the thick of a turbulent period for anthropology. Its articles have not just reacted to current research interests but also launched (often heated) debates while setting the agenda for disciplinary change and new research. Once described by the American Anthropological Association as creating "a strong voice for anthropology in the public arena", the founder editor, Jonathan Benthall, introduces a personal selection of articles and letters with his own candid retrospect, arguing that the discipline's greatest strength and potential lies in testing and refining the ideas of other disciplines An array of topics are covered from both well established anthropologists and young scholars, including: feminine power; indigene's rights; fieldwork as intervention; anthropology and the mass media; and war and civil strife. Among the many highlights are a remarkable exchange from the mid-1970s between a young graduate student, Glynn Flood, undertaking fieldwork in Ethiopia and an expert on development in Africa, A.F. Robertson. Shortly after its publication,

'These forty-nine papers, spanning 25 years, are collected under the title The Best of Anthropology Today and make genuinely interesting reading, both on the diversity of studies and for the historical shifts of interest that the discipline makes.' - Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

Jonathan Benthall was Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1974-2000) and Founder Editor of Anthropology Today which succeeded RAINews (1974-84). In 1983 he was awarded the Anthropology in Media Award by the American Anthropological Association.