Robert Aunger is a lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was previously an affiliate lecturer in Biological Anthropology at Cambridge University. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has conducted ethnographic research in central Africa. He is the editor of Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science (Oxford University Press, 2001) and author of the The Electric Meme (The Free Press, 2002).

This is an important book that questions the adequacy of current practices in ethnographic methodology with the goal of rescuing scientific cultural anthropology, both from challenges of the textualists and from the discipline's own methodological inadequacies. The author develops a thorough critique of cultural consensus analysis, one of the newer methodological approaches widely adopted by scientific cultural anthropologists. He develops the outlines of reflexive realism, drawing upon a case study of food taboos among populations in the Ituri Forest.

• Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 1: A Crisis of Confidence Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Increasing the Reliability of Representations Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Ethnographic Variation in Practice Chapter 5 Chapter 4: The Wrong Way Out: Typology and Idealism Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Reflexive Analysis: A New Way of Doing Ethnography Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Reliability of Reflexive Analysis Chapter 8 Chapter 7: The "Strength of Belief" Chapter 9 Chapter 8: Toward a Reflexive Ethnographic Science

Robert Aunger is a lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was previously an affiliate lecturer in Biological Anthropology at Cambridge University. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has conducted ethnographic research in central Africa. He is the editor of Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science (Oxford University Press, 2001) and author of the The Electric Meme (The Free Press, 2002).

This is an important book that questions the adequacy of current practices in ethnographic methodology with the goal of rescuing scientific cultural anthropology, both from challenges of the textualists and from the discipline's own methodological inadequacies. The author develops a thorough critique of cultural consensus analysis, one of the newer methodological approaches widely adopted by scientific cultural anthropologists. He develops the outlines of reflexive realism, drawing upon a case study of food taboos among populations in the Ituri Forest.

• Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 1: A Crisis of Confidence Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Increasing the Reliability of Representations Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Ethnographic Variation in Practice Chapter 5 Chapter 4: The Wrong Way Out: Typology and Idealism Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Reflexive Analysis: A New Way of Doing Ethnography Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Reliability of Reflexive Analysis Chapter 8 Chapter 7: The "Strength of Belief" Chapter 9 Chapter 8: Toward a Reflexive Ethnographic Science

Robert Aunger is a lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was previously an affiliate lecturer in Biological Anthropology at Cambridge University. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has conducted ethnographic research in central Africa. He is the editor of Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science (Oxford University Press, 2001) and author of the The Electric Meme (The Free Press, 2002).

This is an important book that questions the adequacy of current practices in ethnographic methodology with the goal of rescuing scientific cultural anthropology, both from challenges of the textualists and from the discipline's own methodological inadequacies. The author develops a thorough critique of cultural consensus analysis, one of the newer methodological approaches widely adopted by scientific cultural anthropologists. He develops the outlines of reflexive realism, drawing upon a case study of food taboos among populations in the Ituri Forest.

• Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 1: A Crisis of Confidence Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Increasing the Reliability of Representations Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Ethnographic Variation in Practice Chapter 5 Chapter 4: The Wrong Way Out: Typology and Idealism Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Reflexive Analysis: A New Way of Doing Ethnography Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The Reliability of Reflexive Analysis Chapter 8 Chapter 7: The "Strength of Belief" Chapter 9 Chapter 8: Toward a Reflexive Ethnographic Science