African Anthropology

Primary ethnographic research is the foundation for theoretical advance and comparative understanding in anthropology. This remains true today, despite challenges from recent refinements of self-critical awareness in the social sciences. African Anthropology offers original, in-depth, field-based studies from across the African continent, combining factual description with interpretation and reaffirming the continuing relevance of ethnography to the development of theory in social and cultural anthropology. Most titles are single-authored, but edited collections on well-defined topics or regions, with a clear foundation on field-based research, may be considered. The series offers:

  • Studies set firmly in specific places, times and communities
  • Explorations of the circumstances in which patterns of cultural life, social relations and human experience are formed and transformed
  • Historical, regional and comparative dimensions in the interpretation of local phenomena
  • Investigative research adding ethnographic depth to debates on pressing global issues
  • An antidote to relativism, subjectivism and the treatment of ‘cultures’ in isolation

Proposals may be sent directly to:

Jaqueline Mitchell
Commissioning Editor
James Currey
[email protected]

See all of our African Anthropology titles