The Domestication of the Savage Mind (Themes in the Social Sciences)

Rating:
Summary: A Mind Opening Book
Review: I ran across this title in the bibliography of Jean Bottero's book on Mesopotamia, and am I glad I did. It's short, readable and incisive. In pursuit of the main subject, how literacy alters culture and consciousness, Mr. Goody takes us through a sharp critique of anthropological theory and literature, particularly dualist reductions in classification. Then he examines modern transitions from oral to literate culture in West Africa, and most interesting to me, brings us back to the birth of writing and classification in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Some trip! This book is not just for social science grad students.

Rating:
Summary: A Mind Opening Book
Review: I ran across this title in the bibliography of Jean Bottero's book on Mesopotamia, and am I glad I did. It's short, readable and incisive. In pursuit of the main subject, how literacy alters culture and consciousness, Mr. Goody takes us through a sharp critique of anthropological theory and literature, particularly dualist reductions in classification. Then he examines modern transitions from oral to literate culture in West Africa, and most interesting to me, brings us back to the birth of writing and classification in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Some trip! This book is not just for social science grad students.