Alternative histories of British social anthropology

Thinking about the future, we are obliged to rethink conventional accounts of our history. Alternative histories challenge received ideas about the development of British social anthropology. Some have put in question the precise nature of the Malinowskian revolution. Others reopen debates about the relationship between anthropology and colonialism (or, more broadly, about the relevance of social anthropology to policy questions). And the oral tradition insistently reminds us that private histories may undermine what we think we know about the great figures of the past. As we consider the prospects for European social anthropology, other questions impose themselves. One has to do with the institutional rivalries between social anthropology and sociology, and between social anthropology conceived of as a social science and the cultural anthropology dominant in the United States.