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Social Anthropology and Social Science History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

David I. Kertzer
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Abstract

In the 1970s, when the social science history movement emerged in the United States, leading to the founding of the Social Science History Association, a simultaneous movement arose in which historians looked to cultural anthropology for inspiration. Although both movements involved historians turning to social sciences for theory and method, they reflected very different views of the nature of the historical enterprise. Cultural anthropology, most notably as preached by Clifford Geertz, became a means by which historians could find a theoretical basis in the social sciences for rejecting a scientific paradigm. This article examines this development while also exploring the complex ways cultural anthropology has embraced—and shunned—history in recent years.

Type
Presidential Address
Information
Social Science History , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , Spring 2009 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2009 

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