Skip to content
Scan a barcode
Scan
Added to your cart
Hardcover Sick Societies Book

ISBN: 0029089255

ISBN13: 9780029089255

Sick Societies

Author and scholar Robert Edgerton challenges the notion that primitive societies were happy and healthy before they were corrupted and oppressed by colonialism. He surveys a range of ethnographic writings, and shows that many of these so-called innocent societies were cruel, confused, and misled.

Recommended

Format: Hardcover

Temporarily Unavailable

We receive fewer than 1 copy every 6 months.

You Might Also Enjoy

Anxious Pleasures: The Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People
Anxious Pleasures: The Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People
Thomas Gregor

from: $5.99

Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military
Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $7.69

The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)
The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)
Gilbert Herdt

from: $6.69

The Gebusi: Lives Transformed in a Rainforest World
The Gebusi: Lives Transformed in a Rainforest World
Bruce M. Knauft

from: $3.89

Yanomamö: The Last Days of Eden
Yanomamö: The Last Days of Eden
Napoleon A. Chagnon, Gary Seaman

from: $3.59

Hidden Heroism: Black Soldiers in America's Wars
Hidden Heroism: Black Soldiers in America's Wars
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $5.09

Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia, 1860-1900
Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia, 1860-1900
Roger Lane

from: $5.69

Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage
Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage
Steven Le Blanc, Katherine E. Register, Steven A. LeBlanc

from: $13.39

Mau Mau
Mau Mau
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $7.79

War! What Is It Good For?: Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots
War! What Is It Good For?: Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots
Ian Morris

from: $6.59

A Savage Order: How Societies Recover from Oppression and Violence
A Savage Order: How Societies Recover from Oppression and Violence
Rachel Kleinfeld

from: $5.69

Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest
Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest
Steven A. LeBlanc

from: $33.09

Believers: Faith in Human Nature
Believers: Faith in Human Nature
Melvin Konner, Melvin Konner MD

from: $4.79

Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior
Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior
Christopher Boehm

from: $54.69

Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them
Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them
John E. Mueller

from: $5.89

Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda
Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda
John E. Mueller

from: $5.59

Like Lions They Fought: The Zulu War and the Last Black Empire in South Africa
Like Lions They Fought: The Zulu War and the Last Black Empire in South Africa
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $5.39

Mental Retardation
Mental Retardation
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War
Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

More by Robert B. Edgerton
Hidden Heroism: Black Soldiers in America's Wars
Hidden Heroism: Black Soldiers in America's Wars
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $5.09

Mau Mau
Mau Mau
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $7.79

Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military
Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $7.69

Like Lions They Fought: The Zulu War and the Last Black Empire in South Africa
Like Lions They Fought: The Zulu War and the Last Black Empire in South Africa
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $5.39

Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast
Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $14.99

Death or Glory: The Legacy of the Crimean War
Death or Glory: The Legacy of the Crimean War
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $6.99

The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo
The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo
Robert Edgerton, Robert B. Edgerton

from: $9.99

The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded
The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $9.09

Africa's Armies: From Honor to Infamy
Africa's Armies: From Honor to Infamy
Robert B., Edgerton, Robert B. Edgerton

from: $6.79

Deviance, a Cross-Cultural Perspective (Cummings Modular Program in Anthropology)
Deviance, a Cross-Cultural Perspective (Cummings Modular Program in Anthropology)
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $12.29

The Worldwide Practice of Torture: A Preliminary Report
The Worldwide Practice of Torture: A Preliminary Report
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $62.85

Alone Together
Alone Together
Robert B. Edgerton, Edgerton

from: $48.97

Rules, Exceptions and Social Order
Rules, Exceptions and Social Order
Robert B. Edgerton

from: $9.29

Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War
Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

Mental Retardation
Mental Retardation
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

Alone Together: Social Order on an Urban Beach
Alone Together: Social Order on an Urban Beach
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

The Balance of Human Kindness and Cruelty: Why We Are the Way We Are
The Balance of Human Kindness and Cruelty: Why We Are the Way We Are
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

Lives in Process: Mildly Retarded Adults in a Large City (Monographs of the American Association on Mental Retardation)
Lives in Process: Mildly Retarded Adults in a Large City (Monographs of the American Association on Mental Retardation)
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

I'Ve Seen It All!: Lives of Older Persons With Mental Retardation in the Community
I'Ve Seen It All!: Lives of Older Persons With Mental Retardation in the Community
Robert B. Edgerton

Out of Stock

Customer Reviews

0 customer rating | 0 review

Rated 5 stars
One of my favorite books

I first read this book while sitting in a library at Eastern Montana College in 1993. I could not put it down. A few years later I checked it out from a library on the east coast and read it again. Same story. Then this past year I once again checked it out from a library in Las Vegas and read it from cover to cover for the third time. Highly releveant to a lot of socal and historical discussions. Well written. The...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
Anthropology Redeemed

Anthropologists don't get any academic accolades for identifying a behavior or custom as maladaptive; Rather they feel compelled to demonstrate they have shed their own ethnocentrism by going through empirical and interpretive contortions to define virtually all primitive conduct, regardless of how perverse it is, as adaptive. UCLA Professor of Anthropology and Psychology, Robert Edgerton understands this, and courageously...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
The Fall of Cultural Relativism

This is unquestionably one of the most important works in anthropological theory in the last half of the 20th century. Edgerton's Sick Societies forces us to question the basic assumptions of cultural relativism that have dominated anthropological thinking for most of the 20th century. The Star Trek prime directive not to interfere in the cultural evolution of a society, and the anthropological assumption that societies...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
Sorry Things Go Wrong All Over

Robert Edgerton had obviously been keeping notes for decades on something that was bugging him about the state of academic anthropology. Namely, he was annoyed by the idea that some societies are primitive and idyllic, and that technologically advanced societies are the bad guys of the planet. Certainly, Edgerton admits that modern societies have problems. The only thing that allows us to think that things used to be better...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
One of the most intelectualy stimulating reads.

Every now and then I venture outside my chosen field (systems engineering) and hike into the forest of "New Possibilities" by going into a section of the book store I wouldn't usually go into. While "Sick Societies" was not my first introduction to anthropology, it was my most exciting by far. Although Mr. Edgerton is overly defensive of his stance, he has excelent arguments for abolishing the "total non-interference"...

0Report

Copyright © 2024 Thriftbooks.com Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks® and the ThriftBooks® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
GoDaddy Verified and Secured