Matei Candea is a Lecturer in the Division of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is a fellow of King's College, and Director of Studies for the college.

Each chapter in this textbook has been written to provide a thorough yet engaging introduction to one particular theoretical school and style. Beginning with an introduction which reflects on the substantive themes which tie the chapters together, the book ends with an afterword by Marilyn Strathern reflecting on broader themes in the use of history and anthropological concepts. Presenting a detailed and comprehensive critical introduction to the most salient areas of the field, this book is essential reading for all undergraduate students undertaking a course on anthropological theory or the history of anthropological thought.

Introduction: Echoes of a conversation 1. Severed roots: Evolutionism, Diffusionism and (structural-)functionalism 2. Structuralism 3. Marxism and Neo-Marxism 4. From Transactionalism to Practice Theory 5. Anthropology and History 6. From the Extended-Case Method to Multi-Sited Ethnography (and Back) 7. Cognitive anthropology as epistemological critique 8. Interpretive Cultural Anthropology: Geertz and his 'Writing-Culture' Critics 9. The Frankfurt School, Critical Theory and Anthropology 10. The Anthropological Lives of Michel Foucault 11. From 'the body' to 'embodiment', with help from phenomenology 12. Feminist Anthropology and the Question of Gender 13. No actor, no network, no theory: Bruno Latour's Anthropology of the Moderns 14. The Ontological Turn: School or Style? 15. Persons and partible persons Marilyn Strathern