Goody, Jack

The power of the written tradition by Jack Goody ( Book )
10 editions published between 2000 and 2007 in English and French and held by 1,225 libraries worldwide

The development of the family and marriage in Europe by Jack Goody ( Book )
25 editions published between 1983 and 1999 in 4 languages and held by 979 libraries worldwide

Family and inheritance : rural society in Western Europe, 1200-1800 ( Book )
14 editions published between 1976 and 1979 in English and held by 969 libraries worldwide
This pioneering book examines different aspects of the inheritance customs in rural Western Europe in the pre-industrial age: for families and whole societies, the roles of lawyers in reducing them to a common system, and the recurring debate on the merits of various inheritance customs in shaping particular kinds of society. At first sight the study of inheritance customs may appear to be a dull affair, concerned with outdated practices of hair-splitting lawyers; certainly, little academic interest has been shown in the subject. Yet inheritance customs are vital means for the reproduction of the social system, by the transmission of property and other rights through the family. Various family structures and social arrangements are linked by different means of inheritance. This book will interest a wide range of historians, students, postgraduates and teachers alike, whether they are concerned with social, economic, demographic or legal history, in the medieval, early modern or modern periods, and whether their interests are directed to England or other countries of Western Europe; it will also be valuable to social anthropologists, sociologists and historians of ideas. A comprehensive glossary of technical terms has been added for the non-specialist.

The Character of kinship ( Book )
16 editions published between 1973 and 1979 in English and Undetermined and held by 887 libraries worldwide

The culture of flowers by Jack Goody ( Book )
14 editions published between 1992 and 2010 in 3 languages and held by 871 libraries worldwide
"Jack Goody's new book takes as its theme the symbolic and transactional uses of flowers. He begins his study by asking why there are so few uses of flowers in Africa, either domesticated or wild, either in reality or in representation, and goes on to initiate a world-wide enquiry into the place of flowers in secular life and religious ritual from ancient Egypt to modern times. He links the use of flowers to the rise of advanced systems of agriculture, the growth of social stratification and the spread of luxury goods, looking at the history of aesthetic horticulture in Europe and Asia. Other themes that emerge are the role of written texts in building up a culture of flowers; the importance of trade and communications in disseminating and transforming attitudes to flowers; the rejection on puritanical grounds of flowers and their artistic representation; and the multiplicity of meanings which flowers possess." "A particular feature of the book is its analysis of the role of flowers in the Far East and of the aesthetic and political implications of flowers in China during the cultural revolution. The conclusion returns to earlier themes of long-term developments in cultural history, treating uses of flowers in the context of theology and ideology as well as of processes of production and systems of 'class'." "Written from a broad temporal and geographical perspective, this wide-ranging book will appeal not only to anthropologists and social historians but also to anyone interested in flowers and their symbolic function across the centuries."--Jacket.

The interface between the written and the oral by Jack Goody ( Book )
25 editions published between 1987 and 1999 in English and French and held by 814 libraries worldwide
Whilst the fundamental significance of the spoken language for human interaction is widely acknowledged, that of writing is less well known, and in this wide-ranging series of essays Jack Goody examines in depth the complex and often confused relationship between oral and literate modes of communication. He considers the interface between the written and the oral in three cultures or societies with and without writing, and that within the linguistic life of an individual. Specific analyses of the sequence of historical change within writing systems, the historic impact of writing upon Eurasian cultures, and the interaction between distinct oral and literate cultures in West Africa, precede an extensive concluding examination of contemporary issues in the investigation, whether sociological or psychological, of literacy. A substantial corpus of anthropological, historical and linguistic evidence is produced in support of Goody's findings, which form a natural complement to his own recently published study of The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. -- Back cover.

The domestication of the savage mind by Jack Goody ( Book )
31 editions published between 1977 and 2000 in English and French and held by 806 libraries worldwide

The logic of writing and the organization of society by Jack Goody ( Book )
30 editions published between 1986 and 2001 in 4 languages and held by 804 libraries worldwide
Author is particularly concerned with ancient Near East and contemporary West Africa.

The theft of history by Jack Goody ( Book )
17 editions published between 2006 and 2010 in 3 languages and held by 799 libraries worldwide
Professor Jack Goody builds on his own previous work to extend further his highly influential critique of what he sees as the pervasive eurocentric or occidentalist biases of so much western historical writing. Goody also examines the consequent 'theft' by the West of the achievements of other cultures in the invention of (notably) democracy, capitalism, individualism, and love. The Theft of History discusses a number of theorists in detail, including Marx, Weber and Norbert Elias, and engages with critical admiration western historians like Fernand Braudel, Moses Finlay and Perry Anderson. Major questions of method are raised, and Goody proposes a new comparative methodology for cross-cultural analysis, one that gives a much more sophisticated basis for assessing divergent historical outcomes, and replaces outmoded simple differences between East and West. The Theft of History will be read by an unusually wide audience of historians, anthropologists and social theorists. -- Publisher description from http://www.cambridge.org (Oct. 18, 2011).

The oriental, the ancient, and the primitive : systems of marriage and the family in the pre-industrial societies of Eurasia by Jack Goody ( Book )
9 editions published between 1989 and 2003 in English and held by 730 libraries worldwide
In The Oriental, the Ancient and the Primitive one of the world's most foremost anthropologists looks in depth at kinship practice in Asia, and continues the comparative survey of pre-industrial family formation undertaken in The Development of Family and Marriage in Europe (1983) and elsewhere. Professor Goody's findings cause him to question many traditional assumptions about the 'primitive' east, and he suggests that, in contrast to pre-colonial Africa, kinship practice in Asia has much in common with that prevailing in parts of pre-industrial Europe. Goody examines the transmission of productive and other property in relation both to the prevailing political economy and to family and ideological structures, and then explores the distribution of mechanisms and strategies of management across cultures. He concludes that notions of western 'uniqueness' are often misplaced, and that much previous work on Asian kinship has been unwittingly distorted by the application of concepts and approaches derived from other, inappropriate, social formations, simple or post-industrial. -- Back cover.