Man in society : patterns of human organisation / edited by Mary Douglas

The authors examine society systematically in its different aspects, not through an alphabetic arrangement of subjects. Yet for the reader who wants a useful reference text, there is a detailed index and a glossary, as well as an extensive reading list.
The science of society is not only a relatively new discipline, but a composite of several older ones. A social scientist must read and sort, for example, the literature of tools: technology; the literature of our species: anthropology; relics of the past uncovered by spade and trowel: archaeology; the nature of inheritance: genetics; the science of the human mind: psychology. A wise social
scientist will not only explore these fields of knowledge, but also probe into the literature of biology, geography, history, politics, economics, theology, and education; he is likely to find, too, that his work demands that he should be a philosopher and a critic of art and literature.