Beyond Relativism

Reviews / Votes

Hunt's book should be read by all anthropologists and other researchers using cross-cultural data. He side-steps phony debates, discarding the "essentialist" rhetoric ("East vs. West," "indigenous vs. foreign,"etc.) that is so precious to poseurs in both academic and political milieus. He uses clear examples to explain how the natural sciences have been constructed step by step, century by century. He shows how this construction, of necessity, requires that we compare apples and oranges - that is, objects (and events) which are both similar and dissimilar in important ways. He demonstrates how the social sciences have necessarily followed the same path and have approached, to varying degrees in different domains, the construction of valid and comparative analytic frameworks. This book is particularly appropriate for intermediate and advanced classes on "methods" (meaning, in fact, on research design). -- Donald Attwood, McGill University One of the main arguments for the contention that a scientific cultural anthropology is not possible is that cultures are incommensurable. In this impressive volume Robert Hunt convincingly argues that cultures are not incommensurable, and he explicates amethod by which valid cultural comparison can be and has been achieved. On both accounts he has clearly demonstrated that if a scientific cultural anthropology is not possible, it cannot be because of cultural incommensurability.... -- Melford Spiro Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. * Choice Reviews * Robert Hunt's Beyond Relativism addresses an issue of extreme importance to all of the sciences - How do we compare widely divergent theories and paradigms? Hunt paves the way for researchers to render seemingly incommensurable theories into comparable theories that can be evaluated. Hunt's hopeful book should be required reading for anyone interested in advancing science instead of simply rehashing old debates. -- Lawrence A. Kuznar, Indiana University - Purdue University, Fort Wayne One of the main arguments for the contention that a scientific cultural anthropology is not possible is that cultures are incommensurable. In this impressive volume Robert Hunt convincingly argues that cultures are not incommensurable, and he explicates a method by which valid cultural comparison can be and has been achieved. On both accounts he has clearly
demonstrated that if a scientific cultural anthropology is not possible, it cannot be because of cultural incommensurability. -- Melford Spiro The book is clearly written, and chapters go through a variety of arguments intended to clarify Hunt's main points. * Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute *