Originally published in 1975, this was the first empirical study to investigate the nature of the links between family size and the social and economic condition of those in lower social classes.  Meer

Now reissued in paperback with a new preface. The Highlands societies of Papua New Guinea, which have been studied intensively by numerous anthropologists since the 1950s, have been widely described as egalitarian and as characterised by achieved leadership.  Meer

These essays, by anthropologists and anthropological linguists, draw on material from speech communities in three continents to raise fundamental questions about the ways in which interrogative and politeness forms are used in day-to-day social interaction.  Meer

The essays in this volume focus on two themes: the centrality of the production of and trade in cloth in the emergence of market activity; and the nature of the industrialization process.  Meer

Following the publication of the book by E. R. Leach, ed., Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon and North-West Pakistan (1960), much additional information was gathered on caste hierarchies in South Asia, and two major attempts were made to identify the underlying unity of this material - a structuralist one by Louis Dumont and a ethnosocialogical one by McKim Marriott et al.  Meer

Continuing a policy of devoting a whole issue to a single topic, the third volume of the series deals with aspects of marriage in tribal societies. Three papers by Esther Goody, Grace Harris and Jean La Fontaine give accounts of observations in African tribal societies; the fourth, by Marguerite Robinson, is a reassessment of Malinowski's data on the Trobrian islanders.  Meer

When this book was originally published in paperback in 1971, one of the most hotly debated themes in Indian sociology was the meaning of the term caste.  Meer

This is a 1972 study of the ways in which workers, both men and women with a whole range of ages and family circumstances, relate and adapt to their work situation.  Meer

Bridewealth and dowry have certain obvious similarities in that they both involve the transmission of property at marriage, the usual interpretation suggesting that what distinguishes them is the direction in which the property travels - in the case of bridewealth, from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin, and in the case of dowry, vice versa.  Meer

This book is concerned with the relationship between a man's work and his leisure time, in its broadest sense. At the opposite extreme to the 'instrumental' attitude, where the worker keeps his work and leisure time completely separate, is the close involvement in work and the correspondingly close relationship between working and non-working identities characteristic of 'occupational communities'.  Meer

Positions of authority in any society are limited in number, and therefore rules of selection must operate in their recruitment. There must also be limitations upon the range of authority exercised.  Meer

A collection of seven papers by social anthropologists on the processes of decision-making in councils. Types of council described are one community-in-council, two arena councils, an elite council, two modern local government councils and a non-council, a temporary negotiating group which nevertheless displays certain features of the council proper.  Meer

Social scientists, when making their studies of the structure of family groups, have often observed the current situation of a particular group of families and drawn conclusions from that static picture.  Meer

First published in 1922, this volume aimed to contribute to our understanding of the complexities which shape attitudes and behaviour at work. Based on material obtained from a survey of workers employed by a single firm - who operate production systems as widely as different as continuous-flow chemical production and yarn spinning - this book highlights features of the production system which are crucial in influencing attitudes and behaviour within the work setting.  Meer

This book, originally published in 1970, dealt with differences in the structure of large - and small - scale industrial organizations and the consequences of these differences for worker behaviour.  Meer