This treatise is one of the first systematic presentations of the entire field of law and anthropology in its second supplemented edition. The book combines cultural with behavioral and theoretical with practical ‘applied’ approaches. It also introduces into history and literature of cultural anthropology focusing on law with occasional forays into economy, political science, and religion.

Content Survey:

• Part One: Anthropology of law in general Ch. 1: Anthropology of law as a science Ch. 2: History, schools, and names Ch. 3: Concepts Ch. 4: Social norms Ch. 5: Theories of culture and cultures Ch. 6: Analyses in cultural anthropology Ch. 7: Biological anthropology in its relation to the anthropology of law
• Part Two: The sub-disciplines of anthropology of law Ch. 8: Kinship patterns. Other anthropological aspects of family and gender Ch. 9: Societal order, personhood, and human rights Ch. 10: Reciprocity, exchange, gifts, contracting, trust Ch. 11: Possession, ownership, probate; market and non-market economies; antitrust; cultural property and heritage of mankind Ch. 12: Torts, crimes, sanctions. Witchcraft and related issues Ch. 13: Jurisdiction. Procedure and dispute settlement. Conflicts of law
• Part Three: The legal anthropology of ethnic groups, and applied anthropology of law Ch. 14: Native American law Ch. 15: Other ethnic groups. The international law of indigenous peoples. Global human rights Ch. 16. Applied anthropology of law

Wolfgang Fikentscher (1928 – 2015) was professor of law at the University of Munich, External Scientific Member of the MPI for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law, Fellow of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Chair of the Academy’s Committee for Cultural Anthropological Studies. He was a prolific writer in the fields of pomparative law, IP, ethnology and anthropology.