Beyond anthropology : society and the other

Includes index and Bibliography.

1. The other in the Renaissance 2. The other in the Enlightenment 3. The other in the Nineteenth century

This study analyzes the manner in which the perception of human difference has changed from the time of the Renaissance to the 20th century. Building on the insights of Foucault and Garfinkel, it charts how humanity has become contained within the anthropological concept of the "Other." An inquiry into the history of the different conceptions of difference in the West from the sixteenth to early twentieth century. It shows how the concept of the Other was formed through the scope of Christianity during the Renaissance, through the dichotomy of knowledge and ignorance during the Enlightenment, through a concept of civilization evolving from primitive to modern in the nineteenth century, and through differences in culture in the twentieth century.