ABSTRACT
A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory has a far higher percentage of entries devoted to individual authors than does The Dictionary of Anthropology, an indicator of the relative importance to each of writing and pure theory versus the study of the diversity and commonality of human behavior. Thomas C. Greaves, one of the very few anthropologists among the 116 contributors to the Payne volume, concludes his article on cultural anthropology with the brave statement, "Culture remains arguably the most important aspect for people to know more about. Barfield's bibliography is about as barren of cultural and critical theory as Payne's is of anthropology. The Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology is a very different sort of work from either of the dictionaries, but its 1,100+ pages also demonstrate how much one can write about the current status of anthropological thought and knowledge without drawing upon cultural studies and the "posts."
