ABSTRACT
The pivotal value of this book is its synthesis of materials on ethical beliefs in preliterate cultures. The anthropologist, in comparison to the sociologist, tends to be empirical rather than empiricist, concerned rather than detached, and full-blooded in his reportage rather than vaguely rationalistic. The anthropologist tends to point out things that need doing, while the sociologist too often ends with a plea for more research of more data. The monograph written by Ernest Becker goes further along an interdisciplinary path than most books attempting to correlate anthropological with psychiatric information. Becker's book is unique in its steadfast refusal to take either the going shibboleths of Freudianism as divine law, or legalistic definitions of mental illness as sociologically meaningful. There is another side to the matter, one not so pleasant to anthropological sensitivities. In comparison to sociology, anthropology is still in a stage of theoretical confusion and methodological underdevelopment.
