ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the variety of questions anthropologists ask, the broad range of analytical concepts they find useful to answer them, and therefore the immense difficulty faced by any would-be global concept. It explores the significance, to some anthropologists, of research questions about shared social patterns and continuities in pattern over time. The book considers the need for a concept of culture to emerge directly from patterns in material objects. It illustrates how anthropological questions can be asked successfully without using the culture concept at all. The book shows how anthropology can study the politics of culture and cultural nationalisms. It describes concepts of culture that work for the questions about humankind they wish to answer, although the concepts they employ vary.
