ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by outlining the differences between anthropology and history before going on to explore the considerable areas of common ground between the two disciplines. The use of ritual in historical studies influenced a whole generation of historiography, especially apparent since the 1960s. In the twentieth century, the relationship between history and anthropology fluctuated and was dependent on developments in each discipline. The chapter looks at how theories like functionalism and structuralism, so influential in anthropology, were understood by major historians such as Alan Macfarlane, Keith Thomas and Natalie Zemon Davis. Anthropologists are also deeply interested in myth and mythology; in many respects the interpretation of myth as a cultural artefact is fundamentally what anthropology is about. The chapter examines the rich and fascinating universe of history and mythology within the framework of anthropology. Anthropology has opened an interest within history with the whole question of myth.
