Apprenticeship
From Theory to Method and Back Again
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Description
This book examines the phenomenon of apprenticeship by exploring it as a social, economic, and educational institution. Studies of apprenticeship in both craft occupations and supernatural specializations in Africa, Latin America, North America, and Asia are offered. The authors also look at apprenticeship as a method in anthropological field research. Many of the contributors have apprenticed themselves in other-cultural settings, providing a unique marriage of subject and method in cross-cultural research. Esther N. Goody provides a summary look at learning, apprenticeship and the division of labor.
Michael W. Coy is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Reviews
"This is an innovative, exciting book. I know of no other in the anthropological literature which takes a methodology as its focus, explores the nuances of its application, and discusses the theoretical implications of that application. This is even more striking since the method in question, apprenticeship, is necessarily a qualitative and individual endeavor. " — Charles M. Keller, University of Illinois
"It opens up systematic research and analysis on a new and important topic within anthropology. Apprenticeship has a superficial literature in certain other fields (history, education), but in anthropology it has received only scattered attention until now. With this major volume, the new area will be established as a subfield for continuing and more sophisticated study. The book shows that interesting empirical studies can be done of specific apprenticeship systems. " — John D. Herzog, Northeastern University