Political anthropology: the theoretical legacy of a science of the political

Abstract

Political Anthropology emerged as a sub-discipline within Social Anthropology in the 1940s. Three quarters of a century later, it has become a very fruitful theoretical and research field. This work has two principal goals. Firstly, a precise characterization of the discipline is developed, highlighting its main features, most relevant issues and most outstanding contributions. Secondly, chronologically, the most important theoretical currents are described from their origins to the present: evolutionists, structural-functionalists, processors, contemporary critical trends, etc. The text ends with a series of challenges that the discipline has ahead.