Last term some students complained that Evans-Pritchard’s classic “Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande” (1937) was no more to be found in our library. All the copies we held on stock apparently have been stolen. Which is a shame. Furthermore the students informed me that the German version of the book is out of print for several years already. A shame all the more. Those dreaded copyright restrictions—at least the classical texts of anthropology, indispensable for coursework, should be available online. In the case of the German version of Evans-Pritchard’s above mentioned book the situation is a little ridiculous: What sense does it make for a publisher to sit on the copyright but not to reprint the book? Especially if it’s a book where demand for it definitely exists. Anyway, speaking of indispensable anthro-reading, Kerim’s recent post
↑Anthro Classics Online: Geertz’s Notes on the Balinese Cockfight at
↑Savage Minds reminded me of
↑HyperGeertz—Nooped already had pointed me to it ages ago, but somehow I forgot to post about it. HyperGeertz is not only an excellent source on Clifford Geertz, but features a comprehensive bibliography of his works, many entries of which are augmented with hyperlinks to the full text online. Contains e.g. the indispensables
↑“Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture” (1973) and
↑“Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight” (1972/73). Note to students: When you are at it, please do not read the indispensables only, but dig deeper into the resource (the staff loves that). Note to staff: Beef up your online curricula with some links to full texts (the students love that).