"His voice is as deeply needed as ever. Ardener anticipated numerous central issues in the social sciences today...This publishing event will achieve something much more significant still: a long-overdue recognition that Ardener not only forged ahead of today's mainstream but bequeathed a legacy of ideas that can regenerate and redirect anthropological thought today. This new edition will allow a new and more receptive audience to come to grips with Ardener's distinctive mode of analysis and understanding, bringing it more clearly into the mainstream of anthropological thought not only as a historical contribution but also, and especially, as a source of new reflections." (From the Foreword)