Why Context Matters

I began Sahlins' Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities over the weekend.

Now, I have a Ph.D. in anthropology, and am of a decidedly non-processual theoretical bent. I definitely enjoy theory, and I luxuriate in books. For chrissakes, I read Plato's Euthyphro on Saturday night, for fun!! (I'd forgotten, or possibly never realized, as just how much of an insufferable prick Socrates came across, and I can't blame the Athenians for what they did.) But the intro and conclusion of Sahlin's monograph kicked my butt

I worked through them anyway, thinking that they'd help me follow the middle. I can't say that they didn't help, but they certainly were not sufficient. After the few pages of the second chapter I was ready to set it aside and read a subsequent book first. But I read me up some Hawai'ian cultural history (I found this 1993 NPS report most useful) and tried again. Danged if I didn't blow through that chapter in an hour and a half.