The Dictionary of Anthropology is designed to become the standard reference guide to the discipline of social and cultural anthropology. Its core consists of substantial analytical articles focusing on key anthropological concepts, theories and methodologies.

Thomas Barfield is Professor and Chairman of the Anthropology Department at Boston University. He is the author of The Central Asian Arabs of Afganistan, The Perilous Frontier, and The Nomadic Alternative, as well as co-editor of Afghanistan: an Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture.