The Social Sciences in Non-Western Studies

Abstract

The involvement of the social sciences in non- Western studies has been growing in spite of the institutional and intellectual conflicts between area studies and disciplinary studies. The process of institutional adaptation is illustrated by reference to the postwar development of non-Western stud ies. The intellectual conflict springs from the fact that the definitions and classifications of major world areas, including the division between "Western" and "non-Western," do not correspond to the definitions and classifications in any social science discipline. The several disciplines have a differential proneness to area studies, and the problem of integrating them for study of a particular area has no simple, uniform solution. Evidence is presented to show how the study of non-Western societies and civilizations is generating new and fertile hybrid disciplines in anthropology and is giving a comparative and international dimension to the other social sciences.