This volume combines two classic works of anthropology. The Little Community draws on the author’s own notable studies of the villages of Tepoztlan and Chan Kom to explore the means by which scientists try to understand human communities. It contains, wrote Margaret Mead, “the essence of Robert Redfield’s multifaceted contributions to the place of community studies in social science.” Peasant Society and Culture outlines a speculative foundation for the emergence of anthropology from the study of isolated primitive tribes. Redfield’s study of the civilizations of China and India, which he visited, suggested his concept of civilizations as cultural systems of interdependent, coexisting “Great” and “Little” Traditions. He has dealt with these concepts in The Little Community and Peasant Society and Culture.