Full Description
From the authors who wrote the highly acclaimed Cultural AnthropologyAsking Questions About Humanity, this ground-breaking general anthropology text--co-written with renowned scholar Agustin Fuentes--takes a holistic approach that emphasizes critical thinking, active learning, and applying anthropology to solve contemporary human problems. Building on the classical foundations of the discipline, Anthropology: Asking Questions About HumanOrigins, Diversity, and Culture shows students how anthropology is connected to such current topics as food, health and medicine, and the environment. Full of relevant examples and current topics--with a focus on contemporaryproblems and questions--the book demonstrates the diversity and dynamism of anthropology today.
Contents
Letter from the AuthorsAbout the AuthorsPrefaceAcknowledgementsPART I: Key Concepts and Methods in AnthropologyChapter 1. Anthropology: Asking Questions about HumanityHow Did Anthropology Begin?The Disruptions of IndustrializationThe Theory of EvolutionColonial Origins of Cultural AnthropologyAnthropology as a Global DisciplineWhat Are the Four Subfields of Anthropology and What Do They Share in Common?CultureCultural RelativismHuman DiversityChangeHolismHow Do Anthropologists Know What They Know?The Scientific Method in AnthropologyWhen Anthropology Is Not a Science: Interpreting Other CulturesHow Is Anthropology Put to Work in the World?Applied and Practicing Anthropology: "The Fifth Subfield"?Putting Anthropology to WorkWhat Ethical Issues Does Anthropology Raise?Do No Harm. But Is That Enough?To Whom Are Anthropologists Responsible?--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: E. B. Tylor and the Culture Concept--DOING FIELDWORK: Conducting Holistic Research wih Stanley UlijaszekInformants and People in AuthorityChapter 2. Culture: Giving Meaning to Human LivesWhat Is Culture?Elements of CultureDefining Culture in This BookIf Culture Is Emergent and Dynamic, Why Does It Feel So Stable?SymbolsValuesNormsTraditionsHow Is Culture Expressed Through Social Institutions?Culture and Social InstitutionsAmerican Culture Expressed Through Breakfast Cereals and SexualityCan Anybody Own Culture?--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Franz Boas and the Relativity of CultureExhibitsChapter 3. Evolution: Life is Not StaticHow And Why Did Evolutionary Thinking Come About? The Intellectual Foundations of Evolutionary ThinkingDarwin and Wallace Propose a TheoryThe Modern SynthesisEvolutionary Thinking Is Still ChangingLife Changes. But What Does It Mean To Say It Evolves? Darwin's PrinciplesWhat it Means to Have Common AncestryWhy Evolution is Important to Anthropology . . . and Anthropology to EvolutionWhat Are The Genetic And Non-genetic Mechanisms Of Evolution?Basic Sources of Biological Change: Genes, DNA, and CellsGenetic Mechanisms of EvolutionNon-genetic Mechanisms of EvolutionHow And Why Do New Species Evolve And Others Go Extinct?How Do Evolutionary Processes Actually Affect Organisms? --CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Clyde Kluckhohn and the Role of Evolution in Anthropologyof Human Milk DigestionChapter 4. Anthropological Methods: Researching Human Beings and their PastsHow Do Anthropologists Study The Origins And Evolution Of Early Humans? What Fossils Can (and Cannot) Tell UsDating Fossils and Archaeological SitesStudying Ancient DNAWhat Methods Do Archaeologists Use To Decipher The More Recent Past?Knowing Where to ExcavateAnalyzing ArtifactsReconstructing Prehistoric EnvironmentsHow Do Cultural Anthropologists Research The Lifeways Of Contemporary Peoples?Fieldwork: Participant-Observation and InterviewingKnowing What to AskTaking FieldnotesSeeing the World From "The Native's Point of View" and Avoiding Cultural "Tunnel Vision"Other Methods That Cultural Anthropologists Use What Methods Are Important To The Study Of Human Language Within Anthropology?--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin on the "Jigsaw Puzzle" of Studying Human Origins--DOING FIELDWORK: Studying the Genetic Continuity of Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans at Hoyo NegroChapter 5. Linguistic Anthropolog: Relating Language and CultureWhere Does Language Come From?Evolutionary Perspectives on LanguageHistorical Linguistics: Studying Language Origins and ChangeHow Does Language Actually Work?Descriptive LinguisticsPhonology: Sounds of LanguageMorphology: Grammatical CategoriesSociolinguisticsDo People Speaking Different Languages Experience Reality Differently?The Sapir-Whorf HypothesisHopi Notions of TimeEthnoscience and Color TermsIs the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Correct?How Can Languages Be So Dynamic and Stable at the Same Time?Linguistic Change, Stability, and National PolicyLanguage Stability Parallels Cultural StabilityHow Does Language Relate to Social Power and Inequality?Language IdeologyGendered Language StylesLanguage and Social StatusLanguage and the Legacy of Colonialism--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Edward Sapir on How Language Shapes CultureStatus in Local American Dialects--DOING FIELDWORK: Untangling Language Ideologies in Contemporary EgyptChapter 6. Globalization and Culture: Understanding Global InterconnectionsIs the World Really Getting Smaller?Defining GlobalizationThe World We Live InAre There Winners and Losers in Global Integration?World Systems TheoryResistance at the PeripheryGlobalization and LocalizationDoesn't Everyone Want to Be Developed?What Is Development?Development AnthropologyAnthropology of DevelopmentChange on Their Own TermsIf the World Is Not Becoming Homogenized, What Is It Becoming?Cultural Convergence TheoriesClash of CivilizationsHybridizationWhat Strategies Can Anthropologists Use to Study Global Interconnections?Defining an Object of StudyMultisited EthnographyCommodities--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Eric Wolf, Culture, and the World System--DOING FIELDWORK: Studying Chernobyl's Aftermath with Adriana PetrynaPART II: Becoming HumanChapter 7. Living Primates: Comparing Monkeys, Apes, and HumansWhat Does It Mean To Be A Primate, And Why Does It Matter To Anthropology?What It Means to be a PrimateThe Distinctions Between Strepsirrhini and HaplorrhiniPrimatology as AnthropologyWhat Are The Basic Patterns Of Primate Behavioral Diversity, And Under What Conditions Did They Develop?Common Behavior Patterns Among PrimatesAccounting for the Emergence of Primate Behavioral DiversityHow Do Behavior Patterns Among Monkeys And Apes Compare With Humans?The Lives of Macaques The Lives of ChimpanzeesSo How Do They Compare to Us?What Does Studying Monkeys And Apes Really Illustrate About Human Distinctiveness?Primate Social Organization and Human BehaviorWe Have Culture. Do They Too?--DOING FIELDWORK: Conducting Anthropological Primatology Among Owl Monkeys with Eduardio Fernandez-Duque--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Sherwood Washburn and the New (Integrative) Physical AnthropologyChapter 8. Ancestral Humans: Understanding the Human Family TreeWho Are Our Earliest Possible Ancestors?Our Earliest Ancestors Were HomininsThe Fossil Record of Hominins in AfricaThe Three Hominin Genera Who is Our Most Direct Ancestor?A Possible Phylogeny, With CaveatsWhat Did Walking On Two Legs And Having Big Brains Mean For The Early Hominins?The Benefits of Upright MovementThe Effects of Big Brains on Early Hominin BehaviorWho Were The First Humans And Where Did They Live?Introducing Homo ErectusThe Emergence of Archaic HumansWho Were the Neanderthals and Denisovans?Anatomically Modern Humans Hit the SceneHow Do We Know If The First Humans Were Cultural Beings, And What Role Did Culture Play In Their Evolution? The Emerging Cultural Capacity of H. erectus Culture Among Archaic Humans Social Cooperation and Symbolic Expression--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Davidson Black and the Brain Capacity of H. erectusOther Prehistoric HumansChapter 9. Human Biocultural Evolution: Emergence of the Biocultural AnimalHow Do Biocultural Patterns Affect Evolution?Inheritance Involves Multiple SystemsEvolutionary Processes are Developmentally Open-EndedNiche Construction and Ecological InheritanceThe Importance of Constructivist Evolutionary Approaches for Biocultural AnthropologyHow Does Behavior Evolve?Prominent ApproachesWhy These Approaches Oversimplify MattersA Contemporary Biocultural Approach to the Evolution of Human BehaviorAre Modern Humans Evolving?The Impact of Disease on EvolutionCulture, Morphology, and EvolutionWhere Are Biocultural Evolutionary Patterns Taking Us?Global Population and Human DensityGenetic ManipulationAdaptive Behavioral Patterns--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Sewell Wright, Evolution, and Adaptive LandscapesBehaviorEvolutionary Dimensions of ObesityChapter 10. Contemporary Human Biodiversity: Understanding Our Differences and SimilaritiesIn What Ways Do Contemporary Humans Vary Biologically?Genetic Variation Within and Between Human PopulationsGenetic Variation Is Tied to Gene FlowPhysiological Diversity and Blood TypesDisease Environments and Human ImmunityWhy Do Human Bodies Look So Different Across The Planet?Is Skin Really Colored?Variations in Body Shape, Stature, and SizeAre Differences Of Race Also Differences Of Biology?The Biological Meanings (and Meaninglessness) of "Human Races"Is it Possible to Tell Someone's Race from a Skull?What Biocultural Consequences Do Discrimination And Stress Have On Human Bodies?Eugenics: A Weak Theory of Genetic InheritanceThe Embodied Consequences of Being a Racialized MinorityAmerican Census--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Ashley Montagu and "Man's Most Dangerous Myth"--DOING FIELDWORK: Rapid Social Change and the Embodiment of Psychosocial Stress in SamoaChapter 11. The Body: Biocultural Perspectives on Health and IllnessHow Should We Make Sense Of The Biological and Cultural Factors That Jointly Shap Our Bodily Experiences?Uniting Mind and Matter: A Biocultural PerspectiveCulture and Mental IllnessWhat Do We Mean By Health And Illness?The Individual Subjectivity of IllnessThe "Sick Role": The Social Expectations of IllnessHow And Why Do Doctors And Other Health Practitioners Gain Social Authority?The Disease-Illness Distinction: Professional and Popular Views of SicknessThe Medicalization of the Non-MedicalHow Does Healing Happen?Clinical Therapeutic ProcessesSymbolic Therapeutic ProcessesSocial SupportPersuasion: The Placebo EffectWhat Can Anthropology Contribute to Addressing Global Health Problems?Understanding Global Health ProblemsAnthropological Contributions to Tackling the International HIV/AIDS CrisisMentally Ill in New York City--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Arthur Kleinman and the New Medical Anthropological MethodologyPART III: Human Social RelationsChapter 12. Early Agriculture And The Neolithic Revolution: Modifying the Environment to Satisfy Human DemandsHow Heavily Did Prehistoric People Depend On Hunting?Taking Stock of Living Hunter-Gatherers"Man the Hunter"Recent DevelopmentsBack to the Past: Understanding Prehistoric Hunter-GatherersWhy Did People Start Domesticating Plants And Animals?Defining the Neolithic RevolutionThe Hilly Flanks HypothesisThe Pressure of Population GrowthSome Other Explanations for the Beginnings of Food ProductionHow Did Early Humans Raise Their Own Food?Domesticating PlantsDomesticating AnimalsRecent Findings on ArboricultureWhat Impact Did Raising Plants And Animals Have on Other Aspects of Life?TranshumanceSedentism--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: V. Gordon Child on the Neolithic RevolutionDomesticationCulturally Managed LandscapeChapter 13. The Rise and Decline of Cities And States: Understanding Social Complexity in PrehistoryWhen Archaeologists Talk About Social Complexity, What Do They Actually Mean?Population Growth and Social ComplexityTrade and Contact with Peoples of Different CulturesSpecialization and Production ModelsDoes Complexity Always Imply Social Inequality?How Can We Identify Social Complexity from Archaeological Sites and Their Artifacts?Identifying Social Complexity in Western MexicoPopulation Growth and Settlement PatternsSoils and Land UseMonuments and BuildingsMortuary Patterns and Skeletal RemainsCeramic, Stone, and Metal ObjectsWhy Don't Cities and States Always Survive?Rethinking Abandonment in the U.S. SouthwestThe Transformation--Not Collapse--of the Classic Maya--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Robert Carneiro on the Role of Warfare in the Rise of Complex Societies--DOING FIELDWORK: Studying What Happened After the Migration from the Four Corners with Scott Van KeurenChapter 14. Economics: Working, Sharing, and BuyingIs Money Really the Measure of All Things?Culture, Economics, and ValueThe Neoclassical PerspectiveThe Substantivist-Formalist DebateThe Marxist PerspectiveThe Cultural Economics PerspectiveHow Does Culture Shape the Value and Meaning of Money Itself?Why Is Gift Exchange Such an Important Part of All Societies?Gift Exchange and Economy: Two Classic ApproachesGift Exchange in Market-Based EconomiesWhy Does Having Some Things Make You Cool?Are There Distinct Cultures of Capitalism?Culture and Social Relations on Wall StreetEntrepreneurial Capitalism Among Malays--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Marshall Sahlins on Exchange in Traditional EconomiesRelationshipsthe Afghan EconomyChapter 15. Sustainability: Environment and FoodwaysDo All People Conceive Of Nature in the Same Way?The Human-Nature Divide?The Cultural LandscapeHow Do People Secure an Adequate, Meaningful, and Environmentally Sustainable Food Supply?Modes of SubsistenceFood, Culture, and MeaningHow Is Non-Western Knowledge of Nature and Agriculture Similar to and Different From Science?EthnoscienceTraditional Ecological KnowledgeHow Are Industrial Agriculture and Economic Globalization Linked to Increasing Environmental and Health Problems?Population and EnvironmentEcological FootprintIndustrial Foods and Food SecurityDo Only Industrialized Western Societies Protect and Conserve Nature?Artifactual LandscapesThe Culture of Modern Nature ConservationEnvironmentalism's Alternative Paradigms--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Roy Rappaport's Insider and Outsider ModelsVermont with Teresa MaresChapter 16. Power: Politics and Social ControlDoes Every Society Have A Government?The Idea of "Politics" and the Problem of OrderStructural-Functionalist Models of Political StabilityNeo-evolutionary Models of Political Organization: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, and StatesChallenges to Traditional Political AnthropologyWhat Is Political Power?Defining Political PowerPolitical Power Is Action OrientedPolitical Power Is StructuralPolitical Power Is GenderedPolitical Power in Non-state SocietiesThe Political Power of the Contemporary Nation-StateHow Is Social Inequality Constructed And Upheld?Race, Biology, and the "Natural" Order of ThingsThe Cultural Construction of RaceSaying Race Is Culturally Constructed Is Not EnoughWhy Do Some Societies Seem More Violent Than Others?What Is Violence?Violence and CultureExplaining the Rise of Violence in Our Contemporary WorldHow Do People Avoid Cycles of Agression, Brutality, and War?What Disputes Are "About"How People Manage DisputesIs Restoring Harmony Always the Best Way?--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Hortense Powdermaker on PrejudicePART IV: Constructing Meaningful Social WorldsChapter 17. Kinship and Gender: Sex, Power, and Control of Men and WomenWhat Are Families, and How Are They Structured in Different Societies?Families, Ideal and RealNuclear and Extended FamiliesKinship TerminologiesHow Families Control Power and WealthWhy Do People Get Married?Why People Get MarriedForms of MarriageSex, Love, and the Power of Families over Young CouplesIn What Ways Are Males and Females Different?Toward a Biocultural Perspective on Male and Female DifferencesRethinking the Male-Female DichotomyExplaining Gender/Sex InequalityWhat Does It Mean to Be Neither Male Nor Female?Navajo NadleeheIndian HijrasIs Human Sexuality Just a Matter of Being Straight or Queer?Cultural Perspectives on Same-Sex SexualityControlling Sexualityand the United States--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Margaret Mead and the Sex/Gender Distinction--DOING FIELDWORK: Don Kulick and "Coming Out" in the FieldChapter 18. Religion: Ritual and BeliefHow Should We Understand Religion and Religious Beliefs?Understanding Religion version 1.0: Edward B. Tylor and Belief in SpiritsUnderstanding Religion version 2.0: Anthony F. C. Wallace on Supernatural Beings, Powers, and ForcesUnderstanding Religion version 3.0: Religion as a System of SymbolsUnderstanding Religion version 4.0: Religion as a System of Social ActionUnderstanding Suicide Bomber AttacksWhat Forms Does Religion Take?Clan Spirits and Clan Identities in New GuineaTotemism in North AmericaShamanism and Ecstatic Religious ExperiencesRitual Symbols That Reinforce a Hierarchical Social OrderPolytheism and Monotheism in Ancient SocietiesWorld Religions and Universal Understandings of the WorldHow Does Atheism Fit in the Discussion?How Do Rituals Work?Magical Thought in Non-Western CulturesSympathetic Magic: The Law of Similarity and the Law of ContagionMagic in Western SocietiesRites of Passage and the Ritual ProcessHow Is Religion Linked to Political and Social Action?The Rise of FundamentalismUnderstanding Fundamentalism--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Sir James G. Frazer on Sympathetic Magic--DOING FIELDWORK: Studying the Sikh MilitantsChapter 19. Materiality: Constructing Social Relationships and Meanings with ThingsWhy Is The Ownership Of Artifacts From Other Cultures A Contentious Issue?Archaeological Excavation and Questions of OwnershipIndian Reactions to Archaeological Excavations of Human RemainsCultural Resource ManagementHow Should We Look At Objects Anthropologically?The Many Dimensions of ObjectsA Shiny New Bicycle, in Multiple DimensionsWhy And How Do The Meanings of Things Change over Time?The Social Life of ThingsThree Ways Objects Change over TimeWhat Role Does Material Culture Play in Constructing The Meaning of a Community's Past? Claiming the PastThe Politics of Archaeology"Rediscovery" of the "Lost City" of Chichen ItzaHouse at The Field Museum--CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Nancy Munn on Graphic Signs Among the Walbiri of the Australian DesertPerspectivesGlossaryReferencesCreditsIndex
