Cultural Anthropology : A Perspective on the Human Condition

by SCHULTZ E

• ISBN13: 9780767418232
• ISBN10: 0767418239
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-16
• Publisher: MCG

Summary

This introduction to the major subfields of anthropology explores the interplay of biological and cultural forces shaping human nature, human society, and human history. Cultural creativity and human agency are seen as part of the human biological (evolutionary) heritage. This biocultural approach is evident throughout the text in the authors' consistent examination of both interpretive and materialist factors.

Table of Contents

1. The Anthropological Perspective

Part I. The Tools of Biological Anthropology

2. Thinking about Evolution

3. Microevolution and Macroevolution: Human Evolution in the Short and Long Term

Part II. Primates and Human Evolution

4. The Primates

5. Hominid Evolution

6. The Evolution of Homo sapiens

Part III. Cultural Evolution

7. Studying the Human Past

8. After the Ice Age: Sedentism, Domestication, and Agriculture

9. The Evolution of Complex Societies

Part IV. The Tools of Cultural Anthropology

10. Culture and the Human Condition

11. Ethnographic Fieldwork

12. History, Anthropology, and the Explanation of Cultural Diversity

Part V. The Resources of Culture

13. Language

14. Cognition

15. Play, Art, Myth, and Ritual

16. Worldview

Part VI. The Organization of Material Life

17. Social Organization and Power

18. Making a Living

Part VII. Systems of Relationships

19. Kinship

20. Marriage and the Family

21. Beyond Kinship

Part VIII. From Local to Global

22. Dimensions of Inequality in the Contemporary World:

23. The World System

24. Anthropology in Everyday Life

Bibliography • Credits • Index