Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition Book

Extensively revised in this sixth edition, Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition explores the interplay of cultural creativity, human agency, and material constraint in the shaping of human cultural traditions. It looks at the tremendous variety of culturally constructed ways of life and focuses on how people as creative beings bring meaning to the world and transform it through practical action. Cultural Anthropology, 6/e: * Incorporates cutting-edge theory and explains complex concepts clearly, encouraging critical thinking * Addresses issues of power and inequality in the contemporary world--divisions based on class, caste, race, ethnicity, and nationality in the context of globalization, as well as struggles for social justice and human rights--and includes material on gender and feminist anthropology throughout * Offers new sections on multiculturalism in contemporary Europe, multi-sited fieldwork, language ideology, secularism, the difference between "everyday" ethnicity and racism, social suffering and trauma, and the debate over "writing against culture," as well as new material on globalization * Exposes students to alternative perspectives from non-anthropologists and indigenous peoples through forty "In Their Own Words" commentaries * Provides ethnographic summaries of each society discussed at length in the text in sixty-eight "EthnoProfile" boxes * Contains two unique chapters that provide fresh treatments of standard topics: Chapter 7 links play, art, myth, and ritual in a framework that highlights the emphasis on cultural creativity, while chapter 4 looks at Western colonial history, the roots of classification of social systems, and cultural diversity Supplements: A Study Skills Guide on CD-ROM is included free with each text. Written by Margaret Rauch--former Co-Director of the Academic Learning Center at St. Cloud University--and Robert Lavenda, this unique guide provides extensive suggestions for improving study skills, numerous strategies for studying the text, and many hints on taking notes, organizing information, writing essay exams, and taking multiple-choice exams. For each chapter of the text, it provides a review of key terms, sample multiple-choice exam questions, and open-ended "Arguing Anthropology" questions for students to consider. An extensive Instructor's Manual/Test Bank is available on CD-ROM, and resources for both instructors and students can be found online.Read More