Author Description

A unique alternative to more traditional, encyclopedic introductory texts, Anthropology: What Does It Mean to Be Human? takes a question-oriented approach that illuminates major concepts for students. Structuring each chapter around an important question, the authors explore what it means to be human, incorporating answers from all four subfields of anthropology--cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology--and offering a more balanced perspective than other texts. They address central issues of the discipline, highlighting the controversies and commitments that are shaping contemporary anthropology.FEATURES:* Covers the material in fifteen concise chapters--an ideal text for a one-semester course* Addresses issues of power and inequality in the contemporary world--including racism, ethnic discrimination, nationalism, caste, and class* Incorporates cutting-edge theory and gender and feminist anthropology throughout* Takes an explicitly global approach, discussing ways in which the spread of capitalism has drastically reshaped how people everywhere live their lives* Presents new voices and alternative perspectives from nonanthropologists and indigenous peoples through "In Their Own Words" commentaries* Provides ethnographic summaries--with maps--of each society discussed at length in the text in "EthnoProfile" boxes* Integrates additional helpful pedagogical aids including key terms, a running glossary, chapter summaries, maps, and annotated suggestions for further reading* Supplemented by an Instructor's Manual and Computerized Test Bank Course Management Systems are available from your Oxford representative.