Humankind: an Introductory Reader for Cultural Anthropology

Humankind: An Introductory Reader for Cultural Anthropology introduces students to a broad array of theoretical and ethnographic essays and articles in the discipline. The editors selected papers that are engaging and relevant, yet accessible for undergraduates in introductory-level cultural anthropology courses. This text represents a diverse range of cultural contexts and includes papers that speak to important contemporary debates in anthropology. The section and chapter themes are consistent with those typically covered in Introductory Cultural Anthropology courses, including issues of anthropology?s subject, religious and symbolic behaviors, language, social identity, kinship, family, and economics. This reader also includes a section exploring the future of culture, culture survival and change, and the ethical responsibilities of anthropologists to the people we study. This text will complement any introductory cultural anthropology textbook.

" Loretta A. Cormier, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research experiences include fieldwork among the Amazonian Guajá hunter-gatherers, the Navajo, the Alabama Choctaw, and recently in Fiji. Her specializations are in cultural anthropology, historical ecology, ethnoprimatology, and medical anthropology. She has been teaching introductory cultural anthropology courses for fifteen years. Sharyn R. Jones, Ph. D., is an anthropologist who studies marine resource exploitation, ethnoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, tropical island chiefdoms, and gender. She has conducted research in Fiji, Polynesia and the Caribbean Islands, North America, Japan, and Micronesia. Her current research deals with issues of foodways, marine ecology, and cannibalism in Fiji. Jones is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Check out her blog at: http://sjonesarchaeology.blogspot.com/