Part I Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 1 Anthropology and the Study of Culture
Introducing Anthropology
Biological or Physical Anthropology
Archaeology
Linguistic Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology
Lessons Applied: Orangutan Research Leads to Orangutan Advocacy
Applied Anthropology: Separate Field or Cross-Cutting Focus?
Introducing Cultural Anthropology
A Brief History of Cultural Anthropology
The Concept of Culture
Multiple Cultural Worlds
Culturama: San Peoples of Southern Africa
Distinctive Features of Cultural Anthropology
Three Theoretical Debates in Cultural Anthropology
Critical Thinking: Adolescent Stress: Biologically Determines or Culturally Constructed?
Cultural Anthropology and Careers in the Real World:
Majoring in Anthropology
Graduate Study in Anthropology
Living an Anthropological Life
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 2 Methods in Cultural Anthropology
Changing Research Methods
From the Armchair to the Field
Participant Observation
Doing Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology
Beginning the Fieldwork Process
Working in the Field
Critical Thinking: Shells and Skirts in the Trobriand Islands
Culturama: The Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea
Fieldwork Techniques
Recording Culture
Lessons Applied: Multiple Methods in a Needs Assessment Study in Canada
Data Analysis
Urgent Issues in Cultural Anthropology Research
Ethics and Collaborative Research
Safety in the Field
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Part II Economic and Demographic Foundations
Chapter 3 Economic Systems
Modes of Production
Foraging
Division of Labor
Property Relations
Foraging as a Sustainable System
Horticulture
Division of Labor
Property Relations
Horticulture as a Sustainable System
Pastoralism
Division of Labor
Property Relations
Pastoralism as a Sustainable System
Agriculture
Family Farming
Division of Labor
Property Relations
Industrial Agriculture
The Sustainability of Agriculture
Industrialism and the Information Age
Critical Thinking: Was the Invention of Agriculture a Terrible Mistake?
Modes of Consumption and Exchange
Modes of Consumption
Consumption Microcultures
Class and the Game of Distinction in Israeli Birthday Parties
Gender and Deadly Food in Papua New Guinea
Race and Children's Shopping in New Haven
Modes of Exchange
Balanced Exchange
Unbalanced Exchange
Other Forms of Unbalanced Exchange
Gambling
Theft
Exploitation
Lessons Applied: Evaluating Indian Gaming in California
Globalization and Changing Economies
Sugar, Salt, and Steel Tools in the Amazon
Social Inequality in Russia and Eastern Europe
Global Networks and Ecstasy in the United States
Credit Card Debt
Continuities and Resistance: The Enduring Potlatch
Culturama: The Kwakwaka'wakw of Canada
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 4 Reproduction and Human Development
Modes of Reproduction
The Foraging Mode of Reproduction
The Agricultural Mode of Reproduction
Culturama: The Old Order Amish of the United States and Canada
The Industrial/Informatics Mode of Reproduction
Culture and Fertility
Sexual Intercourse
When to Begin Having Intercourse?
Intercourse Frequency and Fertility
Fertility Decision Making
At the Family Level
At the State Level
At the Global Level
Fertility Control
Indigenous Methods
Induced Abortion
The New Reproductive Technologies
Infanticide
Personality and The Life Cycle
Birth, Infancy, and Childhood
The Birth Context
Bonding
Lessons Applied: Mediating Cultural Conflict about the Treatment of a Newborn Baby in a U.S. Hospital Nursery
Gender in Infancy
Socialization during Childhood
Adolescence and Identity
Is Adolescence a Universal Life-Cycle Stage?
Coming of Age and Gender Identity
Critical Thinking: Cultural Relativism and Female Genital Cutting
Sexual Identity and Gender Pluralism
Adulthood
Becoming a Parent
Middle Age
The Senior Years
The Final Passage: Death and Dying
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 5 Disease, Illness, and Healing
Ethnomedicine
Defining and Classifying Health Problems
Ethno-etiologies
Healing Ways
Three Theoretical Approaches in Medical Anthropology
The Ecological/Epidemiological Approach
Critical Thinking: Why Do People Eat Dirt?
The Interpretivist Approach
Critical Medical Anthropology
Globalization and Change
New Infectious Diseases
Diseases of Development
Medical Pluralism
Culturama: The Sherpa of Nepal
Applied Medical Anthropology
Lessons Applied: Promoting Vaccination Programs in Developing Countries
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Part III Social Organization
Chapter 6 Kinship and Domestic Life
The Study of Kinship Systems
Formal Kinship Analysis
Kinship in Action
Critical Thinking: How Bilineal is American Kinship?
Culturama: The Minangkabau of Indonesia
Households and Domestic Life
The Household: Variations on a Theme
Intrahousehold Dynamics
Lessons Applied: Ethnography for Preventing Wife Abuse in Rural Kentucky
Changing Kinship and Household Dynamics
Change in Descent
Change in Marriage
Changing Households
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 7 Social Groups and Social Stratification
Social Groups
Friendship
Clubs and Fraternities
Countercultural Groups
Work Groups
Cooperatives
Self-Help Groups
Social Stratification
The Concept of Status Groups
Class: Achieved Status
Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Caste: Ascribed Status
Critical Thinking: What's Missing from This Picture?
Culturama: The Roma of Eastern Europe
Civil Society
Civil Society for the State: The Chinese Women's Movement
Activist Groups: Co-Madres
Lessons Applied: Anthropology and Community Activism in Papua New Guinea
New Social Movements and Cyberpower
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 8 Political and Legal Systems
Politics, Political Organization, and Leadership
Bands
Tribes
Big-Man and Big-Woman Leadership
Chiefdoms
States
Symbols of State Power
Lessons Applied: Cultural Knowledge for Engaged Citizenship
Social Order and Social Conflict
Norms and Laws
Systems of Social Control
Social Control in Small-Scale Societies
Social Control in States
Specialization
Trials and Courts
Prisons and the Death Penalty
Social Inequality and the Law
Social Conflict and Violence
Ethnic Conflict
Warfare
Critical Thinking: Yanomami: The Fierce People?
Change in Political and Legal Systems
Emerging Nations and Transnational Nations
Culturama: The Kurds of the Middle East
Democratization
Women in Politics: New Directions?
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Part IV Symbolic Systems
Chapter 9 Communication
The Varieties of Human Communication
Language and Verbal Communication
Nonverbal Language and Embodied Communication
Lessons Applied: Anthropology and Public Understanding of the Language and Culture of People Who Are Deaf
Communicating with Media and Information Technology
Communication, Cultural Diversity, and Inequality
Fieldwork Challenges
Language and Culture: Two Theories
Critical Discourse Analysis: Class, Gender and Sexuality, Race and Ethnicity, and Age
Language Change
The Origins and History of Language
Historical Linguistics
Writing Systems
Colonialism, Nationalism, and Globalization
Culturama: The Saami of Lapland, or Sapmi
Endangered Languages and Language Revitalization
Critical Thinking: Should Dead and Dying Languages Be Revived?
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 10 Religion
Religion in Comparative Perspective
What is Religion?
Varieties of Religious Beliefs
Ritual Practices
Lessons Applied: Aboriginal Women's Culture, Sacred Site Protection, and the Anthropologist as Expert Witness
Religious Specialists
Critical Thinking: Why Did the Aztecs Practice Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism?
World Religions and Local Variations
Hinduism
Buddhism
Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Culturama: Hui Muslims of Xi'an, China
African Religions
Directions of Religious Change
Revitalization Movements
Contested Sacred Sites
Religious Freedom as a Human Right
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 11 Expressive Culture
Art and Culture
What is Art?
Critical Thinking: Probing the Categories of Art
Studying Art in Society
Performance Arts
Architecture and Decorative Arts
Play, Leisure, and Culture
Games and Sports as a Cultural Microcosm
Leisure Travel
Change in Expressive Culture
Colonialism and Syncretism
Culturama: The Gullah of South Carolina
Tourism's Complex Effects
Lessons Applied: A Strategy for the World Bank on Cultural Heritage
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Part V Contemporary Cultural Change
Chapter 12 People on the Move
Categories of Migration
Categories Based on Spatial Boundaries
Critical Thinking: Haitian Cane Cutters in the Dominican Republic: A Case of Structure or Human Agency?
Categories Based on Reason for Moving
Culturama: The Maya of Guatemala
The New Immigrants To The United States and Canada
The New Immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean
The New Immigrants from Asia
The New Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union
Lessons Applied: Studying Pastoralists' Movements for Risk Assessment and Service Delivery
Migration Politics, Policies, and Programs in a Globalizing World
Protecting Migrants' Health
Inclusion and Exclusion
Migration and Human Rights
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings
Chapter 13 People Defining Development
Defining Development and Approaches To It
Two Processes of Cultural Change
Critical Thinking: The Green Revolution and Social Inequality
Theories and Models of Development
Lessons Applied: The Saami, Snowmobiles, and the Need for Social Impact Analysis
Institutional Approaches to Development
Culturama: The Peyizan yo of Haiti
The Development Project
Development and Minority Groups: Indigenous People and Women
Indigenous People and Development
Women and Development
Urgent Issues in Development
From Development Projects to Life Projects
Human Rights: Global and Local
Human Rights and Development
Cultural Heritage and Development: Linking the Past and Present to the Future
Cultural Anthropology and the Future
The Big Questions Revisited
Key Concepts
Suggested Readings