Introducing Cultural Anthropology

Introducing Cultural Anthropology, a short yet comprehensive anchor text, is an approachable, full-color introduction to cultural anthropology. This edition continues to provide students with the opportunity to explore anthropology's relevance to their own lives. Unique opening vignettes draw students into each chapter while the rich visual program allows professors to use a brief text without sacrificing visual appeal. "Try This" exercises encourage students to think critically and apply anthropological concepts, perspectives and methods, and the "Anthropology Around Us" boxes focus on the application of anthropological concepts featured in each chapter.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Anthropology: What Are Its Subfields and Perspectives? Chapter 2. Culture: What Makes Us Strangers When We Are Away From Home? Chapter 3. Fieldwork: How Are Data Gathered? Chapter 4. Language: Is This What Makes Us Human? Chapter 5. Subsistence Strategies and Resource Allocation I: What Challenges Face Foragers? Chapter 6. Subsistence Strategies and Resource Allocation II: How Did Food Production Transform Culture? Chapter 7. Marriage, Family, and Residence: What are the Possibilities? Chapter 8. Kinship and Descent: Are These the Ties That Bind? Chapter 9. Gender and Sexuality: Nature or Nurture? Chapter 10. Political Order, Disorder, and Social Control: Who Decides? Chapter 11. Belief Systems: How Do We Explain the Unexplainable? Chapter 12. Expressions: Is This Art? Chapter 13. Culture Change and Globalization: What Have We Learned? Chapter 14. Applying Anthropology: How Does It Make a Difference?

About the Author :
Roberta Edwards Lenkeit is currently professor of anthropology at Modesto Junior College, Modesto, California where she has taught since 1976. She earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara where, as a teaching assistant, she first learned how fun it was to share anthropology with introductory level students. After graduation, she spent four years as a full time instructor at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California. She also taught as an adjunct faculty member for two years at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is the recipient of many awards of recognition for outstanding teaching by the campus chapter of Alpha Gamma Sigma. Her special interests include comparative kinship, religion, applied anthropology, hominid evolution, lithic tool technology, and Upper Paleolithic cave art. She has done fieldwork in Spain, the Cook Islands, and French Polynesia. For relaxation Roberta gardens and raises banty hens. She is the author of Introducing Cultural Anthropology (2001, Mayfield Publishing).