About the Book
To read some sample entries, or to view the Readers Guide click on "Sample Chapters/Additional Materials" in the left column under "About This Book"
"This monumental encyclopedia makes an astonishing contribution to our understanding of human evolution, human culture, and human reality through an inclusive global lens."
- From the Foreword, Biruté Mary F. Galdikas, Camp Leakey, Borneo, Indonesia
This five-volume Encyclopedia of Anthropology is a unique collection of over 1,000 entries that focuses on topics in physical/biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural/social anthropology, linguistics, and applied anthropology. Also included are relevant articles on geology, paleontology, biology, evolution, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and theology. The contributions are authored by 300 internationally renowned experts, professors, and scholars from some of the most distinguished universities, institutes, and museums in the world. Special attention is given to hominid evolution, primate behavior, genetics, ancient civilizations, cross-cultural studies, social theories, and the value of human language for symbolic communication.
This groundbreaking Encyclopedia is a must-have reference work for libraries with collections in anthropology, as well as the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. It will provide students, educators, and a wide array of interested readers with a greater understanding of and deeper appreciation for those facts, concepts, methods, hypotheses, and perspectives that make up modern anthropology and related disciplines.
About the Author :
Dr. H. James Birx is professor of anthropology at Canisius College, distinguished research scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo, and distinguished visiting professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade. He has been an invited scholar at the University of Cambridge and twice at Harvard University. His publications include authoring the award-winning Theories of Evolution and editing the award-winning Encyclopedia of Anthropology, as well as 400 published reviews, articles, chapters, and encyclopedia entries.
Dr. Birx has given invited presentations at prestigious universities and academic institutes from Australia, New Zealand and Mexico to Egypt, Germany and Russia. He has done research at the Galapagos Islands and Koobi Fora in Kenya, Africa (among many other sites). His interests include topics in evolutionary biology and process philosophy. Dr. Birx is presently teaching biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, anthropology and evolution, and theories in anthropology. He has contributed six new ideas to philosophical anthropology: dynamic integrity, will to evolve, emerging teleology, Homo futurensis, exoevolution, and cosmic over beings.Dr. Birx′s cultural interests include movies, music (especially opera), reading novels and global traveling. This year, he has contributed essays to these two forthcoming books: Wagner & Nietzsche (Cambridge University Press) and Humanism, Transhumanism, & Posthumanism (Peter Lang Verlag).
Review :
"Thorough coverage is given to a wide range of topics in physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and applied anthropology. More than 250 respected anthropologists and scholars have contributed over 1000 A-to-Z articles… Color photographs accompany many of the articles and lend the encyclopedia a pleasing appearance. The signed entries are written in accessible, nonscholarly language, which makes the work suitable for undergraduate students and informed lay readers alike… This balanced and user-friendly resource will be a good starting point for basic anthropological research. Highly recommended for academic libraries with anthropology collections and large public libraries where there is interest in anthropology."
"The Encyclopedia of Anthropology is a magnificent achievement. It′s intelligent, it doesn′t shrink from the tough issues, it′s very user-friendly and beautifully produced."
SAGE Reference delivers a unique five-volume set with its recent publication of the Encyclopedia of Anthropology. With over 1000 entries written by more than 250 authors, it is the first encyclopedic work that attempts to represent and integrate the various and diverse areas of physical/biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural/social anthropology, linguistics, and applied anthropology. This is a tall order but this set does an admirable job. . . . Both academic libraries supporting anthropology courses and public libraries needing a reference treating this diverse field should give it strong consideration.
"No general, multivolume encyclopedia has offered a broad overview of the subject. . . . there has been nothing quite like this new Encyclopedia of Anthropology from SAGE. . . . The volumes are beautiful and a pleasure to use and read. . . . The volumes have all the features one has come to expect from a high-end encyclopedia: a list of contributors, a list of entries in alphabetical order and another list of entries in thematic groupings, cross-references and suggested additional reading, and a master bibliography. . . . This source has no peer or competition that can be readily found. All academic and large public libraries with an interest in anthropology should buy it."
"The full-color illustrations are appealing to students, and important aids include the repetition of the reader′s guide and index in every volume. This outstanding resource is an essential purchase for academic and large public libraries."
"With thick pages on brilliant white paper, 300 spectacular color illustrations, top edgings in elegant brown, further reading in green boxes, and cross references in red, this resource′s attention to detail is unparalleled. Defining anthropology as "the comparative scientific study of human societies throughout the world and throughout time," the work covers key themes in 1000 authoritative entries. Expensive, but worth it."
"This colorfully illustrated encyclopedia of humankind includes over 1,000 entries by more than 250 authors from around the world. All subfields of anthropology are included: physical/biological and cultural/social anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and even applied anthropology, as well as some related material. Other reference works of this sort have tended to focus on subfields of anthropology rather than the entire discipline. Teachers, students, scholars, and the broad public can all benefit from this wide-ranging and beautifully illustrated publication."
"Editor Birx has made sure that thorough coverage is given to a wide range of topics in physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and applied anthropology. This balanced and user-friendly resource will be a good starting point for basic anthropological research. Highly recommended for academic libraries with anthropology collections and large public libraries where there is interest in anthropology."
"It includes color photographs, side-bars, and graphs that give the Encyclopedia an attractive and informative edge. In the words of the editor, this encyclopedia is "the human story of [the human] epic journey that has been over five billion years in the making." It is a handy stepping-stone for research in anthropology. Recommended for reference collections supporting the research and teaching of Anthropology."
"This is the first general multivolume encyclopedia offering a broad overview of the subject."
"This resource is highly recommended for all academic libraries and any other library with patrons interested in anthropology."
