Cultural Anthropology

by Serena Nanda, Richard L Warms, Richard L. Warms

Book Overview

Build your awareness of cultures around the world with CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 10th Edition! Emphasizing the issues of power, gender, globalization, stratification, ethnicity, and the similarities and differences among all cultures, this book enables you to explore the diversity of human life and lifestyles, and will prompt you to think deeply about the world in which you live.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0495810835
• ISBN13: 9780495810834
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
• Length: 426 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.4" x 10.7"

Customer Reviews

Cultural Anthropology

This textbook is enriching and it introduces cross cultural studies, which I believe everybody should be familiar with. Cultural anthropology is both interesting and informative, therefore I recommend this textbook

Great Cultural text

I can't figure out to which article the previous review is referring. It's a little ridiculous and useless to make such an accusation of bias without mentioning what specific article it is that is so grossly biased and derogatory. I would like to know. I myself alwys prefer Nanda and Warms' text for my class. I've reviewed many many texts and just like their format and content the best. It is clear, well organized, and yes, less materialist oriented. Also the content is much better than most other texts, particularly on the subjects of Gender and Religion.

I've seen a lot of intro texts

This one stands out for its clarity and lack of too much of a materialist or idealist bias, which is where other intro texts have become annoying to me. I'm trying it for my next class because 3 of my colleagues have already recommended it.

Ethnography, Globolization, and Environmental Crisis

"Cultural Anthropology,...innovative in form and content, and focused on both traditional and emerging topics...,. Cultural Anthropology occupies an important niche in what can be thought of as the ecology of anthropological publications," 'Vision Statement' Covered Issues: The main issues covered by this introductory textbook, are arranged in a systematic approach to the subject, starts with Human diversity as a key in the book plan to introduce the subject. The idea of culture, language, and absorbing culture turn to socio-economics of living. Economic behavior, marriage, family, and gender, discusses social classification, and ranking, concludes in power and control. Cultural identities are surveyed within religion, ritual and the arts. The last main chapter of the book concludes with Cultural change. Cultural anthropology: Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of the holistic study of humanity. It is the branch of anthropology that has developed and promoted folkloric culture as a reflective analytical and formative concept. It is the branch of anthropology that considers cultural variation between humans. Cultural Anthropology continues to provide a forum for active observation of varied, anthropological frameworks with meaningful projections, with critical theories of race, sex, class, feminism, and post-colonialism continues to look for new perspective. Cultural Change: All cultures are dynamic, no culture was, has been, or is static. All cultures change throughout time and space, but most of them are conservative in that their tendencies to resist change. Since Alexander the great started a global Hellenization especially around the Mediterranean, this was encountered by resistance like in Judea. Some still resist more than others by like non tolerance in dressing or eating habits or education, especially between religion motivated societies. Enacting laws for the preservation and protection of traditional cultural patterns, by limiting national language to one or two, while putting up barriers to alien ideas and things, even reaction to illegal immigration as clear from recent reactions in France, Europe in general, and the USA. Conclusion: How did anthropology contribute to solving human problems?, and what is the role of anthropologists in public policy wrt legislation and enforcement could very well be portrayed in the Global warming debate, and Kyoto agreement, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and Africa. Those vital issues raise legitimate concerns expressed on behalf of Cultural Anthropologists.

The World is Flat : Ethnography, Globolization, and Environmental Crisis, etc., etc.

"Cultural Anthropology, ... informed by a wide array of theoretical perspectives, innovative in form and content, and focused on both traditional and emerging topics. ...that helps shape new directions in the field. In their view, Cultural Anthropology occupies an important niche in what can be thought of as the ecology of anthropological publications, ..." 'Vision Statement' Cultural anthropology: According to WIKEPEDIA, Cultural anthropology (the holistic study of humanity) is one of four fields of anthropology as it developed in the United States. It is the branch of anthropology that has developed and promoted "culture" as a meaningful scientific concept; it is also the branch of anthropology that studies cultural variation among humans. Cultural Anthropology continues to provide a forum for experimentation with varied, often interdisciplinary, theoretical frameworks within anthropological projects. Work with critical theories of race, sex, class, feminism, and post-colonialism will continue to be important, and in need of new perspective. Anthropology and Culture: The anthropological concept of "culture" reflects in part a reaction against earlier Western discourses based on an opposition between "culture" and "nature", according to which some human beings lived in a "state of nature". Anthropologists argue that culture is "human nature," and that all people have a capacity to classify experiences, encode classifications symbolically, and teach such abstractions to others. Since humans acquire culture through learning (the processes of enculturation and socialization), people living in different places or different circumstances may develop different cultures. Anthropologists have also pointed out that through culture, people can adapt to their environment in non-genetic ways, so people living in different environments will often have different cultures. Much of anthropological theory has originated in an appreciation of and interest in the tension between the local (particular cultures) and the global (a universal human nature, or the web of connections between people in distinct places/circumstances). Cultural Change: All cultures are dynamic, no culture was, has been, or is static. All cultures change throughout time and space, but most of them are conservative in that their tendencies to resist change. Since Alexander the great started a global Hellenization especially around the Mediterranean, this was encountered by resistance like in Judea. Some still resist more than others by like non tolerance in dressing or eating habits or education, especially between religion motivated societies. Enacting laws for the preservation and protection of traditional cultural patterns, by limiting national language to one or two, while putting up barriers to alien ideas and things, even reaction to illegal immigration as clear from recent reactions in France, Europe in general, and the USA. Covered Issues: The main issues covered by this boo