This popular introduction to anthropology integrates a historical, biological, archaeological, and global approach with ethnographic data available from around the world. Drawing on both classic and recent research in the field, it reflects the current state-of-the-art understanding of social and cultural changes based on the relationships among different types of societies. It demonstrates the diversity of different societies and cultural patterns, but also shows how humans everywhere are fundamentally similar.

Table of Contents

I. BASIC CONCEPTS IN ANTHROPOLOGY.

1. Introduction to Anthropology.

2. Record of the Past.

3. Evolution.

II. PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

4. The Primates.

5. Hominid Evolution.

6. Human Variation.

III. ARCHAEOLOGY.

7. Paleolithic Cultures.

8. The Origins of Domestication and Settled Life.

9. The Rise of the State and Complex Society.

IV. BASIC CONCEPTS OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY.

10. Culture.

11. The Process of Enculturation.

12. Language.

13. Anthropological Explanations.

V. PRESTATE SOCIETIES.

14. Analyzing Sociocultural Systems.

15. Band Societies.

16. Tribes.

17. Chiefdoms.

VI. STATE SOCIETIES.

18. Agricultural States.

19. Industrial States.

VII. CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBALIZATION.

20. Globalization and Aboriginal Peoples.

21. Globalization in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

22. Globalization in the Middle East and Asia.

VIII. ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE GLOBAL FUTURE.

23. Race and Ethnicity.

24. Contemporary Global Trends.

24. Applied Anthropology.

Glossary.

References.

Photo Credits.

Index.