Letter from the Authors About the Authors Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Anthropology: Asking Questions about Humanity How Did Anthropology Begin? The Disruptions of Industrialization The Theory of Evolution Colonial Origins of Cultural Anthropology Anthropology as a Global Discipline What Are the Four Subfields of Anthropology and What Do They Share in Common? Culture Cultural Relativism Human Diversity Change Holism How Do Anthropologists Know What They Know? The Scientific Method in Anthropology When Anthropology Is Not a Science: Interpreting Other Cultures How Is Anthropology Put to Work in the World? Applied and Practicing Anthropology What Ethical Issues Does Anthropology Raise? Do No Harm To Whom Are Anthropologists Responsible? --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Anthropological Responsibilities to Informants and People in Authority Chapter 2. Culture: Giving Meaning to Human Lives What Is Culture? Elements of Culture Defining Culture in This Book If Culture Is Emergent and Dynamic, Why Does It Feel So Stable? Symbols Values Norms Traditions How Is Culture Expressed Through Social Institutions? Culture and Social Institutions American Culture Expressed Through Breakfast Cereals and Sexuality Can Anybody Own Culture? --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Understanding Holism Chapter 3. Linguistic Anthropology: Relating Language and Culture Where Does Language Come From? Evolutionary Perspectives on Language Historical Linguistics: Studying Language Origins and Change How Does Language Actually Work? Descriptive Linguistics Phonology: Sounds of Language Morphology: Grammatical Categories Sociolinguistics Do People Speaking Different Languages Experience Reality Differently? The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Hopi Notions of Time Ethnoscience and Color Terms Is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Correct? How Can Languages Be So Dynamic and Stable at the Same Time? Linguistic Change, Stability, and National Policy Language Stability Parallels Cultural Stability How Does Language Relate to Social Power and Inequality? Language Ideology Gendered Language Styles Language and Social Status Language and the Legacy of Colonialism --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Exploring Relationships of Power and Status in Local American Dialects Chapter 4. Ethnography: Studying Culture What Is So Distinctive About Anthropological Fieldwork? Fieldwork Taking Fieldnotes Seeing the World From the Native's Point of View Avoiding Cultural Tunnel Vision Aside from Participant Observation and Interviews, Do Anthropologists Use Other Methods? Comparative Method Genealogical Method Life Histories Ethnohistory Rapid Appraisals Action Research Anthropology at a Distance Analyzing Secondary Materials Special Issues Facing Anthropologists Studying Their Own Societies What Special Ethical Dilemmas Do Ethnographers Face? Protecting Informant Identity Anthropology, Spying, and War --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Fieldwork in an American Mall Chapter 5. Globalization and Culture: Understanding Global Interconnections Is the World Really Getting Smaller? Defining Globalization The World We Live In Are There Winners and Losers in Global Integration? World Systems Theory Resistance at the Periphery Globalization and Localization Doesn't Everyone Want to Be Developed? What Is Development? Development Anthropology Anthropology of Development Change on Their Own Terms If the World Is Not Becoming Homogenized, What Is It Becoming? Cultural Convergence Theories Clash of Civilizations Hybridization What Strategies Can Anthropologists Use to Study Global Interconnections? Defining an Object of Study Multi-Sited Ethnography --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Understanding Global Integration Through Commodities Chapter 6. Sustainability: Environment and Foodways Do All People Conceive of Nature in the Same Way? The Human-Nature Divide? The Cultural Landscape How Do People Secure an Adequate, Meaningful, and Environmentally Sustainable Food Supply? Modes of Subsistence Food, Culture, and Meaning How Is Non-Western Knowledge of Nature and Agriculture Similar to and Different From Science? Ethnoscience Traditional Ecological Knowledge How Are Industrial Agriculture and Economic Globalization Linked to Increasing Environmental and Health Problems? Population and Environment Ecological Footprint Industrial Foods, Sedentary Lives, and the Nutrition Transition Do only Western Industrialized Societies Protect and Conserve Nature? Artifactual Landscapes The Culture of Modern Nature Conservation Environmentalism's Alternative Paradigms --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Identifying Hidden Costs Chapter 7. Economics: Working, Sharing, and Buying Is Money Really the Measure of All Things? Culture, Economics, and Value The Neoclassical Perspective The Substantivist-Formalist Debate The Marxist Perspective The Cultural Economics Perspective How Does Culture Shape the Value and Meaning of Money Itself? The Types and Cultural Dimensions of Money Why Is Gift Exchange Such an Important Part of All Societies? Gift Exchange and Economy: Two Classic Approaches Gift Exchange in Market-Based Economies Why Does Having Some Things Make You Cool? Are There Distinct Cultures of Capitalism? Culture and Social Relations on Wall Street Entrepreneurial Capitalism Among Malays --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: The Role of Exchange in Managing Social Relationships Chapter 8. Power: Politics and Social Control Does Every Society Have a Government? The Idea of Politics and the Problem of Order Structural-Functionalist Models of Political Stability Neo-Evolutionary Models of Political Organization: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, and States Challenges to Traditional Political Anthropology What Is Political Power? Defining Political Power Political Power Is Action-Oriented Political Power Is Structural Political Power Is Gendered Political Power in Non-State Societies The Political Power of the Contemporary Nation-State How Is Social Inequality Constructed and Upheld? Race, Biology, and the Natural Order of Things The Cultural Construction of Race Saying Race is Culturally-Constructed Is Not Enough Why Do Some Societies Seem More Violent Than Others? What Is Violence? Violence and Culture Explaining the Rise of Violence in Our Contemporary World How Do People Avoid Cycles of Aggression, Brutality, and War? What Disputes Are About How People Manage Disputes Is Restoring Harmony Always the Best Way? --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: The Power of Personal Connections Chapter 9. Gender, Sex, and Sexuality: The Lives of Women and Men In What Ways Are Males and Females Different? Toward a Biocultural Perspective on Male and Female Differences Rethinking the Male-Female Dichotomy Hormones and Differences in Male and Female Behavior In What Ways Are Men and Women Unequal? Debating The Second Sex Taking Stock of the Debate Reproducing Gender/Sex Inequalities What Does It Mean to Be Neither Male Nor Female? Navajo Nadleehe Indian Hijras Transgender in the United States Is Human Sexuality Just a Matter of Being Straight or Queer? Cultural Perspectives on Same-Sex Sexuality Controlling Sexuality --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: The Ethics of Research and Advocacy with Transgender People Chapter 10. Kinship, Marriage, and the Family: Love, Sex, and Power What Are Families, and How Are They Structured in Different Societies? Families, Ideal and Real Nuclear and Extended Families Clans and Lineages Kinship Terminologies How Do Families Control Power and Wealth? Claiming a Bride Recruiting the Kids The Dowry in India: Providing a Financial Safety Net for a Bride Controlling Family Wealth Through Inheritance Inheritance Rules in Nonindustrial Societies Why Do People Get Married? Why People Get Married Forms of Marriage Sex, Love, and the Power of Families Over Young Couples How Are Technological Changes Reshaping How People Think About Family? In Vitro Fertilization Surrogate Mothers and Sperm Donors --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Genealogical Amnesia in Bali, Indonesia, and the United States Chapter 11. Religion: Ritual and Belief How Should We Understand Religion and Religious Beliefs? Understanding Religion version 1.0: Edward B. Tylor and Belief in Spirits Understanding Religion version 2.0: Anthony F. C. Wallace on Supernatural Beings, Powers, and Forces Understanding Religion version 3.0: Religion as a System of Symbols Understanding Religion version 4.0: Religion as a System of Social Action Understanding Suicide Bomber Attacks What Forms Does Religion Take? Clan Spirits and Clan Identities in New Guinea Totemism in North America Shamanism and Ecstatic Religious Experiences Ritual Symbols That Reinforce a Hierarchical Social Order Polytheism and Monotheism in Ancient Societies World Religions and Universal Understandings of the World How Does Atheism Fit in the Discussion? How Do Rituals Work? Magical Thought in Non-Western Cultures Sympathetic Magic: The Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion Magic in Western Societies Rites of Passage and the Ritual Process How Is Religion Linked to Political and Social Action? The Rise of Fundamentalism Understanding Fundamentalism --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Examining Rites of Passage Chapter 12. The Body: Biocultural Perspectives on Health and Illness How Should We Make Sense of the Biological and Cultural Factors that Jointly Shape Our Bodily Experiences? Uniting Mind and Matter: A Biocultural Perspective Culture and Mental Illness What Do We Mean by Health and Illness? The Individual Subjectivity of Illness The Sick Role: The Social Expectations of Illness How and Why Do Doctors and Other Health Practitioners Gain Social Authority? The Disease-Illness Distinction: Professional and Popular Views of Sickness The Medicalization of the Non-Medical How Does Healing Happen? Clinical Therapeutic Processes Symbolic Therapeutic Processes Social Support Persuasion: The Placebo Effect What Can Anthropology Contribute to Addressing Global Health Problems? Understanding Global Health Problems Anthropological Contributions to Tackling the International HIV/AIDS Crisis --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: The Emergence of New Disease Categories Chapter 13. The Arts: Objects, Images, and Commodities How Should We Look at Art Objects Anthropologically? The Many Dimensions of Objects A Shiny New Bicycle, in Multiple Dimensions An Anthropological Perspective on Aesthetics Why and How Do the Meanings of Things Change Over Time? The Social Life of Things Three Ways Objects Change Over Time How Do Certain Objects Come to Represent People's Goals and Aspirations? The Cultural Biography of Things The Culture of Mass Consumption How Can Some People Use Objects to Manipulate Us? How Do Images Shape the Worlds in Which People Live? The Power of Visual Media Manipulating Images Films Have Social Lives, Too --Thinking Like an Anthropologist: Looking at Objects from Multiple Perspectives Glossary References Credits Index
