Cultural Anthropology (with Conformity and Conflict Readings), 4th Edition

I. INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

1. Anthropology and the Study of Culture 

The Big Questions

WHAT is anthropology?

WHAT is cultural anthropology?

HOW is cultural anthropology relevant to a career?

 

INTRODUCING ANTHROPOLOGY

Biological or Physical Anthropology

Archaeology

Linguistic Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology

Applied Anthropology: Separate Field or Cross-Cutting Focus?

Lessons Applied: Orangutan Research Leads to Orangutan Advocacy

 

INTRODUCING CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

A Brief History of Cultural Anthropology

The Concept of Culture

Everyday Anthropology: Latina Power in the Kitchen

Multiple Cultural Worlds

Culturama: San Peoples of Southern Africa

Distinctive Features of Cultural Anthropology

Three Theoretical Debates in Cultural Anthropology

Critical Thinking: Adolescent Stress: Biologically Determined or Culturally Constructed?

 

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CAREERS IN THE “REAL WORLD”

Majoring in Anthropology

Graduate Degrees in Anthropology

Living an Anthropological Life

 

The Big Questions Revisited

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

2. Methods in Cultural Anthropology

The Big Questions

HOW have research methods in cultural anthropology changed?

WHAT does fieldwork in cultural anthropology involve?

WHAT are some important issues in cultural anthropology research today?

 

CHANGING RESEARCH METHODS

From the Armchair to the Field

Participant Observation

Multi-Sited Research

 

DOING FIELDWORK

Beginning the Fieldwork Process

Critical Thinking: Shells and Skirts in the Trobriand Islands [with Culturama]

Culturama: The Trobriand Islanders

Working in the Field

Fieldwork Techniques

Recording Culture

Lessons Applied: Multiple Methods in a Needs Assessment Study in Western Canada

Data Analysis and Representation

 

URGENT ISSUES

Ethics and Collaborative Research

Everyday Anthropology: Sex Is a Sensitive Subject

Safety in the Field

 

The Big Questions Revisited

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

II. ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC FOUNDATIONS

3. Economies and Their Modes of Production

The Big Questions:

WHAT is the scope of economic anthropology?

WHAT are the characteristics of the five majormodes of production?

WHAT are some directions of change in the five modes of production?

 

CULTURE AND ECONOMIES

Typologies: Modes of Production

Globalization and the World Economy

 

MODES OF PRODUCTION

Foraging

Everyday Anthropology: The Importance of Dogs

Culturama: The Andaman Islanders

Horticulture

Pastoralism

Agriculture

Lessons Applied: Preserving Indigenous Knowledge about Farming through Databanks

Industrialism and the Information Age

Critical Thinking: Was the Invention of Agriculture a Terrible Mistake?

 

CHANGING MODES OF PRODUCTION

Foragers: The Tiwi of Northern Australia

Horticulturalists: The Mundurucu of the Brazilian Amazon

Pastoralists: Pastoralists of Mongolia

Family Farmers: The Maya of Chiapas, Mexico

Industrialists: Factory Workers in Ohio

Global Capitalism: Taiwanese in South Africa

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

4. Consumption and Exchange

The Big Questions

WHAT is consumption in cross-cultural perspective?

WHAT is exchange in cross-cultural perspective?

HOW are consumption and exchange changing?

 

CULTURE AND CONSUMPTION

What Is Consumption?

Modes of Consumption

Critical Thinking: Can the Internet Create Responsible Consumers?

Consumption Funds

Theorizing Consumption Inequalities

Forbidden Consumption: Food Taboos

 

CULTURE AND EXCHANGE

What Is Exchanged?

Everyday Anthropology: The Rules of Hospitality

Modes of Exchange

Lessons Applied: Assessing the Social Impact of Native American Casinos

 

CHANGING PATTERNS OF CONSUMPTION AND EXCHANGE

Sugar, Salt and Steel Tools in the Amazon

Social Inequality in Russia and Eastern Europe

Global Networks and Ecstasy in the United States

Credit Card Debt

Continuities and Resistance: The Enduring Potlatch

Culturama: The Kwakwaka’wakw

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

5. Birth and Death

The Big Questions

WHAT are the modes of reproduction cross-culturally?

HOW does culture shape fertility in different contexts?

HOW does culture shape mortality in different contexts?

 

CULTURE AND REPRODUCTION

The Foraging Mode of Reproduction

The Agricultural Mode of Reproduction

CULTURAMA: The Old Order Amish of the United States and Canada

The Industrial Mode of Reproduction

 

CULTURE AND FERTILITY

Sexual Intercourse

Fertility Decision Making

Critical Thinking: Are Family Planning Programs in Bangladesh Coercive?

Fertility Control

 

CULTURE AND DEATH

Infanticide

Suicide

Everyday Anthropology: A Preference for Sons

Epidemics

Lessons Applied: Taking Culture into Account for Improved Orphan Care in Kenya

Violence

 

The Big Questions Revisited

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

6. Personality and Identity over the Life-Cycle

The Big Questions

What is the scope of psychological anthropology?

How does culture shape personality and identity from birth through adolescence?

How does culture shape personality and identity in adulthood through old age?

 

CULTURE, PERSONALITY, AND IDENTITY

The Culture and Personality School

Class and Personality

Person-Centered Ethnography

Everyday Anthropology: Corporate Interests and Male Personality Formation

 

PERSONALITY AND IDENTITY FORMATION FROM INFANCY THROUGH ADOLESCENCE

Birth and Infancy

Lessons Applied: Mediating Cultural Conflict about the Treatment of a Newborn Baby in a U.S. Hospital Nursery

Socialization during ChildhoodAdolescence and Identity

CULTURAMA: The Maasai

Critical Thinking: Cultural Relativism and Female Genital Cutting

 

PERSONALITY AND IDENTITY IN ADULTHOOD

Becoming a Parent

Middle Age

The Senior Years

The Final Passage

 

The Big Questions Revisited

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

7. Disease, Illness and Healing

The Big Questions

WHAT is ethnomedicine?

WHAT are three major theoretical approaches in medical anthropology?

HOW are disease, illness and healing changing during globalization?

 

ETHNOMEDICINE

Perceptions of the Body

Defining and Classifying Health Problems

Ethno-etiologies

Prevention

Healing Ways

Critical Thinking: Why Do People Eat Dirt?

 

THEORETICAL APPROACHES IN MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

The Ecological/Epidemiological Approach

The Interpretivist Approach

Everyday Anthropology: The Meaning in Doctor-Patient Discourse

Critical Medical Anthropology

 

GLOBALIZATION AND CHANGE

New Infectious Diseases

Diseases of Development

Medical Pluralism

Culturama: Sharwa (Sherpa)

Applied Medical Anthropology

Lessons Applied: Promoting Vaccination Programs

 

The Big Questions Revisited

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

III. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

8. Kinship and Domestic Life

The Big Questions

How do cultures create kinship ties through descent, sharing, and marriage?

What is a household and what do anthropologists study about household life?

How are kinship and households changing?

 

THE STUDY OF KINSHIP

Formal Kinship Analysis

Kinship in Action

Everyday Anthropology: What’s In a Name?

Culturama: The Minangkabau

Critical Thinking: How Bilineal Is American Kinship?HOUSEHOLDS AND DOMESTIC LIFE

The Household: Variations on a Theme

Intrahousehold Dynamics

Lessons Applied: Ethnography to Prevent Wife Abuse in Rural Kentucky

 

CHANGING KINSHIP AND HOUSEHOLD DYNAMICS

Change in Descent

Change in Marriage

Changing Households

 

The Big Questions Revisited

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

9. Social Groups and Social Stratification

The Big Questions

WHAT is the range of cross-cultural variation of social groups? WHAT is social stratification, and what are its effects on people?

WHAT is civil society?

 

SOCIAL GROUPS

Friendship

Everyday Anthropology: Culture and Friendship

Clubs and Fraternities

Countercultural Groups

Work Groups

Cooperatives

Self-Help Groups

 

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

The Concept of Status Groups

Class: Achieved Status

“race”, Ethnicity, and Caste: Ascribed Status

Critical Thinking: What’s Missing from this Picture?Culturama: The Roma of Eastern Europe

 

CIVIL SOCIETY

Civil Society for the State: The Chinese Women’s Movement

Activist Groups

Lessons Applied: Anthropology and Community Activism in Papua New Guinea

New Social Movements and Cyberpower

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

10. Politics and Leadership

The Big Questions

WHAT does political anthropology cover?

WHAT are the major cross-cultural forms of political organization and leadership?

HOW are politics and political organization changing?

 

POLITICS AND CULTURE

Politics: The Use of Power, Authority, and Influence

Everyday Anthropology: Socialization and Female Politicians

Politics: Cultural Universal?

 

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP

Bands

Tribes

Chiefdoms

States

Lessons Applied: Cultural Knowledge for Engaged Citizenship

 

CHANGE IN POLITICAL SYSTEMS

Emerging Nations and Transnational Nations

Critical Thinking: How “Open” Is Democratic Electoral Politics?

Democratization

Women in Politics: New Directions?

Political Leadership in New Social Movements

Globalization and Politics

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

11. Social Order and Social Conflict

The Big Questions

WHAT is the scope of legal anthropology?

WHAT are cross-cultural systems for maintaining social order and social control?

WHAT are cross-cultural patterns of social conflict and violence?

 

SYSTEMS OF SOCIAL CONTROL

Social Control in Small-Scale Societies

Social Control in States

Lessons Applied: Legal Anthropologist Advises Resistance to “Coercive Harmony”

Social Inequality and the Law

Change in Legal Systems

Culturama: The Maori

 

SOCIAL CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE

Interpersonal Conflict

Banditry

Feuding

Ethnic Conflict

Revolution

Everyday Anthropology: Narrating Troubles

Warfare

Critical Thinking: Yanomami: “The Fierce People”?

Nonviolent Conflict

 

MAINTAINING WORLD ORDER

International Legal Disputes

The United Nations and International Peace-Keeping

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

IV. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

12. Communication

The Big Questions

HOW do humans communicate?

WHAT are the links between communication, cultural diversity and inequality?HOW does language change?

 

THE VARIETIES OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION

Language and Verbal Communication

 

Lessons Applied: Anthropology and Public Understanding of the Language and Culture of People Who Are Deaf

Nonverbal Communication and Embodied Communication

Communicating with Media and Information Technology

 

COMMUNICATION, CULTURAL DIVERSITY, AND INEQUALITY

Fieldwork Challenges

Language and Culture: Two Theories

Critical Discourse Analysis: Class, Gender and Sexuality, “Race” and Ethnicity, and Age

Everyday Anthropology: Motherese

 

LANGUAGE CHANGE

The Origins and History of Language

Writing Systems

Colonialism, Nationalism, and Globalization

Culturama: The Saami

Endangered Languages and Language Revitalization

Critical Thinking: Should Dead and Dying Languages Be Revived?

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

13. Religion

The Big Questions

WHAT is religion and what are the basic features of religions?

HOW do world religions illustrate globalization and localization?

WHAT are some important aspects of religious change in contemporary times?

 

RELIGION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

What Is Religion?

Varieties of Religious Beliefs

Ritual Practices

Lessons Applied: Aboriginal Women’s Culture, Sacred Site Protection, and the Anthropologist as Expert Witness

Critical Thinking: Why Did the Aztecs Practice Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism?

Religious SpecialistsWORLD RELIGIONS AND LOCAL VARIATIONS

Hinduism

Buddhism

Everyday Anthropology: Tattoos and Sacred Power

Judaism

Christianity

Islam

Culturama: Hui Muslims of Xi’an, China

African Religions

 

DIRECTIONS OF CHANGE

Revitalization Movements

Contested Sacred Sites

Religious Freedom as a Human Right

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

14. Expressive Culture

The Big Questions

HOW is culture expressed through art?

WHAT do play and leisure activities tell us about culture?

HOW is expressive culture changing in contemporary times?

 

ART AND CULTURE

What Is Art?

Critical Thinking: Probing the Categories of Art

Studying Art in Society

Everyday Anthropology: The Invisible Hands That Craft Souvenirs

Performance Arts

Architecture and Decorative Arts

Museums and CulturePLAY, LEISURE, AND CULTURE

Games and Sports as Cultural Microcosm

Leisure Travel

Culturama: The Gullah of South Carolina

 

CHANGE IN EXPRESSIVE CULTURE

Colonialism and Syncretism

Tourism’s Complex Effects

Post-Communist Transitions

Lessons Applied: A Strategy for the World Bank on Cultural Heritage

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

V. CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL CHANGE

15. People on the Move

The Big Questions

What are the major categories of migration?

What are examples of the new immigrants in the United States and Canada?

How do anthropologists contribute to migration policies and programs?

 

CATEGORIES OF MIGRATION

Categories Based on Spatial Boundaries

Critical Thinking: Haitian Cane Cutters in the Dominican Republic—A Case of Structure or Human Agency?

Categories Based on Reason for Moving

Culturama: The Maya of Guatemala

Everyday Anthropology: School Girls and Stress

 

THE NEW IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

The New Immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean

The New Immigrants from East Asia

The New Immigrants from Southeast Asia

The New Immigrants from South Asia

The New Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union

 

MIGRATION POLICIES AND POLITICS IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD

Protecting Migrants’ Health

Lessons Applied: Studying Pastoralists’ Movements for Risk Assessment and Service Delivery

Inclusion and Exclusion

Migration and Human Rights

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited

16. People Defining Development

The Big Questions

WHAT is development and the approaches to achieving it?

HOW is development related to indigenous people and women?

WHAT are urgent issues in development?

 

DEFINING DEVELOPMENT AND APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT: TWO PROCESSES OF CULTURAL CHANGE

Critical Thinking: The Green Revolution and Social Inequality

Theories and Models of  Development

Lessons Applied: The Saami, Snowmobiles, and the Need for Social Impact Analysis

Institutional Approaches to Development

Culturama: The Peyizan yo of Haiti

The Development Project

Methods in Development Anthropology

 

DEVELOPMENT AND MINORITY GROUPS: INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND WOMEN

Indigenous People and Development

Women and Development

 

URGENT ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT

From Development Projects to Life Projects

Human Rights: Global and Local

Everyday Anthropology: Cultural Rights versus Animal Rights

Human Rights and Development

Cultural Heritage and Cultural Survival: Linking the Past, Present and Future

Cultural Anthropology and the Future

 

Key Concepts

Suggested Readings

The Big Questions Revisited