Cultural Anthropology, Fourth Canadian Edition with MyAnthroLab (4th Edition) - Softcover

Miller, Barbara D.; Van Esterik, Penny; Van Esterik, John

9780205702893: Cultural Anthropology, Fourth Canadian Edition with MyAnthroLab (4th Edition)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205702899 ISBN 13: 9780205702893

Publisher: Pearson Education Canada, 2009

This text delivers information about the world’s cultures from a progressive viewpoint reflecting a contemporary approach to anthropology, with cutting-edge research explained in clear and engaging prose. It also promotes critical thinking and reflective learning in students. Giving more attention to globalization as a force of change worldwide, and making connections between the global and the local, students will find many points at which they can connect with the material and reflect on their own culture.

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About the Author:

Barbara D. Miller is Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, and Director of the Culture in Global Affairs (CIGA) Research and Policy Program, at The George Washington University. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Syracuse University in 1978. Before coming to GW in 1994, she taught at the University of Rochester, SUNY Cortland, Ithaca College, Cornell University, and the University of Pittsburgh.

For thirty years, Barbara’s research has focused mainly on gender-based inequalities in India, especially the nutritional and medical neglect of daughters in northern regions of the country. In addition, she has conducted research on culture and rural development in Bangladesh, on low-income household dynamics in Jamaica, and on Hindu adolescents in Pittsburgh. Her current interests include continued research on gender inequalities in health in South Asia, the role of cultural anthropology in informing policy issues, and cultural heritage and public policy, especially as related to women, children, and other disenfranchised groups. She teaches courses on introductory cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, development anthropology, culture and population, health and development in South Asia, and migration and mental health. In addition to many journal articles and book chapters, she has published several books: The Endangered Sex: Neglect of Female Children in Rural North India, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1997), an edited volume, Sex and Gender Hierarchies (Cambridge University Press, 1993), a co-edited volume with Alf Hiltebeitel, Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures (SUNY Press, 1998), and a text co-authored with Bernard Wood, Anthropology (Allyn & Bacon, 2006).

Penny Van Esterik is Professor of Anthropology at York University, Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto (BA) and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (MA, PhD) and currently teaches nutritional anthropology, advocacy anthropology and feminist theory. Her primary fieldwork has been done in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia and Lao PDR). Past books include Beyond the Breast-Bottle Controversy (on infant feeding in Thailand), Taking Refuge: Lao Buddhists in North America (on the reintroduction of Buddhism by Lao refugees in North America) Food and Culture: a reader, edited with Carol Counihan (updated 2008 in a second edition) and Food Culture in Southeast Asia (Greenwood Press, 2008). Together with John Van Esterik, she established a CIDA funded exchange program on gender and development in Thailand and has published jointly with him. She is a founding member of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and has been active in developing articles and advocacy materials on breastfeeding and women’s work, breastfeeding and feminism, and contemporary challenges to infant feeding such as environmental contaminants and HIV/AIDS. In 2007, she received the Weaver-Tremblay award for applied anthropology from the Canadian Anthropology Society/La Societe Canadienne d’Anthropologie (CASCA).

John Van Esterik is a retired senior scholar of Anthropology at York University. He graduated from the University of Toronto (BA, MA) and from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (PhD). For several years he taught in and managed programs for Southeast Asian refugees in Indiana and upstate New York. In 1985 he began teaching at York University and, with Penny Van Esterik, managed a linkage program on gender and development between York University and universities in Thailand. His research has been on changes in Thai Buddhist practice and Lao refugees in North America. He has published articles on refugee issues, Theravada Buddhism, and gender and development in Thailand including an edited volume with Penny Van Esterik entitled Gender and Development in Thailand.

Review:

I think the way the chapters are put together is quite innovative and forward looking. I appreciate the content on globalization and cultural change which is very 21st century.

- Diana French, UBC Okanagan

I highly recommend Cultural Anthropology: 4th Canadian Edition for use in introductory cultural anthropology classes. The authors present a straightforward, easy-to-read, well-organized discussion of a complex array of cultural issues, features, and practices. This textbook enables students to access, discuss and critically debate some of the most intricate aspects of cultural anthropology. The adoption of Culturamas within the 4th edition helps students and instructors alike, situate anthropological theories, socio-cultural concepts, and contemporary ethnographies within global and local contexts. Cultural Anthropology makes for an excellent read!

- Brian Myhre, University of Manitoba

The author’s writing style is excellent. It is clear, yet informative. How the examples fit into the theoretical underpinnings is extremely well laid out. The balance between concepts, theory, and examples is achieved in such a way as to be both informative and interesting...Cultural Anthropology provides a current overview of traditional and recent subject areas in Cultural Anthropology in an informative and interesting manner. Additional features provide depth and colour to the text as well as a rich resource of supplemental sources for the beginning and advanced student. The pedagogical tools promote critical thinking and analysis as well as insight into one’s own cultural constructions.

- Karen Hutton, UNB Fredericton

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