Cultural Anthropology - Softcover

Miller, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205683290 ISBN 13: 9780205683291

Publisher: Pearson College Div, 2008

Synopsis

Successfully integrating attention to culture change, gender, class, race and ethnicity, and the environment, this text engages students with compelling ethnographic examples and by demonstrating the relevance of anthropology.

 

Faculty and students praise the book’s proven ability to generate class discussion, increase faculty-student engagement, and enhance student learning.

 

Through clear writing, a balanced theoretical approach, and engaging examples, Miller stresses the importance of social inequality and human rights, the environment, culture change and applied aspects of anthropology. Rich examples of gender, ethnicity, race, class, and age thread through the topical coverage of economic systems, the life-cycle, health, kinship, social organization, politics, language, religion, and expressive culture. The last two chapters address how migration is changing world cultures and the importance of local cultural values and needs in shaping international development policies and programs.

 

 Material throughout the book highlights the relevance of anthropology to students and how they can apply in their careers. By entwining attention to key theories for understanding culture with an emphasis on relevance of anthropological knowledge and skills, this text is the perfect choice for all introductory cultural anthropology courses.

 

About this title

From the Back Cover:

How do people in different parts of the world obtain food, conceive of their place in the universe, and deal with the rapid cultural change brought about through satellite communication? Knowing about the world's cultures is a crucial foundation of shaping a vision and appropriating change, whether one is involved in environmental studies, peace studies, or international business. Engaging its readers in a critical thinking approach, this book's substantive discussion provides a broad look at the discipline of anthropology and the concept of culture.

The fifteen chapters begin with the economic and reproductive bases of culture, then the social organization, such as family and politics, and finally ideology, which includes religious belief, communication, and expressive culture. Attention to social inequality throughout the book enhances understanding of how cultural processes actually work, especially in complex "multicultural" societies.

Cultural anthropologists, historians, and anyone interested in culture and different societies.

About the Author:

“Cultural anthropology is exciting because it CONNECTS with everything, from FOOD to ART. And it can help prevent or SOLVE

world problems related to social inequality and injustice.” - BARBARA D. MILLER

 

Barbara 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.

 

Barbara’s research has focused mainly on gender-based inequalities in India, especially the nutritional and medical neglect of daughters in the northern part of the country. She has also 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 India along with attention to the role of cultural anthropology in informing policy issues, especially as related to women, children, and other disenfranchised people.

 

She teaches courses on introductory cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, development anthropology, culture and population, health and development in South Asia, migration and mental health, and culture and security.

 

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), and a co-edited volume with Alf Hiltebeitel, Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures (SUNY Press, 1998). She is the author of Cultural Anthropology in a Globalizing World (Pearson, 2008) and the lead author of Anthropology (Pearson, 2nd ed., 2008).

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0205683290
• ISBN 13: 9780205683291
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 480