This new reader edited by Mark K. Sandford presents classic and contemporary articles on key issues dealing with the nature of science, evolution and heredity, primate behavior, human evolution, and modern human variation. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
A supplement for courses in Anthropology. This special topics reader includes articles from the New York Times, journals, and popular sources. It presents an intriguing introduction to currently debated issues in physical anthropology. The readings have been carefully selected and organized to challenge students with the basic inquiries about these controversial topics.
The carefully selected works in this collection help readers understand the methods, practices, and experiences of some of the top physical anthropologists working in the field today. Each article reflects the contributors' experiences, insights, and opinions in a lively, semi-autobiographical manner. Conveys not only what contributors found, but how they found it and what the experience was like. Brings the experiences and insights of active scholars to practical research matters. Introduces basic concepts of biological evolution and evolutionary theory. Explores our australopithecine and early human ancestors, and considers how and why humans evolved. Considers both the nature and causes of physical variation among contemporary peoples. For anyone interested in learning more about physical anthropology, its methods, and discoveries.
Excerpt from Physical Anthropology: Its Scope and Aims; Its History and Present Status in the United States An understanding of whatsoever exists, formulated and preserved in memory or in writing, is knowledge; and systematic search for knowl edge, on the basis of existing foundations of learning, is science. Being of the utmost utility, science constitutes the most important intel lectual function of mankind. A branch of science may be defined as a portion of systematized research that extends to closely related phenomena and has become the special function of a class of qualified observers. One of the most interesting and far-reaching of such branches is Anthropology. This has been frequently but somewhat vaguely defined as the science of man; perhaps a more fitting definition would be the comparative science of man, for its main characteristic, the criterium in fact, which differentiates it from many closely related branches of science, is that of comparison. More specifically Anthropology may also be defined as that portion of systematic research which deals with the differences, and causes of the differences, in structure, in function, and in all other manifestations of mankind, according to time, variety, place, and condition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
In the latest edition of their popular overview text, Erickson and Murphy continue to provide a comprehensive, affordable, and accessible introduction to anthropological theory from antiquity to the present. A new section on twenty-first-century anthropological theory has been added, with more coverage given to postcolonialism, non-Western anthropology, and public anthropology. The book has also been redesigned to be more visually and pedagogically engaging. Used on its own, or paired with the companion volume Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory, Fourth Edition, this reader offers a flexible and highly useful resource for the undergraduate anthropology classroom. For additional resources, visit the "Teaching Theory" page at www.utpteachingculture.com.
Histories of American Physical Anthropology in the Twentieth Century chronicles the history of physical anthropology--or, as it is now known, biological anthropology--from its professional origins in the late 1800 up to its modern transformation in the late 1900s. In this edited volume, 13 contributors trace the development of people, ideas, traditions, and organizations that contributed to the advancement of this branch of anthropology that focuses today on human variation and human evolution. Designed for upper level undergraduate students, graduate students, and professional biological anthropologists, this book provides a brief and accessible history of the biobehavioral side of anthropology in America.
