Applying Cultural Anthropology

Overview

Applying Cultural Anthropology: An Introductory Reader is a collection of articles that provide compelling examples of applied research in cultural anthropology. In this age of globalization and increased cultural intolerance, the basic messages of public anthropology are more important than ever. The eighth edition offers 8 new readings and a new chart at the beginning of the text to help instructors and students locate key themes and topics.

Table of contents

Contents

* = new reading

To the Student
To the Instructor
Introduction: Understanding Humans and Human Problems

Culture and Fieldwork
1 Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, By: Horace Miner (American Anthropologist, 1956)

2 Slumber’s UnexploredLandscape, By: Bruce Bower (Science News, 1999)

3 Tricking and Tripping: Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS, By: Claire E. Sterk (2000)

Language, Communication, and Culture
4 Shakespeare in the Bush, By: Laura Bohannan (Natural History, 1966)

5 “To Give Up on Words”: Silence in Western Apache Culture
Keith H. Basso (Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1970)

6 A Cultural Approach to Male-Female Miscommunication, By: Daniel N. Maltz and Ruth A. Borker (Language and Social Identity, 1982)

Culture and Food
7 The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race, By: Jared Diamond (Discover, 1987)

8 Eating Christmas in the Kalahari, By: Richard Borshay Lee (Natural History, 1969)

9 Chinese Table Manners: You Are How You Eat, By: Eugene Cooper (Human Organization, 1986)

10 Culture and the Evolution of Obesity, By: Peter J. Brown (Human Nature, 1991)

Race and Ethnicity
11 Race Without Color, By: Jared Diamond (Discover, 1994)

12 White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

*13 Pocahontas Goes to the Clinic: Popular Culture as Lingua Franca in a Cultural Borderland, By: Cheryl Mattingly (American Anthropologist 2006)

Kinship, Marriage & Family
14 When Brothers Share a Wife, By: Melvyn C. Goldstein (Natural History, 1987)

15 Law, Custom, and Crimes Against Women: The Problem of Dowry Death in India, By: John van Willigen and V. C. Channa (Human Organization, 1991)

16 How Many Fathers Are Best for a Child?, By: Meredith F. Small (Discover, 2003)

Gender and Sexuality
*17 Gay Marriage and Anthropology, By: Linda Stone (Anthropology News, 2004)

*18 Strange Country This: An Introduction to North American Gender Diversity, By: Will Roscoe (Changing Ones 2000)

19 Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others, By: Lila Abu-Lughod (American Anthropologist, 2002)

20 Measuring Up to Barbie: Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture, By: Jacqueline Urla and Alan C. Swedlund (Devient Bodies, 1995)

21 Family Planning Outreach and Credit Programs in Rural Bangladesh, By: Sidney Ruth Schuler and Syed M. Hashemi (Human Organization, 1995)

Work and Business
*22 Conflict and Confluence in Advertising Meetings, By: Robert Morais (Human Organization 2007)

23 Coming of Age in Palo Alto, By: Katie Hafner (New York Times, 1999)

24 Just Another Job? The Commodification of Domestic Labor, By: Bridget Anderson (Global Woman, 2003)

Politics, Conflict, and the Law
25 The Kpelle Moot, By: James L. Gibbs Jr. (Africa, 1963)

26 Contemporary Warfare in the New Guinea Highlands, By: Aaron Podolefsky (Ethnology, 1984)

*27 Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones, By: David Rohde (New York Times, 2007)

*28 Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution, By: Scott Atran, Robert Axelrod, and Richard Davis (Science, 2007)

Culture, Religion, and Healing
29 The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual, By: Richard Sosis (American Scientist, 2004)

30 The Viral Superhighway, By: George Armelagos (The Sciences, 1998)

31 A Teaching Framework for Cross-Cultural Health Care, By: Elois Ann Berlin and William C. Fowkes (Western Journal of Medicine, 1983)

Culture and Environment
*32 Moral Fibers of Farmer Cooperatives: Creating Poverty and Wealth in Malian Cotton Fields, By: Scott M. Lacy (2008)

*33 The Search for Sustainable Markets: The Promise and Failures of Fair Trade, By: Julia Smith (Culture & Agriculture, 2007)

34 Two Rights Make a Wrong: Indigenous Peoples Versus Environmental Protection Agencies, By: Richard Reed (2000)

Globalization and Culture Change
35 Culture, Poverty, and HIV Transmission: The Case of Rural Haiti, By: Paul Farmer (Infections and Inequalities, 1999)

36 Cell Phones, Sharing, and Social Status in an African Society, By: Daniel Jordan Smith (2005)

37 Circumcision, Pluralism, and Dilemmas of Cultural Relativism, By: Corinne A. Kratz (2002)

38 The Price of Progress, By: John H. Bodley (Victims of Progress, 1999)