Carol R. Ember - Human Culture: Highlights of Cultural Anthropology

Highlights of Cultural Anthropology

Melvin Ember

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ember, Carol R.
Human culture / Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember Third edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-205-95723-1 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-205-95723-4 (alk. paper)
1. Ethnology.I.Ember, Melvin.III.Title.
GN316.E63 2015
305.8dc23

2014028405

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Student EditionA la Carte Edition

ISBN-10: 0-205-95723-4ISBN-10: 0-13-394773-4

ISBN-13: 978-0-205-95723-1ISBN-13: 978-0-13-394773-1

For Mel

Always the optimist, who believed that there were laws governing human behavior that could be found if you thought hard enough, worked hard enough, and tested ideas against the anthropological record.

19332009

This third edition of Human Culture has a major redesign. Its purpose is the sameit is designed for those who want a shorter version of our Cultural Anthropology book, now in its fourteenth edition. There are 13 chapters rather than 18. We have shortened the text by eliminating a few chapters and by combining some related chapters into one by reducing discussion, examples, and illustrations. However, in contrast to the last edition, where almost all of the chapters were shortened, we have only shortened and combined about a sixth of the chapters. Perhaps most noticeable is the full-color format. But the changes go far beyond style. To add interest, we have added new 23 boxes. As always, we spend considerable time updating the research.

We have always tried to go beyond descriptions to explain not only what humans are and were like but also why they got to be that way, in all their variety. This edition is no different. An important part of updating the text is finding new explanations, and we try to communicate the necessity to evaluate these new explanations logically as well as on the basis of the available evidence. Throughout the book, we try to communicate that no idea, including ideas put forward in textbooks, should be accepted even tentatively without supporting tests that could have gone the other way.

Whats New to This Edition

NEW!Learning Objectives have been added to each chapter helping readers to focus on the material ahead. Chapter-ending summary materials have been completely revised to link back to the Learning Objectives presenting a more clear overview of the important material covered in the chapter.

NEW! Application of major topics.Applied Anthropology Boxes provide students a better understanding of the vast range of issues to which anthropological knowledge can be usefully applied. These boxes offer an additional way to show how anthropology helps people lead better lives.

NEW! Environmental issues.An expanded focus on environmental issues is presented.

: What Is Anthropology?Three new boxes on individual anthropologistsan ethnographer, an archaeologist, and a physical anthropologistand their work.

: Culture and Culture ChangeThis chapter has been revised considerably to make it more engaging. New examples on food preferences and taboos are used to illustrate that culture is learned. The section on controversies about the concept of culture has been rewritten. A new section and figure on baby names in the United States illustrates random copying of neutral traits. A broader and more historical view of globalization is introduced. The revolution section now contains a discussion of the Arab Spring and the difficulties of bringing about change by revolution. There are two new boxes in this chapter. The first is about culture change among pastoralists and farmers in the Mongolian region of China, what has changed and persisted in the face of government pressure in China. The second box discusses an applied anthropologists attempts to accommodate Bedouin needs in designed change programs with the Oman government.

: Understanding and Explaining CultureThis reworked and renamed chapter now has a section on theoretical orientations. Rather than trying to convey all of the important theoretical orientations, we concentrate on evolutionary and ecological paradigms, some of which are important for understanding our adaptational orientation. We have added a new section on ethnography as source material for other research. The chapter has a new box on how alternative theories may explain some of the Abelam customs relating to the growing of giant yams.