Anthropology: A Brief Introduction (5th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: It's a textbook. As advertised.
Review: The writing will put out fires, and a lot of the "discussion" is insulting to a thinking person's intelligence, but that's the norm for textbooks in the humanities, is it not? The information is reliable as far as I know; generally it's very basic. Controversial claims are either carefully explained or carefully avoided.

I learned a lot about anthropology while reading this.

Well, and that's what a textbook's supposed to do.

Specifically, the book covers things like "the scope of anthropology," archaeology, very basic linguistics, food collection and production, economic systems, social stratification, gender, marriage and the family, kinship, political life, religion and magic, medical anthropology, and a discussion of possibilities for reducing violence and war. (It ends with, "There may be difficulties on the road to solutions, but we can overcome them if we want to. So let's go for it!")

Notice that a fifth edition has come out. I read the fourth edition, but you will probably want to read the fifth. The Embers have written some other textbooks on anthropology that you might check out as well.

Rating:
Summary: It's a textbook. As advertised.
Review: The writing will put out fires, and a lot of the "discussion" is insulting to a thinking person's intelligence, but that's the norm for textbooks in the humanities, is it not? The information is reliable as far as I know; generally it's very basic. Controversial claims are either carefully explained or carefully avoided.

I learned a lot about anthropology while reading this.

Well, and that's what a textbook's supposed to do.

Specifically, the book covers things like "the scope of anthropology," archaeology, very basic linguistics, food collection and production, economic systems, social stratification, gender, marriage and the family, kinship, political life, religion and magic, medical anthropology, and a discussion of possibilities for reducing violence and war. (It ends with, "There may be difficulties on the road to solutions, but we can overcome them if we want to. So let's go for it!")

Notice that a fifth edition has come out. I read the fourth edition, but you will probably want to read the fifth. The Embers have written some other textbooks on anthropology that you might check out as well.