Introduction to Anthropology

by OpenStax

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Introduction to Anthropology is a four-field text integrating diverse voices, engaging field activities, and meaningful themes like Indigenous experiences and social inequality to engage students and enrich learning. The text showcases the historical context of the discipline, with a strong focus on anthropology as a living and evolving field.

Description from LibreTexts.

Subjects
Social Sciences, Anthropology
Licence
CC BY 4.0, as LibreTexts states it
Who can read
Teens profiles and older, judged from its title and subjects

Contents

LibreTexts writes equations in TeX, and here they show as TeX; the PDF has them typeset.

  1. Front Matter
  2. TitlePage
  3. InfoPage
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Licensing
  6. 1: What Is Anthropology?
  7. 1.1: Introduction
  8. 1.2: The Study of Humanity, or "Anthropology Is Vast"
  9. 1.3: The Four-Field Approach- Four Approaches within the Guiding Narrative
  10. 1.4: Overcoming Ethnocentrism
  11. 1.5: Western Bias in Our Assumptions about Humanity
  12. 1.6: Holism, Anthropology’s Distinctive Approach
  13. 1.7: Cross-Cultural Comparison and Cultural Relativism
  14. 1.8: Reaching for an Insider’s Point of View
  15. 1.9: Key Terms
  16. 1.10: Summary
  17. 1.11: Critical Thinking Questions
  18. 1.12: Bibliography
  19. 2: Methods- Cultural and Archaeological
  20. 2.1: Introduction
  21. 2.2: Archaeological Research Methods
  22. 2.3: Conservation and Naturalism
  23. 2.4: Ethnography and Ethnology
  24. 2.5: Participant Observation and Interviewing
  25. 2.6: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
  26. 2.7: Collections
  27. 2.8: Key Terms
  28. 2.9: Summary
  29. 2.10: Critical Thinking Questions
  30. 2.11: Bibliography
  31. 3: Culture Concept Theory- Theories of Cultural Change
  32. 3.1: Introduction
  33. 3.2: The Homeyness of Culture
  34. 3.3: The Winkiness of Culture
  35. 3.4: The Elements of Culture
  36. 3.5: The Aggregates of Culture
  37. 3.6: Modes of Cultural Analysis
  38. 3.7: The Paradoxes of Culture
  39. 3.8: Key Terms
  40. 3.9: Summary
  41. 3.10: Critical Thinking Questions
  42. 3.11: Bibliography
  43. 4: Biological Evolution and Early Human Evidence
  44. 4.1: Introduction
  45. 4.2: What Is Biological Anthropology?
  46. 4.3: What’s in a Name? The Science of Taxonomy
  47. 4.4: It’s All in the Genes! The Foundation of Evolution
  48. 4.5: Evolution in Action- Past and Present
  49. 4.6: What Is a Primate?
  50. 4.7: Origin of and Classification of Primates
  51. 4.8: Our Ancient Past- The Earliest Hominins
  52. 4.9: Key Terms
  53. 4.10: Summary
  54. 4.11: Critical Thinking Questions
  55. 4.12: Bibliography
  56. 5: The Genus Homo and the Emergence of Us
  57. 5.1: Introduction
  58. 5.2: Defining the Genus Homo
  59. 5.3: Tools and Brains- Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, and Homo erectus
  60. 5.4: The Emergence of Us- The Archaic Homo
  61. 5.5: Tracking Genomes- Our Human Story Unfolds
  62. 5.6: Key Terms
  63. 5.7: Summary
  64. 5.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  65. 5.9: Bibliography
  66. 6: Language and Communication
  67. 6.1: Introduction
  68. 6.2: The Emergence and Development of Language
  69. 6.3: Language and the Mind
  70. 6.4: Language, Community, and Culture
  71. 6.5: Performativity and Ritual
  72. 6.6: Language and Power
  73. 6.7: Key Terms
  74. 6.8: Summary
  75. 6.9: Critical Thinking Questions
  76. 6.10: Bibliography
  77. 7: Work, Life, and Value- Economic Anthropology
  78. 7.1: Introduction
  79. 7.2: Economies- Two Ways to Study Them
  80. 7.3: Modes of Subsistence
  81. 7.4: Gathering and Hunting
  82. 7.5: Pastoralism
  83. 7.6: Plant Cultivation- Horticulture and Agriculture
  84. 7.7: Exchange, Value, and Consumption
  85. 7.8: Industrialism and Postmodernity
  86. 7.9: Key Terms
  87. 7.10: Summary
  88. 7.11: Critical Thinking Questions
  89. 7.12: Bibliography
  90. 8: Authority, Decisions, and Power- Political Anthropology
  91. 8.1: Introduction
  92. 8.2: Colonialism and the Categorization of Political Systems
  93. 8.3: Acephalous Societies- Bands and Tribes
  94. 8.4: Centralized Societies- Chiefdoms and States
  95. 8.5: Modern Nation-States
  96. 8.6: Resistance, Revolution, and Social Movements
  97. 8.7: Key Terms
  98. 8.8: Summary
  99. 8.9: Critical Thinking Questions
  100. 8.10: Bibliography
  101. 9: Social Inequality
  102. 9.1: Introduction
  103. 9.2: Theories of Inequity and Inequality
  104. 9.3: Systems of Inequality
  105. 9.4: Intersections of Inequality
  106. 9.5: Studying In- Addressing Inequities within Anthropology
  107. 9.6: Key Terms
  108. 9.7: Critical Thinking Questions
  109. 9.8: Bibliography
  110. 10: The Global Impact of Human Migration
  111. 10.1: Introduction
  112. 10.2: Peopling of the World
  113. 10.3: Early Global Movements and Cultural Hybridity
  114. 10.4: Peasantry and Urbanization
  115. 10.5: Inequality along the Margins
  116. 10.6: Key Terms
  117. 10.7: Summary
  118. 10.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  119. 10.9: Bibliography
  120. 11: Forming Family through Kinship
  121. 11.1: Introduction
  122. 11.2: What Is Kinship?
  123. 11.3: Defining Family and Household
  124. 11.4: Reckoning Kinship across Cultures
  125. 11.5: Marriage and Families across Cultures
  126. 11.6: Key Terms
  127. 11.7: Summary
  128. 11.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  129. 11.9: Bibliography
  130. 12: Gender and Sexuality
  131. 12.1: Introduction
  132. 12.2: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Anthropology
  133. 12.3: Performing Gender Categories
  134. 12.4: The Power of Gender- Patriarchy and Matriarchy
  135. 12.5: Sexuality and Queer Anthropology
  136. 12.6: Key Terms
  137. 12.7: Summary
  138. 12.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  139. 12.9: Bibliography
  140. 13: Religion and Culture
  141. 13.1: Introduction
  142. 13.2: What Is Religion?
  143. 13.3: Symbolic and Sacred Space
  144. 13.4: Myth and Religious Doctrine
  145. 13.5: Rituals of Transition and Conformity
  146. 13.6: Other Forms of Religious Practice
  147. 13.7: Key Terms
  148. 13.8: Summary
  149. 13.9: Critical Thinking Questions
  150. 13.10: Bibliography
  151. 14: Anthropology of Food
  152. 14.1: Introduction
  153. 14.2: Food as a Material Artifact
  154. 14.3: A Biocultural Approach to Food
  155. 14.4: Food and Cultural Identity
  156. 14.5: The Globalization of Food
  157. 14.6: Key Terms
  158. 14.7: Summary
  159. 14.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  160. 14.9: Bibliography
  161. 15: Anthropology of Media
  162. 15.1: Introduction
  163. 15.2: Putting the Mass into Media
  164. 15.3: Putting Culture into Media Studies
  165. 15.4: Visual Anthropology and Ethnographic Film
  166. 15.5: Photography, Representation, and Memory
  167. 15.6: News Media, the Public Sphere, and Nationalism
  168. 15.7: Community, Development, and Broadcast Media
  169. 15.8: Broadcasting Modernity and National Identity
  170. 15.9: Digital Media, New Socialities
  171. 15.10: Key Terms
  172. 15.11: Summary
  173. 15.12: Critical Thinking Questions
  174. 15.13: Bibliography
  175. 16: Art, Music, and Sport
  176. 16.1: Introduction
  177. 16.2: Anthropology of the Arts
  178. 16.3: Anthropology of Music
  179. 16.4: An Anthropological View of Sport throughout Time
  180. 16.5: Anthropology, Representation, and Performance
  181. 16.6: Key Terms
  182. 16.7: Summary
  183. 16.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  184. 16.9: Bibliography
  185. 17: Medical Anthropology
  186. 17.1: Introduction
  187. 17.2: What Is Medical Anthropology?
  188. 17.3: Ethnomedicine
  189. 17.4: Theories and Methods
  190. 17.5: Applied Medical Anthropology
  191. 17.6: Key Terms
  192. 17.7: Summary
  193. 17.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  194. 17.9: Bibliography
  195. 18: Human-Animal Relationship
  196. 18.1: Introduction
  197. 18.2: Humans and Animals
  198. 18.3: Animals and Subsistence
  199. 18.4: Symbolism and Meaning of Animals
  200. 18.5: Pet-Keeping
  201. 18.6: Animal Industries and the Animal Trade
  202. 18.7: Key Terms
  203. 18.8: Summary
  204. 18.9: Critical Thinking Questions
  205. 18.10: Bibliography
  206. 19: Indigenous Anthropology
  207. 19.1: Introduction
  208. 19.2: Indigenous Peoples
  209. 19.3: Colonization and Anthropology
  210. 19.4: Indigenous Agency and Rights
  211. 19.5: Applied and Public Anthropology and Indigenous Peoples
  212. 19.6: Key Terms
  213. 19.7: Summary
  214. 19.8: Critical Thinking Questions
  215. 19.9: Bibliography
  216. 20: Anthropology on the Ground
  217. 20.1: Introduction
  218. 20.2: Our Challenging World Today
  219. 20.3: Why Anthropology Matters
  220. 20.4: What Anthropologists Can Do
  221. 20.5: Key Terms
  222. 20.6: Summary
  223. 20.7: Critical Thinking Questions
  224. 20.8: Bibliography
  225. Back Matter
  226. Index
  227. Glossary
  228. Detailed Licensing