Anthropology For Dummies

Introduction

Part I: What Is Anthropology?

Chapter 1: Human Beings and Being Human: An Overview of Anthropology

Chapter 2: Looking Into Humanity's Mirror: Anthropology's History

Chapter 3: Actually, Four Mirrors: How Anthropology Is Studied

Part II: Physical Anthropology and Archaeology

Chapter 4: The Wildest Family Reunion: Meet the Primates

Chapter 5: My Career Is in Ruins: How Anthropologists Learn about the Past

Chapter 6: Bones of Contention: The Fossil Evidence for Early Human Evolution

Chapter 7: It's Good to Be Home: Homo sapiens sapiens, Our Biological Species

Chapter 8: Hunting, Fishing, Sailing, and Sledding: The Spread of Humanity Worldwide

Chapter 9: Old, Old McDonald: The Origins of Farming

Chapter 10: The Development of Civilization

Part III: Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics

Chapter 11: The Spice of Life: Human Culture

Chapter 12: From Kalahari to Minneapolis: How Cultural Anthropologists Work

Chapter 13: Can We Talk? Communication, Symbols, and Language

Chapter 14: Types of Types: Race and Ethnicity

Chapter 15: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Identity, Family, Kinship, and Gender

Chapter 16: Not at the Dinner Table! Religion and Politics

Part IV: So What? Anthropology, the Modern World, and You

Chapter 17: Kiss or Kill? Diversity, Conflict, and Culture

Chapter 18: Looming Disasters? From Overpopulation to Space Debris

Chapter 19: Eve and the Iceman: The Cutting Edge of Physical Anthropology

Chapter 20: Stonehenge and You: Why Archaeology Matters

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 21: Ten Things to Remember about Anthropology, Whatever Else You Forget

Chapter 22: Ten Great Careers for Anthropology Majors

Chapter 23: Ten Great Anthropologically Themed Movies and Books

Index

Cameron M. Smith's fascination with humanity was sparked on a 1984 trip to Mexico's Maya ruins; by 1987, he was a student of both Harvard University's early human archaeology field school at Kenya's Leakey research station and the University of London's Institute of Archaeology. He then went to Durham University in northern England for a Joint Honours BA in Anthropology & Archaeology, followed by an MA in Anthropology at Portland State University (in Portland, Oregon) and a PhD from Canada's Simon Fraser University.Since 2002, Dr. Smith has taught a wide variety of courses as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Portland State University's Department of Anthropology; he has also taught at Washington State University and Linfield College.Dr. Smith's scientific works have been published in journals such as the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and the Journal of Field Archaeology and books published by International Monographs in Prehistory and Oxford's British Archaeology Reports. His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation-funded Barrow Arctic Science Consortium.Reaching out from the academic world, Dr. Smith has written popular-science articles for Scientific American MIND, Archaeology, Playboy, Spaceflight, Skeptical Inquirer, South American Explorer, The Next Step, Cultural Survival Quarterly, The Bulletin of Primitive Technology, and other magazines. Anthropology For Dummies is Dr. Smith's second book. His first, written with Charles Sullivan, was The Top Ten Myths About Evolution (Prometheus, 2006).Evan T. Davies received his BA from Cornell University where he began his studies in anthropology. He earned a PhD in cultural anthropology from Rice University, and has conducted fieldwork throughout Europe, the South Pacific, and in many locations throughout sub-Saharan Africa. His doctoral dissertation reported on the land use patterns of the BaAka foragers of the central African