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Written by one of the most famous modern anthropologists, the fifth edition of Cultural Anthropology continues to focus on the book's two major objectives. First, it presents a holistic view of sociocultural systems, and secondly, the book provides a unified theoretical framework for explaining these systems. It also remains faithful to the belief that anthropologists must routinely deal with facts and theories that are crucial to informed decisions regarding issues of enduring relevance. The cultural approach used throughout furnishes a framework for explaining how the parts of sociocultural systems are interrelated and how they change over time. The book also continues in its effort to identify the many causal strands that help explain the process of sociocultural change. It tries to make sense of the many seemingly irrational or arbitrary customs and institutions in small, technologically simple societies as well as complex nations. For anyone interested in the study of culture.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• 1 Introduction
• The Five Fields of Anthropology
• What Is Distinctive about Cultural Anthropology?
• Why Study Anthropology?
• 2 The Nature of Culture
• Definitions of Culture
• Society, Subculture, and Sociocultural System
• Science and the Relativity of Truth
• Fieldwork and the Mental and Behavioral Aspects of Culture
• The Universal Pattern
• The Diversity of Anthropological Theories
• Cultural Materialism
• 3 The Evolution of the Capacity for Culture
• Genes and Natural Selection
• Nonhuman Culture
• The Evolution of the Hominids
• Apes and Language
• Aggressive versus Cooperative Behavior among Apes
• 4 Language and Culture
• Universal Features of Language
• Structural Linguistics: Elements of Language Analysis
• Biological and Cultural Aspects of Language
• Language Issues and Theories
• Sociolinguistics
• 5 Production
• Evolution of Energy Production
• The Influence of the Environment and Ecology
• Carrying Capacity and the Law of Diminishing Returns
• Hunting and Gathering
• Agriculture
• Pastoralism
• Energy and the Evolution of Culture
• Industrial Food Energy Systems
• 6 Reproduction
• The Relation between Production and Reproduction
• Population Pressure versus Population Growth
• Preindustrial Reproductive Practices
• The Costs and Benefits of Rearing Children
• The Contraception, Abortion, and Infanticide Debate
• Industrial Modes of Reproduction
• Women's Status, Education, and Fertility
• 7 Human Sexuality
• Sex versus Gender
• Human Sexuality
• Heterosexuality
• Restrictive versus Permissive Cultures
• Male Homosexuality
• Female Homosexuality
• 8 Economic Organization
• Definition of Economy
• Exchange
• Redistributive Exchange
• Reciprocity versus Redistribution
• The Infrastructural Basis of Redistribution and Reciprocity
• Stratified Redistribution
• Price Market Exchange: Buying and Selling
• Patterns of Work
• 9 Domestic Life
• The Household and the Domestic Sphere of Culture
• Family Groups and the Mode of Production and Reproduction
• What Is Marriage?
• Economic Aspects of Marriage
• Preferential Marriages
• Domestic Groups and the Avoidance of Incest
• 10 Descent, Locality, and Kinship
• Kinship
• Descent
• Descent Rules: Cognatic and Unilineal Descent
• Postmarital Locality Patterns
• Kinship Terminologies
• Kin Terms Are Negotiated, Not Written in Stone
• 11 Law, Order, and War in Nonstate Societies
• Law and Order in Band and Village Societies
• Headmanship
• The Leopard Skin Chief
• Nonkin Associations: Sodalities
• Warfare among Hunters and Gatherers
• Warfare among Sedentary Village Societies
• Why War?
• Warfare, the Politics of Prestige, and the Big Man System
• 12 Origins and Anatomy of the State
• The Evolution of Big Man Systems into Chiefdoms
• Infrastructural and Structural Aspects of Political Control
• The Origins of States
• Ideology as a Source of Power
• The State and Physical Coercion
• 13 Class and Caste
• Class and Power
• Peasant Classes
• The Image of Limited Good
• Castes in India
• 14 Ethnicity, Race, and Racism
• Ethnicity
• Biological Races versus Social Races versus Ethnic Groups
• The Competitive Dynamics of Ethnic and Racial Groups
• Defining Racism
• 15 Gender Hierarchies
• Gender Differences
• Gender Ideologies
• The Relativity of Gender Ideologies
• Are Women Equally Represented in Ethnographies
• Gender Hierarchy
• Variations in Gender Hierarchies
• Causes of Variation in Gender Hierarchies
• Hoes, Plows, and Gender Hierarchies
• Gender and Exploitation
• Gender and Hyperindustrialism
• 16 Psychological Anthropology
• Culture and Personality
• Cultural Patterns and Themes
• Basic Personality Structure
• Childhood Training and Personality
• The Influence of Subsistence Patterns
• Subsistence and Adult Personality
• Schemas and Cognition
• Culture and Mental Illness
• 17 Religion
• Animism
• Animatism and Mana
• Natural and Supernatural
• Magic and Religion
• The Organization of Religious Beliefs and Practices
• Religion and Political Economy: High Gods
• Revitalization Movements
• Taboo, Religion, and Ecology
• 18 Art
• What Is Art?
• Art as a Cultural Category
• The Evolution of Music and Dance
• Verbal Arts
• 19 Applied Anthropology
• What Is Applied Anthropology?
• Research, Theory, and Action
• What Do Applied Anthropologists Have to Offer?
• Applied Anthropology and Development
• Medical Anthropology
• Refugee Health Care
• Demographics: The U.S. Census Undercount
• Forensics
• Business and Anthropology
• Poverty and Health
• Anthropological Advocacy
• Appendix A A History of Theories of Culture
• Glossary
• Index

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Marvin Harris is an American anthropologist who was educated at Columbia University, where he spent much of his professional career. Beginning with studies on race relations, he became the leading proponent of cultural materialism, a scientific approach that seeks the causes of human behavior and culture change in survival requirements. His explanations often reduce to factors such as population growth, resource depletion, and protein availability. A controversial figure, Harris is accused of slighting the role of human consciousness and of underestimating the symbolic worlds that humans create. He writes in a style that is accessible to students and the general public, however, and his books have been used widely as college texts.

(Bowker Author Biography)