Cultural Anthropology - Conrad Kottak

About the book

Written by a renowned researcher and teacher, and noted for its scholarship and clarity of writing style, this comprehensive text continues to be one of the most concise, coherent introductions to cultural anthropology. This eighth edition has been rewritten at the sentence level, incorporating many suggestions from users of previous editions, prepublication reviewers of this edition, and students. It retains its solid coverage of anthropology's core - exposing students to its nature, scope, and its roles as a science and as a humanities field

Key features

An expanded illustration program is evident throughout the text, including many more photos, more tables, figures, and maps, as well as a new map program entitled, "Where in the World" that provides global maps with close-up locations of major groups discussed in the text.

A new chapter entitled "The Arts" (ch. 13) explores cross-cultural variations in art and its forms.

The chapter entitled "Language and Communication" has been moved forward to chapter 4 to achieve a better fit with the way most people seem to teach anthropology.

"Beyond the Classroom" boxes present original undergraduate student research from several colleges and universities.

New material on many topics, including Ethics, Team Research, Cultural Relativism and Human Rights, Nonverbal Communication and Ebonics.

Increased attention to critical thinking is evident throughout, including critical thinking questions at the end of each chapter, and in photo captions.

A new text specific Website contains additional and expanded material, including material deleted between the 7th and the 8th edition (e.g. former chapter 13, "Personality and World View"), links to relevant websites, five culture sketches written by Holly Peters-Golden, to provide more complete and detailed ethnographic examples of some of the major groups discussed in the text (e.g. Trobrianders). Web icons throughout the text alert students that related material can be found on the book's Website.

Students benefit from a text written by a renowned researcher and teacher from a premier anthropology department at the University of Michigan.

Since no single theoretical perspective orients this book, instructors with a wide range of views and approaches are able to use it effectively

About the author

Conrad Kottak
Conrad Phillip Kottak (A.B. Columbia, 1963; Ph.D. Columbia, 1966) is the Julian H. Steward Collegiate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where he has taught since 1968. He served as Anthropology Department chair from 1996 to 2006. In 1991 he was honored for his teaching by the University and the state of Michigan. In 1992 he received an excellence in teaching award from the College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts of the University of Michigan. In 1999 the America Anthropological Association awarded Professor Kottak the AAA/Mayfield Award for Excellence in the Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology.

Professor Kottak has done ethnographic fieldwork in cultural anthropology in Brazil (since 1962), Madagascar (since 1966), and the United States. Conrad Kottak's articles have appeared in academic journals including American Anthropologist, Journal of Anthropological Research, American Ethnologist, Ethnology, Human Organization, and Luso-Brazilian Review. He has also written for more popular journals, including Transaction/SOCIETY, Natural History, Psychology Today, and General Anthropology.

In recent research projects, Kottak and his colleagues have investigated the emergence of ecological awareness in Brazil, the social context of deforestation in Madagascar, and popular participation in economic development planning in northeastern Brazil.

Recently, Kottak was inducted to The National Academy of Sciences. This is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare.

Table of contents

Chapter 1: The Scope of Anthropology
Chapter 2: Field Methods
Chapter 3: Culture
Chapter 4: Language and Communication
Chapter 5: Ethnicity
Chapter 6: Race
Chapter 7: Making a Living
Chapter 8: Kinship and Descent
Chapter 9: Political Systems
Chapter 10: Marriage
Chapter 11: Gender
Chapter 12: Religion
Chapter 13: The Arts
Chapter 14: The Modern World System
Chapter 15: Colonialism and Development
Chapter 16: Cultural Exchange and Survival
Chapter 17: Applied Anthropology
Appendix: American Popular Culture
Bibliography