From the Back Cover
The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft
Second Edition
Philip L. Stein
Rebecca Stein
Basic Approach
This concise introductory textbook emphasizes the major concepts of both anthropology and the anthropology of religion. It is aimed at students encountering anthropology for the first time.
Reviewers describe the text as vivid, rich, user-friendly, accessible, and well-organized. It examines religious expression from a cross-cultural perspective while still incorporating the key theoretical concepts. In addition to providing a basic overview of anthropology, including definitions of key terms and exposure to ethnographies, the text exposes students to the varying complexity of world religions.
New to This Edition
- Discussion of ethnographic examples has been expanded, while the number of examples has been reduced to provide greater focus.
- Discussion of altered states of consciousness and religious specialists has been split into two chapters and expanded.
- Number of illustrations throughout the text has been increased by fifty percent.
- New and expanded discussions in the this edition include myth analysis, fasting, altered states of consciousness in Upper Paleolithic art, and Islamic fundamentalism, among others.
About the Author
Rebecca Stein has been teaching with the Los Angeles Community College District since 1995 at various colleges, as well as at Pasadena City College. She joined the Anthropology faculty at Los Angeles Valley College in 2000. Ms. Stein received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she received a National Merit Scholarship. Her work has been focused in cultural and psychological anthropology, specifically concerned with child-rearing, transmitting values to children, deviance, gender and religion. She also has an interest in human biological evolution, particularly in the fields of genetics and the new field of Darwinian Psychology.
Philip L. Stein is a Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Anthropological and Geographical Sciences at Los Angeles Pierce College. He has also taught at East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles City College, and California State University, Northridge. He received his BA in Zoology and MA in Anthropology from UCLA.
Professor Stein is a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and a past president of the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges. He is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, National Center for Science Education, and the Southwestern Anthropological Association.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
