Lab Manual and Workbook for Physical Anthropology [Paperback]

Diane L. France (Author), Arthur David Horn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992 | ISBN-10: 0314934456 | ISBN-13: 978-0314934451 | Edition: 2

Now in full color, Diane France's lab manual balances the study of human osteology, forensic anthropology, anthropometry, primates, human evolution, and genetics with a new chapter on growth & development, more material on disease and more on the anomalies of the human skeleton caused by disease and mechanical stress. Redundant and complex exercises have been pulled and the art program has been greatly enhanced with color images that include scales and orientation information. Exercises now contain thumbnail images of the related images for easy reference. In addition to providing hands-on lab assignments that help students apply physical anthropology perspectives and techniques to real situations, the Lab Manual provides a wealth of solid information and photographs that support the identification and observation problems that help make the concepts of physical anthropology easier to understand. This edition has been thoroughly reviewed, error-checked, revised and updated for complete accuracy and more balanced coverage of topic material. Diane France brings full color visuals, a new chapter on Growth & Development, a unique chapter on Forensic Anthropology and an online Instructor's Manual that includes answers to the exercises contained in the lab manual, to make this manual even easier to integrate into your course.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Diane France received her Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of Colorado and was certified in forensic anthropology in 1989 by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology; she is currently on the board of directors and is also a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Dr. France is the director of the Laboratory for Human Identification at Colorado State University and is the president of NecroSearch, International, a multidisciplinary team dedicated to helping law enforcement search for clandestine graves and recovering evidence (including bodies) from those crime scenes. She is active in the federal disaster mortuary team, DMORT, and has responded to numerous mass fatality incidents. She is also a member of the Colorado Body Identification Team. Dr. France is well-known from her fossil casting business and as a board-certified forensic anthropologist. --This text refers to the Spiral-bound edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: West Group; 2 edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0314934456
• ISBN-13: 978-0314934451
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,808,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ONLY GAME IN TOWN, December 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Lab Manual and Workbook for Physical Anthropology (Spiral-bound)

I've used this manual for my physical anthropology classes since the 3rd edition, and there has been some improvement. It's the only game in town as far as lab manuals go, although the students also like Kappelman's VIRTUAL LABORATORIES cd-rom.

There's an instructor's manual available for printout from the publisher, but the key has some WRONG answers, which is annoying when one is swamped or has a student assistant grading who may not realize that the key is wrong. For example, the solution to the ABO blood group frequencies in exercise 1.6.3b is wrong and there are some weird stats in exercise 11.2's key, but that might be my mistake.

Some of the info is arcane, and refers to information that is not available in the prefatory chapter in the manual or in most phys anth texts. Specifically, why is it important to know about cingula?

The exercises are a bit redundant and over-long, but that's what the students have told me -- I actually like the way that France has the students build the answers to the problems in stages, going from simple to complex. The pictures in the 5th edition ARE better, but the mechanics of doing the exercises w/pictures can get crazy sometimes, what with flipping back to see this figure or that. Some exercises refer to figures several chapters back, and are a little hard to find.

I know that I will keep using this manual. It's good for undergraduate through graduate students, it represents a huge amount of work on France's part (which I appreciate!) and it's the only game in town.

*** this review refers to the latest, 5th edition.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An anthropology student's nightmare, March 21, 2005

By 

Sara Kepner "Sara" (Elmira, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lab Manual and Workbook for Physical Anthropology (Spiral-bound)

My professor has chosen to use this lab book for her "Introductory Biological Anthropology" course. On average, my classmates and I spend around four or five hours hunting for answers hidden within. The common theory we have is that somewhere there is a textbook that might accompany it. The diagrams are not very helpful - tiny black and white pictures that we are supposed to compare in size, shape, etc. The questions are very vague - before I started to type this review, I was using google to try to find some sort of answers for my lab before meeting with almost half of my class to go over what we've each individually found. At the end of term, I am definately having a book burning party for this manual!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A serviceable manual sorely in need of a major update, October 8, 1999

By 

Jason Harris (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lab Manual and Workbook for Physical Anthropology (Paperback)

I use this manual to teach an introductory lab in physical anthropology. The third edition is a small improvement over the second. For beginning students, the photographs and diagrams are not clear enough to teach from and must be supplemented from other sources. Most of the practice problems are fairly good but the book lacks an appendix of answers or an accompanying instructor's manual leaving the instructor to guess at the intent of the authors for some of the more obscure examples. However, considering the dearth of good lab manuals for physical anthropology this is not the worst.