Cultural Anthropology (12th Edition) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Melvin R Ember (Author)

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Product Description

This comprehensive and scientific introduction to cultural anthropology helps students understand how humans vary culturally and why they got to be that way.  This new edition highlights migration and immigration in the context of globalization.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PREFACE The human species may be the most widespread species in the world today. Humans have been moving tremendous distances ever since Homo erectus moved out of Africa. To highlight this fact, this uniqueness of humans, we have prepared a new box feature for this edition which we call "Migrants and Immigrants." Almost half the chapters now contain a box about some aspect of the movement of people, ranging from prehistory to recent times. Examples are research on when hominids first migrated out of Africa, possible routes humans may have taken in their migration to the Americas, the spread of foods in recent times, arranging marriages in the diaspora, and the problem of refugees. We have decided to reintroduce a separate chapter on theoretical approaches in cultural anthropology, which reviewers suggested. The separate chapter on "Explanation and Evidence" now has new material on ethics in fieldwork and an expanded discussion of cross-cultural research. Ethical issues are also given more attention in various other chapters. In updating the book, we try to go beyond descriptions, as always. We are interested not only in what humans are and were like; we are also interested in why they got to be that way, in all their variety. When there are alternative explanations, we try to communicate the necessity to evaluate them logically as well as on the basis of the available evidence. Throughout the book, we try to communicate that no idea, including ideas put forward in textbooks, should be accepted even tentatively without supporting tests that could have gone the other way.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 12 edition (April 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132197332
• ISBN-13: 978-0132197335
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #294,560 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Happy with purchase......, September 25, 2009

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great purchase, June 3, 2009

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This book is in excellent condition. I was very pleased with the shipping & the item.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Cultural Anthropology book, March 31, 2009

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the book that i order was excellent.it was very cheap and it came to my house in less then two days(i thought it was going to take a week!).if i had to buy another book from amazon.com i would buy it from this seller.