Applying Cultural Anthropology

This supplementary reader is composed of both classic and contemporary articles that demonstrate the significant contributions that cultural anthropologists make; the emphasis is on the applicability of cultural anthropology to understanding and improving the present day human condition.

A collection of fifty four articles that show how and why anthropologists study humans.

The reader offers a selection of 39 articles written in the words of those cultural anthropologists who are making their discipline useful.... Realizing that many other articles could have been included, the categories and the articles contained with them, are meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. The reader can be used effectively as a supplement to any introductory textbook in cultural anthropology. The readings would be appropriate for undergraduate level courses in applied anthropology. The intent of this reader is twofold. First, it is to provide undergraduate anthropology students with a wide range of examples as to how the discipline is making meaningful contributions to the mitigation of human problems. And second, [the editor hopes] to convey, through the words of the practicing anthropologists themselves, some of the challenges and rewards involved in making cultural anthropology useful. -Pref.

Culture and Health offers an overview of different areas of culture and health, building on foundations of medical anthropology and health behavior theory. It shows how to address the challenges of cross-cultural medicine through interdisciplinary cultural-ecological models and personal and institutional developmental approaches to cross-cultural adaptation and competency. The book addresses the perspectives of clinically applied anthropology, trans-cultural psychiatry and the medical ecology, critical medical anthropology and symbolic paradigms as frameworks for enhanced comprehension of health and the medical encounter. Includes cultural case studies, applied vignettes, and self-assessments.

In addition to a comprehensive overview of the discipline, CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: AN APPLIED PERSPECTIVE, goes beyond basic introductory material by applying the theory, insights, and methods of cultural anthropology to contemporary situations that students both majors and non-majors are likely to encounter in their professional and personal lives. In the Eighth Edition, new co-author Susan Andreatta adds her expertise in economic and medical anthropology to that of Gary Ferraro, who has worked extensively in the anthropology of business, education, and organizational structures. Through the book’s lucid narrative and wealth of modern examples, students come to understand how to view the world in which they find themselves today. New applied case studies opening each chapter are designed to catch the attention of students and remind them that the study of anthropology really is relevant to our lives. These introductory case studies, the popular Cross-Cultural Miscues presenting real-life examples, and Applied Perspectives features are now designated with a SWAP icon (Share with a Parent or friend) to encourage students to recognize the importance and necessity of understanding culture what it is and how it changes as individuals living in today’s world. The Contemporary Issues features and in-text examples also emphasize the relevance of anthropology to students’ lives and include new topics, including how South Korean society has rethought the value of having female children and whether or not professional anthropologists should work for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, to help students better understand and participate in the globalized world around them. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

The realities of the globalized world have revolutionized traditional concepts of culture, community, and identity—so how do applied social scientists use complicated, fluid new ideas such as translocality and ethnoscape to solve pressing human problems? In this book, leading scholar/practitioners survey the development of different subfields over at least two decades, then offer concrete case studies to show how they have incorporated and refined new concepts and methods. After an introduction synthesizing anthropological practice, key theoretical concepts, and ethnographic methods, chapters examine the arenas of public health, community development, finance, technology, transportation, gender, environment, immigration, aging, and child welfare. An innovative guide to joining dynamic theoretical concepts with on-the-ground problem solving, this book will be of interest to practitioners from a wide range of disciplines who work on social change, as well as an excellent addition to graduate and undergraduate courses.