Meeting Anthropology Phase To Phase

In Meeting Anthropology, the major phases through which our species has passed provide the structure for a truly coherent encounter with general anthropology -- biological, archaeological, cultural, and linguistic, Part I, "Growing Up", covers the evolution of upright, large-brained primates. Part II, "Spreading Out", details how culture allowed these handy, intelligent beings to expand from their tropical homes to fill the world. Part III, "Crowding In", focuses on the dramatic cultural reconfigurations wrought by the growth of large societies, as humans populated the earth ever more densely. Part IV, "Switching On", explores how contemporary culture emerged from, and continues to be transformed by, the emergence of a world system and the ongoing process of industrialization. Throughout the book, the imperative we share with all animals to find and use energy sources is a key integrative theme. Also highly integrative is the book's consistency in defining and analyzing cultural systems -- including our own -- in terms of (1) the means by which societies interface with their physical and social environments; (2) the customary ways in which members of society interact with one another; and (3) the ideas through which reality is interpreted symbolically.

This volume, first published in 2001, presents research in psychological anthropology, including person-centred ethnography, activity theory, and cultural schema theory.

Although anthropologists have studied intentional communities in the past, they have seldom exerted a concerted effort to evaluate the intentional community in terms of the anthropological language of cultural change. Drawing from the work of Victor Turner, Gregory Bateson, and Anthony F. C. Wallace, Intentional Community examines historic and contemporary intentional communities within the United States, leading to a better understanding of these communities, the larger nation-state of which they are a part, and the ways in which the two interact. Applying classical anthropological theory to elements of western society, the contributors discuss how the individuals function; the ways in which these communities come into being and disappear; the various forms these communities take; how their members reinterpret features of the larger culture; and the ways in which outsiders relate to people within them.

Like Guns, Germs, and Steel, a work of breathtaking sweep and originality that reinterprets the human story. Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins. The fabrication of weapons, the mastery of fire, and the technologies of clothing and shelter radically restructured the human body, enabling us to walk upright, shed our body hair, and migrate out of tropical Africa. Symbolic communication transformed human evolution from a slow biological process into a fast cultural process. The invention of agriculture revolutionized the relationship between humanity and the environment, and the technologies of interaction led to the birth of civilization. Precision machinery spawned the industrial revolution and the rise of nation-states; and in the next metamorphosis, digital technologies may well unite all of humanity for the benefit of future generations. Synthesizing the findings of primatology, paleontology, archeology, history, and anthropology, Richard Currier reinterprets and retells the modern narrative of human evolution that began with the discovery of Lucy and other Australopithecus fossils. But the same forces that allowed us to integrate technology into every aspect of our daily lives have also brought us to the brink of planetary catastrophe. Unbound explains both how we got here and how human society must be transformed again to achieve a sustainable future. Technology: “The deliberate modification of any natural object or substance with forethought to achieve a specific end or to serve a specific purpose.”

This book is about people who have been forced resettle because of development projects. It takes stock of recent applied social science research on involuntary resettlement and forms a part of an international discussion on theories of resettlement and what social scientists can do about it.

The first comprehensive guide to anthropological studies of complex organizations Offers the first comprehensive reference to the anthropological study of complex organizations Details how organizational theory and research in business has adopted anthropology’s key concept of culture, inspiring new insights into organizational dynamics and development Highlights pioneering theoretical perspectives ranging from symbolic and semiotic approaches to neuroscientific frameworks for studying contemporary organizations Addresses the comparative and cross-cultural dimensions of multinational corporations and of non-governmental organizations working in the globalizing economy Topics covered include organizational dynamics, entrepreneurship, innovation, social networks, cognitive models and team building, organizational dysfunctions, global networked organizations, NGOs, unions, virtual communities, corporate culture and social responsibility Presents a body of work that reflects the breadth and depth of the field of organizational anthropology and makes the case for the importance of the field in the anthropology of the twenty-first century

Huaca Prieta—one the world's best-known, yet least understood, early maritime mound sites—and other Preceramic sites on the north coast of Peru bear witness to the beginnings of civilization in the Americas. Across more than fourteen millennia of human occupation, the coalescence of maritime, agricultural, and pastoral economies in the north coast settlements set in motion long-term biological and cultural transformations that led to increased social complexity and food production, and later the emergence of preindustrial states and urbanism. These developments make Huaca Prieta a site of global importance in world archaeology. This landmark volume presents the findings of a major archaeological investigation carried out at Huaca Prieta, the nearby mound Paredones, and several Preceramic domestic sites in the lower Chicama Valley between 2006 and 2013 by an interdisciplinary team of more than fifty international specialists. The book's contributors report on and analyze the extensive material records from the sites, including data on the architecture and spatial patterns; floral, faunal, and lithic remains; textiles; basketry; and more. Using this rich data, they build new models of the social, economic, and ontological practices of these early peoples, who appear to have favored cooperation and living in harmony with the environment over the accumulation of power and the development of ruling elites. This discovery adds a crucial new dimension to our understanding of emergent social complexity, cosmology, and religion in the Neolithic period.