Introductory Readings in Anthropology

Key Features of Introductory Readings in Anthropology * The first anthropology reader intended to be used at A-Level as well as first-year undergraduate levels. * Edited by experts in the field, in consultation with the Royal Anthropological Institute. * Covers all four units to be taught as part of the Anthropology A-Level: "Being Human," "Becoming a Person," "Global and Local," and "Practising Anthropology." * Provides concise and accessible introductions to each section and subsection. * Features key extracts from essential anthropological works. * Includes new original texts written especially for the reader to clearly introduce key anthropological ideas. * Suggested further reading given for each section. Anthropology seeks to understand human social behaviour and how societies are formed. As a method of inquiry it embraces an enormous range of topics, and as a discipline it covers a multitude of fields and themes, as shown in this selection of original writings. As an accessible entry point, for upper-level students and first year undergraduates new to the study of anthropology, this reader also offers guidance for teachers in exploring the subject's riches with their students. That anthropology is an immensely expansive inquiry of study is demonstrated by the diversity of its topics - from nature conservation campaigns to witchcraft beliefs, from human evolution to fashion and style, and from the repatriation of indigenous human remains to research on literacy. There is no single 'story of anthropology'. Taken together, these fundamental readings are evidence of a contemporary, vibrant subject that has much to tell us about all the worlds in which we live. The reader contains four sections: the first looks at the body and how it is interpreted in anthropology; at ways of thinking and communicating; at how social relations are organised; and at ways of engaging with nature, the environment and human-made objects. The second section illustrates anthropologists' ideas about personhood as socially constituted, and ways of defining social boundaries and groups. The third studies the themes of globalisation (local and global processes); and the fourth the practice of anthropology, including anthropological ethics, methods and investigations.