Forensic Anthropology


Book Description

Forensic Anthropology: Current Methods and Practice—winner of a 2015 Textbook Excellence Award (Texty) from The Text and Academic Authors Association—approaches forensic anthropology through an innovative style using current practices and real case studies drawn from the varied experiences, backgrounds, and practices of working forensic anthropologists. This text guides the reader through all aspects of human remains recovery and forensic anthropological analysis, presenting principles at a level that is appropriate for those new to the field, while at the same time incorporating evolutionary, biomechanical, and other theoretical foundations for the features and phenomena encountered in forensic anthropological casework. Attention is focused primarily on the most recent and scientifically valid applications commonly employed by working forensic anthropologists. Readers will therefore learn about innovative techniques in the discipline, and aspiring practitioners will be prepared by understanding the necessary background needed to work in the field today. Instructors and students will find Forensic Anthropology: Current Methods and Practice comprehensive, practical, and relevant to the modern discipline of forensic anthropology. - Winner of a 2015 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association - Focuses on modern methods, recent advances in research and technology, and current challenges in the science of forensic anthropology - Addresses issues of international relevance such as the role of forensic anthropology in mass disaster response and human rights investigations - Includes chapter summaries, topicoriented case studies, keywords, and reflective questions to increase active student learning







The Politics of Anthropology


Book Description




Anthropologica


Book Description




Classic Anthropology


Book Description

Classic Anthropology is Bennett's label for the work produced by anthropologists during the period 1915-1955, which many believe represents the most productive era in the discipline's history. It is also one that can never be repeated, given the fact that most of anthropology's basic data - the ideas and customs of tribal peoples - have been extinguished or greatly transformed by modernization and nationalization. The book is composed of some fifteen essays. Among the issues examined are: the emergence of a functionalist viewpoint in ethnology; the difficulties of developing a theory of human behavior because of the focus on culture; the "search" for concepts of culture to serve specialized needs; the neglect of social psychology by the "culture and personality" field; how value judgments emerged, willy-nilly - or conversely, were neglected, in ethnological research; how applied anthropology was challenged by "Action Anthropology"; and how the interdisciplinary anthropology of the late 1940s was submerged in the postwar effort to return the discipline to traditionalroots. Individual anthropologists whose work is examined include, among others. Bronislaw Malinowski, Leslie Spier, Alfred Kroeber, Ralph Linton, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Clyde Kluckhohn, Gregory Bateson, and Walter Taylor.




The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art


Book Description

Rock art is one of the most visible and geographically widespread of cultural expressions, and it spans much of the period of our species' existence. Rock art also provides rare and often unique insights into the minds and visually creative capacities of our ancestors and how selected rock outcrops with distinctive images were used to construct symbolic landscapes and shape worldviews. Equally important, rock art is often central to the expression of and engagement with spiritual entities and forces, and in all these dimensions it signals the diversity of cultural practices, across place and through time. Over the past 150 years, archaeologists have studied ancient arts on rock surfaces, both out in the open and within caves and rock shelters, and social anthropologists have revealed how people today use art in their daily lives. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art showcases examples of such research from around the world and across a broad range of cultural contexts, giving a sense of the art's regional variability, its antiquity, and how it is meaningful to people in the recent past and today - including how we have ourselves tended to make sense of the art of others, replete with our own preconceptions. It reviews past, present, and emerging theoretical approaches to rock art investigation and presents new, cutting-edge methods of rock art analysis for the student and professional researcher alike.




Anthropology


Book Description

Integrating historical, biological, archaeological, and applied approaches with ethnographic data from around the world, Anthropology: A Global Perspective is founded on four essential themes: the diversity of human societies; the similarities that tie all humans together; the interconnections between the sciences and humanities; and a new theme addressing psychological essentialism.




New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory


Book Description

‘This volume brings together a diversity of international scholars, unified in the theme of expanding scientific knowledge about humanity’s past in the Asia-Pacific region. The contents in total encompass a deep time range, concerning the origins and dispersals of anatomically modern humans, the lifestyles of Pleistocene and early Holocene Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, the emergence of Neolithic farming communities, and the development of Iron Age societies. These core enduring issues continue to be explored throughout the vast region covered here, accordingly with a richness of results as shown by the authors. Befitting of the grand scope of this volume, the individual contributions articulate perspectives from multiple study areas and lines of evidence. Many of the chapters showcase new primary field data from archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. Equally important, other chapters provide updated regional summaries of research in archaeology, linguistics, and human biology from East Asia through to the Western Pacific.’ Mike T. Carson Associate Professor of Archaeology Micronesian Area Research Center University of Guam




Environmentalism and Cultural Theory


Book Description

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the attention paid by social scientists to environmental issues, and a gradual acknowledgement, in the wider community, of the role of social science in the public debate on sustainability. At the same time, the concept of `culture', once the property of anthropologists has gained wide currency among social scientist. These trends have taken place against a growing perception, among specialist and public, of the global nature of contemporary issues. This book shows how an understanding of culture can throw light on the way environmental issues are perceived and interpreted, both by local communities and within the contemporary global arena. Taking an anthropological approach the book examines the relationship between human culture and human ecology, and considers how a cultural approach to the study of environmental issues differs from other established approaches in social science. This book adds significantly to our understanding of environmentalism as a contemporary phenomenon, by demonstrating the distinctive contribution of social and cultural anthropology to the environmental debate. It will be of particular interest to students and researchers in the fields of social science and the environment.




Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology


Book Description

Social and cultural anthropology and archaeology are rich subjects with deep connections in the social and physical sciences. Over the past 150 years, the subject matter and different theoretical perspectives have expanded so greatly that no single individual can command all of it. Consequently, both advanced students and professionals may be confronted with theoretical positions and names of theorists with whom they are only partially familiar, if they have heard of them at all. Students, in particular, are likely to turn to the web to find quick background information on theorists and theories. However, most web-based information is inaccurate and/or lacks depth. Students and professionals need a source to provide a quick overview of a particular theory and theorist with just the basics—the "who, what, where, how, and why," if you will. In response, SAGE Reference plans to publish the two-volume Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia. Features & Benefits: Two volumes containing approximately 335 signed entries provide users with the most authoritative and thorough reference resource available on anthropology theory, both in terms of breadth and depth of coverage. To ease navigation between and among related entries, a Reader's Guide groups entries thematically and each entry is followed by Cross-References. In the electronic version, the Reader's Guide combines with the Cross-References and a detailed Index to provide robust search-and-browse capabilities. An appendix with a Chronology of Anthropology Theory allows students to easily chart directions and trends in thought and theory from early times to the present. Suggestions for Further Reading at the end of each entry and a Master Bibliography at the end guide readers to sources for more detailed research and discussion.