Mars’ graphic and often vivid narrative can be read simply as the anecdotal memoirs of an anthropologist. The experiences he recounts are sometimes hilarious, touch occasionally on the dangerous, and are always sensitively and expertly explored. But for those who want to know more, the book’s expansive footnotes and references to key sources also offer a stimulating introduction to social anthropology, its theories and its methods. Mars begins by describing his childhood life in a tightly structured working class community during World War Two. He then contrasts this with an account of the hidden underlife of an entrepreneurial, crime-prone seaside resort, Blackpool, where he worked as a spieler (barker). Two years’ experience of National Service provides an account of the social organisation of the RAF, followed by discussion of aspects of the organisation of Cambridge University. What follows then is a lifetime spent living and working in different cultures around the world. The results are continual insights gained by comparison and contrasts that illuminate aspects not only of other cultures, but, also, of our own.

Included in this collection are Medicine's clear-eyed views of assimilation, bilingual education, and the adaptive strategies by which Native Americans have conserved and preserved their ancestral languages.

Unlike the literary tradition of ethnographic fiction that attempts to bridge the gap between the world of the Western reader and the world of the exotic other of distant places, the fiction presented here focuses on the bridge itself. Richardson documents the emergence of the anthropologist's life in the context of the culture of the American South.

Writing is crucial to anthropology, but which genres are anthropologists expected to master in the 21st century? This book explores how anthropological writing shapes the intellectual content of the discipline and academic careers. First, chapters identify the different writing genres and contexts anthropologists actually engage with. Second, this book argues for the usefulness and necessity of taking seriously the idea of writing as a craft and of writing across and within genres in new ways. Although academic writing is an anthropologist’s primary genre, they also write in many others, from drafting administrative texts and filing reports to composing ethnographically inspired journalism and fiction.

Introduction to Forensic Anthropology provides comprehensive coverage of key methods and issues in forensic anthropology. Using terminology and best practices recommended by the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology (SWGANTH) and the Anthropology Consensus Body of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI/ACB), it introduces students to all the major topics in the field, with material ranging from the attribution of ancestry and sex, to various forms of bone trauma, to identification through radiography. This fully updated, sixth edition incorporates new and improved methods, new data and worked examples from North America and across the globe. It also includes a new discussion on probabilities and centiles, increased emphasis on quantification of error rates of both old and new methods, an updated ancestry chapter, and updated URLs with free software to calculate various characteristics. This is a self-contained textbook that is ideal for a lower-division college-level class for non-majors and majors alike. This accessible and engaging text offers an array of features to support teaching and learning, including: boxed case studies extensive figures and photographs chapter summaries and student exercises a glossary of terms additional reading lists critical resources hands-on application for students when used with accompanying lab manual further instructor and student resources via a companion website.

It may seem obvious that the human being has always been present in anthropology. This book, however, reveals that he has never really been a part of it. Theoretical Anthropology or How to Observe a Human Being establishes the foundations and conditions, both theoretical and methodological, which make it possible to consider the human being as a topic of observation and analysis, for himself as an entity, and not in the perspective of understanding social and cultural phenomena. In debate with both anthropologists and philosophers, this book describes and analyzes the human being as a “volume”. To this end, a specific lexicon is built around the notions of volume, volumography and volumology. These notions are further illustrated and enriched by several drawings.

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.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century the demand for anthropological approaches, understandings and methodologies outside academic departments is shifting and changing. Through a series of fascinating case studies of anthropologists’ experiences of working with very diverse organizations in the private and public sector this volume examines existing and historical debates about applied anthropology. It explores the relationship between the "pure and the impure" – academic and applied anthropology, the question of anthropological identities in new working environments, new methodologies appropriate to these contexts, the skills needed by anthropologists working in applied contexts where multidisciplinary work is often undertaken, issues of ethics and responsibility, and how anthropology is perceived from the ‘outside’. The volume signifies an encouraging future both for the application of anthropology outside academic departments and for the new generation of anthropologists who might be involved in these developments.