Social Science Anthropology

Race is one of the most elusive phenomena of social life. While we generally know it when we see it, it's not an easy concept to define. Social science literature has argued that race is a Western concept that emerged with the birth of modern imperialism, whether in the 16th century or the 18th century. This book points out that there is a disjuncture between the way race is conceptualized in the social sciences and in recent natural science literature. In the view of some proponents of natural-scientific perspectives, race has a biological - and not just a purely social-dimension.

While doing fieldwork on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, anthropologist Gregory Forth came across people talking about half-apelike, half-humanlike creatures that once lived in a cave on the slopes of a nearby volcano. Over the years he continued to record what locals had to say about these mystery hominoids while searching for ways to explain them as imaginary symbols of the wild or other cultural representations. We follow Forth on the trail of this mystery hominoid, and the space they occupy in islanders' culture as both natural creatures and as supernatural beings.

In this illuminating tour of humanity, Joy Hendry and Simon Underdown reveal the origins of our species, and the fabric of human society, through the discipline of anthropology. Via fascinating case studies and discoveries, they unravel our understanding of human behaviours and beliefs, including how witchcraft has been used to justify misfortune, and debunk old-fashioned ideas about 'race' based upon the latest genetic research. They even share what our bathroom tells us about our concept of the body – and ourselves.

In the 1990s a small midwestern American town approved the construction of a massive pork complex, where almost 7 million hogs are birthed, raised, and killed every year. In Porkopolis Alex Blanchette explores how this rural community has been reorganized around the life and death cycles of corporate pigs. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork, Blanchette immerses listeners into the workplaces that underlie modern meat, from slaughterhouses and corporate offices to artificial insemination barns and bone-rendering facilities.

At the dawn of the 21st century, British society is still shaped by a private education system devised to gentrify the Victorian middle classes and produce gentlemen to run the Empire. Yet it is not on the political agenda. It is rarely the subject of public debate, and we remain blind to its psychological implications. Can we afford to go on ignoring this issue? Will we continue to sacrifice the welfare of our children to satisfy our antiquated social aspirations?

Humans are remarkable beings. We have mastered flight, cracked the genetic code, developed quantum mechanics and democracy, been to the moon, and may soon become a multi-planetary species. Yet, despite these unparalleled achievements, we can still be...pretty stupid.

Our Political Nature is the first book to reveal the hidden roots of our most deeply held moral values. It shows how political orientations across space and time arise from three clusters of measurable personality traits. These clusters entail opposing attitudes toward tribalism, inequality, and differing perceptions of human nature. Together, these traits are by far the most powerful cause of left-right voting, even leading people to regularly vote against their economic interests.

Alone among the creatures of the world, man suffers a pang both bitter and sweet. It is an ache for the homecoming. The Greeks called it nostalgia. Post-modern man, homeless almost by definition, cannot understand nostalgia. If he is a progressive, dreaming of a utopia to come, he dismisses it contemptuously, eager to bury a past he despises. If he is a reactionary, he sentimentalizes it, dreaming of a lost golden age. In this profound reflection, Anthony Esolen explores the true meaning of nostalgia and its place in the human heart.

David Roberts describes the culture of the Anasazi - the name means "enemy ancestors" in Navajo - who once inhabited the Colorado Plateau and whose modern descendants are the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Archaeologists, Roberts writes, have been puzzling over the Anasazi for more than a century, trying to determine the environmental and cultural stresses that caused their society to collapse 700 years ago. He guides us through controversies in the historical record, among them the haunting question of whether the Anasazi committed acts of cannibalism.

In diesen pointierten Texten setzt sich Nietzsche mit der Rolle des Künstlers auseinander: mit Eitelkeit, Einsamkeit, Schöpferkraft, Selbstzweifeln – und dem Spannungsfeld zwischen Inspiration und Selbstüberschätzung. Die Aphorismen sind scharf, klug und bis heute provozierend aktuell – ein psychologisches Porträt des schöpferischen Menschen und ein kritischer Blick auf die Kulturszene seiner Zeit.

During the early twentieth century, the American government’s standing expectation was that Native Americans should be adopting Western customs. In the face of that prospect, anthropologist and musicologist Frances Densmore sought to preserve Native American culture—particularly as it was expressed through music. In her extensive writings on Native American lifestyles, music, and history, Densmore opened a window onto American experiences that had been obscured by stereotypes, and encouraged a better appreciation of the varied traditions of tribes nationwide.

The monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works?

Dal primo avventurarsi su due gambe nelle pianure africane alla produzione di pitture rupestri, piramidi, bastimenti, parlamenti e molto altro: tanto si è scritto sul cammino evolutivo dell'umanità grazie al lavoro di paleontologi, archeologi e genetisti. Ciascuno di loro ha messo un tassello a formare un quadro generale della nostra storia.

Drawing from decades of experience in the craft of language, both Dimópulos and Coetzee face the reality that when it comes to self-expression, some things will always get lost in translation. Speaking in Tongues finally emerges as an engaging and accessible work of philosophy, shining a light on some of the most important linguistic and philological issues of our time.

How functional medicine leverages systems biology and epigenetic science to treat the microbiome and reverse chronic disease. Each body is a system within a system—an ecology within the larger context of social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental factors. This is one of the lessons of epigenetics, whereby structural inequalities are literally encoded in our genes.

The Villa Tugendhat, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1928, is an icon of architectural modernism and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Behind the Glass tells the true story of the large family connected to it, who rose to prominence through industrial textile manufacturing. The book traces the transformations in the life of the family, from their roots in a Jewish ghetto to part of the wealthy bourgeoisie in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to adaptation in interwar independent Czechoslovakia and flight in the face of Nazi invasion.

Inequality, social immobility, and political polarization are only a few crucial phenomena driven by the inevitability of social structures. Social structures determine who has power and influence, account for why people fail to assimilate basic facts, and enlarge our understanding of patterns of contagion - from the spread of disease to financial crises. Despite their primary role in shaping our lives, human networks are often overlooked when we try to account for our most important political and economic practices.

Hvorfor insisterer vi på at dele mennesker op i normale og unormale? Antropologen Christian Groes gør op med idéen om, at nogle hjerner skal fixes, tæmmes eller isoleres. Vi skal i stedet lære at sætte pris på det anderledes. Han drømmer om et overskudssamfund med ligeværd, omsorg og plads til særpræg. Gennem begrebet neodiversitet beskriver han udviklingen af normsamfundet og det skiftende syn på de naturlige varianter i hjernen. Bogens budskab er, at det ikke er de neurodivergente, der er syge eller forkerte, det er normsamfundets indretning, der skal ændres.

From renowned neuroscientist Dr. Vyshedskiy comes a bold and original account of the evolutionary journey that led to humanity’s most defining trait: syntactic language. Drawing on over 40 years of research and his acclaimed course Neuroscience of Consciousness and the Evolution of Language at Boston University, Vyshedskiy masterfully bridges cutting-edge neuroscience with anthropology, linguistics, and evolutionary biology.70,000 years ago, Earth was home to at least six human species. Today, only Homo sapiens remain. What set us apart?

Viktor E. Frankl'ın birçok dile çevrilen, dünyada milyonlarca satan bu baş yapıtı; acılarla başa çıkma, kişinin yaşam amacını bulma konusundaki sorgulamalarıyla birlikte okuyucular için unutulmaz bir tecrübe sunuyor. Genç yetişkinlere yönelik bu baskı Frankl'ın toplama kamplarındaki deneyimlerini, özet olarak yazarın 2. Dünya Savaşı öncesi geliştirmeye başladığı logoterapiyi, Frankl'ın mektup ve konuşmalarından oluşan bir seçkiyi, terimler sözlüğünü ve bir zaman çizelgesini içeriyor.