Explore the most fascinating, creative, dangerous, and complex species alive today: you and your neighbors in the global village. With compelling photos, engaging examples, and select studies by anthropologists in far-flung places, the authors of ANTHROPOLOGY: The Human Challenge provide a holistic view of anthropology to help you make sense of today's world. With this text you will discover the different ways humans face the challenge of existence, the connection between biology and culture in the shaping of human behavior, and the impact of globalization on peoples and cultures around the world.

This textbook introduces the basics of physical, cultural, and linguistic anthropology, as well as archaeology. It explores the fossil evidence of early bipeds and humans, the ways societies adapt through culture to their environment, and modern methods for understanding social organization and change. The twelfth edition adds chapters on human adaptation and ethnographic fieldwork Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dr. William A. Haviland is Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont, where he founded the Department of Anthropology and taught for thirty-two years. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He has carried out original research in archaeology in Guatemala and Vermont, ethnography in Maine and Vermont and physical anthropology in Guatemala. This work has been the basis of numerous publications in various national and international books and journals as well as in media intended for the general public. His books include The Original Vermonters, coauthored with Marjorie Power, and a technical monograph on ancient Maya settlement. He also served as technical consultant for the award winning telecourse, Faces of Culture, and is coeditor of the series Tikal Reports, published by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Besides his teaching and writing, Dr. Haviland has lectured to numerous professionals, as well as, non-professional audiences in Canada, Mexico, Lesotho, South Africa and Spain and the United States. A staunch supporter of indigenous rights, he served as expert witness for the Missisquoi Abenakis of Vermont in an important court case over aboriginal fishing rights. Awards received by Dr. Haviland include being named University Scholar by the Graduate School of the University of Vermont in 1990, a Certificate of Appreciation from the Sovereign Republic of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, St. Francis/Sokoki Band in 1996, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for Research in Vermont in 2006. Now retired from teaching, he continues his research, writing and lecturing from the coast of Maine.Harald E.L. Prins (Ph.D. New School 1988) is a University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Kansas State University and guest curator at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Born in The Netherlands, he studied at universities in Europe and the United States. He has done extensive fieldwork among indigenous peoples in South and North America, published dozens of articles in five languages, co-edited some books, and authored "The Mi'kmaq: Resistance, Accommodation, and Cultural Survival" (1996). He also made award-winning documentaries and served as president of the Society for Visual Anthropology and visual anthropology editor of the "American Anthropologist." Dr. Prins has won his university's most prestigious undergraduate teaching awards and held the Coffman Chair for University Distinguished Teaching Scholars (2004-05). Most recently, Dr. Prins was selected as Professor of the Year for the State of Kansas by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Active in human rights, he served as expert witness in Native rights cases in the U.S. Senate and various Canadian courts, and was instrumental in the successful federal recognition and land claims of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs (1991).Dr. Dana Walrath is Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Vermont and a Women's Studies affiliated faculty member. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and is a medical and biological anthropologist with principal interests in biocultural aspects of reproduction, the cultural context of biomedicine, genetics, and evolutionary medicine. She directs an innovative educational program at the University of Vermont's College of Medicine that brings anthropological theory and practice to first year medical students. Before joining the faculty at the University of Vermont in 2000, she taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Health Resources and Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the Templeton Foundation. Dr. Walrath's publications have appeared in "Current Anthropology," "American Anthropologist" and "American Journal of Physical Anthropology". An active member of the Council on the Anthropology of Reproduction, she has also served on a national committee to develop women's health care learning objectives for medical education and works locally to improve healthcare for refugees and immigrants.Bunny McBride (M.A. Columbia U, 1980) is an award-winning writer specialized in cultural anthropology, indigenous peoples, international tourism, and natural conservation issues. Published in dozens of national and international print media, she has reported from Africa, Europe, China, and the U.S. Highly rated as a teacher, she served as visiting anthropology faculty at Principia College (1981-2002), the Salt Institute for Documentary Field Studies, and since 1996 as adjunct lecturer of anthropology at Kansas State University. McBride's many publications include "Women of the Dawn" (1999) and "Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris" (1995). Collaborating with Native communities in Maine, she curated various museum exhibits based on her books. The Maine state legislature awarded her a special commendation for significant contributions to Native women's history (1999). A community activist and researcher for the Aroostook Band of Micmacs (1981-91), she assisted this Maine Indian community in its successful efforts to reclaim lands, gain tribal status, and revitalize cultural traditions. Currently, McBride serves as co-principal investigator for a National Parks Service ethnography project, guest curator for an exhibition on the Rockefeller Southwest Indian Art Collection, oral history advisor for the Kansas Humanities Council, and board member of the Women's World Summit Foundation, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Part I. ANTHROPOLOGY: THE CHALLENGE OF KNOWING HUMANITY. 1. The Essence of Anthropology. 2. Biology and Evolution. 3. Living Primates. Part II. EVOLUTION: THE CHALLENGE OF UNDERSTANDING HUMAN ORIGINS. 4. Field Methods in ArchaeologyandPaleoanthropology. 5. Macroevolution and the Early Primates. 6. The First Bipeds. Part III. THE GENUS HOMO: BIOCULTURAL CHALLENGES. 7. Early Homo and the Origins of Culture. 8. Pre-modern Humans and the Elaboration of Culture. 9. The Global Expansion of Homo sapiens and Their Technology. Part IV. HUMAN BIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION: THE CHALLENGE OF TECHNOLOGYandHUMAN DIVERSITY. 10. The Neolithic Transition: The Domestication of Plants and Animals. 11. The Emergence of Cities and States. 12. Modern Human Diversity: Race and Racism. 13. Human Adaptation to a Changing World. Part V: CULTURE AND SURVIVAL: THE CHALLENGE OF COMMUNICATING, RAISING CHILDREN, AND STAYING ALIVE. 14. The Characteristics of Culture. 15. Ethnographic Research: Its History, Methods, and Theories. 16. Language and Communication. 17. Social Identity, Personality, and Gender. 18. Patterns of Subsistence. 19. Economic Systems. Part VI. FORMATION OF GROUPS: THE CHALLENGE OF COOPERATION. 20. Sex, Marriage, and Family. 21. Kinship and Descent. 22. Grouping by Gender, Age, Common Interest, and Class. Part VII. SEARCH FOR ORDER: THE CHALLENGE OF DISORDER. 23. Politics, Power, and Violence. 24. Spirituality, Religion, and the Supernatural. 25. The Arts. Part VIII. CHANGE AND THE FUTURE: THE CHALLENGE OF GLOBALIZATION. 26. Processes of Change. 27. Global Challenges, Local Responses, and the Role of Anthropology.