The Anthropology Book

Explore and understand the key ideas and movements in anthropology—the study of human societies and cultures and how they work.

What does it mean to be human? Why do we have rituals? How do family structures differ around the world, and why? The Anthropology Book answers questions like these and many, many more. Applying the Big Ideas series’ combination of authoritative, accessible text and bold graphics, The Anthropology Book introduces key concepts from different branches of the subject, such as cultural anthropology, ethnography, and biological anthropology, and explains how they have developed over the past century. The book explores the origins of human life and cultures, and how societies develop traditions, laws, and languages. Profiling renowned anthropologists, such as Claude Levi-Strauss and Margaret Mead, and covering topics as diverse as biology, medicine, war, sexuality, family roles, and kinship, The Anthropology Book is a fascinating, accessible introduction to the core principles of anthropological thought.