Race and Human Diversity

Race and Human Diversity
Author: Robert L. Anemone
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2015-09-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317344758

This book lays out some of the basic problems of a biological theory of race, in particular the arbitrariness of most racial classifications based on biological differences between populations. It provides the biological background to a consideration of the biology of human differences.

Dynamics of Human Biocultural Diversity

Dynamics of Human Biocultural Diversity
Author: Elisa J. Sobo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0429957947

This lively text by leading medical anthropologist Elisa J. Sobo offers a unique, holistic approach to human diversity and rises to the challenge of truly integrating biology and culture. The inviting writing style and fascinating examples make important ideas from complexity theory and epigenetics accessible to students. In this second edition, the material has been updated to reflect changes in both the scientific and socio-cultural landscape, for example in relation to topics such as the microbiome and transgender. Readers learn to conceptualize human biology and culture concurrently—as an adaptive biocultural capacity that has helped to produce the rich range of human diversity seen today. With clearly structured topics, an extensive glossary and suggestions for further reading, this text makes a complex, interdisciplinary topic a joy to teach. Instructor resources include an extensive test bank and a study guide.

Introduction to Human Evolution

Introduction to Human Evolution
Author: Gillian Crane-Kramer
Publisher: Cognella Academic Publishing
Total Pages:
Release: 2018-07-25
Genre:
ISBN: 9781516546145

Introduction to Human Evolution has been developed in direct response to student feedback on the standard textbook approach to the subject matter. Concise and filled with engaging images, the book makes evolution, primatology, and human variation appealing to today's learners. The book introduces readers to issues surrounding the theory of evolution, sheds light on questions about what evolution is or isn't, and discusses how we know what we think we do about it. Readers will learn about early hominins, the Australopithecines, and the genus Homo. The book also addresses population history and genetics, adaptation and acclimatization, and anatomically modern humans. It concludes with the big question--where will we go from here? Each chapter is a balance of text, exercises, graphs, and visuals. The exercise worksheets support independent learning, and answers are provided to allow for self-assessment. Introduction to Human Evolution is an excellent choice for courses in anthropology and biology. It is accessible to non-majors, but can also be used in introductory courses for science majors.

The Trouble with Human Nature

The Trouble with Human Nature
Author: Elizabeth D. Whitaker
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2017-02-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1315451727

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- CONTENTS -- PART I Pathways to the present -- 1 Envisioning evolution: representations of humanness and causation -- 2 Origin stories: the co-evolution of human anatomy and sociality -- 3 Losses and gains: economic and health transitions since the Neolithic Revolution -- PART II Plasticity, identity, and health -- 4 Thicker than water: blood and milk in human evolution -- 5 Risk and responsibility: power and danger in individualized approaches to preventive health -- 6 Difference as destiny: race, sex, and culture -- PART III Sex and gender -- 7 Choosers and cheaters: the sexual/reproductive conflict hypothesis -- 8 Hoe and plow, pig and cow: work, family, and gender stratification -- 9 Tale of two-spirits: constructing gender and sexuality, aptitudes and inclinations -- PART IV Conflict and violence -- 10 Savage empathy: sources of competitiveness and cooperativeness, greed and generosity -- 11 Why stratify? Inequality and interpersonal violence -- 12 Peace and war: patterns and prevention of violent intergroup conflict -- Appendix: Life expectancy rate calculations -- Index.

Human Diet and Nutrition in Biocultural Perspective

Human Diet and Nutrition in Biocultural Perspective
Author: Tina Moffat
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1845459814

There are not many areas that are more rooted in both the biological and social-cultural aspects of humankind than diet and nutrition. Throughout human history nutrition has been shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces, and in turn, access to food and nutrition has altered the course and direction of human societies. Using a biocultural approach, the contributors to this volume investigate the ways in which food is both an essential resource fundamental to human health and an expression of human culture and society. The chapters deal with aspects of diet and human nutrition through space and time and span prehistoric, historic, and contemporary societies spread over various geographical regions, including Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia to highlight how biology and culture are inextricably linked.

Human Biology

Human Biology
Author: Sara Stinson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 887
Release: 2012-04-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0470179643

This comprehensive introduction to the field of human biology covers all the major areas of the field: genetic variation, variation related to climate, infectious and non-infectious diseases, aging, growth, nutrition, and demography. Written by four expert authors working in close collaboration, this second edition has been thoroughly updated to provide undergraduate and graduate students with two new chapters: one on race and culture and their ties to human biology, and the other a concluding summary chapter highlighting the integration and intersection of the topics covered in the book.

Cultural Evolution

Cultural Evolution
Author: Peter J. Richerson
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262019752

Leading scholars report on current research that demonstrates the central role of cultural evolution in explaining human behavior. Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has emerged from a variety of disciplines to highlight the importance of cultural evolution in understanding human behavior. Wider application of these insights, however, has been hampered by traditional disciplinary boundaries. To remedy this, in this volume leading researchers from theoretical biology, developmental and cognitive psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, and economics come together to explore the central role of cultural evolution in different aspects of human endeavor. The contributors take as their guiding principle the idea that cultural evolution can provide an important integrating function across the various disciplines of the human sciences, as organic evolution does for biology. The benefits of adopting a cultural evolutionary perspective are demonstrated by contributions on social systems, technology, language, and religion. Topics covered include enforcement of norms in human groups, the neuroscience of technology, language diversity, and prosociality and religion. The contributors evaluate current research on cultural evolution and consider its broader theoretical and practical implications, synthesizing past and ongoing work and sketching a roadmap for future cross-disciplinary efforts. Contributors Quentin D. Atkinson, Andrea Baronchelli, Robert Boyd, Briggs Buchanan, Joseph Bulbulia, Morten H. Christiansen, Emma Cohen, William Croft, Michael Cysouw, Dan Dediu, Nicholas Evans, Emma Flynn, Pieter François, Simon Garrod, Armin W. Geertz, Herbert Gintis, Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Daniel B. M. Haun, Joseph Henrich, Daniel J. Hruschka, Marco A. Janssen, Fiona M. Jordan, Anne Kandler, James A. Kitts, Kevin N. Laland, Laurent Lehmann, Stephen C. Levinson, Elena Lieven, Sarah Mathew, Robert N. McCauley, Alex Mesoudi, Ara Norenzayan, Harriet Over, Jürgen Renn, Victoria Reyes-García, Peter J. Richerson, Stephen Shennan, Edward G. Slingerland, Dietrich Stout, Claudio Tennie, Peter Turchin, Carel van Schaik, Matthijs Van Veelen, Harvey Whitehouse, Thomas Widlok, Polly Wiessner, David Sloan Wilson

In Light of Our Differences

In Light of Our Differences
Author: David Harmon
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2002-09-17
Genre: Nature
ISBN:

"More and more applied work in biology, anthropology, linguistics, and allied fields is now undergirded by the assumption that we are approaching a threshold of irreversible loss..." asserts Harmon in his preface. He undertakes investigation of the "converging extinction crises," presenting far-reaching philosophical and scientific discussion with particular attention to the connections between biological and cultural diversity. Harmon is identified as a cofounder of Terralingua, a non-profit organization supporting linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity, and as director of the George Wright Society (advancing parks and other protected areas); his scientific or other credentials are not stated. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society

The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society
Author: Jules Pretty
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 641
Release: 2007-10-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1446250083

"A monumental and timely contribution to scholarship on society and environments. The handbook makes it easy and compelling for anyone to learn about that scholarship in its full manifestations and as represented by some of the most highly respected researchers and thinkers in the English-speaking world. It is wide-reaching in scope and far-reaching in its implications for public and private action, a definite must for serious researchers and their libraries." - Bonnie J McCay, Rutgers University "This is the desert island book for anyone interested in the relationship between society and the environment. The editors have assembled a masterful collection of contributions on every conceivable dimension of environmental thinking in the social sciences and humanities. No library should be without it!′ - Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society focuses on the interactions between people, societies and economies, and the state of nature and the environment. Editorially integrated but written from multi-disciplinary perspectives, it is organised in seven sections: Environmental thought: past and present Valuing the environment Knowledges and knowing Political economy of environmental change Environmental technologies Redesigning natures Institutions and policies for influencing the environment Key themes include: locations where the environment-society relation is most acute: where, for example, there are few natural resources or where industrialization is unregulated; the discussion of these issues at different scales: local, regional, national, and global; the cost of damage to resources; and the relation between principal actors in the environment-society nexus. Aimed at an international audience of academics, research students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers, The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society presents readers in social science and natural science with a manual of the past, present and future of environment-society links.