Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems

by John H. Bodley

Using the cross-cultural, evolutionary, and multi-disciplinary perspectives that are unique to anthropology, this text examines some of the contemporary civilization's most pressing problems and generates ideas for solutions.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My culture is too big.

My CULTURE... is TOO BIG!

I am a banana grown for export on a plantation by former subsistence farmers who are now malnourished due to their low wages!

This is a textbook I was assigned for an Anthro class called "Culture and the Environment." It is about everything that is wrong in the world. In a nutshell, as human cultures have increased in scale and complexity from small autonomous bands of foragers to the global market economy of today, cultural elites have gained more and more power and life for everyone else has gotten fairly well fuxxored. Seriously - folks in hunter-gatherer societies generally work less than people in more stratified societies, they're better-fed, and their lifestyles don't lead to mass extinctions or global warming. Pretty sweet, right? Unfortunately, there's just not enough resources for all six-point-some billion of us to grab a basket and go foraging. In fact, there aren't even enough non-renewable resources to keep the current world food system going indefinitely. Plus billions of people are already malnourished. I could go on...

This stuff can get depressing really quickly, but there are two factors that minimize the angst. First, it's absolutely fascinating. If you want the Really Big Picture when it comes to human society, leave the philosophers and sociologists alone and go ask an anthropologist*. Second, it's probably not too late to change course. Despair is no fun, but more importantly, it's no help. I suspect that when I finally make the leap from "I'm interested in this topic" to "I want to make this topic my life's work," said topic will be one of the subjects dealt with in this book, if only peripherally. The more people interested in solving Big Problems, the better.

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*True, you'd get an even broader perspective from a geologist or astrophysicist, but unless you can handle the Total Perspective Vortex I wouldn't recommend asking them either.

[Jen Bracken-Hull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting sections on conflict and consumer culture, in particular.