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Big Ideas Simply Explained
The Anthropology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained
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.
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.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published September 23, 2025
About the author
D.K. Publishing
10.3k books2,137 followersDorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 3, 2025
This book lives up to my personal hype I had to both be one of the first to read this beloved Big Ideas Simply Explained (BISE) series right as it released, and how anthropology is such a personal subject to explore, as it helps explain my place in the world!
What hooked me to read through these pages is the theories, analysis, and evidence to explain our existence and culture. With hindsight, it's easy to scoff at the early anthropological theories, as I have read and have access to a lot more complete picture of history and global cultures, but when anthropology first started back in the late 19th century to early 20th century, the picture of who the human race is was very small. Many of their theories are still relevant today either for context for the modern picture or to understand where some racist ideas originate from.
And that's one thing the book likes to explore, is anthropology's apologist attitude today towards its origins as a Western colonist exploitative field of science. That, though it advanced our understandings of the "Other" humans outside this bubble and in the case of Margaret Mead was very reassuring that some of our struggles are not biologically determined traits, anthropology was very much predatory towards the Indigenous groups they analyzed and lead to some unfortunate power imbalances.
What's further intriguing about this field is how it overlaps with sociology. These two disciplines couldn't be more similar! The most notable example being how often you'll read lines in this book like, "based on Marxist theories..." whereby "sociocultural anthropologists" (which is the most common type of anthropologist cited in these pages) quote or build off of Marxist or Friedrich Engel's ideas, mostly from their Communist Manifesto, which even though neither of them have their own section in this book, makes it feel like their manifesto is a must read to fully appreciate anthropology!
I loved loved loved reading this book! The cover looks good; this feels like Avengers: Infinity Wars with how many dang "Contributors" are unusually listed at the beginning, that this feels like the true culmination of what this BISE series has been building up towards for the past decade since it started; and I am really curious how and when they'll follow up this book with their next release???
Anyways, much love,
Happy nonfiction reading! <3
What hooked me to read through these pages is the theories, analysis, and evidence to explain our existence and culture. With hindsight, it's easy to scoff at the early anthropological theories, as I have read and have access to a lot more complete picture of history and global cultures, but when anthropology first started back in the late 19th century to early 20th century, the picture of who the human race is was very small. Many of their theories are still relevant today either for context for the modern picture or to understand where some racist ideas originate from.
And that's one thing the book likes to explore, is anthropology's apologist attitude today towards its origins as a Western colonist exploitative field of science. That, though it advanced our understandings of the "Other" humans outside this bubble and in the case of Margaret Mead was very reassuring that some of our struggles are not biologically determined traits, anthropology was very much predatory towards the Indigenous groups they analyzed and lead to some unfortunate power imbalances.
What's further intriguing about this field is how it overlaps with sociology. These two disciplines couldn't be more similar! The most notable example being how often you'll read lines in this book like, "based on Marxist theories..." whereby "sociocultural anthropologists" (which is the most common type of anthropologist cited in these pages) quote or build off of Marxist or Friedrich Engel's ideas, mostly from their Communist Manifesto, which even though neither of them have their own section in this book, makes it feel like their manifesto is a must read to fully appreciate anthropology!
I loved loved loved reading this book! The cover looks good; this feels like Avengers: Infinity Wars with how many dang "Contributors" are unusually listed at the beginning, that this feels like the true culmination of what this BISE series has been building up towards for the past decade since it started; and I am really curious how and when they'll follow up this book with their next release???
Anyways, much love,
Happy nonfiction reading! <3
September 28, 2025
Melalui sajian visual yang menarik dan teks yang komunikatif, The Anthropology Book mengajak pembaca menjelajah beragam gagasan dasar dalam antropologi secara lugas dan mendalam. Dimulai dari pertanyaan-pertanyaan mendasar seperti: “Apa artinya menjadi manusia?”, “Mengapa ritual muncul?”, hingga “Bagaimana bahasa, hukum, dan tradisi terbentuk dan berubah dari berbagai budaya di penjuru dunia?” Isi buku mencakup cabang‐cabang antropologi seperti antropologi budaya, etnografi, dan antropologi biologis, sambil menampilkan tokoh‐tokoh besar seperti Claude Lévi‐Strauss dan Margaret Mead sebagai contoh penerapan teori klasik hingga teori modern. Tidak hanya menyinggung kehidupan sosial dan struktur keluarga yang berbeda‐beda, juga dibahas aspek‐aspek seperti perang, seksualitas, peran gender, dan hubungan kekerabatan (kinship) dalam konteks yang variatif. Format buku memanfaatkan kombinasi teks yang otoritatif namun tetap mudah dipahami, serta grafik dan ilustrasi yang mendukung pemahaman konseptual. Pembaca akan diajak memahami bagaimana perkembangan ide‐ide antropologi telah membentuk pemahaman kita tentang manusia—baik dari sisi evolusi biologis, praktik budaya, maupun interaksi sosial. Buku ini cocok bagi pembaca yang baru tertarik dengan antropologi, mahasiswa ilmu sosial, pengajar, ataupun siapa saja yang ingin memperluas pandangan tentang keberagaman manusia dan cara-cara budaya mempengaruhi cara kita berpikir dan hidup. Disertai referensi dari sumber‐sumber terpercaya dan kajian lintas disiplin, buku ini menjadi pintu masuk yang mencerahkan bagi eksplorasi antropologi yang lebih lanjut. https://blog.periplus.com/2025/09/22/...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews