Anthropology for Dummies

by Cameron M. Smith, Evan T. Davies

Covers the latest competing theories in the field Get a handle on the fundamentals of biological and cultural anthropology

When did the first civilizations arise? How many human languages exist? The answers are found in anthropology - and this friendly guide explains its concepts in clear detail. You'll see how anthropology developed as a science, what it tells us about our ancestors, and how it can help with some of the hot-button issues our world is facing today.

Discover:


How anthropologists learn about the past Humanity's earliest activities, from migration to civilization Why our language differs from other animal communication How to find a career in anthropology

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Science, History, Reference, Education, Social Science

380 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[David Roberts]

The book I read to research this post was Anthropology For Dummies by Cameron M Smith which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book is an introduction to the subject of anthropology and tries to demystify what is often considered a difficult subject. As with a lot of for dummies books it does a good job in that respect. In the old days anthropology was a bit of a quack subject carried out by a few eccentrics and often they were what we call social darwinists and didn't respect the new culture and couldn't wait to assimilate it into western ideas or thought the studied culture was going to die out anyway so they would just do a study of it before it did. What more serious anthropologists have discovered is we can learn alot about other ways of life and it can potentially help benefit our society and nowadays this subject is taken very seriously and of course they are a lot let eager to assimilate every culture into the western way of life. We can also learn a lot about ourselves and why our society is the way it is from studying this subject. We know we are descended from primates and that there are over 200+ types of people which is probably simplifying it a bit. One of the big questions in this subject is why people are so diverse. We know the first people probably came out of eastern Africa & of course gradually spread. In many cases at certain points there were landbridges like the Bering Straits which have long since gone. In Australia surprisingly there have been humans for at least 40,000 years which is surprising because this was more remote from anywhere else. In contrast Western Europe has only had people for 20,000 years. One of the big revolutions in humankind was growing crops and domesticating animals. Rice has been grown for 10,500 years, horses have been used for 5,000 years and even guinea pigs were being bread for food 3,000 years ago in Peru, perhaps surprisingly.I enjoyed reading this book and it is a decent length.

[Jurij Fedorov]

An interesting and easy read but does leave a lot of science out like all evolutionary psychology, gender studies and a few other things like all the science on Neanderthals after 2008 - and that's quite a bit. It is at times repetitive and could use a new version where all the repetitive parts are deleted making it 20-30 pages shorter. And then deleting all the "this is immoral so don't do this" parts, making it another 30 pages shorter. Still a great read and comes highly recommended, but only if there is nothing better out there explaining this field as it should not be hard to improve upon this book.

[Cassandra Noelle]

This book was brilliant in helping me pass the General Anthropology DSST. It was terrible for everything else. Although this book was well-written and it presents its information in an easy-to-understand way, evolutionary theory was presented as fact and several derogatory statements were made about religion, Christianity, and Intelligent Design. Oh, well. At least I passed the test, but this is not a book that I would chose to read again.

[Ramon Mirabal]

This book is ecxellently written,it is very informative in a smooth way ;I recommend it to anyone curious enough towards ourselves!

This book is excellenttly written,it is very informative in a smooth way;I recommend it to anyone curious enough towards ourselves!

[Maggie]

Though I don't like thinking of myself as a dummy, this was a good introductory book.

[Benjamin Barnes]

Wow

This is goes into Great Detail about our Ancestors and our Cultures Beautifully written and very entertaining. Check this out. One of the best For Dummies books I've read

[Paul,]

Not bad, though it took me a loooong time to finish.

[Kelly]

Decent overview, but there's a ton of editing errors.

[Ola]

3.5
can't believe THIS is the first book I finished since covid ate my brain lmao

[Mohammed Sabah]

Simple review of anthropology for non specialists, easy language, reasonable approach. The field itself may give theories non acceptable by most monotheistic.

[Mahmoud Shahin]

Great and honest introduction to Anthropology.

[Courtney Mosier Warren]

I read this for school -- by far the most boring of all the many, many, many books and articles I had to read this semester.

[Mahmoud]

Great intro for a wonderful science

[Mohamed Lemine El Waghf]

This is an ideal introduction for anyone who would want to learn about this fascinating subject.
It gives an overview and a pretty clear idea on anthropology and all of it's sub-fields.
I would definitely recommend it.

[David Lacey]

This book is for anyone who wants to know more about where we came from, who we are, and where we are going. A superb in depth insight into how we evolved into the civilised society we are today.

[O]

This book provides a general overview of the field of Anthropology, including its colonialist and neo-colonialist failures. He acknowledges Anthro’s colonialist past, pretending these are bygone errors while self-assuredly upholding its neo-colonialist present. In his criticism of human rights violations, the author fails to contextualize colonial powers’ responsibility in inter-ethnic violence such as role of Belgium in constructing ethnic identity precipitating the Rwandan Genocide. He also makes the eco-fascist argument that climate change must be remedied by convincing people in the “Third World” (Global South) to ‘just stop having babies,’ ignoring that the vast majority of climate crisis is caused by western consumption and that the people most harmed (and therefore acutely aware of the need for climate justice) are actually people in the Global South.

[Graham Cammock]

Awesome!

Literally the most important book I have ever read. I didn’t even know what I was looking for before I discovered this book. Although I had read one book on human evolution, that failed to satisfy me in some way, however, anthropology is the answer. If you are interested in the human past and evolution like me, what you need is anthropology.

[K.D. Sarge]

Very much worth my time. I needed a foundation to build on, and this book provided it, with some good doses of humor along the way. Some people take offense at the titles of these books. I think that's their loss. I like humor, myself.

[Tim Gannon]

The study of humanity - to understand ourselves better - to try and not repeat the mistakes of the past - a fascinating and well-written primer - hopefully the insights the field has gleaned will help in my continued evolution as a person of the world : )

[Winston]

This book was a great resource for learning the essentials and basics of Anthropology, especially if you're writing a novel, or paper that pertains to the study of Anthropology. It gives you an understanding of the field, the ins and outs.

[Marcela]

OK, primarily strong on the physical anthro component which isn't the part that interests me as much, but probably would be helpful for students interested in "4-field" approach to anthro.

[Rose B.]

Perfect selection for those who are considering going into this amazing field. I haven't made much time for it, but it really explains anthropology in an easy-to-grasp kind of way.

[Samrat Sen]

Good book for basic understanding of the subject and our past.