Investigating Culture

PRAISE FOR THE SECOND EDITION

"Using an innovative and novel framework, Delaney's Investigating Culture moves students through a series of anthropological concepts and demonstrates the ways in which universal human concepts – time, space, family, status, and gender – are reformulated across the breadth of human cultural diversity. This book draws from classical and contemporary ethnographic texts providing students a week-by-week journey through the study of human culture. Pedagogically brilliant, easy to teach, and well structured, this work provides students with engaging assignments, topics for discussion, and advanced questions for those interested in more advanced research. I use it every year..."

Michael Wilcox, Stanford University

In this fully updated and revised third edition of Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology, Delaney and Kaspin build on the foundations of their popular and student-friendly textbook, exploring key anthropological concepts of human culture including: language, the body, food, and time, alongside a wealth of new research material, case studies, and examples. The new edition includes an increased emphasis on the intersections of culture and power (especially with regards to race, class, and governance) along with all-new material on Kaspin's research in Malawi and New England, and on Delaney's recent pilgrimage along El Camino de Santiago in north-western Spain.

Chapters incorporate the latest information relating to such topical concerns as nuclear waste, sports injuries, the World Trade Center memorial, the food pyramid, fashion trends, electronic media, and many more.

As in previous editions, Investigating Culture continues to challenge students to think in new ways and apply their insights to their own lives. With carefully chosen readings, exercises, and more, Delaney and Kaspin's essential student textbook retains its reputation as an innovative and invaluable introduction to the field of anthropology that shows students how to gain an understanding of other cultures – as well as their own.