The Annual Editions series is designed to provide convenient, inexpensive access to a wide range of current articles from some of the most respected magazines, newspapers, and journals published today. Each Annual Editions volume has a number of features designed to make them especially valuable for classroom use: an annotated Table of Contents, a Topic Guide, an annotated listing of supporting websites, Learning Outcomes and a brief overview for each unit, and Critical Thinking questions at the end of each article.
An online Instructor's Resource Guide with testing material is available for each Annual Editions volume. Using Annual Editions in the Classroom is also an excellent instructor resource. This annually updated reader is a compilation of carefully selected articles from current newspapers, magazines, and journals, such as Scientific American, Discover, and Natural History.
The Annual Editions titles are supported by our student Web site, www. Eating Christmas in the Kalahari, Richard Borshay Lee, Natural History, Anthropologist Richard Borshay Lee gives an account of the misunderstanding and confusion that often accompany cross-cultural experience.
In this case, he violated a basic principle of the Kung Bushmen's social relations-food sharing. Sterk's report on prostitution may be, she discusses issues common to anthropologists wherever they conduct fieldwork: How does one build trusting relationships with informants and what are the ethical obligations of an anthropologist toward them?
An anthropologist who has had to deal with violence in much of her fieldwork see "The house gun" as a metaphor for a militarized society complete with a compliant criminal justice system. Kuhl, Scientific American, While it is true that human infants are natural-born linguists, it takes "parentese" with its exaggerated inflections, immersive social interaction, and even computational skills to effectively learn all the nuances and complexity of a language.
And when it comes to learning a second language, the earlier the better. The Eloquent Ape, Mark Pagel, New Scientist, If there is one thing that clearly sets humans apart from other creatures, it is language. Our ability to communicate symbolically enables us to cooperate more effectively, to act in coordinated ways outside the family, to understand a situation from someone else's perspective and, most importantly, to empathize with our fellow human beings. In fact, given how socially adaptive language has enabled us to be become, it is highly likely that our species would not even exist today without it.
War of Words, Mark Pagel, New Scientist Magazine, In taking on the task of explaining why humans communicate with thousands of mutually unintelligible languages, in direct contradiction with the principle that language is supposed to help us exchange information, the author finds that languages have diverged from each other because of migration, geographical isolation, and a deeply rooted need for tribal identity. Armor against Prejudice, Ed Yong, Scientific American, Even subtle reminders of prejudice against one's sex, race, or religion can hinder performance in school, work, and athletics.
Researchers have found new ways to reverse and prevent this effect. Caroline Williams, New Scientist Magazine, Recent scientific evidence has called into question the notion that we can tell a lot about people by watching how they move their bodies. If we want to truly know what people are thinking and feeling, we are much better off listening to what they are saying. Vanishing Languages, Russ Rymer, National Geographic, With so many of the world's 7, languages rapidly disappearing, linguists are making a concerted effort to understand what these losses mean in terms of the languages themselves and the cultural perspectives that will die with them, but also the invaluable knowledge of the world in general.
The Birth and Death of a Language, Shira Rubin, New Scientist, New sign languages have been spontaneously created across the globe within families and small communities of the deaf. These are of great interest to linguists who study them to understand how languages form and to test theories regarding the relative influence of genetics and cultural circumstances upon language acquisition.
The imminent disappearance of such "village signs" is itself an interesting by-product of the trends as villagers are increasingly exposed to national education systems and globalization communication. While the specifics of what is right and wrong have changed over time, the overall concept has not. It is one of fairness. The Exercise Paradox, Herman Pontzer, Scientific American, Although conventional wisdom has long held that physically active people burn more calories than less active people do, studies of hunter-gatherers show that this is simply not the case.
Conclusions: obesity is "a disease of gluttony," and "you can't n a bad Generous by Nature, Bob Holmes, New Scientist, In many traditional societies, such as the Masai of East Africa, the ability to survive a natural catastrophe, whether it be a drought or a winter storm, involves "need-based" giving, a "proto-insurance policy" by which people are taught to be empathetic and generous with no more reward than prestige.
With some tweaking, these are lessons that are applicable in modern society as well. Breastfeeding and Culture, Katherine Dettwyler, McGraw-Hill Education, Whether or not a mother breastfeeds her child, and for how long, is influenced by cultural beliefs and societal restraints. Scientific research, including cross-cultural studies, shows that nursing is not just beneficial for the child, but improves the health of the mother, makes for more wholesome familial relationships, and is good for the society as a whole.
Taste Test, Bee Wilson, Discover, In a ground-breaking experiment, pediatrician Clara Davis, investigated what children's appetites would look like if allowed to develop without preconceived ideas of what tasted good. Contrary to what most people took from this study-that children's' likes and dislikes are built-in and natural-Davis found that as long as children were allowed to select only from wholesome and nutritious foods, they not only liked what they were offered, but their health improved dramatically.
In other words, the beneficial outcomes for the children were not based upon some mystical "wisdom of the body," but rather upon the particular food environment presented to them. Meghalaya: Where Women Call the Shots, Subir Bhaumik, Aljazerra, In a far corner of India, a country where women usually cry out for equality, respect, and protection, there's a state where women own the land, run the business, and pass on their family names to their children.
Meanwhile, it is the men who are asking for more rights. The Inuit Paradox, Patricia Gadsby, Discover, The traditional diet of the Far North, with its high-protein, high-fat content, shows that there are no essential foods-only essential nutrients.
Cell Phones, Sharing, and Social Status in an African Society, Daniel Jordan Smith, McGraw-Hill Education, Although the economic dimensions of Nigeria's emerging cell phone culture are important, much of its cell phone-related behavior requires a social rather than an economic explanation.
Contrary to sweeping generalities, however, such as the patriarchal "protective theory" and the feminist "oppressive theory," each of which emphasized female dependence and subjugation to men, the archaeological, historical, and anthropological evidence indicates that the way people organize their domestic lives has much more to do with the needs and contingencies of time and place.
Goldstein, Natural History, While the custom of fraternal polyandry relegated many Tibetan women to spinsterhood, this unusual marriage form promoted personal security and economic well-being for its participants.
No More Angel Babies on the Alto do Cruzeiro, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Natural History, During her 30 years of fieldwork in a shantytown of Northeastern Brazil, a nthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes has seen profound changes take place in poverty-stricken mothers' attitudes toward rampant infant mortality. Whereas at one time, these women would resign themselves to their children's fate-and even withhold tender loving care from them so as to hasten the day they became angels, today there are fewer children being born and every one of them is cherished.
The greatest single factor in these changes, says Scheper-Hughes, are the Brazilian government's anti-poverty programs. Arranging a Marriage in India, Serena Nanda, Waveland Press, Arranging a marriage in India is far too serious a business for the young and inexperienced. Instead, the parents make the decision on the basis of the families' social position, reputation, and ability to get along.
Williams, Beacon Press, , Not all societies agree with the Western cultural view that all humans are either women or men.
In fact, many Native American cultures recognize an alternative role called the "berdache," a morphological male who has a non-masculine character. This is just one way for a society to recognize and assimilate some atypical individuals without imposing a change on them or stigmatizing them as deviants. The Hijras: An Alternative Gender in India, Serena Nanda, Manushi, The transgender hijra of India form structured households and communities and, as a caste, fulfill roles that are rooted in social and religious tradition.
Afghan Boys Are Prized, So Girls Live the Part, Jenny Nordbert, The New York Times, Some Afghan families have many reasons for pretending that their girls are boys, including economic need, social pressures to have sons, and even the belief that doing so can lead to the birth of a real boy.
In any case, lacking a son, the parents may decide to make one up. However, with the development of a cash economy, increased consumerism, and a status-striving society, heightened demands for dowry and the inability of many brides' families to meet such demands have led to thousands of deaths each year.
Like a Virgin? Yet, because patriarchal attitudes persist, some women are opting for hymen restoration so as to satisfy potential husbands that they are still virgins and improve their marital chances. Unit 6: Religion, Belief, and Ritual Dark Rites, Dan Jones, New Scientist, Rituals often seem overly complex and nonsensical when they involve a mode of thinking distinct from a logical cause-and-effect approach.
Yet, because they reflect group values and demonstrate a shared commitment to the group, they have been important for developing trust between people who interact and trade with one another. The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual, Richard Sosis, American Scientist, Rituals promote group cohesion by requiring members to engage in behavior that is too costly to fake.
Groups that do so are more likely to attain their collective goals than the groups whose members are less committed. Morality Tale, Nicolas Baumard, New Scientist, Moralizing religions such as Christianity arise in times of great stress, when resources are scarce and mortality is high and people tend to be impulsive and aggressive.
The privileged elites will use religion to exhort the disadvantaged to be good. In good times, the opposite happens as the need to morally condemn "bad" behavior declines. Yet, with the emphasis of some Islamist's on a strong relationship between religion and state, and with an increasing number of Islamic militants calling for violence against the West, communication and mutual understanding are becoming more important than ever.
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