Reading Anthropology

Alice C. Linsley

I have been asked to recommend a textbook for those interested in the study of Anthropology or for beginning teachers of Anthropology.

It has been over 7 years since I taught Anthropology in the classroom. At the moment, my teaching is done through blogs such as this one, and via the international Facebook group The Bible and Anthropology. 

For more advanced students I prefer to use monographs by important anthropologists: Levi-Strauss, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Meade, Bronisław Malinowski, Colin Turnbull, Radcliff-Brown, Elsie Clews Parsons, May Edel, Franz Boas, etc., but beginning students need an introductory text. I recommend this one: Anthropology (14th Edition) by Carol R.; Ember, Melvin R.; Peregrine, Peter N Ember

ISBN 13: 9780205957187
ISBN 10: 0205957188

I go to used book stores to buy older textbooks because they have a less ideological slant (everything is politicized these days). I especially like Ralph L. Beals and Harry Hoijer, An Introduction to Anthropology (MacMillian), an oldie, but goodie. 

An excellent introduction for Christian students is Stephen Grunlan and Marvin Mayers, Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective, with a foreword by the late Eugene A. Nida. 

Some of my favorite books are not well known. These include The Skyland of the Philippines by Laurence Lee Wilson; Home to India by Santha Rama Rau; Blind White Fish of Persia by Anthony Smith; Early Man: Prehistory and the Civilizations of the Ancient Near East by Chester G. Starr; The Symbolic Role of Animals in Archaeology edited by Kathleen Ryan and Pam J. Crabtree and published by Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, the University of Pennsylvania.

E.L. Schusky (1931-2019)

Ernest L. Schusky's Manual For Kinship Analysis is very important for anyone learning about kinship patterns. Kinship analysis is an essential skill for anyone working in the field of Biblical Anthropology. It enables the researcher to discover the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the early Hebrew ruler-priests. 

Related reading: Glossary of Anthropological Terms; Understanding the Science of Biblical Anthropology; Something Older; The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew