Bøger af Loretta A. Cormier

Humankind: An Introductory Reader for Cultural Anthropology introduces students to a broad array of theoretical and ethnographic essays and articles in the discipline. The editors selected papers that are engaging and relevant, yet accessible for undergraduates in introductory-level cultural anthropology courses. This text represents a diverse range of cultural contexts and includes papers that speak to important contemporary debates in anthropology. The section and chapter themes are consistent with those typically covered in Introductory Cultural Anthropology courses, including issues of anthropology's subject, religious and symbolic behaviors, language, social identity, kinship, family, and economics. This reader also includes a section exploring the future of culture, culture survival and change, and the ethical responsibilities of anthropologists to the people we study. This text will complement any introductory cultural anthropology textbook. " Loretta A. Cormier, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research experiences include fieldwork among the Amazonian Guajá hunter-gatherers, the Navajo, the Alabama Choctaw, and recently in Fiji. Her specializations are in cultural anthropology, historical ecology, ethnoprimatology, and medical anthropology. She has been teaching introductory cultural anthropology courses for fifteen years. Sharyn R. Jones, Ph.D., is an anthropologist who studies marine resource exploitation, ethnoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, tropical island chiefdoms, and gender. She has conducted research in Fiji, Polynesia and the Caribbean Islands, North America, Japan, and Micronesia. Her current research deals with issues of foodways, marine ecology, and cannibalism in Fiji. Jones is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Check out her blog at: http: //sjonesarchaeology.blogspot.com/

Challenges long-held assumptions that, in the development of Homo sapiens, form follows function alone. In this fascinating exploration, Loretta A. Cormier and Sharyn R. Jones explain the critical contribution that conscious female selection made to the attributes of the modern male form.

Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, and other fields to show how culture and environment have shaped the history of malaria and will make it one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century.

Intrigued by a slide showing a woman breast-feeding a monkey, anthropologist Loretta A. Cormier spent fifteen months living among the Guaja, a foraging people in a remote area of Brazil. The result is this ethnographic study of the extraordinary relationship between the Guaja Indians and monkeys. While monkeys are a key food source for the Guaja, certain pet monkeys have a quasi-human status. Some infant monkeys are adopted and nurtured as human children while others are consumed in accordance with the "e;symbolic cannibalism"e; of their belief system.The apparent contradiction of this predator/protector relationship became the central theme of Cormier's research: How can monkeys be both eaten as food and nurtured as children? Her research reveals that monkeys play a vital role in Guaja society, ecology, economy, and religion. In Guaja animistic beliefs, all forms of plant and animal life-especially monkeys-have souls and are woven into a comprehensive kinship system. Therefore, all consumption can be considered a form of cannibalism.Cormier sets the stage for this enlightening study by examining the history of the Guaja and the ecological relationships between human and nonhuman primates in Amazonia. She also addresses the importance of monkeys in Guaja ecological adaptation as well as their role in the Guaja kinship system. Cormier then looks at animism and life classification among the Guaja and the role of pets, which provide a context for understanding "e;symbolic cannibalism"e; and how the Guaja relate to various forms of life in their natural and supernatural world. The book concludes with a discussion of the implications of ethnoprimatology beyond Amazonia, including Western perceptions of primates.