The Teaching of Anthropology, Abridged Edition

David G. Mandelbaum, Gabriel W. Lasker, Ethel M. Albert

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520368965
• eBook ISBN: 9780520329317
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Social Science

The Teaching of Anthropology (Abridged Edition), edited by David G. Mandelbaum, Gabriel W. Lasker, and Ethel M. Albert, is a landmark appraisal of how anthropology should be taught, particularly at the undergraduate level in the United States. Emerging at a moment of expanding enrollments, proliferating subfields, and growing institutional demands, the volume grapples with the central pedagogical challenge of transmitting anthropology’s unique culture of inquiry. Its contributors argue that anthropology’s value lies in its holistic scope, its grounding in field research, and its insistence on viewing human variation through scientific method—qualities that not only illuminate diverse peoples but also provide students with transferable analytic habits for understanding their own world.

The collection ranges across the major subfields—biological, archaeological, linguistic, and cultural/social anthropology—while also treating applied anthropology, graduate training, and the discipline’s broader academic context. Essays emphasize the unity of anthropology through the central concept of culture, advocate for carefully chosen case studies to balance scope with depth, and show how applied and comparative studies can clarify theory. With a focus on practical teaching concerns—curricular sequencing, course design, and coordination within expanding departments—the book demonstrates how anthropology can remain scientifically rigorous, pedagogically compelling, and socially relevant. In presenting both points of consensus and unresolved debates, it provides a foundational guide for instructors, departments, and planners committed to sustaining anthropology’s vitality in higher education.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1963.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• DAVID G. MANDELBAUM The Transmission of Anthropological Culture
• Introduction
• CORA DU BOIS The Curriculum in Cultural Anthropology
• SHERWOOD L. WASHBURN The Curriculum in Physical Anthropology
• DAVID G. MANDELBAUM A Design for an Anthropology Curriculum
• Introduction
• FREDERICK S. HULSE Objectives and
• WILLIAM S. LAUGHLIN Concepts and Problems
• GABRIEL W. LASKER The Introductory
• Introduction
• RAYMOND FIRTH Aims, Methods, and Concepts in the Teaching of Social Anthropology
• EDWARD M. BRUNER AND GEORGE D. SPINDLER with the assistance of Fred H. Werner The Introductory Course in Cultural Anthropology
• DAVID H. FRENCH The Role of Anthropologist in the Methodology of Teaching
• Introduction
• EVON Z. VOGT Courses of Regional Scope
• JOHN W. BENNETT A Course in Comparative Civilizations
• Introduction
• RICHARD B. WOODBURY Purposes and Concepts
• ALFRED KIDDER II Course Design
• ROBERT J. BRAIDWOOD Themes and Course Progression
• Introduction
• DELL H. HYMES Objectives and Concepts of Linguistic Anthropology
• Introduction
• ROBERT N. RAPOPORT Aims and Methods
• KENNETH LITTLE The Context of Social Change1
• RICHARD N. ADAMS General Use of Studies in Applied Anthropology
• Introduction
• FRED EGGAN The Graduate Program
• MEYER FORTES Graduate Study and Research
• Introduction
• JOSEPH B. CASAGRANDE The Relations of Anthropology with the Social Sciences
• J. N. SPUHLER AND F. B. LIVINGSTONE The Relations of Physical Anthropology with the Biological Sciences
• Comments on Academic Environments in the Teaching of Anthropology
• Introduction
• ETHEL M. ALBERT Value Aspects of Teaching Anthropology
• ROBERT W. EHRICH Anthropology as an Integrative Factor
• MARGARET MEAD Anthropology and an Education for the Future
• Index