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Anthropology and the Study of Humanity  By  cover art

Anthropology and the Study of Humanity

By: Scott M. Lacey, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Scott M. Lacey
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Publisher's summary

What does it mean to be human? Where did we come from? And what unites us in our diversity today? Anthropology and the Study of Humanity is your chance to tackle these big questions as you survey one of the world's most engaging - and human - sciences. Taught by acclaimed professor and field researcher Scott M. Lacy of Fairfield University, these 24 wide-ranging lectures are the ideal guide through the world of anthropology, or the study of humanity across time and space.

Professor Lacy gives you an elegant blend of theory and application to help you understand this extraordinarily interdisciplinary field as a whole. You will examine how humans evolved and built civilizations, review humanity's changing attitudes about our relationship to the cosmos, and consider the many ways we express ourselves. In the end, what you'll discover is that while our species is rich with diversity, we are all one human race.

To anchor this course, Professor Lacy gives you a historical overview of Homo sapiens, starting at the very root of our family tree, when proto-humans split away from other primates in the animal kingdom. As he wends his way across time and around the world, he also introduces the field's four major academic sub-disciplines: biological, archaeological, linguistic, and cultural anthropology.

One of the joys of this course is that it is truly global in the way Professor Lacy introduces you to the boots-on-the-ground practice of the field. When you complete this course, you will have a new appreciation for our world and its many cultures, but you will also have a new appreciation for the cultural connections and similarities we share as one race of Homo sapiens. With a passionate and knowledgeable professor as your guide, this course gives you a broad understanding of academic anthropology, as well as a deeper appreciation for humanity as a whole.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2017 The Great Courses

What listeners say about Anthropology and the Study of Humanity

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I WANT MY CREDIT BACK

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Professor Scott M Lacey, PhD?

I have a degree in Anthropology and I thought a course with this title would take us through the wonderful world of Anthropology NOT this guy's work experience. Worst great course ever. Tell me I'm going to have to deal with hours of tedious boredom over seeds and farming and give me a choice whether to waste my time. I'm going to go get my credit back. DONT WASTE YOUR CREDIT ON THIS UNLESS YOUR A FARMER ABD INTERESTED IN HIS FARMING METHODS.

Has Anthropology and the Study of Humanity turned you off from other books in this genre?

I have a degree in Anthropology. This is the worst lecture series I've ever heard/attended.

What didn’t you like about Professor Scott M Lacey, PhD’s performance?

I am bored by his seeds, his farming, and his farmers.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I feel tricked.

Any additional comments?

Pull this terrible Great Book. Let this guy package his farming techniques in some other book.

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38 people found this helpful

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Laughable

Need to understand what baseless dogma students endure from academia today, listen to this book. Six tired socialist doctrines from the Summer of Love drone for 10 hours: 1) Primitive, non-Western cultures are noble and pure. Western European culture is egotistical and evil. 2) Evolutionary culture is the bad old days of Europe's arrogance. There's no good or bad behavior, just different. For example, all forms of group sex are acceptable. The concept of binary sex between man and woman is from unenlightened Westerners. Also, violence between non Western cultures is rare except when under Western pressure. 3) Religion is a curious behavior displayed by humans prior to scientific enlightenment. 4) Race is a figment of the imagination of Western culture. There's only the human race. But then the author explains races are neither good or bad, just people, unless of course you're white European. 5) As a result of Western culture and capitalism, humans are confronted with imminent extinction. And, 6) socialism from totalitarian government is the path forward. It must phase out fossil fuels (and presumably pay academics more). High cost renewable fuel is the only path forward.

If you espouse these philosophies, enjoy the rah rah.

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34 people found this helpful

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Simplistic and unsubstantive

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Very disappointing. Great Courses usually offer challenging and informative high-level chunks of knowledge. This was geared to non-intellectuals on a childish level, instead of summarizing the latest knowledge of the field for non-experts.

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14 people found this helpful

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Narration is everything with audio..

Although the topic is interesting to me - I wouldn't have bought the book otherwise - I can't stand the presentation. Mr. Lacey cannot get through a paragraph without saying "I mean". He also has some other verbal what I'll call tics "Fred, he went to the post office" rather than "Fred went to the post office". Maybe it's just me, but it's too distracting.

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10 people found this helpful

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very liberal but good

this author is decidedly liberal and he doesn't hide it but he is full of information that is both useful and poignant. it's too bad he couldn't step back from his own culture liberalism to analyze himself a little better. still I recommend it to anyone although a conservative will have a rough time of it

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7 people found this helpful

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Perfect for the Anthropology Student

Dr. Lacey is engaging, entertaining, intelligent, and at times hilarious; in this introduction to Anthropology. While he professes cultural relativism without speaking at any length regarding cultural incompatibility; he still drives home the need for objectivity in researching humans. This is highly recommended for the Anthropology student, especially as I find myself pursuing my masters in the very subject.

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7 people found this helpful

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Beyond Anthropology 101

I bought this title expecting little more than a review of the Intro to Anthropology class I took in college decades ago and was very pleased to have gotten more than that. Or maybe I’ve forgotten that much? My college professor was a seasoned anthropologist who wore a jacket and tie in class and had rather the air of a British headmaster. Dr. Lacey also has had extensive experience in the field but his manner, his decorum, is far more casual, although both men are equally enthusiastic about their subject. I need add that I thoroughly enjoyed both of these classes.

Lacey’s seemingly easy-going manner bothered me at first, but his voice is strong and easy to follow and I got over it. I never accustomed myself to him repeatedly following a noun, proper or generic, with a pronoun that refers back to it though. [Examples: Franz Boas, he...; the villagers, they....] Not a grammatical error, just a personal annoyance.

Anyway, if you are interested in social sciences, buy this book.

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5 people found this helpful

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Well written, read and with a great message

I enjoyed this course it is very well thought out and entertaining with only a little bias

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3 people found this helpful

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Fascinating introduction

I found this to be an excellent introduction to anthropology. I did however, find the professor’s grammar to be distracting from the story itself. His enthusiasm and breath of knowledge partially made up for it.

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blinkered by WEIRD moral and long on assertion

Substantial parts of this course were good, especially when Lacey was talking about his own research. Alas, other parts overemphasized the preferred moral lesson over the data. Over and over again we hear about the power of anthropology to expand our vision but often as not there's nothing much on what specifically anthro has found. This is most clear in the lecture on family where we here that families often differ from the western norm of the bourgeois nuclear family but don't hear much of anything about the major alternatives. For instance, to the best of my recollection there wasn't a single minute on cousin marriage, kinship moieties, etc.
Other lectures go beyond silence to be outright misleading. You also see this with the lecture on war which consists of downplaying the prevalence of war and emphasizing conflict deescalation. We are supposed to be impressed that small bands go years without a fist fight, as if most of us don't have similar track records in our own social circles of comparable size. As Keeley's War Before Civilization has shown, it is absurd to walk away from the data saying "my anthro prof taught me that war is a problem of modernity and in the garden of Eden the lion lays with the lamb." Likewise Fiske and Rai's Virtuous Violence shows the power of an honest engagement with ethnography on violence. Or consider the lecture on race where we are told race has "nothing" to do with biology. It is true and important that social constructions of race are not reducible to biology and social constructions make some arbitrary distinctions in underlying clinal differentiation, but the gross overstatement of saying *nothing* makes it sound impossible that physical anthropologists can instantly recognize an East Asian skull from the teeth or that spitting in a cup and paying $100 can tell you with impressive accuracy where your family came from. Anthropology is an important discipline with fascinating findings but the course has too much WEIRD morality sermon and not enough anthropology for me to recommend it.

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