Senior Seminar: Anthropology -- University of Minnesota Duluth

John H. Bodley
Washington State University

"We live in a time of global mega-problems of unsustainable growth and consumption, resource depletion, ecosystem degradation, global warming, escalating energy costs, poverty, and conflict. Cultural anthropologist John H. Bodley trenchantly critiques these most pressing issues and shows how anthropology makes it possible to find solutions. The focus on culture scale suggests that many solutions may be found by developing local communities supported by regional markets and ecosystems, rather than by making the continuous accumulation of financial capital the dominant cultural process throughout the world."

"Now in its sixth edition, this classic textbook continues to have tremendous relevance and is more timely than ever in light of the recent global economic crisis. It exposes readers to the problems of a world out of balance with misdirected growth by the elite. Bodley offers examples from prehistoric and modern tribal societies along side of ancient imperial and contemporary commercial societies. Students will find this to be the trusted source to build a world view. Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems is ideal for adoption in anthropology and sociology courses on globalization, cultural ecology, social class and inequality, the environment, sustainability, and development." -- Altimira Press

Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems, Sixth Edition

by John H. Bodley

(Lanham, MD: Altamira Press, 2012)

ISBN-10: 0759121583
ISBN-13: 978-0759121584

Currently available online new for $45.06 ppbk., or used from $8.94

(+ s/h, but currently with "free" shipping from Amazon.com on orders over #25)

(3 January 2018)

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Table of Contents
	Preface
Ch. 1. TR	Anthropological Perspectives on Contemporary Human Problems Nature and Scope of the Problems World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, 1992 UN Millennium Goals Crisis Awareness and Response Significance of Culture Scale Uniqueness of Tribal Societies and Cultures “Original Affluent Society” Elite-Directed Growth: The Human Problem Distribution of Wealth and Power The World’s Elite-Directors: View from the Top Elite-Direction and the Global Media: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation Too Big and Failing: Elite-Direction and the Global Financial Crisis

Ch. 2.	Scale, Adaptation, and the Environmental Crisis Cultural Transmission and Maladaptation Scale and Cultural Evolution Cultural Evolution and Adaptation Nature and Scope of the Environmental Crisis Biodiversity and the Death of the Tropical Rain Forests Ecocide, Soviet Style Environmental Crisis and Cultural Change Beyond “The Limits to Growth” Environmental Commissions: Global 2000 and Our Common Future Roots of the Environmental Crisis Capitalism and Ideological Roots Unregulated Self-Interest and the Tragedy of the Commons Land Degradation in the Mediterranean Region Planetary Boundaries: Beyond the Earth’s Limits in the Anthropocene Extinctions and Biodiversity: Human Nature or Culture Scale Crisis? Tribal and Small-Scale Domestic Economies Wealth in Tribal and Commercial Worlds Biological Potential and Cultural Demand in the Pacific Northwest Sociocultural Scale and the Environment Ecological Footprints



Ch. 3.	Natural Resources and the Culture of Consumption Energy and Culture: Basic Considerations Elite-Directors of the Energy Sector: The Power and Influence of Big Oil Capitalism and the Culture of Consumption History of Capitalism European Origins of Capitalism Culture of Overconsumption Resource Consumption in America Taking Stock America’s Forests as Resources Economics of Resource Depletion Sustainable Development and the Steady-State Economy Consumption Culture’s Environmental Cost: Western Coal Elite Decision Makers and the Consumption Culture
Ch. 4.	Malnutrition and the Evolution of Food Systems Malthusian Dilemma Evolution of Food Systems Foraging and Subsistence Security Shift to Farms and Gardens Domestic Mode of Food Production Technological Advances in Food Production Politically Directed Food Systems Commercialization of Grain: England, 1500–1700 Famine in the Modern World Global Malnutrition Persistence of Food Insecurity Global Food Price Crisis of 2007–2008: Hunger and Land Grabs Food Overconsumption Political Economy of Hunger: Bangladesh
Ch. 5.	Commercial Factory-Food Systems Factory-Food Production Factory Potatoes versus Swidden Sweet Potatoes Commercialization of the American Food System, 1850–1890 Social Costs of the Food-Production System Energy Costs of the Distribution System Food Marketing Food Quality and Market Scale Factory-Processed Potato Chips versus Manioc Cakes Fishing, Global Trade, and “Ghost Acres” Limits of Food Production Food Chain Clusters: ABCD Four and the Great Turkey Recall
Ch. 6.	Population Problem Maximum Global Population Estimates Great Waves of Population Growth Population Pressure, Carrying Capacity, and Optimum Population Population Control among Foragers Population Equilibrium in Aboriginal Australia Neolithic Population Explosion Population Control among Tribal Village Farmers Island Population Problems Case of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) “Collapse” State Intervention and Population-Control Mechanisms Policy Implications
Ch. 7.	Poverty and Conflict Violence and Insecurity in America Social Order in the Tribal World Importance of Social Equality Conflict and Conflict Resolution Leadership Internal Order in Politically Centralized Societies Cross-Cultural Perspectives on War Scale of War and Violence in the Imperial and Commercial Worlds Fiscal-Military State and Military-Industrial Complexes Deadly Arsenals: The Nuclear Weapons Threat Failing States and Social Disorder Roots of the Security Crisis: Culture, Overpopulation, or Inequality? Financialization Process and the Debt Crisis Export Sugar, Starvation, and Infant Mortality in Brazil State Terrorism and Investment Risk in Guatemala Opulence and Deindustrialization in America Los Angeles’s Informal Economy: The Costs of American Poverty and Homelessness
Ch. 8.	The Future Dilemma of Scale Imagining the Global Future Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios American Intelligence Community Futures Global Trends 2025: An American View of a Transformed World Shell Oil’s Perspective on the Future Shell Oil’s 2050 Scenario: Emissions-Trading Blueprints Zero Carbon Britain 2030 Bolivia: A Plurinational Communitary State Solving Human Problems Sustainable Global Futures TERRA-2000 and Information Society UN Global Environment Outlook 3 Global Futures The Great Transition Initiative Transforming the Corporation Mondragón Cooperatives Bhutan’s Middle Path Toward a Sustainable Planetary Society Scaling Down: The Small Nations Alternative The United States, Happy Planets, and Billionaires Transforming America
	Glossary
	Bibliography
	Index

Daniel Kahneman

"Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and a professor of public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work with Amos Tversky on decision-making."

"In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic." -- Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Thinking, Fast and Slow

by Daniel Kahneman

(NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013)

ISBN-13: 9780374533557

is currently available on-line new for $9.69 (ppbk), or used from $5.03, or Kindle for $9.99, and audio from $23.52.
(+ p/h, where applicable, at amazon.com & eligible for Amazon Prime).

(3 January 2018)

Chegg [rental]

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART I. TWO SYSTEMS

The characters of the story
Attention and effort
The lazy controller
The associative machine
Cognitive ease
Norms, surprises, and causes
A machine for jumping to conclusions
How judgments happen
Answering an easier question

PART II. HEURISTICS AND BIASES

The law of small numbers
Anchors
The science of availability
Availability, emotion, and risk
Tom W's specialty
Linda: less is more
Causes trump statistics
Regression to the mean
Taming intuitive predictions

PART III OVERCONFIDENCE

The illusion of understanding
The illusion of validity
Intuitions vs. formulas
Expert intuition: when can we trust it?
The outside view
The engine of capitalism

PART IV. CHOICES

Bernoulli's errors
Prospect theory
The endowment effect
Bad events
The fourfold pattern
Rare events
Risk policies
Keeping score
Reversals
Frames and reality

PART V. TWO SELVES

Two selves
Life as a story
Experienced well-being
Thinking about life

CONCLUSIONS

APPENDIX A: JUDGEMENT UNDER UNCERTAINTY

APPENDIX B: CHOICES, VALUES, AND FRAMES

NOTES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INDEX

Nudge -- Wikipedia

Sky News

Richard H. Thaler

Nobel prize in economics awarded to Richard Thaler
-- Richard Partington, TheGuardian (9 October 2017)

Richard H. Thaler is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics and the director of the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.

TEN

Cass R. Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago Law School and Departent of Political Science.

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Revised and Expanded Edition

by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

(NY: Penguin, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-0143115267

is currently available on-line new for $11.55 (ppbk), used from $7.16, Kindle $13.99, and audible $5.99
(+ p/h, where applicable, at amazon.com & eligible for Amazon Prime).

(3 January 2018)

Reading Guide

Chegg [rental]