Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology

by Beth Shook (Editor), Kelsie Aguilera (Editor)

Welcome to Explorations and biological anthropology! Mission To provide a high-quality introductory biological anthropology textbook that is readable, engaging, and accessible to all students. With chapters written by experienced instructors and subject area specialists, this textbook addresses the question of what it means to be human by exploring the origins, evolution, and diversification of primates, especially that of our species, Homo sapiens. Anthropology is the study of humanity, in all its biological and cultural aspects, past and present. It is a four-field discipline comprised of biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. The focus of this book is biological anthropology, which explores who we are from biological, evolutionary, and adaptive perspectives. We lay the foundation for this inquiry in the first four chapters by introducing the discipline of anthropology, evolutionary theory, molecular biology and genetics, and the forces of evolution. An electronic version of this textbook is available free of charge at the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges' webpage

Genres: Read For School, Anthropology, Nonfiction, School, Textbooks

732 pages, Paperback

Published December 20, 2019

Reviews

[Arabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a pretty great textbook. Every section was written by a different specialist related to the field in which the chapter focused. Each chapter had its own glossary and background page about the author. I thought it was a really neat way to pull together knowledge from a lot of different areas. And since a different person writes each chapter if you really hate one writing style you are in luck because it's only like that for one chapter!

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for university. It really told the story of biological anthropology really well, and provided clear and understandable explanations of human evolution. Got an A- minus in the course, so I say this textbook really helped my understanding of the subject

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and humbling subject, but the textbook could get extremely tedious for a non-anthropology major such as myself. I do appreciate the fact that it is available for free and open access online.

[Aisha Manus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each chapter is written but different authors/experts which can make certain chapters sometimes harder to read cause the writing may not mesh with your personal preference but overall it is a good introduction and i learned lots of stuff! recommend for anyone studying the subject.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes more like a collection of essays, than a thought out course text.
Still, lots of valuable up to date info.