4 stars (I don't know why the other reviews are so critical) - I bought this because it is needed for my Cultural Anthropology class and it's a pretty smooth read. It has a definate liberal bias but no more than any other college book I've had to buy, if anything it's a bit less liberal bias than some of the books I've had to suffer through. It's topics are very interesting and in most places the authors at least try to be neutral. The really good part of the book is not the part the instructors normally assign but the stuff in the yellow boxes which are almost like reading stories. 5 stars (A Good Introductory Text) - This is one of the better anthropology texts available today. It is very comprehensive, well-organized, and takes a very broad view of the human condition. The problem with textbooks is that they sometimes summarize issues as if they were settled questions, when, in reality, many of the problems involved are the subjects of complex debate. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the majority of undergraduate students are not interested in primary sources that are very difficult to read and take a lot of work to understand. As an instructor I found the book to be very good as a basic resource that allowed me to teach my perspective of the discipline to students using supplementary materials and lectures. The major drawback is that it is so expensive, but not more so than other textbooks out there. Here is what one of my very good students said about the book, "I found it to be well-organized, thorough, and easy to understand. I have never taken a class in this subject before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but as far as I can tell it is a useful text. I had one other cultural anthropology class this term and I was able to use the textbook from your class as a reference from time to time. I chose anthropology as my minor, and so for further reference purposes I have kept the text from your class." Students who have strong politic... Wadsworth Publishing :: Social Science & Anthropology & General :: Sociology :: Social Science :: Ethnology :: Archaeology & Anthropology :: Anthropology - General :: Anthropology - Cult :: Cultural Anthropology - The Human Challenge (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac)