Features: Fun, witty, savvy; written in the vernacular of today's students. Challenges tough humanitarian issues other texts gloss over or skip-race, class, gender, globalization, and more. Covers contemporary politics, imperialism, and conflict from an anthropological point of view. Employs a critical political economy perspective balanced by examples of individual and social agency. Uses history, ethnographies, and tools of anthropology to sharpen students' understanding of their own lives and the human condition. Presents complex social theories and key terms in a memorable and easy to understand manner. Poses superior discussion questions compared to most textbooks, vital for teachers, classroom discussion, and individual study. E. Paul Durrenberger was a professor of anthropology for twenty-five years at the University of Iowa