Please give book recommendation on topics of cultural anthropology?

Question

would like to read some book about how people with different cultural background phsycologically respond to different situations. Stories from arhaic cultures are preferred :)

thank you very much for advise.

Answer 1

do not read Margaret Mead. she's boring as h**l. read "In Search of Respect" i forgot the name of the author but just do a google search. this is an anthropological text and its actually interesting. it was required reading for my cultural anthropology class. (even tho i didnt read it)

Answer 2

"Light at the Edge of the World" is a great light read that is made up of a few amazingly vivid essays by National Geographic's foremost cultural explorer, Wade Davis.  (Hes the guy who went to Haiti and revealed the true nature of the voodoon religion in the late '70s)  Its a brilliantly written collection that focuses on the remnant cultures today living on the bones of once great ideologies which are all but vanished.  To celebrate diviersity, ritual practices are described in detail always with a poignant message to boot.  Davis is as much a poet as a scientist which made it an amazing inspirational read.

Answer 3

"Coming of Age in Samoa," by Margaret Mead.

"Valley of the Spirits," by June McCormick Collins (my mother!)

Answer 4

I second who ever said Wade Davis.

Other suggestions:

The Women of Deh Koh by Erika Friedl

Growing Up in a Culture of Respect by Inge Bolin

Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town by Christine Eber

The Spirt Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (the author is not an anthropologist but it is still a very good culture book)

Answer 5

Anything written by Margaret Mead.She was fabulous.