The Essence of Anthropology

The Essence of Anthropology does a great job of taking a very readable and approachable tone. Unfortunately, the authors sling their biases everywhere, making a big mess all over the text. A book of this nature should be written from a disinterested perspective. The authors write it from a hyper-liberal perspective.

For instance, they refrain from judging cultures based on marriage practices. Arranged marriages in India are fine and dandy. Polygyny is cast in a positive light. But as soon as you get to same-sex marriage, you get this series of paragraphs:

"The arguments most commonly marshaled by opponents of same-sex unions are, first, that marriage has always been between males and females, but as we have just seen, this is not true. Same-sex marriages have been documented not only for a number of societies in Africa but in other parts of the world as well. As among the Nandi, they provide acceptable positions in society for individuals who might otherwise be marginalized.

"A second argument against same-sex unions is that they legitimize gays and lesbians, whose sexual orientations have been widely regarded as unnatural. But again, as discussed in earlier chapters, neither cross-cultural studies nor studies of other animal species suggest that homosexual behavior is unnatural.

"A third argument, that the function of marriage is to produce children, is at best a partial truth, as marriage involves economic, political, and legal considerations as well...."

This happens time and time again. No judgment from our fair-minded intellectual authors until a conservative viewpoint is on the table, in which case it is reduced to their silly understanding of it, beat up, and cast aside.

So much for unbiased.

The whole book is like this. Anthropology should be about understanding humanity, not trashing Western culture.