Intrigued by a slide showing a woman breast-feeding a monkey, anthropologist Loretta A. Cormier spent fifteen months living among the Guaja, a foraging people in a remote area of Brazil. The result is this ethnographic study of the extraordinary relationship between the Guaja Indians and monkeys. While monkeys are a key food source for the Guaja, certain pet monkeys have a quasi-human status. Some infant monkeys are adopted and nurtured as human children while others are consumed in accordance with the "symbolic cannibalism" of their belief system.

The apparent contradiction of this...

Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, and other fields to show how culture and environment have shaped the history of malaria and will make it one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century.

Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, and other fields to show how culture and environment have shaped the history of malaria and will make it one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century.

Humankind: An Introductory Reader for Cultural Anthropology introduces students to a broad array of theoretical and ethnographic essays and articles in the discipline. The editors selected papers that are engaging and relevant, yet accessible for undergraduates in introductory-level cultural anthropology courses. This text represents a diverse range of cultural contexts and includes papers that speak to important contemporary debates in anthropology. The section and chapter themes are consistent with those typically covered in Introductory Cultural Anthropology courses, including issues of...

"The Domesticated Penis" challenges long-held assumptions that, in the development of "Homo sapiens, " form follows function alone. In this fascinating exploration, Loretta A. Cormier and Sharyn R. Jones explain the critical contribution that conscious female selection has made to the attributes of the modern male phallus.
Synthesizing a wealth of robust scholarship from the fields of archaeology, cultural anthropology, evolutionary theory, and primatology, the authors successfully dismantle the orthodox view that each part of the human anatomy has followed a vector of development along...

This book offers an accessible and up-to-date reference on primate zoonoses. Recent years have witnessed a rise in human diseases zoonotically transferred from wild primates, with outbreaks such as Ebola and concerns regarding newly emerging infections. The authors go beyond simply providing an inventory of diseases, helping readers to understand how and why they are transmitted. Important consideration is given to the contemporary cultural and ecological factors involved.