Introducing Cultural Anthropology

What is the role of culture in human experience? How do we study it? This introductory cultural anthropology textbook helps readers explore and understand this crucial discipline from a Christian perspective. The third edition adds student engagement activities and has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout.This successful textbook covers standard topics in cultural anthropology with special attention given to Christian concerns, such as cultural relativism, missions, and scriptural reflection. It represents the authors' years of experience in the classroom (more than forty years combined) and offers a fresh, contemporary approach. Each chapter includes objectives, text boxes, terms, and discussion questions, and plentiful figures, photos, and sidebars are sprinkled throughout the text.Updated ancillary support materials and teaching aids are available through Baker Academic's textbook eSources, including a test bank, chapter slide-deck presentations, chapter outlines, chapter-specific engagement activities, and flashcards.

Brian M. Howell (PhD, Washington University in St. Louis) served as professor of anthropology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, for twenty-five years. He regularly taught on global Christianity, wrote and edited several books on short-term mission work, and served on the editorial board of the International Journal of Asian Christianity. In 2026 he joined Alpha School, a private K-8 academy in Chicago, as the dean of parents.Jenell Paris (PhD, American University) is professor of anthropology at Messiah University. She serves on editorial boards for On Knowing Humanity: Anthropological Ethnography and Analysis Through the Eyes of Christian Faith and the Journal of Sociology and Christianity.