Anthropology Books on Reserve

In 2004, the discovery of tiny and bizarre human fossil bones on the island of Flores, Indonesia, set off a furious debate over what the ""Hobbit"" bones represent. Are they fossils of a previously unknown primitive branch of the human family, or the remains of a dwarf race of modern humans suffering from a strange pathological condition? Witness the first investigations of the cave site since the controversial fossil was first revealed.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman explores the wonders of the human brain in an epic series that reveals the ultimate story of why people feel and think the things they do. The ambitious project blends science with innovative visual effects and compelling personal stories, and addresses some big questions.

Filmed in the village of Patzcuaro, this is a dramatization of a pilgrimage on October 31, All Souls' Day in Mexico, when people celebrate their ancestors and communicate with long dead loved ones. The religious holy day is marked by celebrations and special events, making the relationship with death one of friendship rather than fear.

Explores how the perennial teen quest for identity and connection has migrated to social media, and exposes the game of cat-and-mouse that corporations are playing with these young consumers. Here is a powerful examination of the evolving and complicated relationship between teens and the companies that are increasingly working to target them. A follow-up to FRONTLINE's 2001 documentary The merchants of cool.

High in the mountains of New Guinea live the Sambia people, a war- like tribe whose secret rituals of initiation are aimed at making their warriors courageous and bold. Only because their culture is threatened have they allowed these initiation rites to be documented on film.

Herskovits, anthropology & identity -- Jews & blacks : similar experiences? -- Anthropology as a study of race -- "What are you?" -- Rediscovering Africa -- Africanisms in the Americas -- Politics and the production of knowledge -- The myth of the negro past -- Conflicts with black scholars -- The decolonization of Africa -- Reinterpretations and black power -- Who gets to define a people's identity?

Building on the success of their previous book, White and Folkens' The Human Bone Manual is intended for use outside the laboratory and classroom, by professional forensic scientists, anthropologists and researchers. The compact volume includes all the key information needed for identification purposes, including hundreds of photographs designed to show a maximum amount of anatomical information.

A Man Called "Bee": Studying the Yanomamo is a 1974 film by ethnographic filmmakers Tim Asch and Napoleon Chagnon. While he was studying the Yanomamo people, Napoleon Chagnon used many different ethnographic research methods. Some of those methods included participant observation, key informants, tape recording and in depth interviews. Ethnography is based on fieldwork. In order for Chagnon to create this film about the Yanomamo people, he had to take part in their events he was observing, describing, and analyzing.

Dealing with the controversies as well as the accomplishments of Margaret Mead's life, this program weaves together a story of a scientist, adventurer and international celebrity whose ideas shaped how we think about ourselves.

"Controversial in the West, the ingestion of Ayahuasca is tied to a long list of scientifically documented physical and mental cures, and has been used as a sacred medicine by Amazonian Shamans for thousands of years. Experience for yourself the profound impact this mysterious, transformative plant medicine leaves on the lives of those who ingest it, as the documentary film Metamorphosis follows several brave Westerners, guided by two Master Shamans, through their individual journeys with Ayahuasca."--

Ancient wisdom and modern science are combined to shed light on who were America's first people.

Benedictine monks of Newark Abbey, in the heart of Newark, NJ, achieve a high success rate in graduating one of the most vulnerable populations--inner city African American and Latino teenage males--with a near 100% college acceptance rate.

The Himalayas were among the last places on Earth that homo sapiens came to inhabit. Now, join an international team of scientists as they climb to the world's highest tombs to unearth secrets of the people who settled these extreme environments.

"The field of anthropology goes under the magnifying glass in this fiery investigation of the seminal research on Yanomami Indians. In the 1960s and '70s, a steady stream of anthropologists filed into the Amazon Basin to observe this "virgin" society untouched by modern life. Thirty years later, the events surrounding this infiltration have become a scandalous tale of academic ethics and infighting. The origins of violence and war and the accuracy of data gathering are hotly debated among the scholarly clan. Soon these disputes take on "Heart of Darkness" overtones as they descend into shadowy allegations of sexual and medical violation. Director José Padilha brilliantly employs two provocative strategies to raise unsettling questions about the boundaries of cultural encounters. He allows professors accused of heinous activities to defend themselves, and the Yanomamö to represent their side of the story. As this riveting excavation deconstructs anthropology's colonial legacy, it challenges our society's myths of objectivity and the very notion of "the other.""--Container.

Disc 1: A personal account of filmmaker Dean Jefferys' journey to the Amazon to learn about the ancient hallucinogenic ayahuasca ritual. The film examines the effects the outside world is having on the Amazonian shamans and explores how they and the ayahuasca rituals are adapting to these changes, including the legalities of using ayahuasca for the Amazon shaman, the curious westerner and people who want to get the use of ayahuasca legalised for their spiritual pursuits. Jefferys also visits new age shamans who extract dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the active ingredient of ayahuasca, from oher plants. The film utilises the latest in computer graphics technology to simulate the feelings and visions one has during the ayahuasca ritual.
Disc 2: Describes the efforts of Douglas Ferguson to help the Indigenous people of Ecuador preserve the prestine rainforest and save their ancestral lands from further degradation caused by the discovery of oil along the Amazon.
Disc 3: Intreview with Terence McKenna in which he discusses his support of the indigenous people of Ecuador and the use of ayahuasca in their rituals. Documentary travels of several Shamans in Peru as they experience the country, various rituals, and the ritual plants.

The mammoth crackdown on the Native American tribes that occurred in the wake of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, from the last days of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to the terrible massacre at Wounded Knee. From renowned filmmaker Ric Burns

In this documentary filmed in Mosuo Province near the Tibetan border, we learn about a matriarchal society where there are no fathers, husbands or marriages. In Mosuo society, uncles take care of their sisters' children and act as the fathers of these children. Brothers and sisters live together all their lives in their mothers' homes. The women do all the work, including physical labor and are the bread-winners in their families. They are expected to establish harmonious households. Women are usually courted by men from miles away, who come for conjugal "visits." This film also goes on to show how change is now coming to Mosuo Province. Mosuo has only been open since 1990. The first CD player and TV set have created a "mini-revolution", with dances and parties being held. The women of the village now go to a market by bus, where they are learning to shop. And the first school opened two years ago. These changes may cause the Mosuo to lose their traditions