Exotic no more : anthropology for the contemporary world /

The boundaries of what is relevant for academic attention are continually shifting as present conditions change. In his classic text Exotic No More (2002), MacClancy (Oxford Brookes Univ., UK) offered an overview of cultural anthropology's main fields of academic interest at the turn of the century. In the same way, this second edition reviews more than 20 topics central to contemporary anthropology, ranging from religion and museums to studies of science and indigenous rights. Compared to its predecessor, there is a significant amount of new material and several new themes are addressed. More than anything this speaks to the radical transformations that the field has experienced over the past two decades. Both prominent voices in anthropology and younger scholars are among the list of contributors. Chapters are concise and include recommended further readings, which is ideal for undergraduate courses, and the writing is clear and easy to access. Overall, this volume shows the public value of anthropology as an intellectual engagement with contemporary social problems, pointing to the importance of anthropological fieldwork in unsettling cultural prejudices. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Alejandro Ponce de Leon, University of California, Davis