The Anthropology Book by DK

The Anthropology Book

Big Ideas Simply Explained

DK, D.K. Publishing

DK · Print & ebook · September 23, 2025

Explore and understand the key ideas and movements in anthropology—the study of human societies and cultures and how they work.

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Who it’s for
Explore how human societies develop traditions, laws, and languages through anthropology’s central ideas.
Genres
Cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology, How Cultures Work
Published
DK, September 23, 2025

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About this book

Explore and understand the key ideas and movements in anthropology—the study of human societies and cultures and how they work. What does it mean to be human? Why do we have rituals? How do family structures differ around the world, and why? The Anthropology Book answers questions like these and many, many more.

Continue reading

Applying the Big Ideas series’ combination of authoritative, accessible text and bold graphics, The Anthropology Book introduces key concepts from different branches of the subject, such as cultural anthropology, ethnography, and biological anthropology, and explains how they have developed over the past century. The book explores the origins of human life and cultures, and how societies develop traditions, laws, and languages. Profiling renowned anthropologists, such as Claude Levi-Strauss and Margaret Mead, and covering topics as diverse as biology, medicine, war, sexuality, family roles, and kinship, The Anthropology Book is a fascinating, accessible introduction to the core principles of anthropological thought.

Societies and Culture

Explore how human societies develop traditions, laws, and languages through anthropology’s central ideas.

Come here for

  • Key ideas across cultural and biological anthropology
  • Anthropologists including Claude Lévi-Strauss and Margaret Mead

Expect

  • Accessible text and bold graphics
  • Topics including rituals, kinship, biology, medicine, and war

Where it sits

Cultural Anthropology68%
How Cultures Work64%
Physical Anthropology37%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • How Cultures Work
  • Physical Anthropology
  • Reference: Social Science
Authors
DK, D.K. Publishing
Publisher
DK
Published
September 23, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
How Cultures Work