The Challenge of Human Diversity: Mirrors, Bridges, and Chasms (2nd Edition)

The key to unraveling human diversity, and crossing the borders of our own world, is found in probing the experience and interest of Others as filtered through aspects of their culture. Middleton's well-rounded, fair, and concise synthesis of a broad topic brims with insights not only about cultural differences, but also about features that all humans have in common. He uses brief ethnographic excerpts to demonstrate the hold that culture has on us. These firsthand experiences, reported by anthropologists, reveal the challenging (and occasionally humorous) fieldwork situations that can arise when we attempt to understand others--and when they do the same with us. Middleton inspires readers to go beyond thinking about differences or similarities and to think about what it means to be different. He augments his original exploration of human diversity by including a new chapter on cultural comparison, a more detailed treatment of global issues (using McDonald's as a case example), and critical thinking questions at the end of each chapter. This is arguably one of the best treatments of cultural diversity available today.