James P. Spradley

""Seeks to teach students the importance of culture and its influence on human life. By including examples of Western, North American cultures, the text makes cultural understanding and comparison more relatable to student audiences. The inclusion of current information and articles allows students to connect with major anthropological concepts through relevant events. The Fifteenth Edition reflects the changing nature of the discipline of anthropology by shifting its focusing to the more concerning issues of today... Articles throughout the text touch on all major subfields, including environmental, global, and medical topics, giving students a comprehensive introduction to the field.""--Publisher's description."

This book is an account of the experiences of men who are repeatedly arrested for public drunkenness. It challenges the idea that these men are simply rejects from society, who cannot organize their behavior by cultural traditions. Using the recently discovered methods of formal ethnographic analysis, the author presents this urban sub-culture as it relates to law enforcement agencies. Spradley's carefully researched portrayal of skid row men in Seattle in the late sixties documents their treatment by jails and the legal system in a time before homelessness became a recognized problem. As a result of Spradley's elegant and impassioned writing, the book became a sharp challenge to politicians, policymakers, judges, and police. This now-classic landmark study in urban ethnography stands as a shining example of the direct application of distinctly anthropological concepts and methods to address real-world problems. But more important, it represents a poignant challenge to society about our capacity to endure and accept nonconformity and social diversity.

Following her husband's death in a suspicious car accident, beautiful young widow Joan Medford is forced to take a job serving drinks in a cocktail lounge to make ends meet and to have a chance of regaining custody of her young son. At the job she encounters two men who take an interest in her, a handsome young schemer who makes her blood race and a wealthy but unwell older man who rewards her for her attentions with a $50,000 tip and an unconventional offer of marriage. The final novel written by James M. Cain and never before published.