The Creature with Ideas and Power: An Investigation of Anthropology and Human Culture analyzes human beings as biological creatures capable of developing ideas and then manipulating their environments to conform to those ideas. The book presents culture as the intellectual medium through which ideas are made manifest. It takes readers on an intellectually stimulating journey from the origins of physical anthropology in evolution, genetics, and primatology to today’s globalized world of international integration.
The text explores the development of western cultures, the cultures of early tribal peoples, oral and written traditions as demonstrated in artifacts, and the basic elements that comprise a society. Students also learn about family, kinship, and marriage, cultural bonds and genetic inheritance, and how humans extract and use resources. The book includes an ethnographic study of the Haudenosaunee as an example of how the various sub-disciplines in anthropology come together to tell the story of a people.
The Creature with Ideas and Power helps students understand the biological creature that is Homo sapiens and learn how cultures are both physically and socially derived. The book was written for anthropology and cultural anthropology courses.
John Sheehan earned his D.A. in history at St. John’s University in Jamaica, New York. He is particularly interested in multidisciplinary and intercultural pedagogies. Dr. Sheehan currently teaches in the anthropology, history, and sociology departments as an adjunct faculty member at the State University of New York, Cortland, Tompkins Cortland Community College, St. John’s University, and Elmira College. Dr. Sheehan’s professional writing has appeared in The Journal of Men’s Studies, The Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators, and The Encyclopedia of Modern Monarchs, and he is the author of The Warrior Messiah.
