Second ed. published in 1978 under title: Man's rise to civilization.

Foreword / Elman R. Service --
The Evolution of complexity : A Laboratory for modern man --
The First Americans --
How cultures change --
Differences and simularities in the cultures of mankind --
Man as a social animal --
The Band : Great Basin Shoshone : Cultural Improverishment --
Of Apes and men --
The Irreducible minimum of human socity --
Incest --
The Most leisured people --
Cooperation --
Ajusting to a White world.


Eskimo : Environment and adaptation : The Far-flung people --
Sociality and survival --
Wife-lending and other exchanges --
Feuds and duels --
A Communistic society? --
The Birth of the gods --
The Shaman, dealer in the supernatural --
Taboo : handicaps to survival? --
The Sub- Artic : Living with Expediency : The Composit Band --
Capitalism : Innate or acquired? --
The Hunting territory --
The Social function of anxiety --
An explanation of reincarnation --
Totem and taboo --
--
Southeran California : the Potentialities of the Band : The Patrilocal band --
Lieages, moieties, and sacred bundles --
Puberty rites --
Cultural hybrids.


The Tribe : Zuni : Unity through Religion : The Pueblo Indians : The Clans --
The Woman's role --
Zuni relligion --
Ritual and memorial day --
The "Peaceful" Pueblo? --
Rites of rebellion --
Iroquois : Primitive democracy : "The Greeks of America : --
The Democracy of the League and arxism --
Great men and great events --
Warfare in the woodlands --
The Great Spirit and monotheism --
False faces --
Plains : Equestrian Revolutionaries : The Great American epic --
A Living experiment in cultural change --
The Make-believe Indians --
Coups and scalping --
Causes of warfare --
The New rich --
Visions quests --
The End of a culture.


The Chiefdom : Northwest Coast : Status and --
The Affuent societies of the Pacific Coast --
A Complex social organization --
Rank and status --
Sumptuary laws --
Primitive slavery --
Specialists in religion and art --
Totem poles --
The Economics of prestige --
The Rise and fall of chiefdoms --
Natchez : People of the Sun --
The French romantics --
The Great sun --
Ruler as supreme priest --
Caste versus class --
The Last of the mound builders --
The State : Aztec : study in total power : The Rise to respectability --
The Valley of Mexico --
The Conquest by Corties --
The Aztec state --
Class and clan --
Warriors and priests --
The Death of the sun.


Continued : The Long Migration : The Peopling of North America --
The Continentthat had never known man --
Over the land bridge --
Paths across the continent --
The Earliest big-game hunters --
The Great extinction --
Preadapted cultures emerge --
The Desert culture and the eastern archaic --
Beginnings of agriculture --
Transpacific contacts? --
The Flowering of diversity --
The Eastern woodlands --
The Mound builders --
The Generations of Adam : The Missing skeletons --
The Evidence of the skulls --
The American race --
Half a thousand tongues --
Dating by language --
Man at the mercy of his language.


Socieies Under Stress : The End of the Trail : First encounters --
The Noble Red Man and the bloodshirsty savage --
The Great removl --
The Cherokee --
The Last stand --
Borrowed Cultures : the Debt to the Indian --
Squaw men --
Acculturation without assimilation --
The Navaho --
Navaho and Zuni war veterans --
The Hopes of the Oppressed : Revivalistic movements --
The First phase : recovery of lost cultures --
Dreamers --
The Ghost Dance --
The Second phase : accomodation --
Peyotism --
Messiah : Indian and others --
A Society for the preservation of cultures.

Examines and describes the various customs of North American Indian tribes to explain the evolution of man as a social being - his relationships with his family and kin groups, his religious and his political institutions. Includes Eskimos, Sub-arctic Indians, Plains Indians, Aztec Indians, and Pueblo Indians.

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