| | Preface | |
| | General introduction / Tim Ingold | |
| | The contributors | |
| Pt. I | Humanity | 1 |
| | 1 | Introduction to humanity / Tim Ingold | 3 |
| | 2 | Humanity and animality / Tim Ingold | 14 |
| | 3 | evolution of early hominids / Phillip V. Tobias | 33 |
| | 4 | Human evolution: the last one million years / Clive Gamble | 79 |
| | 5 | origins and evolution of language / Philip Lieberman | 108 |
| | 6 | Tools and tool behaviour / Thomas Wynn | 133 |
| | 7 | Niche construction, evolution and culture / F. J. Odling-Smee | 162 |
| | 8 | Modes of subsistence: hunting and gathering to agriculture and pastoralism / Roy Ellen | 197 |
| | 9 | diet and nutrition of human populations / Igor de Garine | 226 |
| | 10 | Demographic expansion: causes and consequences / Mark N. Cohen | 265 |
| | 11 | Disease and the destruction of indigenous populations / Stephen J. Kunitz | 297 |
| Pt. II | Culture | 327 |
| | 12 | Introduction to culture / Tim Ingold | 329 |
| | 13 | Why animals have neither culture nor history / David Premack, Ann James Premack | 350 |
| | 14 | Symbolism: the foundation of culture / Mary LeCron Foster | 366 |
| | 15 | Artefacts and the meaning of things / Daniel Miller | 396 |
| | 16 | Technology / Francois Sigaut | 420 |
| | 17 | Spatial organization and the built environment / Amos Rapoport | 460 |
| | 18 | Perceptions of time / Barbara Adam | 503 |
| | 19 | Aspects of literacy / Brian V. Street, Niko Besnier | 527 |
| | 20 | Magic, religion and the rationality of belief / Gilbert Lewis | 563 |
| | 21 | Myth and metaphor / James F. Weiner | 591 |
| | 22 | Ritual and performance / Richard Schechner | 613 |
| | 23 | anthropology of art / Howard Morphy | 648 |
| | 24 | Music and dance / Anthony Seeger | 686 |
| | 25 | politics of culture: ethnicity and nationalism / Anthony D. Smith | 706 |
| Pt. III | Social Life | 735 |
| | 26 | Introduction to social life / Tim Ingold | 737 |
| | 27 | Sociality among humans and non-human animals / R. I. M. Dunbar | 756 |
| | 28 | Rules and prohibitions: the form and content of human kinship / Alan Barnard | 783 |
| | 29 | Understanding sex and gender / Henrietta L. Moore | 813 |
| | 30 | Socialization, enculturation and the development of personal identity / Fitz John Porter Poole | 831 |
| | 31 | Social aspects of language use / Jean DeBernardi | 861 |
| | 32 | Work, the division of labour and co-operation / Sutti Ortiz | 891 |
| | 33 | Exchange and reciprocity / C. A. Gregory | 911 |
| | 34 | Political domination and social evolution / Timothy Earle | 940 |
| | 35 | Law and dispute processes / Simon Roberts | 962 |
| | 36 | Collective violence and common security / Robert A. Rubinstein | 983 |
| | 37 | Inequality and equality / Andre Beteille | 1010 |
| | 38 | nation state, colonial expansion and the contemporary world order / Peter Worsley | 1040 |
| | Index | 1067 |