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The article reviews the book "Engaged Anthropology: Research Essays on North American Archaeology, Ethnobotany, and Museology, Papers in Honor of Richard I. Ford," edited by Michelle Hegmon and B. Sunday Eiselt.

Edward Tylor had envisioned anthropology to be comprised of ethnology and ethnography in equal parts, but today ethnography dominates the field. In this paper, we examine two reasons for the refugee status of ethnology. First, we look at the notorious "Galton effect." Second, we examine the problem of defining and using cultural units, particularly when positivistic and static theories and methods of culture have been largely discredited by anthropology. We argue against any formulaic solutions to these problems and show that for each research question one needs to reconsider the criteria for how to construct cultural units and how to ensure that the cultures under study are not merely replicas of one another. We show that previous solutions to these issues are limited because they fail to appreciate the contingent and multidimensional nature of culture. We also argue that, instead of a "Galton problem," there is actually a "Galton asset," which can be used to study historical and emergent communicative networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject," by Sherry B. Ortner.

The article reviews the book "Counterplay: An Anthropologist at the Chessboard," by Robert R. Desjarlais.

The article reviews the book "Navigators of the Contemporary: Why Ethnography Matters," by David A. Westbrook.

A review is presented of the book "Households & Hegemony: Early Creek Prestige Goods, Symbolic Capital & Social Power," by Cameron Wesson.

The article reviews the book "An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World," by Fuad I. Khouri.

The article reviews the book "The Seductions of Community: Emancipations, Oppressions, Quandaries," edited by Gerald W. Creed.

The article reviews the book "On Knowing and Not Knowing in the Anthropology of Medicine," edited by Roland Littlewood.

The article reviews the book "Archaeological Anthropology: Perspectives on Method and Theory," edited by James M. Skibo, Michael W. Graves, and Miriam T. Stark.

The article reviews the book "Afro-Atlantic Dialogues: Anthropology in the Diaspora," edited by Kevin A. Yelvington.

A review is presented of the book "The Mermaid's Tale: Four Billion Years of Cooperation in the Making of Living Things," by Kenneth Weiss and Anne Buchanan.

The article reviews the book "Walter Benjamin's Grave," by Michael Taussig.