Anthropologist: Scientist of the People

by Mary Batten, A. Magdalena Hurtado, and Kim Hill • Part of the Scientists in the Field Series

When Magdalena Hurtado was growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, she sometimes accompanied... read more

When Magdalena Hurtado was growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, she sometimes accompanied her mother, a doctor, into remote rural areas. These treks exposed Hurtado to many different ways of living. Her interest in people and in cultural differences led her to the field of anthropology, and she is currently on the staff of the University of New Mexico. Crisp color photographs accompany a cogent narrative that describes Dr. Hurtado’s day-to-day fieldwork among the Aché people, a hunting-gathering group in the rainforest of Paraguay. She uses research methods common to many cultural anthropologists to focus on her own particular area of interest as a human evolutionary ecologist: why women choose particular men as mates over others. A completely absorbing account of a contemporary anthropologist engaged in groundbreaking research, this should interest and inspire many young scientists in the making. (Ages 9–14)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2002

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