Beginning and advanced students alike will find much to learn from this rich and stimulating collection of essays. Written by many of the most articulate and visible scholars in the field, the twenty-four essays and five thematic chapters in Schooling the Symbolic Animal are testament to the vigor, diversity, and critical thinking of anthropological and sociological thought on education.

Amy Stambach, author of Lessons from Mount Kilimanjaro: Schooling, Community, and Gender in East Africa

Schooling the Symbolic Animal is the definitive collection exploring the social and cultural foundations of education in pre-modern, modern and 'global' societies.

Hugh Mehan, University of California, San Diego

Nicely balances classics, many judiciously trimmed, with well chosen new pieces. . . . It promises no easy fixes for educational problems-just a way of seeing that can change everything students used to think about learning and schooling.

Kathryn Anderson-Levitt, University of Michigan

Often arresting and challenging . . . remarkable collection. . . . The editors develop an ingenious framework, flesh it out, and then place its pieces in a neat mosaic with clarifying introductions for each of the five sections. The articles offer a fresh look at the education of Americans. This collection is well-suited for advanced and graduate studets in education.

Choice Reviews

The editors develop an ingenious framework, flesh it out, and then place its pieces in a neat mosaic with clarifying introductions for each of the five sections.

R.O. Ulin, Choice Reviews

Extraordinarily stimulating and refreshing with its unique feature of bringing giants in the field of educational anthropology and sociology to dialogue with our contemporary scholars on issues that transcend time, disciplines, and national boundaries. This book offers one of the best introductions to the contributions of social science to the study of education.

Henry Trueba, University of Texas, Austin