Aliens Like Us?

An Anthropologist's Field Guide to Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life

Anthony Aveni (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

272 Seiten

2025
University of New Mexico Press (Verlag)
978-0-8263-6742-6 (ISBN)

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In this authoritative, accessible, and at times funny and irreverent work, distinguished anthropologist Anthony Aveni speaks to the trained astrophysicist and the curious layperson alike about a simple but previously unexplored question: Why do we assume aliens, if they are really out there, behave just like us?

Aveni's newest work departs significantly from the usual scientific treatment of extraterrestrial intelligence by probing the historical and widely neglected anthropological record, which offers relevant incidents of contact among terrestrial cultures. Beginning with theories of the evolution of life and culture advocated by astrobiologists, Aliens Like Us? explores how the Western cultural imagination is influenced by ways of knowing that are deeply embedded in the minds of the questioners—for example, how we consider the ownership of property, the idea of progress, and even the way we classify things. The lessons of anthropology offer not only value structures from other cultures that differ profoundly from our own but also testify to the diverse ways in which cultures interact.

Finally, on the potential question of first contact, Aveni closes with a fascinating exploration of the image of extraterrestrials in popular culture that is derived in part from the hugely influential realm of science fiction.

Anthony Aveni is the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy, Anthropology, and Native American Studies Emeritus at Colgate University. He has written or edited more than forty books, including Conversing with the Planets: How Science and Myth Invented the Cosmos and The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012.

Introduction
PART I. ARE THEY OUT THERE?
Chapter One. ET Fever
Chapter Two. Optimists vs. Pessimists
PART II. DO THEY EVOLVE LIKE US?
Chapter Three. Life Like Ours?
Chapter Four. Does Evolution Converge?
Chapter Five. Does Culture Evolve Too?
PART III. DO THEY THINK LIKE US?
Chapter Six. Do Aliens Believe in High-Tech Progress? Lessons from History
Chapter Seven. Doesn't Everybody Do Things the Way We Do? Lessons from Anthropology
Chapter Eight. Contacting the Ultimate Other: More Lessons from Anthropology
Chapter Nine. Do Aliens Believe in God?
PART IV. ARE THEY HERE?
Chapter Ten. The Story of Ufology
Chapter Eleven. Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Credits
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	15.02.2025
Zusatzinfo	4 Illustrations
Verlagsort	Albuquerque, NM
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
	Technik ► Luft- / Raumfahrttechnik
ISBN-10	0-8263-6742-9 / 0826367429
ISBN-13	978-0-8263-6742-6 / 9780826367426
Zustand	Neuware