
Series
Volume 3
Explanations in the Social Sciences
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The Origins of Prejudice
Dangerous Opinions and Beliefs
Eugene Anderson, Carla Guerrón Montero, Tory L. Schendel-Vyvoda, Tobias Schwörer and John Edward Terrell
194 pages, 19 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-83695-482-8 $120.00/£92.00 / Hb / Not Yet Published (May 2026)
eISBN 978-1-83695-484-2 eBook Not Yet Published
Description
Being prejudiced is usually taken to mean having hasty and poorly founded feelings and opinions, usually negative, that are based on too little real knowledge and careful consideration. Definitions, however, are not explanations. The Origins of Prejudice is a short and unconventional book that shows you step-by-step both how and why all of us who are human often rely uncritically on what we believe to be true about the people, things, and events shaping our lives outside the hidden world of our bony skull. This book aims to show how we can learn from our possibly unintentional acts and self-serving misdeeds to live together in supportive, less conflicted ways.
E. N. Anderson is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. Recent publications include Caring for Place (Routledge, 2014) and Everyone Eats (NYU Press, 2014).
Carla Guerrón Montero is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware. She is author of From Temporary Migrants to Permanent Attractions: Tourism, Cultural Heritage and Afro-Antillean Identities in Panama (University of Alabama Press, 2020).
Tory L. Schendel-Vyvoda is curator of the Evansville African American Museum and adjunct instructor at the University of Evansville. Publications include Feminist Perspectivism in Schuermann’s Medieval Latin Epoch (Atchison, 2024).
Tobias Schwörer is Senior Lecturer at the University of Lucerne. He has conducted fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and his publications include the co-edited book The Ending of Tribal Wars (Routledge, 2021).
John Edward Terrell is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois and Regenstein Curator of Pacific Anthropology at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Recent publications include A Talent for Friendship: Rediscovery of a Remarkable Trait (OUP, 2015).



