Professor Read is certainly very intelligent, but intelligence doesn't always translate to a good professor. He's also nice and friendly, which is why I hate to say that his lectures are incredibly dry and boring and difficult to sit through.
If you have to take one of his classes, make sure you do the readings! That is the ONLY way you will get through the class. I learned this the hard way when I realized I was completely lost regarding the paper topic the night before it was due. His prompt was so poorly written that I misunderstood the purpose of the paper, and clearly the rest of the class felt the same way because he had to send out several emails explaining what he meant. I essentially had to REWRITE my essay when his prompt finally became clear, and I usually have no problem whatsoever with essays.
However, I can say that he does make himself available for questions and seems to care about his students. He also grades on a curve which is a HUGE help considering most people fail his exams.

Usually I read the reviews on here and think that students are really unfair to the teachers...HOWEVER, these reviews are RIGHT ON. I took him and I can honestly say that I barley learned anything. He has a PhD in math, but likes to teach anthro, thus he teaches his anthro class like a math class would be taught.

the GOOD news is that i got a B in the class. He curved all the tests, which everyone failed basically, hes also nice and throws out the random top scoring outliers when he makes the curve. half of our final was a take home opinion based paper, so that was nice too. Read is a really nice guy, but he is just too intelligent sounding to have anyone follow him. If you take him, its possible to get a good grade and not know that much. I would never attend lectures, just memorize his lecture notes online, they are much clearer then when he actually lectures in person.

take at your own risk. you can survive his class by not knowing that much, but thats only if the rest of the class is on the same page as you, which luckily, mine was :)

Prof. Reed is a nice, warm, approachable man. His lectures are thorough and he often uses PowerPoint and/or overheads to supplement oral information. He is obviously extremely knowledgeable about his field. The only problems I had with this class is that (1) he taught it from a mathematical perspective (he is triple degreed in math), which (2) made the lectures dull and boring to me as I "don't do number." I am a horrible math student, which is why I am a Anthro major and not a Math or Sciences major! I took the Anthro M151 class with him in Fall 2004 and still cannot explain to my friends how kinship can be taught from a mathematical perspective! I expected the class to be taught from a social or cultural perspective, which makes more sense to me. If you take him for this class, I recommend that you consider yourself a good math student -- it will make your comprehension of the way he teaches this class clearer. He is a kind, caring Professor, but no amount of time reading, visiting his office hours, etc. was going to make this (mathematical) subject matter sink into my brain.

I took his kinship class and while i was very interested in the material before, after i was left confused and half learned. Read is a very nice, caring man but his lectures are confusing and his lecture style is very sloppy. At times he,himself puts up diagrams that once in front of the class has forgotten what the point or connection was. if you have already taken anthro 9 the begining of the class will seem very similar until you get to the complexity that is kinship and at this point the whol class was confused up until the final. while he tries to explain the fact that he is unoragnized at times does not help. there is a midterm and final as well as a family tree project and a second kinship projet. Overall if you can take it with a better teacher do so but Read is a good guy, hes approachable and the class is very do-able.

Prof. Read was awesome! I definately reccomend anyone interested in kinship systems to take this class. Anyone not interested in the course material might find the complex kin diagrams a bit daunting, but Prof Read goes out of his way to do everything possible for all of his student to do well in his class and understand all the material. He postponed the midterm to give us an extra study day, and he delayed the paper to ease students' stress during finals week. All over a brilliant man who tries very hard to do everything possible to help his students.