Religion and politics in the ancient Americas by
This exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organization and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americasspans the entire precolumbian period, from Preceramic Peru to the Contact period in eastern North America, with case studies from North, Middle, and South America. Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americasconsiders the ways in which religion itself generated political innovation and thus enabled political centralization to occur. It moves beyond a "Great Tradition" focus on elite religion to understand how local political authority was negotiated, contested, bolstered, and undermined within diverse constituencies, demonstrating how religion has transformed non-Western societies. As well as offering readers fresh perspectives on specific archaeological cases, this book breaks new ground in the archaeological examination of religion and society.
Unveiling Desire by
In Unveiling Desire, Devaleena Das and Colette Morrow show that the duality of the fallen/saved woman is as prevalent in Eastern culture as it is in the West, specifically in literature and films. Using examples from the Middle to Far East, including Iran, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Japan, and China, this anthology challenges the fascination with Eastern women as passive, abject, or sexually exotic, but also resists the temptation to then focus on the veil, geisha, sati, or Muslim women's oppression without exploring Eastern women's sexuality beyond these contexts. The chapters cover instead mind/body sexual politics, patriarchal cultural constructs, the anatomy of sex and power in relation to myth and culture, denigration of female anatomy, and gender performativity. From Persepolis to Bollywood, and from fairy tales to crime fiction, the contributors to Unveiling Desire show how the struggle for women's liberation is truly global.
The Art of Life and Death by
The Art of Life and Death explores how the world appears to people who have an acute perspective on it: those who are close to death. Based on extensive ethnographic research, Andrew Irving brings to life the lived experiences, imaginative lifeworlds, and existential concerns of persons confronting their own mortality and non-being. Encompassing twenty years of working alongside persons living with HIV/AIDS in New York, Irving documents the radical but often unspoken and unvoiced transformations in perception, knowledge, and understanding that people experience in the face of death. By bringing an "experience-near" ethnographic focus to the streams of inner dialogue, imagination, and aesthetic expression that are central to the experience of illness and everyday life, this monograph offers a theoretical, ethnographic, and methodological contribution to the anthropology of time, finitude, and the human condition. With relevance well-beyond the disciplinary boundaries of anthropology, this book ultimately highlights the challenge of capturing the inner experience of human suffering and hope that affect us all--of the trauma of the threat of death and the surprise of continued life.
Sinuous objects : revaluing women's wealth in the contemporary Pacific by 
The Great Uprising by
Between 1963 and 1972 America experienced over 750 urban revolts. Considered collectively, they comprise what Peter Levy terms a 'Great Uprising'. Levy examines these uprisings over the arc of the entire decade, in various cities across America. He challenges both conservative and liberal interpretations, emphasizing that these riots must be placed within historical context to be properly understood. By focusing on three specific cities as case studies - Cambridge and Baltimore, Maryland, and York, Pennsylvania - Levy demonstrates the impact which these uprisings had on millions of ordinary Americans. He shows how conservatives profited politically by constructing a misleading narrative of their causes, and also suggests that the riots did not represent a sharp break or rupture from the civil rights movement. Finally, Levy presents a cautionary tale by challenging us to consider if the conditions that produced this 'Great Uprising' are still predominant in American culture today.
Captain Cook's Final Voyage by
Particularly astonishing for accounts of landings along Hawaii, Vancouver Island, and Alaska, two extraordinary journals written by young officers offer remarkable eyewitness accounts from Cook¿s final voyage, describing initial European contact and Cook¿s dramatic death at Kealakekua Bay. They also include the first reasonably accurate maps of North America¿s west coast and the earliest comprehensive report from the Bering Sea ice pack. James Burney was first lieutenant for the commander of the "Discovery." One of the few accounts from the consort vessel, his writing provides new details and important, thoughtful impressions of North and South Pacific people and places. Working under the notorious William Bligh, Henry Roberts was Master's Mate on the "Resolution," performing essential hydrographic and cartographic tasks for the captain. He was only a few feet away when Cook was killed. His well-illustrated logbook includes coordinates, tables of routes, and records of weather at sea, but also lively accounts of shore excursions. The text is well-illustrated by the officers¿ maps and drawings, as well as a host of lavish images drawn by the expedition¿s official artist, John Webber. Maritime historian and researcher James K. Barnett adds context and commentary to complete the story.
The Traffic in Hierarchy by
Until its recent political thaw, Burma was closed to most foreign researchers, and fieldwork-based research was rare. In The Traffic in Hierarchy, one of the few such works to appear in recent years, author Ward Keeler combines close ethnographic attention to life in a Buddhist monastery with a broad analysis of Burman gender ideology. The result is a thought-provoking analysis of Burmese social relations both within and beyond a monastery's walls. Keeler shows that the roles individuals choose in Burman society entail inevitable trade-offs in privileges and prestige. A man who becomes a monk gives up some social opportunities but takes on others and gains great respect. Alternatively, a man can become a head of household. Or he can choose to take on a feminine gender identity--to the derision of many but not necessarily his social exclusion. A woman, by contrast, is expected to concern herself with her relations with family and kin. Any interest she might show in becoming a nun arouses ambivalent reactions: although it fulfills Buddhist teachings, it contravenes assumptions about a woman's proper role. In Burma, hierarchical understandings condition all relationships, but hierarchy implies relations of exchange, not simply inequality, and everyone takes on subordinate roles in their bonds with some, and superordinate ones with others. Knowing where power lies and how to relate to it appropriately is key. It may mean choosing at times to resist power, but more often it involves exercising care as to whom one wishes to subordinate oneself, in what ways, and on what terms. Melding reflections on the work of theorists such as Dumont, Anderson, Warner, and Kapferer with close attention to the details of Burman social interaction, Keeler balances theoretical insights and ethnographic observation to produce a rich and challenging read. The conundrum at the heart of this book--whether to opt for autonomy, the Buddhist seeking of detachment, or for attachment, the desire for close bonds with others--is one that all humans, not just Burmans, must confront, and it is one that admits of no final resolution.
Chinese American Names by
The naming practices of Chinese Americans are the focus of this work. Since Chinese immigration began in the mid - 19th century, names of immigrants and those of their descendants have been influenced by both Chinese and American name customs. The naming traditions of China are first presented. It is a base for understanding the numerous modifications that may happen to personal names in the interaction between cultures as diametrically opposed as Chinese culture can be from American culture, 'itself part of another great tradition, Western civilization'. One discovers that surnames are clues to Chinese dialect sounds, that many have been Americanized, that new surnames were created and that, in more recent decades as the Chinese American population has grown, new names practices developed and surnames have proliferated. Included are ideographs to surnames and an overview of their preservation by Americans of Chinese descent.
Creativity in the Bronze Age by
Creativity is an integral part of human history, yet most studies focus on the modern era, leaving unresolved questions about the formative role that creativity has played in the past. This book explores the fundamental nature of creativity in the European Bronze Age. Considering developments in crafts that we take for granted today, such as pottery, textiles, and metalwork, the volume compares and contrasts various aspects of their development, from the construction of the materials themselves, through the production processes, to the design and effects deployed in finished objects. It explores how creativity is closely related to changes in material culture, how it directs responses to the new and unfamiliar, and how it has resulted in changes to familiar things and practices. Written by an international team of scholars, the case studies in this volume consider wider issues and provide detailed insights into creative solutions found in specific objects.
Research Through, with and As Storying by
Research Through, With and As Storyingexplores how Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars can engage with storying as a tool that disassembles conventions of research. The authors explore the concept of storying across different cultures, times and places, and discuss principles of storying and storying research, considering Indigenous, feminist and critical theory standpoints. Through the book, Phillips and Bunda provide an invitation to locate storying as a valuable ontological, epistemological and methodological contribution to the academy across disciplines, arguing that storying research gives voice to the marginalised in the academy. Providing rich and interesting coverage of the approaches to the field of storying research from Aboriginal and white Australian perspectives, this text seeks to enable a profound understanding of the significance of stories and storying. This book will prove valuable for scholars, students and practitioners who seek to develop alternate and creative contributions to the production of knowledge.
Set the World on Fire by
In 1932, Mittie Maude Lena Gordon spoke to a crowd of black Chicagoans at the old Jack Johnson boxing ring, rallying their support for emigration to West Africa. In 1937, Celia Jane Allen traveled to Jim Crow Mississippi to organize rural black workers around black nationalist causes. In the late 1940s, from her home in Kingston, Jamaica, Amy Jacques Garvey launched an extensive letter-writing campaign to defend the Greater Liberia Bill, which would relocate 13 million black Americans to West Africa. Gordon, Allen, and Jacques Garvey--as well as Maymie De Mena, Ethel Collins, Amy Ashwood, and Ethel Waddell--are part of an overlooked and understudied group of black women who take center stage in Set the World on Fire, the first book to examine how black nationalist women engaged in national and global politics from the early twentieth century to the 1960s. Historians of the era generally portray the period between the Garvey movement of the 1920s and the Black Power movement of the 1960s as one of declining black nationalist activism, but Keisha N. Blain reframes the Great Depression, World War II, and the early Cold War as significant eras of black nationalist--and particularly, black nationalist women's--ferment. In Chicago, Harlem, and the Mississippi Delta, from Britain to Jamaica, these women built alliances with people of color around the globe, agitating for the rights and liberation of black people in the United States and across the African diaspora. As pragmatic activists, they employed multiple protest strategies and tactics, combined numerous religious and political ideologies, and forged unlikely alliances in their struggles for freedom. Drawing on a variety of previously untapped sources, including newspapers, government records, songs, and poetry, Set the World on Fire highlights the flexibility, adaptability, and experimentation of black women leaders who demanded equal recognition and participation in global civil society.
Natural Causes by
A New York Times bestseller! From the celebrated author of Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich explores how we are killing ourselves to live longer, not better. A razor-sharp polemic which offers an entirely new understanding of our bodies, ourselves, and our place in the universe, NATURAL CAUSES describes how we over-prepare and worry way too much about what is inevitable. One by one, Ehrenreich topples the shibboleths that guide our attempts to live a long, healthy life -- from the importance of preventive medical screenings to the concepts of wellness and mindfulness, from dietary fads to fitness culture. But NATURAL CAUSES goes deeper -- into the fundamental unreliability of our bodies and even our "mind-bodies," to use the fashionable term. Starting with the mysterious and seldom-acknowledged tendency of our own immune cells to promote deadly cancers, Ehrenreich looks into the cellular basis of aging, and shows how little control we actually have over it. We tend to believe we have agency over our bodies, our minds, and even over the manner of our deaths. But the latest science shows that the microscopic subunits of our bodies make their own "decisions," and not always in our favor. We may buy expensive anti-aging products or cosmetic surgery, get preventive screenings and eat more kale, or throw ourselves into meditation and spirituality. But all these things offer only the illusion of control. How to live well, even joyously, while accepting our mortality -- that is the vitally important philosophical challenge of this book. Drawing on varied sources, from personal experience and sociological trends to pop culture and current scientific literature, NATURAL CAUSES examines the ways in which we obsess over death, our bodies, and our health. Both funny and caustic, Ehrenreich then tackles the seemingly unsolvable problem of how we might better prepare ourselves for the end -- while still reveling in the lives that remain to us.
Left-Handed in an Islamic World by
This is the memoir of an American anthropologist living in the Arab world with his family. His stories derive from across a number of different societies and time frames, and bring into play the larger Middle East context from 1968 to 2012.
A Perilous Path by
A no-holds-barred, red-hot discussion of race in America today from some of the leading names in the field, including the bestselling author of Just Mercy This blisteringly candid discussion of the American dilemma in the age of Trump brings together the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the former attorney general of the United States, a bestselling author and death penalty lawyer, and a star professor for an honest conversation the country desperately needs to hear. Drawing on their collective decades of work on civil rights issues as well as personal histories of rising from poverty and oppression, these leading lights of the legal profession and the fight for racial justice talk about the importance of reclaiming the racial narrative and keeping our eyes on the horizon as we work for justice in an unjust time. Covering topics as varied as "the commonality of pain," "when lawyers are heroes," and the concept of an "equality dividend" that is due to people of color for helping America brand itself internationally as a country of diversity and acceptance, Ifill, Lynch, Stevenson, and Thompson also explore topics such as "when did 'public' become a dirty word" (hint, it has something to do with serving people of color), "you know what Jeff Sessions is going to say," and "what it means to be a civil rights lawyer in the age of Trump." Building on Stevenson's hugely successful Just Mercy, Lynch's national platform at the Justice Department, Ifill's role as one of the leading defenders of civil rights in the country, and the occasion of Thompson's launch of a new center on race, inequality, and the law at the NYU School of Law, A Perilous Path will speak loudly and clearly to everyone concerned about America's perpetual fault line.
Tribes and Global Jihadism by
Across the Muslim world, from Iraq and Yemen, to Egypt and the Sahel, new alliances have been forged between the latest wave of violent Islamist groups - including Islamic State and Boko Haram - and local tribes. But can one now speak of a direct link between tribalism and jihadism, and howanalytically useful might it be? Tribes are traditionally thought to resist all encroachments upon their sovereignty, whether by the state or other local actors, from below; yet by joining global organizations such as Islamic State, are they not rejecting the idea of the state from above? This triangular relationship is key tounderstanding instances of mass "radicalization", when entire communities forge alliances with jihadi groups, for reasons of self-interest, self-preservation or religious fervor. If Algeria's FIS or Turkey's AKP once represented the 'Islamization of nationalism', have we now entered a new era, the'tribalization of globalization'?
Managing the Wild by
Drawn from ecologist Charles M. Peters's thirty‑five years of fieldwork around the globe, these absorbing stories argue that the best solutions for sustainably managing tropical forests come from the people who live in them. As Peters says, "Local people know a lot about managing tropical forests, and they are much better at it than we are." With the aim of showing policy makers, conservation advocates, and others the potential benefits of giving communities a more prominent conservation role, Peters offers readers fascinating backstories of positive forest interactions. He provides examples such as the Kenyah Dayak people of Indonesia, who manage subsistence orchards and are perhaps the world's most gifted foresters, and communities in Mexico that sustainably harvest agave for mescal and demonstrate a near‑heroic commitment to good practices. No forest is pristine, and Peters's work shows that communities have been doing skillful, subtle forest management throughout the tropics for several hundred years.
African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity by
Right from the beginning of humankind, God has never deprived a people of his grace and revelation. In fact, God uses people's environment and culture to communicate his will. There is no single religion that can claim to have the exclusive possession of God's revelation, for God is too immense to be confined within one faith. Hence, it was erroneous, blasphemous, and misleading for some of the early Christian missionaries to Africa to claim that they had brought God to Africa, a mentality that implied the non-existence of God in Africa before their arrival. Of course, God was already in Africa, but the missionaries either failed to discern his presence or just disregarded the traces of his existence. This book explores the religious beliefs, practices, and values of the indigenous people of Africa at the time of the early missionaries' arrival, with particular reference to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It also evaluates the extent of the missionarie's successes and challenges in converting Africans to Christianity. It finally surveys how African Christians have remained attached to the indigenous religious beliefs that used to provide answers to their existential questions.
Waste of a Nation by
In India, you can still find the kabaadiwala, the rag-and-bone man. He wanders from house to house buying old newspapers, broken utensils, plastic bottles--anything for which he can get a little cash. This custom persists and recreates itself alongside the new economies and ecologies of consumer capitalism. Waste of a Nation offers an anthropological and historical account of India's complex relationship with garbage. Countries around the world struggle to achieve sustainable futures. Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey argue that in India the removal of waste and efforts to reuse it also lay waste to the lives of human beings. At the bottom of the pyramid, people who work with waste are injured and stigmatized as they deal with sewage, toxic chemicals, and rotting garbage. Terrifying events, such as atmospheric pollution and childhood stunting, that touch even the wealthy and powerful may lead to substantial changes in practices and attitudes toward sanitation. And innovative technology along with more effective local government may bring about limited improvements. But if a clean new India is to emerge as a model for other parts of the world, a "binding morality" that reaches beyond the current environmental crisis will be required. Empathy for marginalized underclasses--Dalits, poor Muslims, landless migrants--who live, almost invisibly, amid waste produced predominantly for the comfort of the better-off will be the critical element in India's relationship with waste. Solutions will arise at the intersection of the traditional and the cutting edge, policy and practice, science and spirituality.
We interrupt this program : indigenous media tactics in Canadian culture by
"We Interrupt This Program tells the story of how Indigenous people are using media tactics in the realms of art, film, television, and journalism to rewrite Canada's national narratives from Indigenous perspectives. Miranda Brady and John Kelly showcase the diversity of these interventions by offering personal accounts and reflections on key moments - witnessing survivor testimonies at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, attending the opening night of the ImagineNative Film + Media Festival, and discussing representations of Indigenous people with artists such as Kent Monkman and Dana Claxton and with CBC journalist Duncan McCue. These scene-setting moments bring to life their argument that media tactics, as articulations of Indigenous sovereignty, have the power not only to effect change from within Canadian institutions and through established mediums but also to spark new forms of political and cultural expression in Indigenous communities and among Indigenous youth. Theoretically sophisticated and eminently readable, We Interrupt This Program reveals how seemingly unrelated acts by Indigenous activists across Canada are decolonizing our cultural institutions from within, one intervention at a time."-- Provided by publisher.
Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education by
Indigenous students remain one of the least represented populations in higher education. They continue to account for only one percent of the total post-secondary student population, and this lack of representation is felt in multiple ways beyond enrollment. Less research money is spent studying Indigenous students, and their interests are often left out of projects that otherwise purport to address diversity in higher education. Recently, Native scholars have started to reclaim research through the development of their own research methodologies and paradigms that are based in tribal knowledge systems and values, and that allow inherent Indigenous knowledge and lived experiences to strengthen the research. Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education highlights the current scholarship emerging from these scholars of higher education. From understanding how Native American students make their way through school, to tracking tribal college and university transfer students, this book allows Native scholars to take center stage, and shines the light squarely on those least represented among us.
The Name Game by
From decade to decade, significant changes occur in the choice of first names for children. One-time favorites are perceived as old fashioned and replaced by new choices. In The Name Game, Jurgen Gerhards shows that shifts in the choice of names are based on more than arbitrary trends of fashion. Instead, he demonstrates, they are determined by larger currents in cultural modernization. Using classic tools of sociology, Gerhards focuses on changing atterns of first names in Germany from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, using these as an indicator of cultural change. Among the influences he considers are religion, and he notes a trend toward greater secularization in first names. He considers the extent to which Christian names have been displaced, and whether the process is similar for Catholics and Protestants. He traces the impact of different political regimes (Second Empire, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, West Germany, East Germany) and the accompanying rise and fall of German nationalist sentiment. He also investigates the dissolution of the family as a unit of production, and its impact on the naming of children. He shows that the weakening of traditional ties of religion, nation, and family has led to greater individuation and greater receptivity toward foreign first names. Gerhards concludes with a discussion of whether the blurring of gender and sex roles is reflected in the decrease of gender-specific names. Written in a lucid, approachable style, The Name Gamewill be of interest not only to sociologists and cultural studies specialists, but also non-professionals, especially parents who are interested in reflecting on the process of name giving.
Gypsies in Contemporary Egypt by
Little is known about Egypt's Gypsies, called Dom by scholars, but variously referred to by Egyptians as Ghagar, Nawar, Halebi or Hanagra, depending on their location. Moreover, most Egyptians are oblivious to the fact that there are today large numbers of Gypsies dispersed from the outskirtsof villages in Upper Egypt to impoverished neighborhoods in Cairo and Alexandria. In Gypsies in Contemporary Egypt sociologist Alexandra Parrs draws on two years of fieldwork to explore how Dom identities are constructed, negotiated, and contested in the specifically Egyptian national context. With an eye to the pitfalls and evolution of scholarly work on the vastly more studiedEuropean Roma, she traces the scattered representations of Egyptian Dom, from accounts of them by nineteenth-century European Orientalists to their portrayal in Egyptian cinema as belly dancers in the 1950s and beggars and thieves more recently. She explores the boundaries-religious, cultural,racial, linguistic-between Dom and non-Dom Egyptians and examines the ways in which the Dom position themselves within the limitations of media discourses about them and in turn differentiate themselves from the dominant population. This interplay of attitudes, argues Parrs, sheds light on thevalues and markers of belonging of the majority population and the paradigms of nation-state formation at the governmental level. Based on extensive interviews with government workers and ordinary individuals in routine contact with the Dom, as well with Dom engaged in a variety of trades in Cairo and Alexandria, Gypsies in Contemporary Egypt is about the search for the fragments of identity of the Egyptian Dom.
Shifting Sand - Journal of a Cub Archaeologist, Palestine 1964 by
Shifting Sand is the journal of Julian Berry, then a 17-year-old archaeologist, written on-site during excavations in Deir Alla, Jordan, in 1964. The dig was organized by the University of Leiden and led by Dr Henk Franken who was looking to find a material context for Old Testament narratives, and to build a stratigraphic chronology to mark the transition from the Bronze through to the early Iron Ages based mainly around pottery finds. When the author was working on the site, three clay tablets were discovered from the late Bronze Age with early Canaanite inscriptions, that when translated in 1989 showed that Deir Alla was the Biblical Pethor, and that it had been attacked by Israelites from Pithom in Egypt. Later a wall inscription was found in Aramaic dating to 880-770BCE referencing the prophet Balaam. Berry was as much interested by what was going on above ground as below, and kept a detailed journal of the daily lives of the archaeologists and life in the camp. The dig also had many fascinating and famous archaeologists visiting, including Father Roland de Vaux, and Diana Kirkbride. During breaks from the dig Berry went on a number of journeys in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and he describes their cities, but also the very tranquil agricultural countryside that he found at that time. He discovered adventure when a drunk taxi driver tried to murder him as he resisted his advances; later he was caught up in a revolt against Hafez al-Assad in Homs, father of Bashir, and was asked by a taxi driver if he had come to Damascus to see the public hanging. Above all this book should be read as fascinating insight into the lives of archaeologists over 50 years ago, and the very close links between the European team, the Arab workmen, and the daily life in a simple mud-brick village.
How to Be a Muslim by
A young Muslim leader's memoir of his struggles to forge an American Muslim identity Haroon Moghul was thrust into the spotlight after 9/11, becoming an undergraduate leader at New York University's Islamic Center forced into appearances everywhere: on TV, before interfaith audiences, in print. Moghul was becoming a prominent voice for American Muslims even as he struggled with his relationship to Islam. In high school he was barely a believer and entirely convinced he was going to hell. He sometimes drank. He didn't pray regularly. All he wanted was a girlfriend. But as he discovered, it wasn't so easy to leave religion behind. To be true to himself, he needed to forge a unique American Muslim identity that reflected his beliefs and personality. How to Be a Muslim reveals a young man coping with the crushing pressure of a world that fears Muslims, struggling with his faith and searching for intellectual forebears, and suffering the onset of bipolar disorder. This is the story of the second-generation immigrant, of what it's like to lose yourself between cultures and how to pick up the pieces.
Feeling Things by
This interdisciplinary essay collection investigates the various interactions of people, feelings, and things throughout premodern Europe. It focuses on the period before mass production, when limited literacy often prioritised material methods of communication. The subject of materiality hasbeen of increasing significance in recent historical inquiry, alongside growing emphasis on the relationships between objects, emotions, and affect in archaeological and sociological research. The historical intersections between materiality and emotions, however, have remained under-theorised,particularly with respect to artefacts that have continuing resonance over extended periods of time or across cultural and geographical space. Feeling Things addresses the need to develop an appropriate cross-disciplinary theoretical framework for the analysis of objects and emotions in Europeanhistory, with special attention to the need to track the shifting emotional valencies of objects from the past to the present, and from one place and cultural context to another. The collection draws together an international group of historians, art historians, curators, and literary scholars working on a variety of cultural, literary, visual, and material sources. Objects considered include books, letters, prosthetics, religious relics, shoes, stone, and textiles. Many ofthese have been preserved in international galleries, museums, and archives, while others have remained in their original locations, even as their contexts have changed over time. The chapters consider the ways in which emotions such as despair, fear, grief, hope, love, and wonder become inscribedin and ascribed to these items, producing "emotional objects" of significance and agency. Such objects can be harnessed to create, affirm, or express individual relationships, as, for example, in religious devotion and practice, or in the construction of cultural, communal, and nationalidentities.
Choreographing the Airport by
​This book investigates the global hub airport as an exemplar of cosmopolitan culture and space. A machine made for movement, itself perched at the crossroads of the world's incessant mobility, the airport is both a symbol of and stage for the ways in which we construct and inhabit the world today. Taking an ethnographically-inflected approach, this study brings together knowledge of the moving body from dance and performance and the study of systems of mobility within cultural and mobilities studies, in order to call attention to the kinaesthetic experience of global space. What is the choreography of the global airport? How does it perform on us. How do we perform within it? Extending thinking about contemporary cosmopolitanism and cultural identity, and the performativity of places and identities, this book is essential reading for those interested in cultural debates around globalisation, the innovative application of performance theory towards everyday experience, and interdisciplinary methodologies.
Worldviews of the Greenlanders by
Ninety years ago, Knud Rasmussen's popular account of his scientific expeditions through Greenland and North America introduced readers to the culture and history of arctic Natives. In the intervening century, a robust field of ethnographic research has grown around the Inuit and Yupiit of North America--but, until now, English-language readers have had little access to the broad corpus of work on Greenlandic natives. Worldviews of the Greenlanders draws upon extensive Danish and Greenlandic research on Inuit arctic peoples--as well as Birgitte Sonne's own decades of scholarship and fieldwork--to present in rich detail the key symbols and traditional beliefs of Greenlandic Natives, as well as the changes brought about by contact with colonial traders and Christian missionaries. It includes critical updates to our knowledge of the Greenlanders' pre-colonial world and their ideas on space, time, and other worldly beings. This expansive work will be a touchstone of Arctic Native studies for academics who wish to expand their knowledge past the boundaries of North America.
The Protohistoric Pueblo World, A. D. 1275-1600 by
In the centuries before the arrival of Europeans, the Pueblo world underwent nearly continuous reorganization. Populations moved from Chaco Canyon and the great centers of the Mesa Verde region to areas along the Rio Grande, the Little Colorado River, and the Mogollon Rim, where they began constructing larger and differently organized villages, many with more than 500 rooms. Villages also tended to occur in clusters that have been interpreted in a number of different ways. This book describes and interprets this period of southwestern history immediately before and after initial European contact, A.D. 1275-1600--a span of time during which Pueblo peoples and culture were dramatically transformed. It summarizes one hundred years of research and archaeological data for the Pueblo IV period as it explores the nature of the organization of village clusters and what they meant in behavioral and political terms. Twelve of the chapters individually examine the northern and eastern portions of the Southwest and the groups who settled there during the protohistoric period. The authors develop histories for settlement clusters that offer insights into their unique development and the variety of ways that villages formed these clusters. These analyses show the extent to which spatial clusters of large settlements may have formed regionally organized alliances, and in some cases they reveal a connection between protohistoric villages and indigenous or migratory groups from the preceding period. This volume is distinct from other recent syntheses of Pueblo IV research in that it treats the settlement cluster as the analytic unit. By analyzing how members of clusters of villages interacted with one another, it offers a clearer understanding of the value of this level of analysis and suggests possibilities for future research. In addition to offering new insights on the Pueblo IV world, the volume serves as a compendium of information on more than 400 known villages larger than 50 rooms. It will be of lasting interest not only to archaeologists but also to geographers, land managers, and general readers interested in Pueblo culture.
Mirror for Man by
While the world has undoubtedly been shrinking, at the same time it has grown more complex. The likelihood of culture clashes leading to outright conflict is high, perhaps higher than ever. As Andrea L. Smith convincingly argues in her new introduction to this classic work, certain questions are as valid today as in 1949, when Mirror for Manwas first published. Can anthropology break down prejudices that exist between peoples and nations? Can knowledge of past human behavior help solve the world's modern problems? What effect will American attitudes likely have on the future of the world? In Mirror for Man, Clyde Kluckhohn scrutinizes anthropology, showing how the discipline can contribute to the reconciliation of conflicting cultures. He questions age-old race theories, shows how people came to be as they are, and examines limitations in how human beings can be molded. Taking up one of the most vital questions in the post-World War II world, whether international order can be achieved by domination, Kluckhohn demonstrates that cultural clashes drive much of the world's conflict, and shows how we can help resolve it if only we are willing to work for joint understanding. By interpreting human behavior, Kluckhohn reveals that anthropology can make a practical contribution through its predictive power in the realm of politics, social attitudes, and group psychology. Andrea L. Smith's new introduction provides convincing evidence for the continuing importance of one of the earliest "public intellectuals."
We Have Not Stopped Trembling Yet by
A father's personal and intimate account of his Filipino and Alaska Native family's experiences, and his search for how to help his children overcome the effects of historical and contemporary oppression.
The Rise of Homo Sapiens by
The Rise of Homo sapiens provides an unrivalled interdisciplinary introduction to the subject of hominin cognitive evolution that is appropriate for general audiences and students in psychology, archaeology, and anthropology.The book includes chapters on neural anatomy, working memory, evolutionary methods, and non-human primate cognition, but the bulk of the text reviews major developments in cognition over the span of hominin evolution from the ape-like cognition of Ardipithecus to the final developments that enabledthe modern mind. The most provocative chapters of the first edition - the explicit discussion of the role of sleep in hominin evolution and the difference between Neandertal and modern human cognition - incorporate significant developments in both areas since the publication of the first edition.This revised edition updates the former text and adds greater emphasis to the growing fields of epigenetic inheritance, embodied cognition, and neuroaesthetics. The new edition provides greater emphasis on role and status of Homo heidelbergensis.
Batos, Bollilos, Pochos, and Pelados by
A classic account of life on the Texas-Mexico border, Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados offers the fullest portrait currently available of the people of the South Texas/Northern Mexico borderlands. First published in 1999, the book is now extensively revised and updated throughout to cover developments since 2000, including undocumented immigration, the drug wars, race relations, growing social inequality, and the socioeconomic gap between Latinos and the rest of American society--issues of vital and continuing national importance. An outgrowth of the Borderlife Research Project conducted at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados uses the voices of several hundred Valley residents, collected by embedded student researchers and backed by the findings of sociological surveys, to describe the lives of migrant farmworkers, colonia residents, undocumented domestic servants, maquiladora workers, and Mexican street children. Likewise, it explores social, racial, and ethnic relations in South Texas among groups such as Latinos, Mexican immigrants, wealthy Mexican visitors, Anglo residents or tourists, and Asian and African American residents of South Texas. With this firsthand material and an explanatory focus that utilizes and applies social-science theoretical concepts, the book thoroughly addresses the future composition and integration of Latinos into the society and culture of the United States.
Relational Engagements of the Indigenous Americas by
In Relational Engagements of the Indigenous Americas, Melissa R. Baltus and Sarah E. Baires critically examine the current understanding of relationality in the Americas, covering a diverse range of topics from indigenous cosmologies to the life-world of the Inuit dog. The contributors to this diverse edited collection interrogate and discuss the multiple natures of relational ontologies, touching on the ever-changing, fluid, and varied ways of how people, both alive and dead, relate and related to their surrounding world. While the case studies presented in this edited collection all stem from the New World, the Indigenous histories and archaeological interpretations vary widely and the boundaries of relational theory are pushed to challenge current preconceptions of earlier ways of life in the indigenous Americas.
Kantha by
The part of Bengal where the Ganges River flows into the Bay of Bengal has historically been the source of the finest cotton ever produced. The kind of embroidery known as kantha is created from this material, for daily use in many different contexts and in many different sizes. It deploys a simple running stitch in quilting layers of used cloth; details are embroidered using satin and stem stitches with thread taken from the colored borders of cast-off saris and dhotis. The workmanship varies from the crude to the complex and refined, but they are all made for daily use for various household purposes. The tribal culture of this region and its sense of continuity were evident until the early part of the 20th century, but the true unraveling of the kantha tradition came with partition, followed by the devastation brought on by the mass exodus of Hindu and Muslim populations in Pakistan, East Pakistan and India. Now, with global warming, the rising waters are resulting in the disappearance of villages, along with the livelihoods of the inhabitants. Reproducing bed covers, wrapping cloths for books and other valuables, floor covers and mats for ceremonial purposes from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, this collection captures and showcases the kantha tradition at a precarious time of change and struggle.
Being Ethnographic by
Being Ethnographic is an essential introductory guidebook to the methods and applications of doing fieldwork in real-world settings. It discusses the future of ethnography, explores how we understand identity, and sets out the role of technology in a global, networked society. Driven by classic and anecdotal case studies, Being Ethnographic highlights the challenges introduced by the ethnographers′ own interests, biases and ideologies and demonstrates the importance of methodological reflexivity. Addressing both the why and how questions of doing ethnography well, Madden demonstrates how both theory and practice can work together to produce insights into the human condition. This fully updated second edition includes: New material on intersubjectivity Information on digital inscription tools A practical guide to qualitative analysis software New coverage of cyberethnography and social media Expanded information on ethnographic possibilities with animals Filled with invaluable advice for applying ethnographic principles in the field, it will give researchers across social sciences everything they need to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.
The Owners of Kinship by
The Owners of Kinship investigates how kinship in Indigenous Amazonia is derived from the asymmetrical relation between an "owner" and his or her dependents. Through a comprehensive ethnography of the Kanamari, Luiz Costa shows how this relationship is centered around the bond created between the feeder and the fed. Building on anthropological studies of the acquisition, distribution, and consumption of food and its role in establishing relations of asymmetrical mutuality and kinship, this book breaks theoretical ground for studies in Amazonia and beyond. By investigating how the feeding relation traverses Kanamari society--from the relation between women and the pets they raise, shaman and familiar spirit, mother and child, chiefs and followers, to those between the Brazilian state and the Kanamari--The Owners of Kinship reveals how the mutuality of kinship is determined by the asymmetry of ownership.
Black Liberation and the American Dream by
Considering the connections between class and racial oppression, and the often marginalized role of the Left in antiracist struggles, Le Blanc skillfully introduces key texts from crucial figures in African American radicalism: Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, C. L. R. James, A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X, Ella Baker, and others. This combination of a rich analytical understanding with key primary texts makesBlack Liberation and the American Dream a unique and invaluable resource for those engaged in contemporary struggles. It is a crucial text for activists and scholars alike.
Landscapes of Power by
In Landscapes of Power Dana E. Powell examines the rise and fall of the controversial Desert Rock Power Plant initiative in New Mexico to trace the political conflicts surrounding native sovereignty and contemporary energy development on Navajo (Diné) Nation land. Powell's historical and ethnographic account shows how the coal-fired power plant project's defeat provided the basis for redefining the legacies of colonialism, mineral extraction, and environmentalism. Examining the labor of activists, artists, politicians, elders, technicians, and others, Powell emphasizes the generative potential of Navajo resistance to articulate a vision of autonomy in the face of twenty-first-century colonial conditions. Ultimately, Powell situates local Navajo struggles over energy technology and infrastructure within broader sociocultural life, debates over global climate change, and tribal, federal, and global politics of extraction.
Cross-Cultural Analysis by
Intended to bridge the gap between the latest methodological developments and cross-cultural research, this interdisciplinary resource presents the latest strategies for analyzing cross-cultural data. Techniques are demonstrated through the use of applications that employ cross-national data sets such as the latest European Social Survey. With an emphasis on the generalized latent variable approach, internationally prominent researchers from a variety of fields explain how the methods work, how to apply them, and how they relate to other methods presented in the book. Syntax and graphical and verbal explanations of the techniques are included. Online resources, available at www.routledge.com/9781138690271, include some of the data sets and syntax commands used in the book. Applications from the behavioral and social sciences that use real data-sets demonstrate: The use of samples from 17 countries to validate the resistance to change scale across these nations How to test the cross-national invariance properties of social trust The interplay between social structure, religiosity, values, and social attitudes A comparison of anti-immigrant attitudes and patterns of religious orientations across European countries. The second edition includes six new chapters and two revised ones presenting exciting developments in the literature of cross-cultural analysis including topics such as approximate measurement invariance, alignment optimization, sensitivity analyses, a mixed-methods approach to test for measurement invariance, and a multilevel structural equation modeling approach to explain noninvariance.　 This book is intended for researchers, practitioners, and advanced students interested in cross-cultural research. Because the applications span a variety of disciplines, the book will appeal to researchers and students in: psychology, political science, sociology, education, marketing and economics, geography, criminology, psychometrics, epidemiology, and public health, as well as those interested in methodology. It is also appropriate for an advanced methods course in cross-cultural analysis.
A Land Full of God by
A Land Full of God gives American Christians an opportunity to promote peace and justice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It shows them how to understand the enmity with brief, digestible, and comprehensive essays about the historical, political, religious, and geographical tensions that have led to many of the dynamics we see today. All the while, A Land Full of God walks readers through a biblical perspective of God's heart for Israel and the historic suffering of the Jewish people, while also remaining sensitive to the experience and suffering of Palestinians. The prevailing wave of Christian voices are seeking a pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-peace, pro-justice, pro-poor, and ultimately pro-Jesus approach to bring resolution to the conflict. ""If you care about peace and justice in the land where Jesus lived and died, then read this excellent collection of thoughtful, probing essays from a wide range of viewpoints. The writers are scholars, pastors, activists, theologians, all struggling--from their vigorously different perspectives!--to be faithful to the Prince of Peace. A good read that will leave you much better equipped to understand all sides and therefore work more effectively for just reconciliation in the Holy Land."" --Ron Sider, President emeritus, Evangelicals for Social Action Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP); author of the award winning Social Justice Handbook and other books on spirituality and justice. Cannon has several masters degrees and earned her doctorate in American History with the minor in Middle Eastern studies from the University of California--Davis, focusing on the history of the American Protestant church's engagement in Israel and Palestine.
Our War Paint Is Writers' Ink by
Explores a little-known history of exchange between Anishinaabe and American writers, showing how literature has long been an important venue for debates over settler colonial policy and indigenous rights.
Stories of Capitalism by
The financial crisis and the recession that followed caught many people off guard, including experts in the financial sector whose jobs involve predicting market fluctuations. Financial analysis offices in most international banks are supposed to forecast the rise or fall of stock prices, the success or failure of investment products, and even the growth or decline of entire national economies. And yet their predictions are heavily disputed. How do they make their forecasts--and do those forecasts have any actual value? Building on recent developments in the social studies of finance, Stories of Capitalism provides the first ethnography of financial analysis. Drawing on two years of fieldwork in a Swiss bank, Stefan Leins argues that financial analysts construct stories of possible economic futures, presenting them as coherent and grounded in expert research and analysis. In so doing, they establish a role for themselves--not necessarily by laying bare empirically verifiable trends but rather by presenting the market as something that makes sense and is worth investing in. Stories of Capitalism is a nuanced look at how banks continue to boost investment--even in unstable markets--and a rare insider's look into the often opaque financial practices that shape the global economy.
The wetiko legal principles : Cree and Anishinabek responses to violence and victimization by 
Curry : reading, eating, and race by
No two curries are the same. This Curry asks why the dish is supposed to represent everything brown people eat, read, and do.Curry is a dish that doesn't quite exist, but, as this hilarious and sharp essay points out, a dish that doesn't properly exist can have infinite, equally authentic variations.By grappling with novels, recipes, travelogues, pop culture, and his own background, Naben Ruthnum depicts how the distinctive taste of curry has often become maladroit shorthand for brown identity. With the sardonic wit of Gita Mehta's Karma Cola and the refined, obsessive palette of Bill Buford's Heat, Ruthnum sinks his teeth into the story of how the beloved flavour calcified into an aesthetic genre that limits the imaginations of writers, readers, and eaters. Following in the footsteps of Salman Rushdie's Imaginary Homelands, Curry cracks open anew the staid narrative of an authentically Indian diasporic experience.
American Indian Politics and the American Political System by
American Indian Politics and the American Political System is the most comprehensive text written from a political science perspective. It analyzes the structures and functions of indigenous governments (including Alaskan Native communities and Hawaiian Natives) and the distinctive legal and political rights these nations exercise internally. It also examines the fascinating intergovernmental relationship that exists between native nations, the states, and the federal government. In the fourth edition, Wilkins and Stark analyze the challenges facing Indigenous nations as they develop new and innovative strategies to defend and demand recognition of their national character and rights. They also seeks to address issues that continue to plague many nations, such as notions of belonging and citizenship, implementation of governing structures and processes attentive to Indigenous political and legal traditions, and the promotion and enactment of sustainable practices that support our interdependence in an increasingly globalized world.
Cherokee Narratives by
The stories of the Cherokee people presented here capture in written form tales of history, myth, and legend for readers, speakers, and scholars of the Cherokee language. Assembled by noted authorities on Cherokee, this volume marks an unparalleled contribution to the linguistic analysis, understanding, and preservation of Cherokee language and culture. Cherokee Narratives spans the spectrum of genres, including humor, religion, origin myths, trickster tales, historical accounts, and stories about the Eastern Cherokee language. These stories capture the voices of tribal elders and form a living record of the Cherokee Nation and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' oral tradition. Each narrative appears in four different formats: the first is interlinear, with each line shown in the Cherokee syllabary, a corresponding roman orthography, and a free English translation; the second format consists of a morpheme-by-morpheme analysis of each word; and the third and fourth formats present the entire narrative in the Cherokee syllabary and in a free English translation. The narratives and their linguistic analysis are a rich source of information for those who wish to deepen their knowledge of the Cherokee syllabary, as well as for students of Cherokee history and culture. By enabling readers at all skill levels to use and reconstruct the Cherokee language, this collection of tales will sustain the life and promote the survival of Cherokee for generations to come.
Black Nationalism in American History by
This analytical introduction assesses contrasting definitions of black nationalism in America, thereby providing an overview of its development and varied manifestations across two centuries. Its aim is to evaluate historiographical debates and synthesize a broad range of scholarship, much ofit published since the beginning of the new millennium. However, unlike some of that work, this book offers a critical perspective that avoids advocacy or condemnation of black nationalism by examining major black nationalist thinkers, leaders and organizations as well as discussing somelesser-known groups and figures, the nature of black nationalism's appeal and the position of women in and their contributions to black nationalism.
The Fire of the Jaguar by
Not since Clifford Geertz's "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight" has the publication of an anthropological analysis been as eagerly awaited as this book, Terence S. Turner's The Fire of the Jaguar. His reanalysis of the famous myth from the Kayapo people of Brazil was anticipated as an exemplar of a new, dynamic, materialist, action-oriented structuralism, one very different from the kind made famous by Claude L#65533;vi-Strauss. But the study never fully materialized. Now, with this volume, it has arrived, bringing with it powerful new insights that challenge the way we think about structuralism, its legacy, and the reasons we have moved away from it. In these chapters, Turner carries out one of the richest and most sustained analysis of a single myth ever conducted. Turner places the "Fire of the Jaguar" myth in the full context of Kayapo society and culture and shows how it became both an origin tale and model for the work of socialization, which is the primary form of productive labor in Kayapo society. A posthumous tribute to Turner's theoretical erudition, ethnographic rigor, and respect for Amazonian indigenous lifeworlds, this book brings this fascinating Kayapo myth alive for new generations of anthropologists. Accompanied with some of Turner's related pieces on Kayapo cosmology, this book is at once a richly literary work and an illuminating meditation on the process of creativity itself.
Before Yellowstone by
Since 1872, visitors have flocked to Yellowstone National Park to gaze in awe at its dramatic geysers, stunning mountains, and impressive wildlife. Yet more than a century of archaeological research shows that the wild landscape has a long history of human presence. In fact, Native American people have hunted bison and bighorn sheep, fished for cutthroat trout, and gathered bitterroot and camas bulbs here for at least 11,000 years, and twenty-six tribes claim cultural association with Yellowstone today. In Before Yellowstone, Douglas MacDonald tells the story of these early people as revealed by archaeological research into nearly 2,000 sites--many of which he helped survey and excavate. He describes and explains the significance of archaeological areas such as the easy-to-visit Obsidian Cliff, where hunters obtained volcanic rock to make tools and for trade, and Yellowstone Lake, a traditional place for gathering edible plants. MacDonald helps readers understand the archaeological methods used and the limits of archaeological knowledge. From Clovis points associated with mammoth hunting to stone circles marking the sites of tipi lodges, Before Yellowstone brings to life a fascinating story of human engagement with this stunning landscape.
Style and Meaning by
Anthropology's engagement with art has a complex and uneven history. While material culture, 'decorative art', and art styles were of major significance for founding figures such as Alfred Haddon and Franz Boas, art became marginal as the discipline turned towards social analysis in the 1920s. This book addresses a major moment of renewal in the anthropology of art in the 1960s and 1970s. British anthropologist Anthony Forge (1929-1991), trained in Cambridge, undertook fieldwork among the Abelam of Papua New Guinea in the late 1950s and 1960s, and wrote influentially, especially about issues of style and meaning in art. His powerful, questioning-raising arguments addressed basic issues, asking why so much art was produced in some regions, and why was it so socially important? Fifty years later, art has renewed global significance, and anthropologists are again considering both its local expressions among Indigenous peoples and its new global circulation. In this context, Forge's arguments have renewed relevance: they help scholars and students understand the genealogies of current debates, and remind us of fundamental questions that remain unanswered. This volume brings together Forge's most important writings on the anthropology of art, published over a thirty year period, together with six assessments of his legacy, including extended reappraisals of Sepik ethnography, by distinguished anthropologists from Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Anthony Forge was born in London in 1929. A student at Downing College, Cambridge, he studied anthropology with Edmund Leach, and went on to undertake research with Raymond Firth at the London School of Economics. Over 1958-63 he undertook several periods of fieldwork among the Abelam of the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, made major collections for the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, and went on to write a series of essays which were enormously influential for the anthropology of art and for studies of Melanesia. He was appointed Foundation Professor of Anthropology at the Australian National University in 1974 and taught there until his death in 1991.
Harvests, Feasts, and Graves by
Ryan Schram explores the experiences of living in intercultural and historical conjunctures among Auhelawa people of Papua New Guinea in Harvests, Feasts, and Graves. In this ethnographic investigation, Schram ponders how Auhelawa question the meaning of social forms and through this questioning seek paths to establish a new sense of their collective self. Harvests, Feasts, and Graves describes the ways in which Auhelawa people, and by extension many others, produce knowledge of themselves as historical subjects in the aftermath of diverse and incomplete encounters with Christianity, capitalism, and Western values. Using the contemporary setting of Papua New Guinea, Schram presents a new take on essential topics and foundational questions of social and cultural anthropology. If, as Marx writes, "the tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living," Harvests, Feasts, and Graves asks: Which history weighs the most? And how does the weight of history become salient as a ground for subjective consciousness? Taking cues from postcolonial theory and indigenous studies, Schram rethinks the "ontological turn" in anthropology and develops a new way to think about the nature of historical consciousness. Rather than seeing the present as either tragedy or farce, Schram argues that contemporary historical consciousness is produced through reflexive sociality. Like all societies, Auhelawa is located in an intercultural conjuncture, yet their contemporary life is not a story of worlds colliding, but a shattered mirror in which multiple Auhelawa subjectivities are possible.
Medical Anthropology in Global Africa by 
The Archaic Southwest by
Although humans in the Southwest were hunter-gatherers for about 85 percent of their history, the majority of the archaeological research in the region has focused on the Formative period. In recent years, however, the amount of data on the Archaic period has grown exponentially due to the magnitude of cultural resource management projects in this region. The Archaic Southwest: Foragers in an Arid Land is the first volume to synthesize this new data. The book begins with a history of the Archaic in the Four Corners region, followed by a compilation and interpretation of paleoenvironmental data gathered in the American Southwest. The next twelve chapters, each written by a regional expert, provide a variety of current research perspectives. The final two chapters present broad syntheses of the Southwest: the first addresses the initial spread of maize cultivation and the second considers present and future research directions. The reader will be astounded by the amount of research that has been conducted and how all this information can be woven together to form a long-term picture of hunter-gatherer life.
Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa by
In recent years, anthropologists, historians, and others have been drawn to study the profuse and creative usages of digital media by religious movements. At the same time, scholars of Christian Africa have long been concerned with the history of textual culture, the politics of Bible translation, and the status of the vernacular in Christianity. Students of Islam in Africa have similarly examined politics of knowledge, the transmission of learning in written form, and the influence of new media. Until now, however, these arenas--Christianity and Islam, digital media and "old" media--have been studied separately. Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa is one of the first volumes to put new media and old media into significant conversation with one another, and also offers a rare comparison between Christianity and Islam in Africa. The contributors find many previously unacknowledged correspondences among different media and between the two faiths. In the process they challenge the technological determinism--the notion that certain types of media generate particular forms of religious expression--that haunts many studies. In evaluating how media usage and religious commitment intersect in the social, cultural, and political landscapes of modern Africa, this collection will contribute to the development of new paradigms for media and religious studies. Contributors: Heike Behrend, Andre Chappatte, Maria Frahm-Arp, David Gordon, Liz Gunner, Bruce S. Hall, Sean Hanretta, Jorg Haustein, Katrien Pype, and Asonzeh Ukah.
Getting Real about Race by
Getting Real About Race is an edited collection of short essays that address the most common stereotypes and misconceptions about race held by students, and by many in the United States, in general.
Following the River by
Lorri Neilsen Glenn first discovered her great-grandmother's tragic death in a passing comment from an aunt. Startled, she began to search out the history of her family, to understand the life of this woman she knew nothing about. Along the way Neilsen Glenn works to unravel the issues of racism, sexism and colonial nation building that haunt us still. In elegant prose and poetry she has created a story of pieces, bringing to life what she could find in newspaper reports and museums. Through these fragments and portraits she gives the reader a glimpse of the lives lived by her ancestors and by women like them. Following the River is a lyric reflection on women that have been erased from our history and what that means for today.
Malled by
Generally Kit Dobson hates malls. But he is fascinated by them, by their place in our society, by how we interact with them and how they end up in our books, movies and art. In Malled, the author explores malls and the shopping that occurs in and around them from one end of Canada to the other. From Chinook Centre in Calgary to the underground malls of Montreal and even up to the famous Walmart in Whitehorse, he looks at our culture of consumerism, and how malls are both shaped by their location and shape the spaces around them. While Kit may never become fond of aspects of consumer culture like the selfie stick or the Elf on the Shelf, by the end of Malled, he has found a peace with our spaces for shopping, which he suggests are only a more recent reflection of a need that will never go away.
A Philosophy of Dirt by
What is dirt, and what does it really mean to be dirty or clean? Dirt and cleaning are often associated with ideas of guilt, otherness, and social control, but also with living responsibly and in harmony with the environment. In this learned, innovative study, Olli Lagerspetz offers a persuasive discussion of dirt and its ramifications across philosophy and culture. Writing with wit and grit, he argues that questions of dirt and soiling can neither be reduced to hygiene nor to ritual pollution. Instead, they are integral to almost every human activity. As participants in material culture, we not only produce things and dispose of them, but we also engage with them practically, aesthetically, and morally. Everything, in essence, comes back to dirt and waste. Ranging through subjects and times, from Heraclitus of Ephesus to the Renaissance (via Heidegger and Mary Douglas), from the hygienic products of modernity to abject art, Lagerspetz constantly questions current thinking on all subjects most foul. Proposing a new view of dirt based on our physical engagement with the world, A Philosophy of Dirt is essential reading for all students of philosophy and for anyone who's felt soiled--and wants to know why.
Security in the Anthropocene by
The belief that Nature exists as a blank, stable stage upon which humans act out tragic performances of international relations is no longer tenable. In a world defined by human action, we must reorient our understanding of ourselves, our environment, and our security. This book considers how decentred and reflexive approaches to security are required to cope with the Anthropocene--the Human Age. Drawing from various disciplines, this bold reinterpretation explores the possibilities for understanding and preparing a future that will look vastly different from the past. The book asks us to dig deeper into what it means to be human and what it means to be secure in an age of ecological exception.
Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu by
As Latin America completes its second decade of neoliberal reforms, Pellegrino A. Luciano takes readers on an ethnographic journey back to a moment of monumental social and economic change in Peru. In Neoliberal Reform in Machu Picchu, Luciano describes the privatization struggles and challenges of the people living in the district of Machu Picchu, a heritage area and tourism destination, during the early 2000's. At this time, it became central to the government's neoliberal policies and efforts to use the symbolic nature of the historic and natural Machu Picchu Sanctuary to project a new global image and attract foreign capital. Luciano analyzes the role of middle-class actors in consequence, resistance, and accommodation to neoliberal changes. He fuses political economy to performative and social interaction theory to explain the role of class interest in the facilitation and continuation of neoliberalism as artisan dealers, restaurant and hotel owners, and owners of family businesses interpreted policy changes and conveyed their fears, hopes, and aspirations in the new economy. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, political science, economics, tourism studies, and history.
A life in Norfolk's archaeology, 1950-2016 : archaeology of an arable landscape 1950-2016 by
This is a history of archaeological endeavor in Norfolk set within a national context. It covers the writer's early experiences as a volunteer, the rise of field archaeology as a profession and efforts to conserve the archaeological heritage against the tide of destruction prevalent in the countryside up to the 1980s when there was not even a right of access to record sites before they were lost. Now developers often have to pay for an excavation before they can obtain planning consent. The book features progress with archaeology conservation as well as the growth of rescue archaeology as a profession both in towns and in the countryside. Many of the most important discoveries made by aerial photography, rescue excavations and metal detecting from the 1970s onwards are illustrated. The last section covers the recent growth of the Norfolk Archaeological Trust as an owner of some of the most iconic rural sites in Norfolk. The book concludes with a discussion of some issues facing British field archaeology today.
History of the Third Seminole War by
Spanning a period of over forty years (1817-1858), the three Seminole Wars were America's longest, costliest, and deadliest Indian wars, surpassing the more famous ones fought in the West. After an uneasy peace following the conclusion of the second Seminole War in 1842, a series of hostile events followed by a string of murders in 1849 and 1850 made confrontation inevitable. The war was also known as Billy Bowlegs' War because Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) was the main Seminole leader in this the last Indian war to be fought east of the Mississippi River. Pushed by increasing encroachment into their territory he led a raid near Fort Myers. A series of violent skirmishes ensued. The vastness of the Floridian wilderness and the difficulties of the terrain and climate caused problems for the army, but they had learnt lessons from the second war and amongst other new tactics employed greater use of boats, eventually securing victory through cutting off food supplies. Although there are several books covering the entire Seminole Wars period and excellent works on the First and Second Seminole Wars, the Third Seminole War has long been neglected. This book seeks to fill that void at a time when interest in the Seminole Wars is growing. History of the Third Seminole War is a detailed narrative of the war and its causes, containing numerous firsthand accounts from participants in the war, derived from virtually all the available primary sources, collected over many years. Written in a clear, easy-to-follow style, the work is intended for both a general and scholarly audience and will be of value to those interested in Florida history, American history in general, military history, Native American studies, and nineteenth century subjects. The book will also appeal to Civil War enthusiasts, as many of the officers who served in Florida became leaders in that later conflict.
Caldo Verde Is Not Stone Soup by
Caldo Verde Is Not Stone Soup identifies elements of an emerging Portuguese American culture in the United States. The book discusses subjects and themes that reflect the richness and diversity of this culture. Included are analyses of the Portuguese fondness for nicknames over surnames, pejorative terms ("portugee," "Gee"), beau ideal heroes (John Philip Sousa, John Dos Passos, and Peter Francisco), now forgotten early emigrants, foreign visitors to the Azores (Samuel Longfellow and Thomas Wentworth Higginson), proverbs from the oral and literary traditions, the Portuguese sailor on American ships, and the saga of English As She Is Spoke, a serious-minded textbook that became a comic phenomenon.
On Kings by
In anthropology as much as in popular imagination, kings are figures of fascination and intrigue, heroes or tyrants in ways presidents and prime ministers can never be. This collection of essays by two of the world's most distinguished anthropologists--David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins--explores what kingship actually is, historically and anthropologically. As they show, kings are symbols for more than just sovereignty: indeed, the study of kingship offers a unique window into fundamental dilemmas concerning the very nature of power, meaning, and the human condition. Reflecting on issues such as temporality, alterity, piracy, and utopia--not to mention the divine, the strange, the numinous, and the bestial--Graeber and Sahlins explore the role of kings as they have existed around the world, from the BaKongo to the Aztec to the Shilluk and beyond. Richly delivered with the wit and sharp analysis characteristic of Graeber and Sahlins, this book opens up new avenues for the anthropological study of this fascinating and ubiquitous political figure.
Anti-Blackness and Christian ethics by 
Can We All Get Along? by
In a nation built by immigrants and bedeviled by the history and legacy of slavery and discrimination, how do we, as Americans, reconcile a commitment to equality and freedom with persistent inequality and discrimination? And what can we do about it? This widely acclaimed text by Paula D. McClain, with new coauthor Jessica D. Johnson Carew, provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of the historical and contemporary political experience of the major groups-African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and American Indians-in the United States. It explores the similarities and differences in these groups' representation and participation in law, politics, and policymaking, discusses the enduring issues and concerns that they face, and examines intra- and inter-group competition and coalition-building in the face of enduring conflict and inequality. The seventh edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to include coverage of President Barack Obama's second term, the 2016 election, police brutality and Black Lives Matter, and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest movement. With a brand-new chapter on the intersections of race and gender, Can We All Get Along? remains unparalleled in its comparative coverage of the current landscape of minority politics in the United States.
Appropriating Innovations by
The question of how to conceptualize the role of technological innovations is of crucial importance for understanding the mechanisms and rhythms of long-term cultural change in prehistoric and early historic societies. The changes that have come about have often been modelled as gradual and linear, innovations have been considered positively as a progress in the development of humankind and the focus has been on the localisation of the origin of innovations and the routes of their spread. Appropriating Innovations goes beyond the current discussion by shedding light on condition that may facilitate the rapid spread of technological innovation and on processes involved in the integration of new technologies into the life world of the appropriating societies. In particular, papers concentrate on two key innovations, namely the transmission of the various components of the so-called "Secondary Products Revolution" in parts of the Near East and Europe during the 4th millennium BCE and the appropriation of early bronze casting technology, which spread from the Near East to Europe and China in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE. Of particular interest is non-technological knowledge that is transmitted together with the technological, the latter being always deeply interconnected with the communication of social practices, ideas and myths. The acceptance of new technologies, therefore, requires the willingness to change existing world views and modify them due to the potentials and problems which are connected with the new technology. Contributions, therefore, concentrate on the conditions facilitating or hindering the spread of innovations and the transformative power of these innovations in the appropriating society. They analyse how the introduction of novel technologies and the associated non-technological knowledge led to a transformation of existing economic systems and the underlying social orders in Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Eurasia by integrating innovative methodological approaches and contextual studies.
Culture as a system : how we know the meaning and significance of what we do and say by
A particular culture is associated with a particular community, and thus has a social dimension. But how does culture operate and how is it to be defined? Is it to be taken as the behavioral repertoire of members of that community, as the products of their behavior, or as the shared mental content that produces the behavior? Is it to be viewed as a coherent whole or only a collection of disparate parts? Culture is shared, but how totally? How is culture learned and maintained over time, and how does it change? In Meaning and Significance in Human Engagement, Kronenfeld adopts a cognitive approach to culture to offer answers to these questions. Combining insights from cognitive psychology and linguistic anthropology with research on collective knowledge systems, he offers an understanding of culture as a phenomenon produced and shaped by a combination of conditions, constraints and logic. Engagingly written, it is essential reading for scholars and graduate students of cognitive anthropology, linguistic anthropology, sociology of culture, philosophy, and computational cognitive science.
A reference grammar of the Onondaga language by 
Ancient Engineering - Selective Ceramic Processing in the Middle Balsas Region of Guerrero, Mexico by
This volume has two main objectives: establishing a chronology of the Middle Balsas and detailing the region's pottery production methods. The author posits that pottery intended for different functions was often deliberately made and/or decorated in ways that were chosen to make the vessels more appropriate for their intended functions. More specifically, this study determines whether any of the pottery production patterns identified in the region are linked to specific constraints imposed by the materials during the process of pottery manufacture. For example, it examines whether variables such as vessel shape and wall thickness correlate with the clay types and processing techniques determined during thin section analysis of the ancient sherds. Additionally, certain production behaviors are identified that are characteristic of the entire region and that can be used as markers of local tradition.
At Home with Grief by
What would you say to a deceased loved one if they could come back for one day? What if you can't just 'move on' from grief? At Home with Grief: Continued　Bonds　with the Deceased　chronicles Blake Paxton's autoethnographic study of his continued relationship with his deceased mother. In the 90s, Silverman, Klass, and Nickman argued that after the death of a loved one, the bond does not have to be broken and the bereaved can find many ways to connect with memories of the dead. Building on their work, many other bereavement scholars have discussed the importance of not treating these relationships as pathological and have suggested that more research is needed in this area of grief studies. However, very few studies have addressed the communal and everyday subjective experiences of continuing bonds with the deceased, as well as how our relationship with our grief changes in the long term. In this book, Blake Paxton shows how a community in southern Illinois continues a relationship with one deceased individual more than ten years after her death. Through this gripping autoethnographic account of his mother's struggles with a rare cancer, her death, and his struggles with sexuality, he poses possibilities of what might happen when cultural prescriptions for grief are challenged, and how　continuing　bonds with the dead　may help us continue or restore broken　bonds　with the living.
African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity by
Right from the beginning of humankind, God has never deprived a people of his grace and revelation. In fact, God uses people's environment and culture to communicate his will. There is no single religion that can claim to have the exclusive possession of God's revelation, for God is too immense to be confined within one faith. Hence, it was erroneous, blasphemous, and misleading for some of the early Christian missionaries to Africa to claim that they had brought God to Africa, a mentality that implied the non-existence of God in Africa before their arrival. Of course, God was already in Africa, but the missionaries either failed to discern his presence or just disregarded the traces of his existence. This book explores the religious beliefs, practices, and values of the indigenous people of Africa at the time of the early missionaries' arrival, with particular reference to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It also evaluates the extent of the missionarie's successes and challenges in converting Africans to Christianity. It finally surveys how African Christians have remained attached to the indigenous religious beliefs that used to provide answers to their existential questions.
SITTING PRETTY by
At the opening of South Africa's first democratic parliament in 1994, newly elected president Nelson Mandela issued a clarion call to an unlikely group: white Afrikaans women, who during apartheid occupied the ambivalent position of being both oppressor and oppressed. He conjured the memory of poet Ingrid Jonker as 'both an Afrikaner and an African' who 'instructs that our endeavours must be about the liberation of the woman, the emancipation of the man and the liberty of the child'. More than two decades later, the question is: how have white Afrikaans-speaking women responded to the liberating possibilities of constitutional democracy? With Afrikaner nationalism in disrepair, and official apartheid in demise, have they re-imagined themselves in opposition to colonial ideas of race, gender, sexuality and class? Sitting Pretty explores this postapartheid identity through the concepts of ordentlikheid, as an ethnic form of respectability, and the volksmoeder, or mother of the nation, as enduring icon. Issues of intersectionality, space, emotion and masculinity are also investigated.
Expeditionary Anthropology by
The origins of anthropology lie in expeditionary journeys. But since the rise of immersive fieldwork, usually by a sole investigator, the older tradition of team-based social research has been largely eclipsed. Expeditionary Anthropology argues that expeditions have much to tell us about anthropologists and the people they studied. The book charts the diversity of anthropological expeditions and analyzes the often passionate arguments they provoked. Drawing on recent developments in gender studies, indigenous studies, and the history of science, the book argues that even today, the 'science of man' is deeply inscribed by its connections with expeditionary travel.
Feminist Ecologies by
This edited volume critically engages with ecofeminist scholarship. It tracks the ongoing dialogue between women's issues and environmental change by republishing the work of pioneering scholars and activists in the field. Together with new essays by contemporary ecofeminist scholars, the book uncovers the dialectical relationship between environmental and feminist causes, the relational identities of feminists and ecofeminists, and the concept of ecofeminism as a rallying point for environmental feminism. The volume defines ecofeminism as a multidisciplinary project and will appeal to readers working within the field of Environmental Humanities.
Living Sharia by
Drawing on ethnographic research, Living Sharia examines the role of sharia in the sociopolitical processes of contemporary Malaysia. The book traces the contested implementation of Islamic family and criminal laws and sharia economics to provide cultural frameworks for understanding sharia among Muslims and non-Muslims. Timothy Daniels explores how the way people think about sharia is often entangled with notions about race, gender equality, nationhood, liberal pluralism, citizenship, and universal human rights. He reveals that Malaysians' ideas about sharia are not isolated from--nor always opposed to--liberal pluralism and secularism. Living Sharia will be of interest to scholars as well as to policy makers, consultants, and professionals working with global NGOs.
Making Data Visual by
You have a mound of data front of you and a suite of computation tools at your disposal. Which parts of the data actually matter? Where is the insight hiding? If you're a data scientist trying to navigate the murky space between data and insight, this practical book shows you how to make sense of your data through high-level questions, well-defined data analysis tasks, and visualizations to clarify understanding and gain insights along the way. When incorporated into the process early and often, iterative visualization can help you refine the questions you ask of your data. Authors Danyel Fisher and Miriah Meyer provide detailed case studies that demonstrate how this process can evolve in the real world. You'll learn: The data counseling process for moving from general to more precise questions about your data, and arriving at a working visualization The role that visual representations play in data discovery Common visualization types by the tasks they fulfill and the data they use Visualization techniques that use multiple views and interaction to support analysis of large, complex data sets
Language and Globalization by
In this collection of real-life, personal narratives on the theme of language and globalization, scholars from a range of different sub-disciplines of linguistics, time periods, and geographical spaces throughout the world examine the interaction and intersectionality of languages and globalization and the implications of such interactions for world languages and cultures. A feature of the book is the application of autoethnography as its underlying approach/method, in which contributors draw on their own lived experiences (of life, scholarship, and work) to investigate and reflect on linguistic globalization and its issues and challenges against the backdrop of the globalized world of the 21stcentury.
Native America by
Native America: A History, Second Edition offers a thoroughly revised and updated narrative history of American Indian peoples in what became the United States. The new edition includes expanded coverage of the period since the Second World War, including an updated discussion of the Red Power Movement, the legal status of native nations in the United States, and important developments that have transformed Indian Country over the past 75 years. Also new to this edition are sections focusing on the Pacific Northwest. Placing the experiences of native communities at the heart of the text, historian Michael Leroy Oberg focuses on twelve native communities whose histories encapsulate the principal themes and developments in Native American history and follows them from earliest times to the present. ● A single volume text ideal for college courses presenting the history of native peoples in the region that ultimately became the United States from ancient America to the present ● A work that illustrates the great diversity in the historical experience of native peoples and spotlights the importance of Native Americans in the history of North America ● A supplementary website (MichaelLeroyOberg.com) includes resources for teachers and students, including a resource guide, links to primary source documents, suggestions for additional readings, test and discussion questions, and an author's blog.
Winds and Currents by
Visual artist Joan Henrik has been profoundly inspired by stories that have their origins in native folklore. Native people come from an oral narrative tradition which has always been a sacred process, because it provided the people with social, cultural, and historical contexts. The oral narrative has acted as a social cohesive for the entire tribe and constitutes the cultural grounding of indigenous people for thousands of years. Motivated by these stories, Henrik created fourteen animal icons for a terrazzo floor design now inlaid in the new Amsoil sports arena in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. Her award-winning "Winds & Currents" was selected by the Duluth Public Arts Commission in an open competition. These stories are cautionary tales demonstrating what we can learn from the natural world. They have their origins in tribal culture throughout North America. After the floor completion, the stories are now collected together in this volume. Based on these iconic images, Henrik has included fourteen of her "ready to color" line drawings with which readers can interact and create their own interpretations of the visual art. Joan Henrik began her graphic design career in Duluth, Minnesota, where she attended the University of Minnesota. She has worked more than fifty years in advertising, including over twenty-five years with the Westmorland, Larson, and Hill agency. In 2011, the National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association selected her floor design as one of the best terrazzo floors in the United States.
A Tale of Two Theologians by
In A Tale of Two Theologians, Ambrose Mong's observant new work, he examines the writings of the Peruvian theologian Gustavo Guti#65533;rrez and the Indian theologian Michael Amaladoss, and gives fresh attention to their main concerns regarding evangelisation and the poor. Why, he asks, is Guti#65533;rrez's liberation theology now accepted and celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church while Amaladoss's Asian theology with a liberation thrust is threatened with censorship? Mong argues that the dwindling threat of Communism has made the Marxist overtones of Latin American liberation theology more palatable to the Catholic hierarchy, while the challenge of religious pluralism in Asia is as complex and emotive as ever.How can the Church learn to balance the need for dialogue between religions with their duty to proclaim the Gospel? How can the Church inculturate itself in Asia while maintaining its identity? Ambrose Mong tackles these questions with the shrewd, clear-eyed view of an active priest and scholar, exploring the long, troubled relationship the Church has with liberation theology and offering guidance for the future.
From Hospitality to Grace by
The Pitt-Rivers Omnibus brings together the definitive essays and lectures of the influential social anthropologist Julian A. Pitt-Rivers, a corpus of work that has, until now, remained scattered, untranslated, and unedited. Illuminating the themes and topics that he engaged throughout his life--including hospitality, grace, the symbolic economy of reciprocity, kinship, the paradoxes of friendship, ritual logics, the anthropology of dress, and more--this omnibus brings his reflections to new life. Holding Pitt-Rivers's diversity of subjects and ethnographic foci in the same gaze, this book reveals a theoretical unity that ran through his work and highlights his iconic wit and brilliance. Striking at the heart of anthropological theory, the pieces here explore the relationship between the mental and the material, between what is thought and what is done. Classic, definitive, and yet still extraordinarily relevant for contemporary anthropology, Pitt-Rivers's lifetime contribution will provide a new generation of anthropologists with an invaluable resource for reflection on both ethnographic and theoretical issues.
Understanding Latino History by
This Latino history textbook is an outstanding reference source that covers many different Latinos groups within a single comprehensive narrative. * Provides information that is accessible to a general student audience, supplying a comprehensive narrative history that covers various Latino groups along with profiles of notable Latinos from every era * Covers all Latino groups, placing the history of Mexican Americans alongside the cultures and experiences of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, and Central and South Americans * Includes primary sources with guiding questions that will help students develop interpretive, critical thinking skills * Ideally suited to serve as a reference source and as a classroom survey text for students studying Latino history
Etiquette and Taboos Around the World by
An interesting resource for learning about the cultural differences and characteristics of people across the globe, this encyclopedia covers the "do's" and "don'ts" of a breadth of countries and major ethnic groups. * Provides comprehensive coverage of many of the world's countries and cultures that enables readers to make insightful cross-cultural comparisons * Directly supports the National Geography Standards by examining cultural mosaics * Provides relevant and useful information for readers preparing for study-abroad excursions or other international travel
Indigenous tourism movements by 
Saudade in Brazilian Cinema by
The Brazilian Portuguese idea of saudade is often translated as a powerful relative of nostalgia, which brings together love and grief, a melancholia and a longing focused on a memory, an absence. Saudade in Brazilian Cinema looks specifically at how this emotion is imagined on the screen. Analyzing over sixty years of Brazilian cinema, Jack A. Draper III uses the idea of saudade to create an analytical framework within the field of emotion studies. Draper places insights on saudade on screen in dialogue with theoretical studies of emotion and affect as well as film theory. The result is a new way of understanding saudade and the representation of emotion in twentieth and twenty-first century Brazilian cinema.
Schools and Styles of Anthropological Theory by
This book presents an overview of important currents of thought in social and cultural anthropology, from the 19th century to the present. It introduces readers to the origins, context and continuing relevance of a fascinating and exciting kaleidoscope of ideas that have transformed the humanities and social sciences, and the way we understand ourselves and the societies we live in today. Each chapter provides a thorough yet engaging introduction to a particular theoretical school, style or conceptual issue. Together they build up to a detailed and comprehensive critical introduction to the most salient areas of the field. The introduction reflects on the substantive themes which tie the chapters together and on what the very notions of 'theory' and 'theoretical school' bring to our understanding of anthropology as a discipline. The book tracks a core lecture series given at Cambridge University and is essential reading for all undergraduate students undertaking a course on anthropological theory or the history of anthropological thought. It will also be useful more broadly for students of social and cultural anthropology, sociology, human geography and cognate disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.
Geology for Archaeologists by
This short introduction aims to provide archaeologists of all backgrounds with a grounding in the principles, materials, and methods of geology. Sections include coverage of main rock-forming minerals and classes of rocks. Geological maps and structures are introduced, and the elements of geological stratigraphy and dating are explained and related to archaeological experience. Fluvial and coastal environments are important archaeological landscapes and their formation processes, sediments and topography are outlined. Stone for building, implement-making, tool-making, and making mortar are all discussed, followed by an introduction to clays and ceramics. A final chapter introduces metallurgical landscapes: metalliferous ores, mining and smelting, and metal-making industries. Each chapter ends with a short reading list, and many have selected case-histories in illustration of the points made. Included is a glossary of technical terms.
Archaeology and Neoliberalism by
The effects of neoliberalism as ideology can be seen in every corner of the planet, worsening inequalities and empowering markets over people. How is this affecting archaeology? Can archaeology transcend it? This volume will delve into the context of archaeological practice within the neoliberal world and the opportunities and challenges of activism from the profession. From a global perspective with collaborations from all around the world, it aims to encourage a new course of action that makes the past relevant in the present.
Weaving Chiapas by
In the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, a large indigenous population lives in rural communities, many of which retain traditional forms of governance. In 1996, some 350 women of these communities formed a weavers' cooperative, which they called Jolom Mayaetik. Their goal was to join together to market textiles of high quality in both new and ancient designs. Weaving Chiapas offers a rare view of the daily lives, memories, and hopes of these rural Maya women as they strive to retain their ancient customs while adapting to a rapidly changing world. Originally published in Spanish in 2007, this book captures firsthand the voices of these Maya artisans, whose experiences, including the challenges of living in a highly patriarchal culture, often escape the attention of mainstream scholarship. Based on interviews conducted with members of the Jolom Mayaetik cooperative, the accounts gathered in this volume provide an intimate view of women's life in the Chiapas highlands, known locally as Los Altos. We learn about their experiences of childhood, marriage, and childbirth; about subsistence farming and food traditions; and about the particular styles of clothing and even hairstyles that vary from community to community. Restricted by custom from engaging in public occupations, Los Altos women are responsible for managing their households and caring for domestic animals. But many of them long for broader opportunities, and the Jolom Mayaetik cooperative represents a bold effort by its members to assume control over and build a wider market for their own work. This English-language edition features color photographs--published here for the first time--depicting many of the individual women and their stunning textiles. A new preface, chapter introductions, and a scholarly afterword frame the women's narratives and place their accounts within cultural and historical context.
Chicano Popular Culture, Second Edition by
Chicano Popular Culture, Second Edition provides a fascinating, timely, and accessible introduction to Chicano cultural expression and representation. New sections discuss music, with an emphasis on hip-hop and rap; cinema and filmmakers; media, including the contributions of Jorge Ramos and María Hinojosa; and celebrations and other popular traditions, including quinceañeras, cincuentañeras, and César Chávez Day. This edition features: Chicanas in the Chicano Movement and Chicanos since the Chicano Movement New material on popular authors such as Denise Chávez, Alfredo Vea, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Juan Felipe Herrera Suggested Readings to supplement each chapter Theoretical approaches to popular culture, including the perspectives of Norma Cantú, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Pancho McFarland, Michelle Habell-Pallán, and Víctor Sorell With clear examples, an engaging writing style, and helpful discussion questions, Chicano Popular Culture, Second Edition invites readers to discover and enjoy Mexican American popular culture.
Trans-Himalayan Traders Transformed by
Returning to Tarang, a remote village in northwestern Nepal, 44 years after conducting his groundbreaking study there, anthropologist Fisher explores the ways in which modernization and mobility have transformed the livelihood and culture of these once isolated people. Through individual life histories he constructs and analyses the economic and cultural impacts that political, environmental and commercial revolutions in Nepalese society at large have had on the people of Tarang, both transforming their lives and also consolidating and elaborating centuries old societal patterns. Together with Fisher's original study (Trans-Himalayan Traders), recently republished, this volume will be of interest to social scientists and others focused on the changing South and Central Asian worlds.
New perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific prehistory by 
The Japanese Culture of Mourning Whales by
This book provides an in-depth study of Japanese whaling culture, emphasizing how the Japanese have considered whales and whaling in relation to their understanding of nature and religion. It examines why and how the Japanese have mourned the deaths of whales, treating them as if they were human beings, and assesses the relevance of this culture to nature conservation and management of sustainable use of natural resources. It also sheds new light on Japanese whaling, one of the most controversial issues in the contemporary world, by highlighting the hitherto unknown aspects of Japanese beliefs about whales and whaling, which constitute an integral part of their core concept of how they should coexist with nature. Through cross-examining previous studies of Japanese whaling, as well as analyzing new documents and conducting field research on location, this book presents a comprehensive survey of Japanese whaling culture and memorial rites for whales and offers viable insights on how the Japanese whaling culture can be applied to solving current global issues, including nature conservation, management of sustainable use of natural resources, and protection of wildlife and its habitats.
Law and Property in Algeria by
In spite of its privileged place on the African continent, in the Muslim world and in the Middle East and North Africa region, Algeria remains poorly known, and the works relating to contemporary Algerian society published outside of Algeria are rare. This book seeks to contribute to our understanding of Algerian society today, through its relationships to property and to law. Beyond this, the objective is to propose, in a comparative perspective proper to anthropology, new theoretical and methodological perspectives by which to apprehend the anthropology of law in a Muslim context. Algeria, as a post-colonial and post-Socialist State, whose population is overwhelmingly Muslim, proves to be a particularly interesting case to study. Contributors are: Hichem Amichi, Emilie Barraud, Ammar Belhimer, Yazid Ben Hounet, Nejm Benessaiah, Sami Bouarfa, Tarik Dahou, Baudouin Dupret, Marcel Kuper, Judith Scheele, Alice Wilson.
The Rise and Fall of the Amazonian Rubber Industry by
In this engaging book, Stephen Nugent offers an in-depth historical anthropology of a widely recognised feature of the Amazon region, examining the dramatic rise and fall of the rubber industry. He considers rubber in the Amazon from the perspective of a long-term extractive industry that linked remote forest tappers to technical innovations central to the industrial transformation of Europe and North America, emphasizing the links between the social landscape of Amazonia and the global economy. Through a critical examination focused on the rubber industry, Nugent addresses myths that continue to influence perceptions of Amazonia. The book challenges widely held assumptions about the hyper-naturalism of the 'lost world' of the Amazon where 'the challenge of the tropics' is still to be faced and the 'frontiers of development' are still to be settled. It is relevant for students and scholars of anthropology, Latin American studies, history, political ecology, geography and development studies.
Community Organising Against Racism by
In this unique global collection, Gary Craig and his contributors blend theory and practice-based case studies to review how different community development approaches can empower minority ethnic communities to confront racism and overcome social, economic and political disadvantage. The book explores key questions about the empowerment and capacity-building of minority ethnic groups. Using case studies from across the 'developed' world, and in differing social and economic contexts, contributors explore these issues in working with asylum-seeker communities, addressing tensions between minorities and building alliances, in work with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and using arts-based approaches. The book will stimulate wider debates about the role of community development in relation to 'race' and ethnicity at a time when 'race' is being 'invisibilised' in public policy, and will be an invaluable resource for policy-makers, politicians, academics, and students from many disciplines.
From Oral to Written by
Aboriginal Canadians tell their own stories, about their own people, in their own voice, from their own perspective. If as recently as forty years ago there was no recognizable body of work by Canadian writers, as recently as thirty years ago there was no Native literature in this country. Perhaps a few books had made a dent on the national consciousness: The Unjust Society by Harold Cardinal, Halfbreed by Maria Campbell, and the poetryof Pauline Johnson and even Louis Riel. Now, three decades later, Native people have a literature that paints them in colours that are psychologically complex and sophisticated. They have a literature that validates their existence, that gives them dignity, that tells them that they and their culture, their ideas, their languages, are important if not downright essential to the long-term survival of the planet. Tomson Highway's From Oral to Writtenis a study of Native literature published in Canada between 1980 and 2010, a catalogue of amazing books that sparked the embers of a dormant voice. In the early 1980s, that voice rose up to overcome the major obstacle Native people have as writers: they are not able to write in their own Native languages, but have to write in the languages of the colonizer, languages that simply cannot capture the magic of Native mythology, the wild insanity of Trickster thinking. From Oral to Written is the story of the Native literary tradition, written - in multiple Aboriginal languages, in French, and in English - by a brave, committed, hard-working, and inspired community of exceptional individuals - from the Haida Nation on Haida Gwaii to the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island. Leading Aboriginal author Tomson Highway surveys the first wave of Native writers published in Canada, highlighting the most gifted authors and the best stories they have told, offering non-Native readers access to reconciliation and understanding, and at the same time engendering among Native readers pride in a stellar body of work.
Marked for life : Myanmar's Chin woman and their facial tattoos by
Marked for Life documents the vanishing beauty and tradition of facial tattooing among the women of various Chin ethnic groups of Myanmar. Though a centuries old tradition, it has never been the subject of any anthropological research.Until the last century, the practice of facial tattooing among the so-called 'hill tribes' in the Asia Pacific region was still fairly widespread. It only survived in remote regions of Myanmar until fairly recently: the turn of the millennium.Even today, after a gradual opening to the outside world due to political change, the country is still considered one of the least explored on earth because of the inaccessibility of large areas. Jens Uwe Parkitny's work therefore provides a unique glimpse into a little known culture that is quickly vanishing.Parkitny is a German photographer, writer and traveller with a passion for sustainable tourism. He lives and works in Singapore.This beautiful large-format photography book is published after the exhibition, Marked for Life at Goethe-Institut Yangon/Myanmar (28 March - 10 April 2016).English and Burmese text.
The Religion of White Supremacy in the United States by
On January 20th, 2009, the United States entered a new era in terms of race relations in the country. The hopes of many Americans were not to be fulfilled and many believe race relations are worse now. The reason is the legacy of race is integral to the American nation. The Religion of White Supremacy in the United States traces this legacy to show how race is defined by more than beliefs or acts of injustice. What this book reveals is that white supremacy is a religion in the United States. This book is a theo-historical account of race in the United States that argues that white supremacy functions through the Protestant Christian tradition. The Religion of White Supremacy in the United States is an interdisciplinary work of Critical Whiteness Studies, American History, and Theology to build a narrative in which the religion of white supremacy dominates U.S. culture and society. In this way, the racial tensions during the Obama era become sensible and inevitable in a nation that finds ultimacy in white supremacy.
North Meets South by
This latest volume in the Swedish Rock Art series bridges the gap between analysis and interpretation of rock art imagery, location and chronology in the northern and southern regions of Scandinavia. Long viewed as belonging to distinctive regional traditions, there are many underlying similarities, themes and formats in common, overlain by regional complexities and variations. The authors explore new approaches and methods of analysis. There has been a tendency in rock art research to focus merely on either the Northern Tradition or the Southern Tradition of Scandinavian rock art and there is certainly a need to broaden this discussion. Thus, the aim of this collection of new research papers is to stimulate different perspectives and themes that place emphasis on the intersection between these traditions. North meets South puts the focus on Scandinavian rock art regardless of regions and traditions. Even though there are obvious differences in space and time regarding these two traditions, there are also features and formats in common across both time and space, and a significant theme running through the contributions presented here is to highlight the interaction between these rock art traditions. A major conclusion to be drawn from this exercise is the great complexity and variation of rock art and the need for perspectives comparing various regions across Scandinavia. This volume is the outcome of an international symposium organised by the Swedish Rock Art Research Archives (SHFA).
The Challenge of Modernizing Islam by
The entire foreign policy and much of the domestic policy of the United States and other Western governments are based on the proposition that the vast majority of Muslims are moderate and peaceful, including those who are emigrating in large numbers to Europe and North America. But as Islamist groups and many mosques radicalize peaceful Muslims and appeal to the teachings of the Koran, Hadith, and Sunnah, it is imperative for moderates and reformists to articulate a vision of Islam and an exegesis of Islamic texts that can withstand the challenge of Islamists and the ulema who have declared the sanctity and immutability of the text. Instead, they must re-establish a firm foundation of Islam that is modernized, genuinely peaceful, tolerant, pluralistic, and compatible with secular governance, the freedom of speech, human rights, and equality. The Challenge of Modernizing Islam is the first major effort to provide that foundation. Veteran journalist Christine Douglass-Williams interviews foremost moderate and reformist Muslims in the Western world. She asks them tough questions about how they deal with problematic Koran passages, how they intend to get their message across to the Muslim world, and more. Their answers are revelatory, even in the ways in which they disagree with one another. Douglass-Williams has captured the Islamic Reformist movement in its full intellectual ferment, laying bare the tensions and triumphs of the Reformers. In the book's second half, she adds a crucial series of searingly honest and illuminating reflections on the challenges the reformers face, the chances they have of succeeding, and the implications of their struggle for the future of the Western world and of all free people. Illuminating, engaging, and thought-provoking, The Challenge of Modernizing Islam is an essential text for understanding the future of the United States and the West, and the implications of Muslim moderates' struggle for the free world.
The New Chimpanzee by
Recent discoveries about wild chimpanzees have dramatically reshaped our understanding of these great apes and their kinship with humans. We now know that chimpanzees not only have genomes similar to our own but also plot political coups, wage wars over territory, pass on cultural traditions to younger generations, and ruthlessly strategize for resources, including sexual partners. In The New Chimpanzee, Craig Stanford challenges us to let apes guide our inquiry into what it means to be human. With wit and lucidity, Stanford explains what the past two decades of chimpanzee field research has taught us about the origins of human social behavior, the nature of aggression and communication, and the divergence of humans and apes from a common ancestor. Drawing on his extensive observations of chimpanzee behavior and social dynamics, Stanford adds to our knowledge of chimpanzees' political intelligence, sexual power plays, violent ambition, cultural diversity, and adaptability. The New Chimpanzee portrays a complex and even more humanlike ape than the one Jane Goodall popularized more than a half century ago. It also sounds an urgent call for the protection of our nearest relatives at a moment when their survival is at risk.
Close Encounters with Humankind by
What can fossilized teeth tell us about the life expectancy of our ancient ancestors? How did farming play a problematic role in the history of human evolution? How can simple geometric comparisons of skull and pelvic fossils suggest a possible origin to our social nature? And what do we truly have in common with the Neanderthals? In this captivating international bestseller, Close Encounters with Humankind, Korea's first paleoanthropologist, Sang-Hee Lee, explores some of our greatest evolutionary questions from new and unexpected angles. Through a series of entertaining, bite-sized chapters, we gain fresh perspectives into our first hominin ancestors and ways to challenge perceptions about the traditional progression of evolution. By combining anthropological insight with exciting, cutting-edge research, Lee's surprising conclusions shed new light on our beginnings and connect us to a faraway past. For example, our big brains may have served to set our species apart and spur our societal development, but perhaps not in the ways we have often assumed. And it's possible that the Neanderthals, our infamous ancestors, were not the primitive beings portrayed by twentieth-century science. With Lee as our guide, we discover that from our first steps on two feet to our first forays into toolmaking and early formations of community, we have always been a species of continuous change. Close Encounters with Humankind is the perfect read for anyone curious about where we came from and what it took to get us here. As we mine the evolutionary path to the present, Lee helps us to determine where we are heading and tackles one of our most pressing scientific questions--does humanity continue to evolve?
Strategies for Success among African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans by
How can African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans from the former British colonies be so different in their approaches toward social mobility? Chrystal Y. Grey and Thomas Janoski state that this is because native blacks grow up as "strangers" in their own country and immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean are conversely part of "the dominant group." Unlike previous research that compares highly educated Afro-Caribbeans to the broad range of African-Americans, this study holds social-class constant by looking only at successful blacks in the upper-middle-class from both groups. This book finds that African-Americans pursue overachievement strategies of working much harder than others do, while Afro-Caribbeans follow an optimistic job strategy expecting promotions and success. However, African-Americans are more likely to use confrontational strategies if their mobility is blocked. The main cause of these differences is that Afro-Caribbeans grow up in a system where they have many examples of black politicians and business leaders (35-90% of their countries are black) and African-Americans have fewer role models (12-14% of the United States are black). Further, the schooling system in Afro-Caribbean countries does not label blacks as underachievers because the schools are almost entirely black. A further problem that African-Americans face is the resentment of a small but significant number of blacks who have little social mobility. They accuse socially mobile African Americans of "acting white," which is a phenomenon that Afro-Caribbeans almost never face and they call it "an African-American thing." To demonstrate this difference, Strategies for Success among African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans does a historical-comparative analysis of the differences between the black experience after slavery in the United States and Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and St. Kitts-Nevis. The authors interview fifty-seven black people and find consistent differences between the US and Caribbean black citizens. Using theories of symbolic interaction and ressentiment, this work challenges previous studies that either claim that Afro-Caribbeans are more motivated than African-Americans, or studies that show that controlling for class, each group is more or less the same.
Beneath the dust of time : a history of the names of peoples and places by 
Disgust and Desire by
Monsters have taken many forms across time and cultures, yet within these variations, monsters often evoke the same paradoxical response: disgust and desire. We simultaneously fear monsters and take pleasure in seeing them, and their role in human culture helps to explain this apparent contradiction. Monsters are created in order to delineate where the acceptable boundaries of action and emotion exist. However, while killing the monster allows us to cast out socially unacceptable desires, the prevalence of monsters in both history and fiction reveals humanity's desire to see and experience the forbidden. We seek, write about, and display monsters as both a warning and wish fulfilment, and monsters, therefore, reveal that the line between desire and disgust is often thin. Looking across genres, subjects, and periods, this book examines what our conflicted reaction to the monster tells us about human culture.
Romancing the Zombie by
 The zombie--popular culture's undead darling--shows no signs of stopping. But as it develops to suit changing audience tastes, its characteristics transform. This collection of new essays examines the latest incarnation, the romantic zombie, a re-humanized monster we want to help, heal and connect with rather than destroy. The authors discuss our increasingly sympathetic view of the reanimated dead as more than physical bodies devoid of life and personality. Their essays cover a range of topics, including audience obsession with Apocalyptic love; the problem of a kinder, gentler undead; the millennial reinvention of the "sexy zombie"; and "uncanny valley romance."
Tibetan Clothing and Jewellery by
-A remarkable book, dedicated to the intricacies of Tibetan costume -This book takes a textile-centric viewpoint, but also branches out into the lives of local Tibetan people who share their stories through interviews Exploring the vast range of materials and techniques used in the making of Tibetan clothing and ornaments, this book takes a closer, more intimate look at the different cultural groups within this diverse country, discussing how national costume relates to their everyday life. The technical approach will appeal to spinners, weavers, felt makers, braiders, embroiderers, jewellers and costume enthusiasts. The book will also interest many general readers in Europe and America who are fascinated by the aura of the Tibetan Region; the lifestyle of the people who live amongst Tibet's high peaks, emerald forests, and stunning lakes command world-wide interest. Richly illustrated with the author's evocative contemporary high quality photographs, dating from the mid 1980s, this book is a visual journey into the heart of the country. It documents the people, and their costumes and related crafts, focussing on the historical Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham. Tibetan Clothing and Jewellery is unique in its reflection of historical material. It combines this academic knowledge base with original observations and wide-ranging interviews with nomads and farmers, all of which centre around costumes locally possessed and worn by Tibetans today.
Roots of entanglement : essays in the history of native-newcomer relations by
Specific topics such as land, resources, treaties, laws, policies, and cultural politics are explored through a range of perspectives that reflect state-of-the-art research in the field of Indigenous history. This book is a direct response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call for a better appreciation of the complexities of history in the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Unscripted America by
In 1664, French Jesuit Louis Nicolas arrived in Quebec. Upon first hearing Ojibwe, Nicolas observed that he had encountered the most barbaric language in the world - but after listening to and studying approximately fifteen Algonquian languages over a ten-year period, he wrote that he had"discovered all of the secrets of the most beautiful languages in the universe." Unscripted America is a study of how colonists in North America struggled to understand, translate, and interpret Native American languages, and the significance of these languages for theological and cosmological issues such as the origins of Amerindian populations, their relationship to Eurasianand Biblical peoples, and the origins of language itself. Through a close analysis of previously overlooked texts, Unscripted America places American Indian languages within transatlantic intellectual history, while also demonstrating how American letters emerged in the 1810s through 1830s via acomplex and hitherto unexplored engagement with the legacies and aesthetic possibilities of indigenous words. Unscripted America contends that what scholars have more traditionally understood through the Romantic ideology of the noble savage, a vessel of antiquity among dying populations, was in fact a palimpsest of still-living indigenous populations whose presence in American literature remains traceablethrough words. By examining the foundation of the literary nation through language, writing, and literacy, Unscripted America revisits common conceptions regarding "early america" and its origins to demonstrate how the understanding of America developed out of a steadfast connection to AmericanIndians, both past and present.
The Anglo-Saxon Fenland by
Archaeologies and histories of the fens of eastern England, continue to suggest, explicitly or by implication, that the early medieval fenland was dominated by the activities of north-west European colonists in a largely empty landscape. Using existing and new evidence and arguments, this new interdisciplinary history of the Anglo-Saxon fenland offers another interpretation. The fen islands and the silt fens show a degree of occupation unexpected a few decades ago. Dense Romano-British settlement appears to have been followed by consistent early medieval occupation on every island in the peat fens and across the silt fens, despite the impact of climatic change. The inhabitants of the region were organised within territorial groups in a complicated, almost certainly dynamic, hierarchy of subordinate and dominant polities, principalities and kingdoms. Their prosperous livelihoods were based on careful collective control, exploitation and management of the vast natural water-meadows on which their herds of cattle grazed. This was a society whose origins could be found in prehistoric Britain, and which had evolved through the period of Roman control and into the post-imperial decades and centuries that followed. The rich and complex history of the development of the region shows, it is argued, a traditional social order evolving, adapting and innovating in response to changing times.
Physical Barriers, Cultural Connections - A Reconsideration of the Metal Flow at the Beginning of the Metal Age in the Alps by
Physical Barriers, Cultural Connections: A Reconsideration of the Metal Flow at the Beginning of the Metal Age in the Alps considers the early copper and copper-alloy metallurgy of the entire Circum- Alpine region. It introduces a new approach to the interpretation of chemical composition data sets, which has been applied to a comprehensive regional database for the first time. An extensive use of GIS has been applied to investigate the role of topography in the distribution of metal and to undertake spatial and geostastical analysis that may highlight patterns of distribution of some specific key compositional element. The Circum-Alpine Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age show some distinctively different patterns of metal use, which can be interpreted through changes in mining and social choices. But there are also some signs of continuity, in particular those which respect the use of major landscape features such as watersheds and river systems. Interestingly, the Alpine range does not act as a north-south barrier, as major differences in composition tend to appear on an east-west axis. Conversely, the river system seems to have a key role in the movement of metal. Geostastical analyses demonstrate the presence of a remelting process, applicable also in the case of ingots; evidence that opens new and interesting questions about the role of ingots and hoards in the distribution of metal at the beginning of the Metal Age. New tools and new analysis may also be useful to identify zones where there was a primary metal production and zones where metal was mostly received and heavily manipulated.
Museums, Power, Knowledge by
Few perspectives have invigorated the development of critical museum studies over the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries as much as Foucault's account of the relations between knowledge and power and their role in processes of governing. Within this literature, Tony Bennett's work stands out as having marked a series of strategic engagements with Foucault's work to offer a critical genealogy of the public museum, offering an account of its nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century development that has been constantly alert to the politics of museums in the present. Museums, Power, Knowledgebrings together new research with a set of essays initially published in diverse contexts, making available for the first time the full range of Bennett's critical museology. Ranging across natural history, anthropological art, geological and history museums and their precursors in earlier collecting institutions, and spanning the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries in discussing museum practices in Britain, Australia, the USA, France and Japan, it offers a compelling account of the shifting political logics of museums over the modern period. As a collection that aims to bring together the 'signature' work of a museum theorist and historian whose work has long occupied a distinctive place in museum/society debates, Museums, Power, Knowledgewill be of interest to researchers, teachers and students working in the fields of museum and heritage studies, cultural history, cultural studies and sociology, as well as museum professionals and museum visitors.
From Belonging to Belief by
From Belonging to Belief presents a nuanced ethnographic study of Islam and secularism in post-Soviet Central Asia, as seen from the small town of Bazaar-Korgon in southern Kyrgyzstan. Opening with the juxtaposition of a statue of Lenin and a mosque in the town square, Julie McBrien proceeds to peel away the multiple layers that have shaped the return of public Islam in the region. She explores belief and nonbelief, varying practices of Islam, discourses of extremism, and the role of the state, to elucidate the everyday experiences of Bazaar-Korgonians. McBrien shows how Islam is explored, lived, and debated in both conventional and novel sites: a Soviet-era cleric who continues to hold great influence; popular television programs; religious instruction at wedding parties; clothing; celebrations; and others. Through ethnographic research, McBrien reveals how moving toward Islam is not a simple step but rather a deliberate and personal journey of experimentation, testing, and knowledge acquisition. Moreover she argues that religion is not always a matter of belief--sometimes it is essentially about belonging. From Belonging to Belief offers an important corrective to studies that focus only on the pious turns among Muslims in Central Asia, and instead shows the complex process of evolving religion in a region that has experienced both Soviet atheism and post-Soviet secularism, each of which has profoundly formed the way Muslims interpret and live Islam.
Anthropological Perspectives on Children As Helpers, Workers, Artisans, and Laborers by
The study of childhood in academia has been dominated by a mono-cultural or WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) perspective. Within the field of anthropology, however, a contrasting and more varied view is emerging. While the phenomenon of children as workers is ephemeral in WEIRD society and in the literature on child development, there is ample cross-cultural and historical evidence of children making vital contributions to the family economy. Children's "labor" is of great interest to researchers, but widely treated as extra-cultural--an aberration that must be controlled. Work as a central component in children's lives, development, and identity goes unappreciated. Anthropological Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans, and Laborers aims to rectify that omission by surveying and synthesizing a robust corpus of material, with particular emphasis on two prominent themes: the processes involved in learning to work and the interaction between ontogeny and children's roles as workers.
Zooarchaeology in Practice by
Zooarchaeology in Practice unites depth of treatment with broad topical coverage to advance methodological discussion and development in archaeofaunal analysis. Through case studies, historical accounts, and technical reviews authored by leading figures in the field, the volume examines how zooarchaeological data and interpretation are shaped by its methods of practice and explores the impact of these effects at varying levels of investigation. Contributing authors draw on geographically and taxonomically diverse datasets, providing instructive approaches to problems in traditional and emerging areas of methodological concern. Readers, from specialists to students, will gain an extensive, sophisticated look at important disciplinary issues that are sure to provoke critical reflection on the nature and importance of sound methodology. With implications for how archaeologists reconstruct human behavior and paleoecology, and broader relevance to fields such as paleontology and conservation biology, Zooarchaeology in Practice makes an enduring contribution to the methodological advancement of the discipline.
The historical enigma of the snake woman from antiquity to the 21st century by 
The Chicanos by
Thirteen Chicano scholars draw upon their personal experiences and expertise to paint a vivid, colorful portrait of what it means to be a Chicano. "We have come a long way," says Arnulfo D. Trejo, editor of this volume, "from the time when the Mexicano silently accepted the stereotype drawn of him by the outsider." He identifies himself as a Chicano, and his "promised land" is Aztlán, home of the ancient Aztecs, which now provides spiritual unity and a vision of the future for Chicanos. In these twelve original compositions, says Trejo, "our purpose is not to talk to ourselves, but to open a dialogue among all concerned people." The personal reactions to Chicano women's struggles, political experiences, bicultural education and history provide a wealth of information for laymen as well as scholars. In addition, the book provides the most complete recorded definition of the Chicano Movement, what it has accomplished, and its goals for the future. Contributors: Fausto Avendaño Roberto R. Bacalski-Martínez David Ballesteros José Antonio Burciaga Rudolph O. de la Garza Ester Gallegos y Chávez Sylvia Alicia Gonzales Manuel H. Guerra Guillermo Lux Martha A. Ramos Reyes Ramos Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez Maurilio E. Vigil The University of Arizona Press's Century Collection employs the latest in digital technology to make previously out-of-print books from our notable backlist available once again. Enriching historical and cultural experiences for readers, this collection offers these volumes unaltered from their original publication and in affordable digital or paperback formats.
What Are Community Studies? by
In the age of globalization and the changing welfare state, community relations are now more important than ever. What are Community Studies' gives an overview of the community studies field, with particular focus on the research methods used, and how they have evolved in recent years. Defining the key terms in the field, it outlines the history of the methods used in community studies and uses examples and case studies to illuminate the theory. This book captures the organization of modern community life and shows how current researchers are working with broader and more imaginative definitions of community. Responding to criticisms of the field, What are Community Studies' challenges our traditional notions of communities and how they are analysed. Graham Crow's text will be a vital resource to researchers in the field.
Engaging Archaeology by
Bringing together 25 case studies from archaeological projects worldwide, Engaging Archaeology candidly explores personal experiences, successes, challenges, and even frustrations from established and senior archaeologists who share invaluable practical advice for students and early-career professionals engaged in planning and carrying out their own archaeological research. With engaging chapters, such as 'How Not to Write a PhD Thesis on Neolithic Italy' and 'Accidentally Digging Central America's Earliest Village', readers are transported to the desks, digs, and data-labs of the authors, learning the skills, tricks of the trade, and potential pit-falls of archaeological fieldwork and collections research. Case studies collectively span many regions, time periods, issues, methods, and materials. From the pre-Columbian Andes to Viking Age Iceland, North America to the Middle East, Medieval Ireland to remote north Australia, and Europe to Africa and India, Engaging Archaeology is packed with rich, first-hand source material. Unique and thoughtful, Stephen W. Silliman's guide is an essential course book for early-stage researchers, advanced undergraduates, and new graduate students, as well as those teaching and mentoring. It will also be insightful and enjoyable reading for veteran archaeologists.
Facets of Fieldwork by
This Festschrift in honor of Jurg Wassmann compiles essays about ethnographic fieldwork which bear witness to the diversity of experiences possible in this classic method in social and cultural anthropology. Following the academic life-course of an anthropologist, the contributions to this volume speak of personal and/or professional moments in the field. They shed light on different approaches to the field, of research over long distances or long periods of time, of research in unexpected areas or with surprising interdisciplinary agendas. It becomes clear that fieldwork is far from becoming a redundant or old-fashioned tool in the methodological canon of the discipline - through its multitude of facets it remains central and authoritative for the empiricist approach in anthropology.
The Politics of Custom by
How are we to explain the resurgence of customary chiefs in contemporary Africa? Rather than disappearing with the tide of modernity, as many expected, indigenous sovereigns are instead a rising force, often wielding substantial power and legitimacy despite major changes in the workings of the global political economy in the post-Cold War era--changes in which they are themselves deeply implicated. This pathbreaking volume, edited by anthropologists John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, explores the reasons behind the increasingly assertive politics of custom in many corners of Africa. Chiefs come in countless guises--from university professors through cosmopolitan businessmen to subsistence farmers-but, whatever else they do, they are a critical key to understanding the tenacious hold that "traditional" authority enjoys in the late modern world. Together the contributors explore this counterintuitive chapter in Africa's history and, in so doing, place it within the broader world-making processes of the twenty-first century.
Mobilizing Without the Masses by
When advocacy organizations are forbidden from rallying people to take to the streets, what do they do? When activists are detained for coordinating protests, are their hands ultimately tied? Based on political ethnography inside both legal and blacklisted labor organizations in China, this book reveals how state repression is deployed on the ground and to what effect on mobilization. It presents a novel dynamic of civil society contention - mobilizing without the masses - that lowers the risk of activism under duress. Instead of facilitating collective action, activists coach the aggrieved to challenge authorities one by one. In doing so, they lower the risks of organizing while empowering the weak. This dynamic represents a third pathway of contention that challenges conventional understandings of mobilization in an illiberal state. It takes readers inside the world of underground labor organizing and opens the black box of repression inside the world's most powerful authoritarian state.
Oduduwa's Chain by
Yoruba culture has been a part of the Americas for centuries, brought from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade and maintained in various forms ever since. In Oduduwa's Chain, Andrew Apter explores a wide range of fascinating historical and ethnographic examples and offers a provocative rethinking of African heritage in Black Atlantic Studies. Focusing on Yoruba history and culture in Nigeria, Apter applies a generative model of cultural revision that allows him to identify formative Yoruba influences without resorting to the idea that culture and tradition are fixed. For example, Apter shows how the association of African gods with Catholic saints can be seen as a strategy of empowerment, explores historical locations of Yoruba gender ideologies and their variations in the Atlantic world, and much more. He concludes with a rousing call for a return to Africa in studies of the Black Atlantic, resurrecting a critical notion of culture that allows us to transcend Western inventions of African while taking them into account.
Bioarchaeological Analyses and Bodies by
This volume features bioarchaeological research that interrogates the human skeleton in concert with material culture, ethnographic data and archival research. This approach provides examples of how these intersections of inquiry can be used to consider the larger social and political contexts in which people lived and the manner in which they died. Bioarchaeologists are in a unique position to develop rich interpretations of the lived experiences of skeletonized individuals. Using their skills in multiple contexts, bioarchaeologists are also situated to consider the ethical nature and inherent humanity of the research collections that have been used because they represent deceased for whom there are records identifying them. These collections have been the basis for generating basic information regarding the human skeletal transcript. Ironically though, these collections themselves have not been studied with the same degree of understanding and interpretation that is applied to archaeological collections.
The Pursuit of Happiness by
In The Pursuit of Happiness Bianca C. Williams traces the experiences of African American women as they travel to Jamaica, where they address the perils and disappointments of American racism by looking for intimacy, happiness, and a connection to their racial identities. Through their encounters with Jamaican online communities and their participation in trips organized by Girlfriend Tours International, the women construct notions of racial, sexual, and emotional belonging by forming relationships with Jamaican men and other "girlfriends." These relationships allow the women to exercise agency and find happiness in ways that resist the damaging intersections of racism and patriarchy in the United States. However, while the women require a spiritual and virtual connection to Jamaica in order to live happily in the United States, their notion of happiness relies on travel, which requires leveraging their national privilege as American citizens. Williams's theorization of "emotional transnationalism" and the construction of affect across diasporic distance attends to the connections between race, gender, and affect while highlighting how affective relationships mark nationalized and gendered power differentials within the African diaspora.
