The Tale of the Axe by
Approximately 12,000 years ago, early humans in western Asia and Europe who had been itinerant foragers, subsisting on what food they could find, slowly began settling in one place. They farmed and domesticated animals, created new tools, built monuments, and began preserving and storing food. What brought about this shift? What difference did it make to the overall population? And what effects did this Neolithic Revolution have on generations to come? The Tale of the Axe explores the New Stone Age—named for the new types of stone tools that appeared at that time, specifically the ground stone axe—taking Britain as its focus. David Miles takes the reader on a journey through Neolithic Britain by way of its ancestors, geographical neighbors, and the species from which humans emerged before turning an eye to the future and those aspects of the Neolithic Revolution that live on today: farming, built communities, modern man, and much more.
Where Shamans Go by
Demystifies and explains the value of core shamanic practice, particularly the shamanic journey, as techniques to access the power of deep mind.
Doubt, Scholarship and Society in 17th-Century Central Sudanic Africa by
The seventeenth century was a period of major social change in central sudanic Africa. Islam spread from royal courts to rural communities, leading to new identities, new boundaries and new tasks for experts of the religion. Addressing these issues, the Bornu scholar Mu ammad al-W l acquired an exceptional reputation. Dorrit van Dalen s study places him within his intellectual environment, and portrays him as responding to the concerns of ordinary Muslims. It shows that scholars on the geographical margins of the Muslim world participated in the debates in the centres of Muslim learning of the time, but on their own terms. Al-W l s work also sheds light on a century in the Islamic history of West Africa that has until now received little attention."
Preservation of Archaeological Remains In-Situ by
Preservation of Archaeological Remains In-Situ: A Readerreveals to the heritage practitioner (archaeologist, conservator, inspector of ancient monuments, conservation officer) and archaeology and heritage studies student, the issues surrounding the preservation of archaeological remains in-situ. Offering contemporary and classic readings, it provides professionals and students alike with a strong understanding of contemporary preservation practice. The book illustrates the wide variety of threats to in-situ archaeological remains, develops the concept of a holistic appreciation of the threats, and appreciates the need to prioritise the appropriate forms of response and to developing appropriation mitigation strategies. Using a careful balance of sources, some technical, some theoretical, some practical as well as case studies to explore the threats and their mitigation, it provides a holistic statement on preserving archaeological remains in-situ.
Anguyiim Nalliini/Time of Warring by
This book draws on little-known oral histories from the Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska to detail a period of bow-and-arrow warfare that took place in the region between 1300 and 1800. The result of more than thirty years of research, discussion, and field recordings involving more than one hundred Yup'ik men and women, Anguyiim Nalliini tells a story not just of war and violence, but also of its cultural context--the origins of place names, the growth of indigenous architectural practices, the personalities of prominent warriors and leaders, and the eventual establishment of peaceful coexistence. The book is presented in bilingual format, with facing-page translations, and it will be hailed as a landmark work in the study of Alaska Native history and anthropology.
Bones and identity : zooarchaeological approaches to reconstructing social and cultural landscapes in Southwest Asia by 
Anxious Appetites by
Despite government claims that food is safer and more readily available today than ever before, recent survey evidence demonstrates high levels of food-related anxiety among Western consumers. While chronic hunger and malnutrition are relatively rare in the West, food scares relating to individual products, concerns about global food security and other expressions of consumer anxiety about food remain widespread. Anxious Appetites explores the causes of these present-day anxieties. Looking at fears over provenance and regulation in a world of lengthening supply chains and greater concentration of corporate power, Peter Jackson investigates how anxieties about food circulate and how they act as a channel for broader social issues. Drawing on case studies such as the 2013 horsemeat scandal and fears about the contamination of infant formula in China in 2008, he examines how and why these concerns emerge. Comparing survey results with ethnographic observation of consumer practice, he explores the gap between official advice about food safety and people's everyday experience of food, including a critique of ideological notions of 'consumer choice'. A captivating, timely book which presents a new theory of social anxiety.
Māori weaving : the art of creating Māori textiles by 
Art in Motion by
In the summer of 2012, the Denver Art Museum hosted a symposium titled Art in Motion: Native American Explorations of Time, Place, and Thought, which brought artists Charlene Holy Bear, Leena Minifie, and Kent Monkman together with scholars Kristin Dowell, Aldona Jonaitis, and Daniel C. Swan to discuss American Indian art, using the idea of motion as a unifying theme. The perspectives explored in this volume reveal how scholars and artists with different backgrounds can employ overarching themes, such as motion, to investigate topics in arts and culture. The first-person essays by artists Holy Bear, Minifie, and Monkman provide primary accounts of their artistic practices that have never been recorded or presented like this before. The chapters by Dowell, Jonaitis, and Swan present new directions in their scholarly research that are each, independent of this volume, important contributions to their fields. The authors explore wide-ranging subjects, including film and video, figurative sculpture, issues of representation and stereotypes, Native American Church art, and Tlingit dancing. The visionary talks from Art in Motion have been adapted for publication and gathered together with a new introduction by symposium organizer John P. Lukavic, associate curator of native arts at the Denver Art Museum.
The World and All the Things upon It by
What if we saw indigenous people as the active agents of global exploration rather than as the passive objects of that exploration? What if, instead of conceiving of global exploration as an enterprise just of European men such as Columbus or Cook or Magellan, we thought of it as an enterprise of the people they "discovered"? What could such a new perspective reveal about geographical understanding and its place in struggles over power in the context of colonialism? The World and All the Things upon It addresses these questions by tracing how Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian people) explored the outside world and generated their own understandings of it in the century after James Cook's arrival in 1778. Writing with verve, David A. Chang draws on the compelling words of long-ignored Hawaiian-language sources--stories, songs, chants, and political prose--to demonstrate how Native Hawaiian people worked to influence their metaphorical "place in the world." We meet, for example, Ka'iana, a Hawaiian chief who took an English captain as his lover and, while sailing throughout the Pacific, considered how Chinese, Filipinos, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans might shape relations with Westerners to their own advantage. Chang's book is unique in examining travel, sexuality, spirituality, print culture, gender, labor, education, and race to shed light on how constructions of global geography became a site through which Hawaiians, as well as their would-be colonizers, perceived and contested imperialism, colonialism, and nationalism. Rarely have historians asked how non-Western people imagined and even forged their own geographies of their colonizers and the broader world. This book takes up that task. It emphasizes, moreover, that there is no better way to understand the process and meaning of global exploration than by looking out from the shores of a place, such as Hawai'i, that was allegedly the object, and not the agent, of exploration.
Separate Humans by
This book is a theoretical essay that lays a few foundations on which to build an anthropology directly focusing on human units. In the first chapter, the author will attempt to show that the evolutionary specificity of humans constitutes an argument in favour of this perspective. The consciousness of existing in time and nuanced modalities of presence call for a detailed observation of humans. The second chapter is a critique of the abundant use of the notion of relations in social anthropology. It invites for the observation of individuals through successions of moments and situations. The third chapter concerns nonhumans, another major theme of contemporary anthropology. About this point, the author sees a certain debasement of the notion of existence and proposes a realist ontology, considering what does and does not exist, from the examples of divinities, animals and collective institutions.
Homo Juridicus by
Homo Juridicus focuses on the normative foundations underlying all socio-cultural formations. The book uses the concept of ''normativity'' in an inclusive sense. It includes law, but it is not limited to it. As such, it explores the various social and cultural forces that persuade, incite, seduce, influence, direct, restrain, repress or control behavior. It is a major interdisciplinary study cutting across several disciplines of social science, such as law, anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. Its primary audience is law students, as well as the scholarly community across law and the social sciences. ''Isaak Dore is one of the very few scholars who straddles a broad range of legal and nonlegal disciplines. This important book deconstructs the idea of normativity in culture and illuminates it through various strains of thought in anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. Its grasp of these disciplines is impressive in terms of nuance, breadth, particularity and lucidity. It is a unique work, brilliantly executed, providing a rich background against which the promotion of social order through legal and nonlegal norms can be evaluated. It both provokes and compels one to think outside of the conventional structures and assumptions of law and social order. I know of no other work that offers the broad intellectual reach that this ambitious book presents.'' - Laura S. Underkuffler, J. DuPratt White Professor of Law, Cornell Law School.
Japanese Culture by
Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations takes readers on a thoroughly researched and extremely readable journey through Japan's cultural history. This much-anticipated sequel to Roger Davies's best-sellingThe Japanese Mind provides a comprehensive overview of the religion and philosophy of Japan. This cultural history of Japan explains the diverse cultural traditions that underlie modern Japan and offers readers deep insights into Japanese manners and etiquette. Davies begins with an investigation of the origins of the Japanese, followed by an analysis of the most important approaches used by scholars to describe the essential elements of Japanese culture. From there, each chapter focuses on one of the formative elements: Shintoism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Confucianism, and Western influences in the modern era. Each chapter is concluded with extensive endnotes along with thought-provoking discussion activities, making this volume ideal for individual readers and for classroom instruction. Anyone interested in pursuing a deeper understanding of this complex and fascinating nation will find Davies's work an invaluable resource.
Kings, Priests, and Kinsmen by
This collection of E. A. Ammah's ethnographic writing includes essays, some poetry, and other documents. Created over four decades, these pieces cover a wide range of topics including Ga culture in comparative perspective, Ga social organization, Ga political structure and history, Ga life transition ceremonies, and Ga religion. The collection provides a unique cultural insider's twentieth century perspective on Ga society and history.
Whose Memory? Which Future? by
Scholars have devoted considerable energy to understanding the history of ethnic cleansing in Europe, reconstructing specific events, state policies, and the lived experiences of victims. Yet much less attention has been given to how these incidents persist in collective memory today. This volume brings together interdisciplinary case studies conducted in Central and Eastern European cities, exploring how present-day inhabitants "remember" past instances of ethnic cleansing, and how they understand the cultural heritage of groups that vanished in their wake. Together these contributions offer insights into more universal questions of collective memory and the formation of national identity.
The Body and Senses in Martial Culture by
This ethnographic study of a mixed martial arts gym inThailand describes the everyday practices and lived experiences of martial artpractitioners. Through the lived realities and everyday experiences of thesefighters, this book seeks to examine why foreigners invest their time and money totrain in martial arts in Thailand; the linkages between the embodiment ofmartial arts and masculinity; how foreign bodies consume martial arts andwhat they get out of it; the sensory reconfiguration required of a fighter; and the impact of transnational flows on bodily dispositions and knowledge.The author argues that being a successful fighter entails not only sensitized awarenessand knowledge of one's body, but also a reconfiguration of the senses.
Now with Kung Fu Grip! by
Why do so many Americans practice martial arts? How did kung fu get its own movie genre? What makes mixed martial arts so popular? This book answers these questions for the first time with historical research. At the turn of the 20th century, the United States enjoyed a time of prosperity but feared that men were becoming soft. At the same time, the Japanese government sponsored research to develop the best fighting techniques for its new empire. Before World War II, American men boxed and Japanese men practiced judo and karate. Postwar Americans began adopting Chinese, Brazilian, Filipino and other fighting styles, in the process establishing a masculine subculture based on physical and social power. The rise of Asian martial arts in America is a fascinating untold story of modern history, from the origin of karate uniforms to the first martial arts themed birthday party. The cast of characters includes circus strongmen, professional cage fighters, an award winning comic book artist, the inventors of judo, aikido and Cornflakes, and Count Juan Raphael Dante, a Chicago hairdresser and used car salesman with the Deadliest Hands in the World. Readers will never look at taekwondo class the same way again.
Giving Life, Giving Death by
Although women alone have the ability to bring children into the world, modern Western thought tends to discount this female prerogative. In Giving Life, Giving Death, Lucien Scubla argues that structural anthropology sees women as objects of exchange that facilitate alliance-building rather than as vectors of continuity between generations. Examining the work of Lévi-Strauss, Freud, and Girard, as well as ethnographic and clinical data, Giving Life, Giving Death seeks to explain why, in constructing their master theories, our greatest thinkers have consistently marginalized the cultural and biological fact of maternity. In the spirit of Freud's Totem and Taboo, Scubla constructs an anthropology that posits a common source for family and religion. His wide-ranging study explores how rituals unite violence and the sacred and intertwine the giving of death and the giving of life.
Negotiating Belongings by
Belonging is an issue that affects us all, but for those who have been displaced, unsettled or made 'homeless' by the increased movements associated with the contemporary globalising era, belonging is under constant challenge. Migration throws into question not only the belongings of those who physically migrate, but also, particularly in a postcolonial context, the belongings of those who are indigenous to and 'settlers' in countries of migration, subsequent generations born to migrants, and those who are left behind in countries of origin. "Negotiating Belongings" utilises narrative, ethnographic and autoethnographic approaches to explore the negotiations for belonging for six women from Dinka communities originating in southern Sudan. It explores belonging, particularly in relation to migration, through a consideration of belonging to nation-states, ethnic groups, community, family and kin. In exploring how the journeys towards desired belongings are haunted by various social processes such as colonisation, power, 'race' and gender, the author argues that negotiating belonging is a continual movement between being and becoming. The research utilises and demands different ways of listening to and really hearing the narratives of the women as embedded within non-Western epistemologies and ontologies. Through this it develops an understanding of the relational ontology, cieng, that governs the ways in which the women exist in the world. The women's narratives alongside the author's experience within the Dinka community provide particular ways to interrogate the intersections of being and becoming on the haunted journey to belonging. The relational ontology of "cieng" provides an additional way of understanding belonging, becoming and being as always relational.
The Return of Curiosity by
The Spy Museum, the Vacuum Cleaner Museum, the National Mustard Museum--not to mention the Art Institute, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Getty Center: museums have never been more robust, curating just about everything there is and assuming a new prominence in public life. The Return of Curiosity explores museums in the modern age, offering a fresh perspective on some of our most important cultural institutions and the vital function they serve as stewards of human and natural history. Reflecting on art galleries, science and history institutions, and collections all around the world, Nicholas Thomas argues that, in times marked by incredible insecurity and turbulence, museums help us sustain and enrich society. Moreover, they stimulate us to think in new ways about our world, compelling our curiosity and showing us the importance of understanding one another. Thomas looks at museums not simply as storehouses of old things but as the products of meaningful relationships between curators, the public, history, and culture. These relationships, he shows, don't always go smoothly, but they do always offer new insights into the many ways we value--and try to preserve--the world we live in. The result is a refreshing and hopeful look at museums as a cultural force, one that, by gathering together paintings, tropical birds, antiques, or even our own bodies, offers an illuminating reflection of who we are.
Grog War by
Updated and newly revised, the grassroots activism of a remote Australian town is recalled in this inspiring historical account. Frustrated by the harmful effects of alcohol in their community, the indigenous townspeople organized at a local level to halt the rampant sale of liquor and revitalize their town. This fascinating struggle is recalled in brilliant detail in this latest edition that boasts a new introduction.
My Life with Things by
Unconventional and provocative, My Life with Things is Elizabeth Chin's meditation on her relationship with consumer goods and a critical statement on the politics and method of anthropology. Chin centers the book on diary entries that focus on everyday items--kitchen cabinet knobs, shoes, a piano--and uses them to intimately examine the ways consumption resonates with personal and social meaning: from writing love haikus about her favorite nail polish and discussing the racial implications of her tooth cap, to revealing how she used shopping to cope with a miscarriage and contemplating how her young daughter came to think that she needed Lunesta. Throughout, Chin keeps Karl Marx and his family's relationship to their possessions in mind, drawing parallels between Marx's napkins, the production of late nineteenth-century table linens, and Chin's own vintage linen collection. Unflinchingly and refreshingly honest, Chin unlocks the complexities of her attachments to, reliance on, and complicated relationships with her things. In so doing, she prompts readers to reconsider their own consumption, as well as their assumptions about the possibilities for creative scholarship.
Deference Revisited by
Indigenous politics reverberates around the globe, impacting international and national agendas. Bolivia is at the forefront of implementing state reforms that promote indigenous autonomy and identity while agitating against the alleged accomplices of neoliberalism. Into Goudsmit draws on years of in-depth ethnographic research in the Andean valley of Toracari, providing unique insight into the local impact of these reforms that, in August 2012, led to the nationalisation of the Canadian junior mining company South American Silver. The local politics of indigeneity and the conflicts caused by the mining concessions are analysed, concluding that the experiences in Toracari rebuff ubiquitous claims of structural social transformation. The findings invite an exploration of the cultural dynamics of continuity instead, shifting attention to the most significant sites of cultural production in Toracari: rituals. Within rituals, the indian population generates cultural models that mould local deference to the state and landlords. This is ironic as the Bolivian government has adopted indigenous rituals as the language of the 're-founded' state. This ethnography, then, sheds a distinctively Andean light on the debate--ranging from symbolic to cognitive anthropology--regarding the effectiveness of social practices such as rituals that persuade practitioners to live a proper life in line with durable cultural models, reproducing reciprocal but asymmetrical relations in the process.
Beyond the Bones by
Interdisciplinary research is a rewarding enterprise, but there are inherent challenges, especially in current anthropological study. Anthropologists investigate questions concerning health, disease, and the life course in past and contemporary societies, necessitating interdisciplinary collaboration. Tackling these 'big picture' questions related to human health-states requires understanding and integrating social, historical, environmental, and biological contexts and uniting qualitative and quantitative data from divergent sources and technologies. The crucial interplay between new technologies and traditional approaches to anthropology necessitates innovative approaches that promote the emergence of new and alternate views. Beyond the Bones: Engaging with Disparate Datasets fills an emerging niche, providing a forum in which anthropology students and scholars wrestle with the fundamental possibilities and limitations in uniting multiple lines of evidence. This text demonstrates the importance of a multi-faceted approach to research design and data collection and provides concrete examples of research questions, designs, and results that are produced through the integration of different methods, providing guidance for future researchers and fostering the creation of constructive discourse. Contributions from various experts in the field highlight lines of evidence as varied as skeletal remains, cemetery reports, hospital records, digital radiographs, ancient DNA, clinical datasets, linguistic models, and nutritional interviews, including discussions of the problems, limitations, and benefits of drawing upon and comparing datasets, while illuminating the many ways in which anthropologists are using multiple data sources to unravel larger conceptual questions in anthropology. Examines how disparate datasets are combined using case studies from current research. Draws on multiple sub-disciplines of anthropological research to produce a holistic overview that speaks to anthropology as a discipline. Explores examples drawn from qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research to illustrate the breadth of anthropological work.
Animalism by
What are we? What is the nature of the human person? Animalism has a straightforward answer to these long-standing philosophical questions: we are animals. After being ignored for a long time in philosophical discussions of our nature, this idea has recently gained considerable support inmetaphysics and philosophy of mind. It has also, amongst philosophers, occasioned strong opposition, even though it might be said to be the view assumed by much of the scientific community. Essays on Animalism is the first volume to be devoted to this important topic and promises to set the agendafor the next stage in the debate. Containing mainly new papers as well as two highly important articles that were recently published elsewhere, this volume's contributors include both emerging voices in the debate and many of those who have been instrumental in shaping it. Some of their contributions defend animalism, otherscriticize it, still others explore its more general implications. The book also contains a substantial introduction by the editors explaining what animalism is, identifying leading issues that merit attention, and highlighting many of the issues that the contributors have raised.
Anthropological Theory by
Presenting a selection of critical essays in anthropology from 1860 to the current day, this sixth edition of Anthropological Theory includes classic authors such as Tylor, Marx, Boas, Malinowski, Foucault, Turner, and Geertz as well as contemporary thinkers such as Appadurai, Ortner, Abu-Lughod, and Bourgois. Most essays are reprinted without abridgement. Those that are shortened include notes explaining what was removed. What sets McGee and Warms s text apart from other readers are its introductions, footnotes, and index. Detailed introductions examine critical developments in theory, introduce key people and discuss historical and personal influences on theorists. In extensive footnotes the editors provide commentary that puts the writing in historical and cultural context, defines unusual terms, translates non-English phrases, identifies references to other scholars and their works, and paraphrases or summarizes complex passages. The notes identify and provide background information on hundreds of scholars and concepts important in the development of anthropology. This makes the essays more accessible to both students and scholars. An extensive index makes this book an invaluable reference tool."
The Criminal Brain, Second Edition by
What is the relationship between criminality and biology? Nineteenth-century phrenologists insisted that criminality was innate, inherent in the offender's brain matter. While they were eventually repudiated as pseudo-scientists, today the pendulum has swung back. Both criminologists and biologists have begun to speak of a tantalizing but disturbing possibility: that criminality may be inherited as a set of genetic deficits that place one at risk to commit theft, violence, or acts of sexual deviance. But what do these new theories really assert? Are they as dangerous as their forerunners, which the Nazis and other eugenicists used to sterilize, incarcerate, and even execute thousands of supposed "born" criminals? How can we prepare for a future in which leaders may propose crime-control programs based on biology? In this second edition of The Criminal Brain, Nicole Rafter, Chad Posick, and Michael Rocque describe early biological theories of crime and provide a lively, up-to-date overview of the newest research in biosocial criminology. New chapters introduce the theories of the latter part of the 20th century; apply and critically assess current biosocial and evolutionary theories, the developments in neuro-imaging, and recent progressions in fields such as epigenetics; and finally, provide a vision for the future of criminology and crime policy from a biosocial perspective. The book is a careful, critical examination of each research approach and conclusion. Both compiling and analyzing the body of scholarship devoted to understanding the criminal brain, this volume serves as a condensed, accessible, and contemporary exploration of biological theories of crime and their everyday relevance. Instructor's Guide
Bounded Mobilities by
Mobility is a byword of late modernity that suggests an increasingly unrestrained and interconnected world of individual opportunities. However, as privileges enable some to live in a seemingly borderless world, others remain excluded and marginalized. Boundaries are created, modified, and consolidated, particularly in times of hypermobility. Evidently mobility is closely tied to immobility. This volume features ethnographic research that challenges the concept of mobility from the perspective of social inequality and global hierarchies.
Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa by
This volume provides new insights into the distinctive contributions that community archaeology and heritage make to the decolonization of archaeological practice. Using innovative approaches, the contributors explore important initiatives which have protected and revitalized local heritage, initiatives that involved archaeologists as co-producers rather than leaders. These case studies underline the need completely reshape archaeological practice, engaging local and indigenous communities in regular dialogue and recognizing their distinctive needs, in order to break away from the top-down power relationships that have previously characterized archaeology in Africa. Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africareflects a determined effort to change how archaeology is taught to future generations. Through community-based participatory approaches, archaeologists and heritage professionals can benefit from shared resources and local knowledge; and by sharing decision-making with members of local communities, archaeological inquiry can enhance their way of life, ameliorate their human rights concerns, and meet their daily needs to build better futures. Exchanging traditional power structures for research design and implementation, the examples outlined in this volume demonstrate the discipline's exciting capacity to move forward to achieve its potential as a broader, more accessible, and more inclusive field.
The Archaeology of Darkness by
Through time people have lived with darkness. Archaeology shows us that over the whole human journey people have sought out dark places, for burials, for votive deposition and sometimes for retreat or religious ritual away from the wider community. Thirteen papers explore Palaeolithic use of deep caves in Europe and the orientation of mortuary monuments in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. It examines how the senses are affected in caves and monuments that were used for ritual activities, from Bronze Age miners in Wales working in dangerous subterranean settings, to initiands in Italian caves, to a modern caver's experience of spending time in the one of the world's deepest caves in Russia. We see how darkness was and is viewed at northern latitudes where parts of the year are spent in eternal night, and in Easter Island where darkness provided communal refuge from the pervasive sun. We know that spending extended periods in darkness and silence can affect one physically, emotionally and spiritually. How did interactions between people and darkness affect individuals in the past and how were regarded by their communities? And how did this interaction transform places in the landscape? As the ever-increasing electrification of the planet steadily minimises the amount of darkness in our lives, curiously, darkness is coming more into focus. This first collection of papers on the subject begins a conversation about the role of darkness in human experience through time.
O'odham Creation and Related Events by
The origin stories of the O’odham (Pima) Indians of Arizona are renowned for their beauty and complexity but have been collected in only a handful of books. This volume—the third full O’odham telling of ancientness to appear in print—brings together dozens of stories collected in 1927 by anthropologist Ruth Benedict during her only visit to the Pimas. Never before published, they helped inspire Benedict to write her groundbreaking book Patterns of Culture. The Pimas represented a way of life that Benedict at first called “Dionysian” after hearing the stories, narratives, songs, and oratory collected from various tellers during her three-month stay. The oral literature concerns the creation of the world and its transformations over time, the creation of the O’odham people, and other cultural traditions. Featuring a pair of man-gods, a female monster born of woman, and a conquest of Pimas by Pimas, they serve to mark the O’odham as a people distinct from their neighbors near and far. The present volume contains more stories than any other source of Pima tales, plus more of the songs and orations that accompanied a telling. It includes “The Rafter,” a host of ancillary stories, numerous Coyote tales, and additional speeches tied to the narratives of ancientness. One long story, “The Feud,” found only in this collection, shows similarities to the Maya Popol Vuh. Donald Bahr, a preeminent authority on the O’odham, has not only clarified the text but has also written an introduction that provides the background to the collection and analyzes Benedict’s probable reasons for never having published it. He has also included a previously unpublished text by Benedict, “Figures of Speech among the Pima.” O’odham Creation and Related Events represents an invaluable sourcebook of a people’s oral literature as well as a tribute to a singular scholar’s dedication and vision.
People and Nature by
Now updated and expanded, People and Nature is a lively, accessible introduction to environmental anthropology that focuses on the interactions between people, culture, and nature around the world. Written by a respected scholar in environmental anthropology with a multi-disciplinary focus that also draws from geography, ecology, and environmental studies Addresses new issues of importance, including climate change, population change, the rise of the slow food and farm-to-table movements, and consumer-driven shifts in sustainability Explains key theoretical issues in the field, as well as the most important research, at a level appropriate for readers coming to the topic for the first time Discusses the challenges in ensuring a livable future for generations to come and explores solutions for correcting the damage already done to the environment Offers a powerful, hopeful future vision for improved relations between humans and nature that embraces the idea of community needs rather than consumption wants, and the importance of building trust as a foundation for a sustainable future
Ethnographic Collaborations in Latin America by
This volume examines the importance of establishing egalitarian relationships in fieldwork, and acknowledging the impact these relationships have on scholarly findings and theories. The editors and their contributors investigate how globalization affects this relationship as scholars are increasingly involved in shared networks and are subject to the same socio-economic systems as locals. The editors argue for a processual approach that begins with an analysis of researchers' personal and professional backgrounds that inform the cooperative relationships they establish during fieldwork—often a long term process—in countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil.
Black Bodies, Black Rights by
Under a provision in the Brazilian constitution, rural black communities identified as the modern descendants of quilombos--runaway slave communities--are promised land rights as a form of reparations for the historic exclusion of blacks from land ownership. The quilombo provision has been hailed as a success for black rights; however, rights for quilombolas are highly controversial and, in many cases, have led to violent land conflicts. Although thousands of rural black communities have been legally recognized, only a handful have received the rights they were promised. Conflict over quilombola rights is widespread and carries important consequences for race relations and political representations of blackness in twenty-first century Brazil. Drawing on a year of field research in a quilombola community, Elizabeth Farf#65533;n-Santos explores how quilombo recognition has significantly affected the everyday lives of those who experience the often-complicated political process. Questions of identity, race, and entitlement play out against a community's struggle to prove its historical authenticity--and to gain the land and rights they need to survive. This work not only demonstrates the lived experience of a new, particular form of blackness in Brazil, but also shows how blackness is being mobilized and reimagined to gain social rights and political recognition. Black Bodies, Black Rights thus represents an important contribution to the rapidly growing interdisciplinary field of Afro-Latino studies.
Hemispheric Encounters by
In the decades following the American Revolution, literary and cultural discourses, but also American collective and individual identification were shaped by transatlantic relations and inter-American exchanges and conflicts. The way Americans defined themselves as a nation and as individuals was shaped by such historical events and social issues as the Haitian Revolution, the struggles for independence in Spanish America, ties with Caribbean slave economies, and rivalries with other colonial powers in the Americas. Contextualizing transatlantic and inter-American relations within a framework of the Western Hemisphere, the essays collected in this volume discuss inter-American relations in the early United States, and in American, European and Spanish-American writing of the period.
Ethics and the Archaeology of Violence by
This volume examines the distinctive and highly problematic ethical questions surrounding conflict archaeology. By bringing together sophisticated analyses and pertinent case studies from around the world it aims to address the problems facing archaeologists working in areas of violent conflict, past and present. Of all the contentious issues within archaeology and heritage, the study of conflict and work within conflict zones are undoubtedly the most highly charged and hotly debated, both within and outside the discipline. Ranging across the conflict zones of the world past and present, this book attempts to raise the level of these often fractious debates by locating them within ethical frameworks. The issues and debates in this book range across a range of ethical models, including deontological, teleological and virtue ethics. The chapters address real-world ethical conundrums that confront archaeologists in a diversity of countries, including Israel/Palestine, Iran, Uruguay, Argentina, Rwanda, Germany and Spain. They all have in common recent, traumatic experiences of war and dictatorship. The chapters provide carefully argued, thought-provoking analyses and examples that will be of real practical use to archaeologists in formulating and addressing ethical dilemmas in a confident and constructive manner.
Who Owns the Dead? by
After September 11, with New Yorkers reeling from the World Trade Center attack, Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch proclaimed that his staff would do more than confirm the identity of the individuals who were killed. They would attempt to identify and return to families every human body part recovered from the site that was larger than a thumbnail. As Jay D. Aronson shows, delivering on that promise proved to be a monumentally difficult task. Only 293 bodies were found intact. The rest would be painstakingly collected in 21,900 bits and pieces scattered throughout the skyscrapers#65533;e(tm) debris. This massive effort#65533;e"the most costly forensic investigation in U.S. history#65533;e"was intended to provide families conclusive knowledge about the deaths of loved ones. But it was also undertaken to demonstrate that Americans were dramatically different from the terrorists who so callously disregarded the value of human life. Bringing a new perspective to the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Who Owns the Dead? tells the story of the recovery, identification, and memorialization of the 2,753 people killed in Manhattan on 9/11. For a host of cultural and political reasons that Aronson unpacks, this process has generated endless debate, from contestation of the commercial redevelopment of the site to lingering controversies over the storage of unclaimed remains at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The memory of the victims has also been used to justify military activities in the Middle East that have led to the deaths of an untold number of innocent civilians.
People with Animals by
People with Animals emphasizes the interdependence of people and animals in society, and contributors examine the variety of forms and time-depth that these relations can take. The types of relationship studied include the importance of manure to farming societies, dogs as livestock guardians, seasonality in pastoralist societies, butchery, symbolism and food. Examples are drawn from the Pleistocene to the present day and from the Altai Mountains, Ethiopia, Iraq, Italy, Mongolia and North America. The 11 papers work from the basis that animals are an integral part of society and that past society is the object of most archaeological inquiry. Discussion papers explore this topic and use the case-studies presented in other contributions to suggest the importance of ethnozooarchaeology not just to archaeology but also to anthrozoology. A further contribution to archaeological theory is made by an argument for the validity of ethnozooarchaeology derived models to Neanderthals. The book makes a compelling case for the importance of human-animal relations in the archaeological record and demonstrates why the information contained in this record is of significance to specialists in other disciplines.
An Ethnography of Household Energy Demand in the UK by
This book challenges the ways we think about human agency by looking at the creativity, ethics, and capacities for social transformation that are embedded in simple actions of "doing". Stemming from ethnographic research with families in the United Kingdom as part of a wider interdisciplinary project looking at domestic energy demand, this book probes some mundane approaches to time--such as spontaneity, anticipation, and "family time"--and the ways in which they extend ethical imaginations, create new forms of sociality, and engender human agency.
Defectives in the Land by
Immigration history has largely focused on the restriction of immigrants by race and ethnicity, overlooking disability as a crucial factor in the crafting of the image of the "undesirable immigrant." Defectives in the Land, Douglas C. Baynton's groundbreaking new look at immigration and disability, aims to change this. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Baynton explains, immigration restriction in the United States was primarily intended to keep people with disabilities--known as "defectives"--out of the country. The list of those included is long: the deaf, blind, epileptic, and mobility impaired; people with curved spines, hernias, flat or club feet, missing limbs, and short limbs; those unusually short or tall; people with intellectual or psychiatric disabilities; intersexuals; men of "poor physique" and men diagnosed with "feminism." Not only were disabled individuals excluded, but particular races and nationalities were also identified as undesirable based on their supposed susceptibility to mental, moral, and physical defects. In this transformative book, Baynton argues that early immigration laws were a cohesive whole--a decades-long effort to find an effective method of excluding people considered to be defective. This effort was one aspect of a national culture that was increasingly fixated on competition and efficiency, anxious about physical appearance and difference, and haunted by a fear of hereditary defect and the degeneration of the American race.
Ancient Irrigation Systems of the Aral Sea Area by
Ancient Irrigation Systems in the Aral Sea Area, is the English translation of Boris Vasilevich Andrianov's work, Drevnie orositelnye sistemy priaralya, concerning the study of ancient irrigation systems and the settlement pattern in the historical region of Khorezm, south of the Aral Sea (Uzbekistan). This work holds a special place within the Soviet archaeological school because of the results obtained through a multidisciplinary approach combining aerial survey, and fieldwork, surveys, and excavations. This translation has been enriched by the addition of introductions written by several eminent scholars from the region regarding the importance of the Khorezm Archaeological-Ethnographic Expedition and the figure of Boris V. Andrianov and his landmark study almost 50 years after the original publication.
A Companion to South Asia in the Past by
A Companion to South Asia in the Past provides the definitive overview of research and knowledge about South Asia's past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, provided by a truly global team of experts. The most comprehensive and detailed scholarly treatment of South Asian archaeology and biological anthropology, providing ground-breaking new ideas and future challenges Provides an in-depth and broad view of the current state of knowledge about South Asia's past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal A comprehensive treatment of research in a crucial region for human evolution and biocultural adaptation A global team of scholars together present a varied set of perspectives on South Asian pre- and proto-history
Collaborative Heritage Management by
In this volume, practitioners within archaeology, anthropology, urban planning, human geography, cultural resource management (CRM) and museology push the boundaries of traditional cultural and natural heritage management and reflect how heritage discourse is being increasingly re-theorised in term of experience.
The Casma City of el Purgatorio by
"Defines the Casma culture and demonstrates its importance in late Andean prehistory for the north coast of Peru. Vogel's pioneering work at El Purgatorio sets the stage for anticipated future studies."--Thomas Pozorski, University of Texas-Pan American "This detailed study fills a major gap in coastal Andean prehistory while also addressing broader issues of ancient urbanism and the variability of urban forms in preindustrial societies."--Daniel H. Sandweiss, University of Maine The Casma state, which flourished on the north coast of Peru in the centuries before European contact, is an important and vastly understudied pre-Inca culture. In this volume, Melissa Vogel situates El Purgatorio--the capital city and largest Casma culture site--within the larger spatial and temporal context of the region and compares it to other pre-Hispanic cities of the Americas. She chronicles the rise and fall of the city, from its establishment and apogee to its conquest and ultimate abandonment, a period of dynamic transition in Andean history. Vogel's investigation ranges through this extensive, monumental urban site, considering its architecture and spatial organization from the perspective of architectonics and proxemics. She also looks at religious and mortuary rituals, establishing a baseline for future studies of Casma religion and ideology. Her examination of the urban economy includes both internal economic organization and trade with neighboring polities, with focus on craft industries such as weaving, metallurgy, beer brewing, and bead-making, as well as agriculture and the harvesting of marine resources. Using findings from the material culture, Vogel tells us about the residents of El Purgatorio, including crucial components of identity and status, and interprets their living conditions based on pathologies present in the burial populations and the artifactual remains of daily life. A culmination of Vogel's sixteen-year study of Casma culture, this book helps us understand the relationships between polities of the ancient world, how they built connections to other towns or cities outside and within their own boundaries, and demonstrates the importance of cities and urbanism in the development and collapse of complex societies. A volume in the series Ancient Cities of the New World, edited by Michael E. Smith, Marilyn A. Masson, and John W. Janusek
Theodore E. White and the Development of Zooarchaeology in North America by
Theodore E. White and the Development of Zooarchaeology in North America illuminates the researcher and his lasting contribution to a field that has largely ignored him in its history. The few brief histories of North American zooarchaeology suggest that Paul W. Parmalee, John E. Guilday, Elizabeth S. Wing, and Stanley J. Olsen laid the foundation of the field. Only occasionally is Theodore White (1905-77) included, yet his research is instrumental for understanding the development of zooarchaeology in North America. R. Lee Lyman works to fill these gaps in the historical record and revisits some of White's analytical innovations from a modern perspective. A comparison of publications shows that not only were White's zooarchaeological articles first in print in archaeological venues but that he was also, at least initially, more prolific than his contemporaries. While the other "founders" of the field were anthropologists, White was a paleontologist by training who studied long-extinct animals and their evolutionary histories. In working with remains of modern mammals, the typical paleontological research questions were off the table simply because the animals under study were too recent. And yet White demonstrated clearly that scholars could infer significant information about human behaviors and cultures. Lyman presents a biography of Theodore White as a scientist and a pioneer in the emerging field of modern anthropological zooarchaeology.
Masculinity, Alcohol and HIV/AIDS in Malawi by 
Humans, Animals and Biopolitics by
Human-animal co-existence is central to a politics of life, how we order societies, and to debates about who 'we' humans think 'we' are. In other words, our ways of understanding and ordering human-animal relations have economic and political implications and affect peoples' everyday lives. By bringing together historically-oriented approaches and contemporary ethnographies which engage with science and technology studies (STS), this book reflects the multi-sited, multi-species, multi-logic and multiple ways in which lives are and have been assembled, disassembled, practised and possibly policed and politicized. Instead of asking only how control and knowledge are and have been extended over life, the chapters in this book also look at what happens when control fails, at practices which defy orders, escape detection, fail to produce or only loosely hang together. In doing so the book problematises and extends the Foucauldian notion of biopolitics that has been such a central analytical concept in studies of human-animal relations and provides a unique resource of cases and theoretical refinements regarding the ways in which we live together with more than human others.
London's Polish Borders by
The figure of the Polish plumber or builder has long been a well-established icon of the British national imagination, uncovering the UK's collective unease with immigration from Central and Eastern Europe. But despite the powerful impact the UK's second largest language group has had on their host country's culture and politics, very little is known about its members. This painstakingly researched book offers a broad perspective on Polish migrants in the UK, taking into account discursive actions, policies, family connections, transnational networks, and political engagement of the diaspora. Born out of a decade of ethnographic studies among various communities of Polish nationals living in London, Michal P. Garapich documents the changes affecting both Polish migrants and British society, offering insight into the inner tensions and struggles within what is often assumed to be a uniform and homogeneous category. From Polish financial sector workers to the Polish homeless population, this groundbreaking book provides a street-level account of cultural and social determinants of Polish migrants as they continually rework their relation to class and ethnicity.
Russian Borderlands in Change North Caucasian Youth and the Politics of Bordering and Citizenship by
While moving across borders has been made easier for some in Russia in recent years, for others, physical as well as socio-cultural borders are proving to be more and more difficult to cross. Tackling the differences between the ways in which official discourses construct borders and the ways people who live there experience them in their everyday lives, this book uses innovative theoretical approaches and empirical work with young North Caucasian migrants to explore issues of identity, citizenship, exclusion and belonging. The Chechen war, terrorist attacks and confrontations between Caucasian migrants and local residents have served as touchstones for intense public debates about who belongs in Russian society and who does not. Young people of North Caucasian origin are experiencing the effects of such debates as they learn to negotiate and maintain their identities in an environment in which they are defined as a threat to national security whilst simultaneously being pressured to align with core civic values of the state. This book reflects on the notion that the cultural borders, which define civic liberties and people's right to belong, are increasingly being defined within society, and not by the external borders of states.
In Bed with the Ancient Greeks by
From what the Ancient Greeks might have talked about in bed to women's health and the intricacies of Greek marriage, Paul Chrystal shines a much-needed light on sex and sexuality in ancient Greece, one of the world's most influential civilizations.This is a balanced, comprehensive and well-researched analysis of the many aspects of sexual desire and activity in the various Greek societies - from the Minoan civilisation, Athens and the other city states, to Sparta and Hellenistic Greece.It examines attitudes to, and the practice of, sex in Greek mythology, literature and real life; in love, marriage, and adultery; in religion and philosophy; in the visual arts; of sexual medicine and erotic magic; and the vocabulary of sex. A wealth of primary sources are called upon to provide evidence of the antics of the ancient Greeks.
The Hybrid Tsinoys by 
Samoan Archaeology and Cultural Heritage by
The overall purpose of this book is to provide a foundation for Samoan students to become the custodians of the historical narrative based on Archaeological research. Issues that are explored are; Do ancient remains matter in contemporary Samoa? What is the chronological status, and spatial relationship of archaeological monuments found in Samoa? Is the settlement pattern stable over the past 3000 years that Samoa has been populated and/or does central places emerge trough time? Previous efforts from the outside during the 1960 -70 of introducing Archaeology to Samoa that used archaeological methods, historical linguistics and ethno-history to interpret the Samoan past are assessed in regard to the development in Samoa but also in a wider West-Polynesian context. The book also contains data and discussions on our three-year program for archaeology at the large and important Pulemelei mound in Savai'i during 2002-2004, some of which has not been published before. Results and further implications of these investigations that were followed up by an eight-year program where the author introduced courses in Archaeology at The National University of Samoa are also presented and discussed. These efforts served as a foundation to create a Bachelors program for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management. Results from our archaeological field schools, collaborations with the Museum of Samoa and interview projects on Cultural Heritage Management, education and legislation are also discussed here. They provide a foundation to understand the role of and the Historical Cultural Heritage in the past and present Samoa and how to move on to manage and protect this heritage in the future.
Nature, Culture and Gender by
Folktales in India have been told, heard, read and celebrated for many centuries. In breaking new ground, Indian folktales have been reread and examined in the light of the Mother Earth discourse as it manifests in the lifeworlds of women, nature and language. The book introduces ecofeminist criticism and situates it within an innovative folktale typology to connect women and environment through folklore. The book proposes an innovative paradigm inspired by the beehive to analyze motifs, relationships, concerns, worldviews and consciousness of indigenous women and men who live close to nature as well as other socially marginalized groups. In the current global context fraught with challenges for ecology and hopes for sustainable development, this book with its interdisciplinary approach will interest scholars and researchers of literature, environmental studies, gender studies and cultural anthropology.
Big Farms Make Big Flu by
Thanks to breakthroughs in production and food science, agribusiness has been able to devise new ways to grow more food and get it more places more quickly. There is no shortage of news items on hundreds of thousands of hybrid poultry – each animal genetically identical to the next – packed together in megabarns, grown out in a matter of months, then slaughtered, processed and shipped to the other side of the globe. Less well known are the deadly pathogens mutating in, and emerging out of, these specialized agro-environments. In fact, many of the most dangerous new diseases in humans can be traced back to such food systems, among them Campylobacter, Nipah virus, Q fever, hepatitis E, and a variety of novel influenza variants. Agribusiness has known for decades that packing thousands of birds or livestock together results in a monoculture that selects for such disease. But market economics doesn't punish the companies for growing Big Flu – it punishes animals, the environment, consumers, and contract farmers. Alongside growing profits, diseases are permitted to emerge, evolve, and spread with little check. “That is,” writes evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace, “it pays to produce a pathogen that could kill a billion people.” In Big Farms Make Big Flu, a collection of dispatches by turns harrowing and thought-provoking, Wallace tracks the ways influenza and other pathogens emerge from an agriculture controlled by multinational corporations. Wallace details, with a precise and radical wit, the latest in the science of agricultural epidemiology, while at the same time juxtaposing ghastly phenomena such as attempts at producing featherless chickens, microbial time travel, and neoliberal Ebola. Wallace also offers sensible alternatives to lethal agribusiness. Some, such as farming cooperatives, integrated pathogen management, and mixed crop-livestock systems, are already in practice off the agribusiness grid. While many books cover facets of food or outbreaks, Wallace's collection appears the first to explore infectious disease, agriculture, economics and the nature of science together. Big Farms Make Big Flu integrates the political economies of disease and science to derive a new understanding of the evolution of infections. Highly capitalized agriculture may be farming pathogens as much as chickens or corn.
The Bioarchaeology of Dissection and Autopsy in the United States by
Encountering evidence of postmortem examinations- dissection or autopsy in historic skeletal collections is relativelyrare, but recently there has been an increase in the number of reportedinstances. And much of what has been evaluated has been largely descriptiveand historical. The Bioarchaeology ofDissection and Autopsy brings together in a single volume the skeletal evidence ofpostmortem examination in the United States. Ranging from the earlycolonial period to the early 1900's, from a coffeehouse at ColonialWilliamsburg to a Quaker burial vault in lower Manhattan, the contributions to this volume demonstrate the interpretive significance of a historically andtheoretically contextualizedbioarchaeology. The authors employ a wide range of perspectives, demonstrating how bioarchaeological evidence can be used to address a widerange of themes including social identity and marginalization, racialization,the nature of the body and fragmentation, and the emergence of medical practiceand authority in the United States.​
Ritual Violence in the Ancient Andes by
Traditions of sacrifice exist in almost every human culture and often embody a society's most meaningful religious and symbolic acts. Ritual violence was particularly varied and enduring in the prehistoric South American Andes, where human lives, animals, and material objects were sacrificed in secular rites or as offerings to the divine. Spectacular discoveries of sacrificial sites containing the victims of violent rituals have drawn ever-increasing attention to ritual sacrifice within Andean archaeology. Responding to this interest, this volume provides the first regional overview of ritual killing on the pre-Hispanic north coast of Peru, where distinct forms and diverse trajectories of ritual violence developed during the final 1,800 years of prehistory. Presenting original research that blends empirical approaches, iconographic interpretations, and contextual analyses, the contributors address four linked themes--the historical development and regional variation of north coast sacrifice from the early first millennium AD to the European conquest; a continuum of ritual violence that spans people, animals, and objects; the broader ritual world of sacrifice, including rites both before and after violent offering; and the use of diverse scientific tools, archaeological information, and theoretical interpretations to study sacrifice. This research proposes a wide range of new questions that will shape the research agenda in the coming decades, while fostering a nuanced, scientific, and humanized approach to the archaeology of ritual violence that is applicable to archaeological contexts around the world.
The Wentworth Lectures by
The Wentworth Lectures honour the contribution of Sir William (Bill) Wentworth to the creation of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in 1964. Bill Wentworth (descendant of his eponymous forebear (1790-1872) who was a prominent figure in the early colonial history of Australia), had a long-term and intense interest in the origins, society and culture of the nation's first pioneers and settlers, its Aboriginal people. In effect the Institute's 'founding father', Bill Wentworth's vision has been acknowledged since by every Wentworth lecturer. His was a major contribution to what has become by far Australia's most important institution for the promotion of the cultures and achievements of Australia's Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. In the early 1960s the common view was that something like a 'rescue mission' was needed; to make haste and 'get it all down' before it was 'too late'. People's overriding perception was of a continuing and accelerating loss of culture, and a general decline in the face of assimilatory pressures. However, in 1978, by the time of the inaugural Wentworth Lecture, delivered by eminent prehistorian, Dr Rhys Jones, the multidisciplinary field of Aboriginal Studies or Australian Indigenous Studies, was burgeoning, as it still does today. Mirroring that change, AIATSIS is now a world-renowned research, collecting and publishing organisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, traditions, languages and history. The Wentworth Lectures are a reflection of the changing values in Australia's society and the evolution of ethical research in Australia. They are a fitting symbol of Australia's maturing nationhood and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples of the land. As well as their resilience and journey to reclaim and preserve their identity, their histories, their cultural heritage -- their stories. There have been eighteen Wentworth lecturers, all of whom have been given full rein as to the topic and content. A veritable who's who of Australian Indigenous studies, all deal to some extent with wider political, social and economic, and in some cases, religious, factors prevalent at the time of their writing.
Tribes and States in a Changing Middle East by
At the outset of the twenty-first century and in the midst of the Arab Spring, tribe-state relations are a useful frame of reference through which to analyze the Middle East on a state-by-state basis. Tribes and States in a Changing Middle East looks beyond the dichotomy between tribe andstate. Its central theme is the role of tribes and tribalism in state politics, society, and identity, as demonstrated in case studies from the Arab East (mashriq). The book is a comparative endeavour that seeks to address questions related to the interplay between tribal organizations and stateinstitutions, tribal solidarity and nationalism, and tribal power and the centralized government. It further discusses the impact and role of tribal polities in modern states in times of regional and national turmoil.
New Age in Latin America by
This book is at the crossroads where a New Age sensibility, advancing like an ecumen of worldwide spirituality without national, cultural, or ecclesiastical frontiers, meets Latin America's syncretic religions, practiced by groups of people wiht African or indigenous roots or developed from the tradition of popular Catholicism. The Syncretic character of the two sensibilities makes both the New Age and popular religion behave like two, syncretizing and syncreticizable matrices of meaning. This book opens up a rich vein of debate with new dilemmas and discussions, that will provide a framework for a new field of study in anthropology. What new ways of signifying living and experiencing religion is the New Age generating in Latin America? What are its limits?
Decoding Racial Ideology in Genomics by
Although the human genome exists apart from society, knowledge about it is produced through socially-created language and interactions. As such, genomicists thinking is informed by their inability to escape the wake of the race concept. This book investigates how racism makes genomics and how genomics makes racism and race, and the consequences of these constructions. Specifically, Williams explores how racial ideology works in genomics. The simple assumption that frames the book is that race as an ideology justifying a system of oppression is persistently recreated as a practical and familiar way to understand biological reality. This book reveals that genomicists preoccupation with race regardless of good or ill intent contributes to its perception as a category of differences that is scientifically rigorous."
Stones, Bones and Profiles by
Stones, Bones, and Profiles addresses key and cutting-edge research of three pillars of hunter-gatherer archaeology. Stones and bones--flaked stone tools and the bones of the prey animals--are the objects most commonly recovered from hunter-gatherer archaeological sites, and profiles represent the geologic context of the archeological record. Together they constitute the foundations of much of early archaeology, from the appearance of the earliest humans to the advent of the Neolithic. The volume is divided into three sections: Peopling of North America and Paleoindians, Geoarchaeology, and Bison Bone Bed Studies. The first section dissects established theories about the Paleoindians, including the possibility that human populations were in North America before Clovis and the timing of the opening of the Alberta Corridor. The second section provides new perspectives on the age and contexts of several well-known New World localities such as the Lindenmeier Folsom and the UP Mammoth sites, as well as a synthesis of the geoarchaeology of the Rocky Mountains' Bighorn region that addresses significant new data and summarizes decades of investigation. The final section, Bison Bone Bed Studies, consists of groundbreaking zooarchaeological studies offering new perspectives on bison taxonomy and procurement. Stones, Bones, and Profiles presents new data on Paleoindian archaeology and reconsiders previous sites and perspectives, culminating in a thought-provoking and challenging contribution to the ongoing study of Paleoindians around the world. Contributors: Leland Bement, Jack W. Brink, John Carpenter, Brian Carter, Thomas J. Connolly, Linda Scott Cummings, Loren G. Davis, Allen Denoyer, Stuart J. Fiedel, Judson Byrd Finley, Andrea Freeman, C. Vance Haynes Jr., Bryan Hockett, Vance T. Holliday, Dennis L. Jenkins, Thomas A. Jennings, Eileen Johnson, George T. Jones, Oleksandra Krotova, Patrick J. Lewis, Vitaliy Logvynenko, Ian Luthe, Katelyn McDonough, Lance McNees, Fred L. Nials, Patrick W. O'Grady, Mary M. Prasciunas, Karl J. Reinhard, Michael Rondeau, Guadalupe Sanchez, William E. Scoggin, Ashley M. Smallwood, Iryna Snizhko, Thomas W. Stafford Jr., Mark E. Swisher, Frances White, Eske Willerslev, Robert M. Yohe II, Chad Yost
Envisioning sustainabilities : towards an anthropology of sustainability by 
Overheating by
The world is overheated. Too full and too fast; uneven and unequal. It is the age of the Anthropocene, of humanity's indelible mark upon the planet. In short, it is globalisation - but not as we know it.In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Hylland Eriksen breathes new life into the discussion around global modernity, bringing an anthropologist's approach to bear on the three interrelated crises of environment, economy and identity. He argues that although these crises are global in scope, they are perceived and responded to locally, and that contradictions abound between the standardising forces of information-age global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices.Carefully synthesising the ethnographic and comparative methods of anthropology with macrosocial and historical material, Overheating offers an innovative new perspective on issues including energy use, urbanisation, deprivation, human (im)mobility, and the spread of interconnected, wireless information technology.
The Zionist churches in Malawi : history, theology, anthropology by 
The Handbook of Food and Anthropology by
Interest in the anthropology of food has grown significantly in recent years. This is the first handbook to provide a detailed overview of all major areas of the field. Twenty original essays by leading figures in the discipline examine traditional areas of research as well as cutting-edge areas of inquiry. Divided into three parts ? Food, Self and Others; Food Security, Nutrition and Food Safety; Food as Craft, Industry and Ethics ? the book covers topics such as identity, commensality, locality, migration, ethical consumption, artisanal foods, and children's food. Each chapter features rich ethnography alongside wider analysis of the subject. Internationally renowned scholars offer insights into their core areas of specialty. Examples include Michael Herzfeld on culinary stereotypes, David Sutton on how to conduct an anthropology of cooking, Johan Pottier on food insecurity, and Melissa Caldwell on practicing food anthropology. The book also features exceptional geographic and cultural diversity, with chapters on South Asia, South Africa, the United States of America, post-socialist societies, Maoist China, and Muslim and Jewish foodways. Invaluable as a reference as well as for teaching, The Handbook of Food and Anthropology serves to define this increasingly important field. An essential resource for researchers and students in anthropology and food studies.
Hidden Thunder by
In Hidden Thunder, renowned watercolor artist Geri Schrab and archaeologist Robert "Ernie" Boszhardt give readers an up-close-and-personal look at rock art. With an eye toward preservation, Schrab and Boszhardt take you with them as they research, document, and interpret at the ancient petroglyphs and pictographs made my Native Americans in past millennia. In addition to publicly accessible sites such as Wisconsin's Roche-a-Cri State Park and Minnesota's Jeffers Petroglyphs, Hidden Thunder covers the artistic treasures found at several remote and inaccessible rock art sites--revealing the ancient stories through words, full-color photographs, and artistic renditions. Offering the duo perspectives of scientist and artist, Boszhardt shares the facts that archaeologists have been able to establish about these important artifacts of our early history, while Schrab offers the artist's experience, describing her emotional and creative response upon encountering and painting these sites. Viewpoints by members of the Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, and other Native nations offer additional insight on the historic and cultural significance of these sites. Together these myriad voices reveal layers of meaning and cultural context that emphasize why these fragile resources--often marred by human graffiti and mishandling or damage from the elements--need to be preserved.
Producing Predators by
In Producing Predators, Michael D. Wise argues that contestations between Native and non-Native people over hunting, labor, and the livestock industry drove the development of predator eradication programs in Montana and Alberta from the 1880s onward. The history of these anti-predator programs was significant not only for their ecological effects, but also for their enduring cultural legacies of colonialism in the Northern Rockies. By targeting wolves and other wild carnivores for extermination, cattle ranchers disavowed the predatory labor of raising domestic animals for slaughter, representing it instead as productive work. Meanwhile, federal agencies sought to purge the Blackfoot, Salish-Kootenai, and other indigenous peoples of their so-called predatory behaviors through campaigns of assimilation and citizenship that forcefully privatized tribal land and criminalized hunting and its related ritual practices. Despite these colonial pressures, Native communities resisted and negotiated the terms of their dispossession by representing their own patterns of work, food, and livelihood as productive. By exploring predation and production as fluid cultural logics for valuing labor, rather than just a set of biological processes, Producing Predators offers a new perspective on the history of the American West and the modern history of colonialism more broadly.
Islamic Thought in China by
How can people belong simultaneously to two cultures, originating in two different places and expressed in two different languages, without alienating themselves from either? Muslims have lived in the Chinese culture area for 1400 years, and the intellectuals among them have long wrestled with this problem. Unlike Persian, Turkish, Urdu, or Malay, the Chinese language never adopted vocabulary from Arabic to enable a precise understanding of Islam's religious and philosophical foundations. Islam thus had to be translated into Chinese, which lacks words and arguments to justify monotheism, exclusivity, and other features of this Middle Eastern religion. Even in the 21st century, Muslims who are culturally Chinese must still justify their devotion to a single God, avoidance of pork, and their communities' distinctiveness, among other things, to sceptical non-Muslim neighbours and an increasingly intrusive state. ? The essays in this collection narrate the continuing translations and adaptations of Islam and Muslims in Chinese culture and society through the writings of Sino-Muslim intellectuals. Progressing chronologically and interlocking thematically, they help the reader develop a coherent understanding of the intellectual issues at stake.
Subsistence under Capitalism by
The complex relationship between subsistence practices and formal markets should be a growing matter of concern for those uneasy with the stark contrast between commercial and local food systems, especially since self-provisioning has never been limited to the margins. In fact, subsistence occupies a central space in local and global economies and networks. Bringing together essays from diverse disciplines to reflect on the meaning of subsistence in theory and in practice, in historical and contemporary contexts, in Canada and beyond, Subsistence under Capitalism is a collective study of the ways in which local food systems have been relegated to the shadows by the drive to establish and expand capitalist markets. Considering fishing, farming, and other forms of subsistence provisioning, the essays in this volume document the persistence of these practices despite capitalist government policies that actively seek to subsume them. Presenting viable alternatives to capitalist production and exchange, the contributors explain the critical interplay between politics, local provisioning, and the ultimate survival of society. Illuminating new kinds of engagements with nature and community, Subsistence under Capitalism looks behind the scenes of subsistence food provisioning to challenge the dominant economic paradigm of the modern world.
Muslim Youth and the 9/11 Generation by
A new cohort of Muslim youth has arisen since the attacks of 9/11, facilitated by the proliferation of recent communication technologies and the Internet. By focusing on these young people as a heterogeneous global cohort, the contributors to this volume'who draw from a variety of disciplines'show how the study of Muslim youth at this particular historical juncture is relevant to thinking about the anthropology of youth, the anthropology of Islamic and Muslim societies, and the post-9/11 world more generally. These scholars focus on young Muslims in a variety of settings in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America and explore the distinct pastimes and performances, processes of civic engagement and political action, entrepreneurial and consumption practices, forms of self-fashioning, and aspirations and struggles in which they engage as they seek to understand their place and make their way in a transformed world.
Ghostly Encounters by
"In the top corner of the window a pale, milky-white wisp is rising almost to the top of our ten-foot ceiling.... I am startled but not afraid.... Mostly, I am engrossed; I have never seen anything like this before (or since) and it fascinates me." Dennis Waskul writes these lines--about his first-hand experience with the supernatural--in the introduction to his beguiling book Ghostly Encounters. Based on two years of fieldwork and interviews with 71 midwestern Americans, the Waskuls' book is a reflexive ethnography that examines how people experience ghosts and hauntings in everyday life. The authors explore how uncanny happenings become ghosts, and the reasons people struggle with or against a will to believe. They present the variety and character of hauntings and ghostly encounters, outcomes of people telling haunted legends, and the nested consequences of ghostly experiences. Through these stories, Ghostly Encounters seeks to understand the persistence of uncanny experiences and beliefs in ghosts in an age of reason, science, education, and technology--as well as how those beliefs and experiences both reflect and serve important social and cultural functions.
Marriage by Force? by
With forced marriage, as with so many human rights issues, the spectacular hides the mundane, and oversimplified popular discourse misses the range of experiences. In sub-Saharan Africa, the relationship between coercion and consent in marriage is a complex one that has changed over time and place, rendering impossible any single interpretation or explanation.The legal experts, anthropologists, historians, and development workers contributing to Marriage by Force? focus on the role that marriage plays in the mobilization of labor, the accumulation of wealth, and domination versus dependency. They also address the crucial slippage between marriages and other forms of gendered violence, bondage, slavery, and servile status.Only by examining variations in practices from a multitude of perspectives can we properly contextualize the problem and its consequences. And while early and forced marriages have been on the human rights agenda for decades, there is today an unprecedented level of international attention to the issue, thus making the coherent, multifaceted approach of Marriage by Force? even more necessary.
Evocative Autoethnography by
This comprehensive text is the first to introduce evocative autoethnography as a methodology and a way of life in the human sciences. Using numerous examples from their work and others, world-renowned scholars Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis, originators of the method, emphasize how to connect intellectually and emotionally to the lives of readers throughout the challenging process of representing lived experiences. Written as the story of a fictional workshop, based on many similar sessions led by the authors, it incorporates group discussions, common questions, and workshop handouts. The book: describes the history, development, and purposes of evocative storytelling; provides detailed instruction on becoming a story-writer and living a writing life; examines fundamental ethical issues, dilemmas, and responsibilities; illustrates ways ethnography intersects with autoethnography; calls attention to how truth and memory figure into the works and lives of evocative autoethnographers.
Roma : modern American gypsies by 
Mapping Feminist Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century by
Feminist anthropology emerged in the 1970s as a much-needed corrective to the discipline's androcentric biases. Far from being a marginalized subfield, it has been at the forefront of developments that have revolutionized not only anthropology, but also a host of other disciplines. This landmark collection of essays provides a contemporary overview of feminist anthropology's historical and theoretical origins, the transformations it has undergone, and the vital contributions it continues to make to cutting-edge scholarship. Mapping Feminist Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century brings together a variety of contributors, giving a voice to both younger researchers and pioneering scholars who offer insider perspectives on the field's foundational moments. Some chapters reveal how the rise of feminist anthropology shaped--and was shaped by--the emergence of fields like women's studies, black and Latina studies, and LGBTQ studies. Others consider how feminist anthropologists are helping to frame the direction of developing disciplines like masculinity studies, affect theory, and science and technology studies. Spanning the globe--from India to Canada, from Vietnam to Peru--Mapping Feminist Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century reveals the important role that feminist anthropologists have played in worldwide campaigns against human rights abuses, domestic violence, and environmental degradation. It also celebrates the work they have done closer to home, helping to explode the developed world's preconceptions about sex, gender, and sexuality.
Making Health Public by
This book examines the relationship between media and medicine, considering the fundamental role of news coverage in constructing wider cultural understandings of health and disease. The authors advance the notion of 'biomediatization' and demonstrate how health knowledge is co-produced through connections between dispersed sites and forms of expertise. The chapters offer an innovative combination of media content analysis and ethnographic data on the production and circulation of health news, drawing on work with journalists, clinicians, health officials, medical researchers, marketers, and audiences. The volume provides students and scholars with unique insight into the significance and complexity of what health news does and how it is created.
Base encounters : the US Armed Forces in South Korea by
Base Encounters explores the social friction that US bases have caused in South Korea, where the entertainment districts next to American military installations have come under much scrutiny.The Korean peninsula is one of the most heavily militarised regions in the world and the conflict between the North and South is continually exacerbated by the presence of nearly 30,000 US soldiers in the area. Crimes committed in GI entertainment areas have been amplified by an outraged public as both a symbol for, and a symptom of, the uneven relationship between the United States and the small East Asian nation.Elisabeth Schober's ethnographic history scrutinises these controversial zones in and near Seoul. Sharing the lives of soldiers, female entertainers and anti-base activists, she gives a comprehensive introduction to the social, economic and political factors that have contributed to the tensions over US bases in South Korea.
Digital Giza by
The Pyramids on the Giza Plateau represent perhaps the most famous archaeological site in the world, capturing on tomb walls frozen moments from almost every aspect of life in ancient Egypt. This book, by one of the foremost experts on the history of Giza, explores new approaches to #65533;eoecataloging#65533;e the site, highlighting efforts at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Harvard University. The site experienced its first #65533;eoegolden age#65533;e as the burial place of three pharaohs of the Egyptian Old Kingdom (Dynasty 4, ca. 2640#65533;e"2510 BCE). A second golden age came almost five millennia later, when the first modern excavators applied their newly devised archaeological craft to the Giza Plateau. Now, with the advent of many new technologies in the twenty-first century, the Giza Necropolis is available in two, three, and even four dimensions. Children and specialized scholars alike may study the material culture of this ancient civilization from afar, often with greater access than could be achieved in person. However, these new approaches do raise questions: Does 3-D modeling and animation truly improve scholarly comprehension and interpretation? Can interacting with animations still be called scholarship? Where is the border between academic knowledge and mere entertainment? Through specific case studies and an in-depth history of this important project, Peter Der Manuelian provides an excellent model for other digital visualization initiatives. He also offers more general philosophical reflection on the nature of visualization in archaeology and speculates about emerging technologies and how they may be useful in the future.
Placing Outer Space by
In Placing Outer Space Lisa Messeri traces how the place-making practices of planetary scientists transform the void of space into a cosmos filled with worlds that can be known and explored. Making planets into places is central to the daily practices and professional identities of the astronomers, geologists, and computer scientists Messeri studies. She takes readers to the Mars Desert Research Station and a NASA research center to discuss ways scientists experience and map Mars. At a Chilean observatory and in MIT's labs she describes how they discover exoplanets and envision what it would be like to inhabit them. Today's planetary science reveals the universe as densely inhabited by evocative worlds, which in turn tells us more about Earth, ourselves, and our place in the universe.
Doing Time with Nehru by
It's midnight and there are fists pounding on the door. Authoritative voices shouting, "We're coming in! Get on the floor!" A few terrorized minutes later a family member is dragged out by armed men, disappearing into the night. This scenario is the greatest fear of many twentieth-century families--and to the unlucky, it's a lived reality. For the ethnic Chinese who had been settled in Northern India for many years, 1962 was filled with moments of terror like these. After the Sino-Indian Border War broke out in 1962, on the authorization of Prime Minister Nehru more than two thousand Chinese-Indians were torn from their homes and placed in local jails before being transported more than one thousand miles to the Deoli internment camp in the Rajasthan desert. Born in Calcutta in 1949 and raised in Darjeeling, Yin Marsh was just thirteen years old when first her father was taken and then she, her grandmother, and eight year old brother were forcibly removed from their home and thrown first into Darjeeling Jail. Upon arrival in Deoli, Yin and her family were assigned to the same bungalow where Prime Minister Nehru himself had done time during India's war for independence. Eventually released, Yin emigrated to America with her mother. She attended college, married, and raised her own family, all without telling the story of her emotional trauma. It wasn't until her own college-age daughter began to ask questions and when a friend's wedding would require her to return to her homeland that Yin was finally able to face what had happened to her and her family. In the fascinating memoir Doing Time with Nehru, the little-known history of how the Chinese were treated in post-Independence India is brought to light and through Yin's story, readers can glimpse the hardship, cruelty, and harsh lessons required for survival.