His aim is to account for the evolution of cultural forms as Darwin accounted for the evolution of biological forms: to show how cultures adopt their characteristic forms in response to changing ecological modes."[A] magisterial interpretation of the rise and fall of human cultures and societies."-- Robert Lekachman, Washington Post Book World"Its persuasive arguments asserting the primacy of cultural rather than genetic or psychological factors in human life deserve the widest possible audience."-- Gloria Levitas The New Leader"[An] original and...urgent theory about the nature of man and at the reason that human cultures take so many diverse shapes."-- The New Yorker"Lively and controversial."-- I. Bernard Cohen, front page, The New York Times Book Review

    Discusses the evolution of prehistoric ape-like creatures into human beings, theorizing that the key to this transformation was the ability to share & cooperate in a social context.

    Desmond Morris shows us how people, consciously and unconsciously, signal their attitudes, desires and innermost feelings with their bodies and actions, often more powerfully than with their words.

    For him, tribal societies are not Rousseauist in essence; to the contrary, they practice systematic violence in order to prevent the rise in their midst of this "cold monster" the state. Only by waging war with other tribes can they maintain the dispersion and autonomy of each group. In the same way, tribal chiefs are not all-powerful; to the contrary, they are rendered weak in order to remain dependent on the community. In a series of groundbreaking essays, Clastres turns around the analysis of power among South American Indians and rehabilitates violence as an affirmative act meant to protect the integrity of their societies. These "savages" are shrewd political minds who resist in advance any attempt at "globalization."

    As it unfolds under the reader's eyes, there emerges from it the vision of one universsal order that rises above the underlying chaos in which our lives are still so largely immersed. By bringing together in one perspective the physical universe, the evolution of life within it, the emergence of mind, and the fruits of mind's creativity, Halle reveals, step by step, what presents itself at last as a seamless whole. We see how order arises out of the fundamental chaos represented by the Uncertainty Principle in physics, or by the "Extended Uncertainty Principle" that applies to all aspects of being."

    In each case Rudofsky brings to his subject a singular blend of erudition, wit, and insight that makes the exotic seem logical and the commonplace bizarre.In his extensive travels over the better part of a century, the author has found universal evidence of man’s irrepressible impulse to reveal, through what he builds, his multifaceted nature – and of modern society’s equally compulsive tendency to subvert it.Rudofsky’s cogent arguments are amply documented with over 100 of his unparalleled photographs, in addition to many more rare engravings and other illustrations. The total effect is to expand far beyond dictionary definitions our concepts of both architecture and the human spirit.

    The journal is filled with his work, dreams, memories of his youth, stories of his travels, the reflections of each day.

    This brilliant Swiss psychiatrist (famous for his book Power in the Helping Professions and his expertise on psychopathy) examines marriage against the background of individuals and their search for soul, thereby questioning and radicalizing our controversial notions of what constitutes a happy marriage, or even if happiness in a marriage is necessary to be successful.

    Of all the important centers of prehistoric Anasazi culture, only this magnificent canyon shows an unbroken record of settlement for more than 1,000 years. In this liberally illustrated book, rock art authority Campbell Grant examines four aspects of the spectacular canyon: its physical characteristics, its history of human habitation, its explorers and archaeologists, and its countless rock paintings and petroglyphs. Grant surveys 96 sites in the two main canyons and offers an interpretation of the rock art found there.

    New poems, published posthumously, by the distinguished anthropologist, naturalist, and poet reaffirm the unity of Creation, the importance of all living beings, and the wonders of ancient civilizations.

    The result is one of the most unique and beautiful histories ever written about rural America. This edition features a new introduction by the author.

    

    Volume 1 of a four volume study of the national and local festivals of Scotland.

    Studies Navajo culture as reflected in its art and use of language

    Written over a period of half a century, these letters to friends, family, and colleagues detail her first fieldwork in Samoa and go on to record her now famous anthropological endeavors in mainland New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and Bali. Enhanced by photographs, these intelligent, vivid, frequently funny, and often poetic letters tell us much about Mead's passion for and understanding of preliterate cultures. But they are equally valuable as a fundamental text on the science -- and art -- of anthropology. This edition, prepared for the centennial of Mead's birth, features introductions by Jan Morris and Mead's daughter. Mary Catherine Bateson.

    Ong offers a reasoned and sophisticated view of human consciousness different in many respects from that of structuralism. The essays in Interfaces of the Word are grouped around the dialectically related themes of change or alienation and growth or integration. Among the subjects Ong covers are the origins of speech in mother tongues; the rise and final erosion of nonvernacular learned languages; and the fictionalizing of audiences that is enforced by writing. Other essays treat the idiom of African talking drums, the ways new media interface with the old, and the various connections between specific literary forms and shifts in media that register in the work of Shakespeare and Milton and in movements such as the New Criticism. Ong also discusses the paradoxically nonliterary character of the Bible and the concerted blurring of fiction and actuality that marked much drama and narrative toward the close of the twentieth century.

    

    government to eliminate tribal societies. Treating continuity and change as two aspects of the same phenomenon, it focuses on the nature of the uniquely Oglala values that persist, their modes of cultural expression, and the processes by which they are replicated.

    

    and Canadian universities.

    

    

    Unlike previous works, this book takes a broad comparative view and considers oral poetry from Africa, Asia and Oceania as well as Europe and America. Dr Finnegan includes in her argument the results of topical research from all over the world, thus illuminating and suggesting fresh conclusions to many controversies: the nature of 'oral tradition'; possible connections between types of poetry and types of society; the differences between oral and written communication; and the role of poets in non-literate societies.

    The people devised ingenious ways of catching the different species of fish, creating a technology vastly different from that of today's industrial world. With attention to clarity and detail, Hilary Stewart illustates their hooks, lines, sinkers, lures, floats, clubs, spears, harpoons, nets, traps, rakes, and gaffs, showing how these were made and used-in over 450 drawings and 75 photographs. She has gathered material from major museums and from the old people in coastal villages and fish camps. One section demonstrates how the catch was butchered, cooked, rendered, and preserved. The spiritual aspects of fishing are described as well--prayers and ceremonies in gratitude and honour to the fish, customs and taboos indicating the people's respect for this life-giving resource. The fish designs on household and ceremonial objects are depicted--images that tell of fishing's importance to the whole culture.

    So concludes the author of this book, a general introduction to the anthropology of dance. Since anthropology has broadened its horizons to include Western, industrialised and urban societies, the study of dance culture may, with equal legitimacy, observe ballet, the Hawaiian hula, the classical tradition of Bharata Natyam, the pigeon wings and polkas of the Californian gold rush miners, and the minuets of colonial Virginia planters. Dance makes its unique contribution to society and culture by virtue of its form and expression; at the same time it is intimately bound up with elements of religion, kinship and social organisation, politics and economics. The fact that dance is inseparable from its means of expression - the human body making patterns in time and space - means that it cannot be divorced from its social and cultural context.

    

    Many of the selections have been translated by the editors from Arabic, Persian, or French; they not only represent real women from a wide range of occupations, points of view, and socioeconomic status, but also touch on major themes in the contemporary Muslim world.

    Paper enabled the Maya to perfect their calendar, which aided them in planning agricultural development. Paper also enabled them to improve their hieroglyphic writing, enhancing their oral traditions, and it helped them to plan and construct their extraordinary temples and palaces. For centuries, however, little was known about how the art of papermaking evolved in the Americas. In this landmark study Victor Wolfgang von Hagen ― a noted historian and scholar of paper and papermaking ― traces, for the first time, the development of papermaking among the Aztec and Mayan cultures. Given the scarcity of surviving materials ― of the thousands of paper sheets and paper rolls manufactured by these early craftsmen, only three complete Maya codices have survived ― this achievement is remarkable indeed. Painstakingly researched, the book presents a comprehensive and detailed account of ancient American papermaking, including thorough discussions of the specific processes and materials used. Along the way, von Hagen reveals a wealth of little-known facts uncovered in the course of his prodigious research in the field and elsewhere. The resulting work was so highly regarded it was chosen by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the fifty best books of 1944. Complete with extensive editorial apparatus including an introduction, appendix, notes, and bibliography, this extraordinary study also contains six illustrations and 81 photographs that help to tell the fascinating story of papermaking in the Americas. The Aztec and Maya Papermakers is an essential addition to the libraries of historians, anthropologists, and students of paper or papermaking.

    

    More than a mere roll-call of remarkable recipes, this book provides a feast of insights into the varied phenomena of intercultural cuisine from an anthropological point of view, ranging from an examination of the significance of special dishes through general discussions about the preparation of food in different cultures, to an analysis of the symbolic and structural significance of food and eating.