Best of
Anthropology

1985

The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World


Elaine Scarry - 1985
    The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies and cultural forces--literary, political, philosophical, medical, religious--that confront it. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger, She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain enormously difficult to describe in words--confronted with it, Virginia Woolf once noted, "language runs dry"--it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme instances to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry analyzes the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of torture and warfare, and shows how to be fictive. From these actions of "unmaking" Scarry turns finally to the actions of "making"--the examples of artistic and cultural creation that work against pain and the debased uses that are made of it. Challenging and inventive, The Body in Pain is landmark work that promises to spark widespread debate.

Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance


James C. Scott - 1985
    Anderson, Cornell University"The book is a splendid achievement. Because Scott listens closely to the villagers of Malaysia, he enormously expands our understanding of popular ideology and therefore of popular politics. And because he is also a brilliant analyst, he draws upon this concrete experience to develop a new critique of classical theories of ideology."—Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center of the City University of New York“An impressive work which may well become a classic.”—Terence J. Byres, Times Literary Supplement“A highly readable, contextually sensitive, theoretically astute ethnography of a moral system in change…. Weapons of the Weak is a brilliant book, combining a sure feel for the subjective side of struggle with a deft handling of economic and political trends.”—John R. Bown, Journal of Peasant Studies“A splendid book, a worthy addition to the classic studies of Malay society and of the peasantry at large…. Combines the readability of Akenfield or Pig Earth with an accessible and illuminating theoretical commentary.”—A.F. Robertson, Times Higher Education Supplement“No one who wants to understand peasant society, in or out of Southeast Asia, or theories of change, should fail to read [this book].”—Daniel S. Lev, Journal of Asian Studies“A moving account of the poor’s refusal to accept the terms of their subordination…. Disposes of the belief that theoretical sophistication and intelligible prose are somehow at odds.”—Ramachandra Guha, Economic and Political Weekly“A seminally important commentary on the state of peasant studies and the global literature…. This enormously rich work in Asian and comparative studies is… an essential contribution to participatory development theory and practice.”—Guy Gran, World DevelopmentJames C. Scott is professor of political science at Yale University.

Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains


Donald J. Ortner - 1985
    There is much that ancient skeletal remains can reveal to the modern orthopaedist, pathologist, forensic anthropologist, and radiologist about the skeletal manifestations of diseases that are rarely encountered in modern medical practice. Beautifully illustrated with over 1,100 photographs and drawings, this book provides essential text and materials on bone pathology, which will improve the diagnostic ability of those interested in human dry bone pathology. It also provides time depth to our understanding of the effect of disease on past human populations.

Philosophical Papers: Volume 2, Philosophy and the Human Sciences


Charles Taylor - 1985
    A selection of his published papers is presented here in two volumes, structured to indicate the direction and essential unity of the work. He starts from a polemical concern with behaviourism and other reductionist theories (particularly in psychology and the philosophy of language) which aim to model the study of man on the natural sciences. This leads to a general critique of naturalism, its historical development and its importance for modern culture and consciousness; and that in turn points, forward to a positive account of human agency and the self, the constitutive role of language and value, and the scope of practical reason. The volumes jointly present some two decades of work on these fundamental themes, and convey strongly the tenacity, verve and versatility of the author in grappling with them. They will interest a very wide range of philosophers and students of the human sciences.

Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary Between Wilderness and Civilization


Hans Peter Duerr - 1985
    Outside of that form of life is the 'wilderness': the outer wilderness of untamed nature and the inner psychological wilderness of areas of personality hidden in everyday life. Only by stepping outside his culture can man understand his cultural self. Only by experiencing the wilderness outside our normal system of living can we understand what we are as civilised beings within our form of life. He suggests that primitive peoples have a better understanding than modern scientific man of this need to step outside the cultural order in order to understand what is inside it.

Social Evolution


Robert Trivers - 1985
    Book by Trivers, Robert

A Poison Stronger than Love: The Destruction of an Ojibwa Community


Anastasia M. Shkilnyk - 1985
    The only thing I know is that alcohol is a stronger power than the love of children. It’s a poison, and we are a broken people. We suffer enough inside, and therefore we understand each other.”—Resident of Grassy Narrows "A work of luminous compassion and rigorous analysis. . . . Should be required reading . . . for anyone interested in the bonds of community that make people human." —M.T.  Kelly, Toronto Globe and Mail Grassy Narrows is a small Ojibwa village in northwestern Ontario, Canada. It first captured national attention in 1970, when mercury pollution was discovered in the adjacent English-Wabigoon River. In the course of the assessment of environmental damage, an even more compelling tragedy came to light. For in little more than a decade, the Indian people had begun to self-destruct. This powerful book documents the human costs of massive and extraordinarily rapid change in a people’s way of life. When well-intentioned bureaucrats relocated the Grassy Narrows band to a new reserve in 1963, the results were the unraveling of the tribe’s social fabric and a sharp deterioration in their personal morale – dramatically reflected in Shkilnyk’s statistics on violent death, illness, and family breakdown. The book explores the origins and causes of the suffering in the community life and describes the devastating impacts of mercury contamination on the health and livelihood of the Indian people. In essence, this is an in-depth and comprehensive study of the forces and pressures that can rend a community apart. As such it is of interest not only to those particularly concerned with the fate of aboriginal peoples on the continent but also to those more broadly concerned with human collective response to unprecedented stress.

The Death And Resurrection Show: From Shaman To Superstar


Rogan P. Taylor - 1985
    Plausible, goofy, gender-swap-friendly guff about continuities between ancient healers and modern theatre.

Pandaemonium, 1660-1886: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers


Humphrey Jennings - 1985
    The extracts are taken from diaries, letters, scientific reports and literature. Each piece sheds light on those that come before and after, as it measures how the human imagination experienced the Industrial Revolution.

Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture


Marvin Harris - 1985
    He explains the diversity of the world's gastronomic customs, demonstrating that what appear at first glance to be irrational food tastes turn out really to have been shaped by practical, or economic, or political necessity. In addition, his smart and spirited treatment sheds wisdom on such topics as why there has been an explosion in fast food, why history indicates that it's "bad" to eat people but "good" to kill them, and why children universally reject spinach. Good to Eat is more than an intellectual adventure in food for thought. It is a highly readable, scientifically accurate, and fascinating work that demystifies the causes of myriad human cultural differences.

Imagery in Healing: Shamanism and Modern Medicine


Jeanne Achterberg - 1985
    In Imagery in Healing, Jeanne Achterberg brings together modern scientific research and the practices of the earliest healers to support her claim that imagery is the world's oldest and most powerful healing resource. The book has become a classic in the field of alternative medicine and continues to be read by new generations of health care professionals and lay people. In Imagery in Healing, Achterberg explores in detail the role of the imagination in the healing process. She begins with an exploration of the tradition of shamanism, "the medicine of the imagination," surveying this time-honored way of touching the nexus of the mind, body, and soul. She then traces the history of the use of imagery within Western medicine, including a look at contemporary examples of how health care professionals have drawn on the power of the imagination through such methods as hypnosis, biofeedback, and the placebo effect. Ultimately, Achterberg looks to the science of immunology to uncover the most effective ground for visualization, and she presents data demonstrating how imagery can have a direct and profound impact on the workings of the immune system. Drawing on art, science, history, anthropology, and medicine, Imagery in Healing offers a highly readable overview of the profound and complex relationship between the imagination and the body.

Truth of a Hopi


Edmund Nequatewa - 1985
    The bulk of this book--by far the most valuable section--covers the historical legends of the Hopi, from a Hopi viewpoint. The Hopi 'theory' (Nequatewa's word) was that the 'Bahana' (the white people) emerged from the under-world alongside the Hopi, and went off in search of the truth. Someday they would return and live in harmony with the Hopi, bringing wisdom and great abundance.

Kitchi Gami: Life Among The Lake Superior Ojibway


Johann Georg Kohl - 1985
    During his visit with the Lake Superior Ojibwa in 1855, he made useful and unbiased studies of their material culture, religion, and folklore. . . . The extent of Kohl's observations is really amazing. They cover the fur trade, canoe building, domestic utensils, quillwork, native foods, hunting, fishing, trapping, cooking, toboggans, snowshoes, gardening, lodge building, games and warfare."--Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly

Rio Tigre & Beyond: The Amazon Jungle Medicine of Manuel Córdova-Rios


Frank Bruce Lamb - 1985
    Bruce Lamb’s Rio Tigre and Beyond recounts an unparalleled Amazonian adventure, completing the life story of Manuel Córdova Rios who at the beginning of the 20th century was abducted by Native American tribals to be trained as their new shaman. Here he remembers the rest of his life, a series of missions and adventures guided by his pre-Columbian training but in the context of the upper Amazonian Peruvian river city of Iquitos, in a world intricately changed by its millennial contact with the imported Columbian civilization.

Anthropological Insights for Missionaries


Paul G. Hiebert - 1985
    Expert anthropologist shows missionaries how to better understand the people they serve and their historical and cultural settings.

The Vermilion Bird: T'ang Images of the South


Edward H. Schafer - 1985
    The Vermilion Bird attempts to recover the actual character of the monsoon realms of T'ang-a scattering of palisaded garrisons, isolated monasteries, and commercial towns, all surrounded by dark, haunted woods. Professor Schafer examines the thoughts, emotions, imaginations, and daily lives of the men of that era, through the medium of their literature, for evidence of the changes inspired by this new environment, and especially for signs of the transformation of the ancient symbol of the South, the sacred vermilion bird. The Journal of Asian Studies called this book: A work of immense and devoted scholarship, a mine of fascinating information, a delight to read, and an indispensable work of reference on Medieval China.

The New World


Frederick Turner - 1985
    2376.Originally published in 1985.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Kirch Feathered Gods and Fishhooks


Patrick Vinton Kirch - 1985
    It presents a balanced cultural history of the Hawaiian group of islands, from the first Polynesian settlement to the time of European contact and is grounded in the archaeological evidence.

Revolution in Psychiatry: The New Understanding of Man


Ernest Becker - 1985
    

The Language of the Birds: Tales, Texts, & Poems of Interspecies Communication


David M. Guss - 1985
    

Testament to the Bushmen


Laurens van der Post - 1985
    

The Genius of the Few: The Story of Those Who Founded the Garden in Eden


Christian O'Brien - 1985
    The Genius of the Few continues the work described in the author's earlier book - The Megalithic Odyssey - and carries the prehistorical research back to 8000 BC, when a group of Sages, known to the Sumerians as "Anannage" and to the early people of the Middle East as the 'shining ones' settled into a fertile basin within the mountains of Southern Lebanon.

Control Theory


William Glasser - 1985
    The widely respected psychology and education author reveals his most important self-help theory since his bestselling "Reality Therapy." "I can imagine no more useful advice."--Norman Cousins

Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii


Valerio Valeri - 1985
    As the sacrifice is performed, the worshipper is incorporated into the god of his class. Thus he draws on divine power to sustain the social order of which his action is a part, and in which his own place is determined by the degree of his resemblance to his god. The key to Hawaiian society—and a central focus for Valeri—is the complex and encompassing sacrificial ritual that is the responsibility of the king, for it displays in concrete actions all the concepts of pre-Western Hawaiian society. By interpreting and understanding this ritual cycle, Valeri contends, we can interpret all of Hawaiian religious culture.

The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries


Piers M. Blaikie - 1985
    Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Killing the Shamen


Chief Thomas Fiddler - 1985
    Soon to be a major motion picture.Charged with murder was old Jack Fiddler, a shaman and leader of the Sucker clan from the upper Severn river in what is now northwestern Ontario. Joseph Fiddler, Jack's younger brother, was also charged. Their alleged crime was the killing of a possessed woman who had turned into the dreaded windigo.One of the most unusual cases in the history of Canadian jurisprudence commenced in Norway House, Manitoba, in the fall of 1907. Killing the Shamen is the true and fascinating account of the events that lead up to the "murder," the trial, and the aftermath. The present work is one volume in a trilogy of Sandy Lake stories, including Sacred Legends and Legends from the Forest.

The Category Of The Person


Michael Carrithers - 1985
    Yet the way in which the category of the person is conceived varies over time and space. In this volume, anthropologists, philosophers, and historians examine the notion of the person in different cultures, past and present. Taking as their starting point a lecture on the person as a category of the human mind, given by Marcel Mauss in 1938, the contributors critically assess Mauss's speculation that notions of the person, rather than being primarily philosophical or psychological, have a complex social and ideological origin. Discussing societies ranging from ancient Greece, India, and China to modern Africa and Papua New Guinea, they provide fascinating descriptions of how these different cultures define the person. But they also raise deeper theoretical issues: What is universally constant and what is culturally variable in people's thinking about the person? How can these variations be explained? Has there been a general progressive development toward the modern Western view of the person? What is distinctive about this? How do one's notions of the person inform one's ability to comprehend alternative formulations? These questions are of compelling interest for a wide range of anthropologists, philosophers, historians, psychologists, sociologists, orientalists, and classicists. The book will appeal to any reader concerned with understanding one of the most fundamental aspects of human existence.

The Politics of Production: Factory Regimes Under Capitalism and Socialism


Michael Burawoy - 1985
    

Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind


Julian Jaynes - 1985
    

The Human Animal


Phil Donahue - 1985
    The human animal

Animal Behaviour: Psychobiology, Ethology and Evolution


David McFarland - 1985
    The comprehensive text integrates the three main areas of animal behaviour: the evolution of animal behaviour; mechanisms of behaviour; and understanding complex behaviour. This third edition features new sections on behavioural ecology, human ethology and animal robotics and includes revised sections on decision-making, evolutionary optimality, foraging, hormones, imprinting, navigation, visual recognition and animal welfare. Each chapter includes revision aids such as boxed examples and points to remember.

Culture and the Evolutionary Process


Robert Boyd - 1985
    Using methods developed by population biologists, they propose a theory of cultural evolution that is an original and fair-minded alternative to the sociobiology debate.

The Human Polity: A Comparative Introduction to Political Science


Kay Lawson - 1985
    The text takes a broader look at globalization and the role of non-governmental actors, such as multinational corporations and transnational organizations like the U.N.

Sex and Friendship in Baboons


Barbara Smuts - 1985
    In fact, some of the most sophisticated and influential observation methods for sampling vertebrate social behavior grew out of baboon studies, invented by scientists who were trying to cope with the intricacies of baboon behavior. Barbara Smuts' eloquent study of baboons reveals a new depth to their behavior and extends the theories needed to account for it.While adhering to the most scrupulous methodological strictures, the author maintains an open research strategy--respecting her subjects by approaching them with the open mind of an ethnographer and immersing herself in the complexities of baboon social life before formulating her research design, allowing her to detect and document a new level of subtlety in their behavior. At the Gilgil site, described in this book, she could stroll and sit within a few feet of her subjects. By maintaining such proximity she was able to watch and listen to intimate exchanges within the troop; she was able, in other words, to shift the baboons well along the continuum from subject to informant. By doing so she has illuminated new networks of special relationships in baboons. This empirical contribution accompanies theoretical insights that not only help to explain many of the inconsistencies of previous studies but also provide the foundation for a whole new dimension in the study of primate behavior: analysis oft he dynamics of long-term, intimate relationships and their evolutionary significance.At every stage of research human observers have underestimated the baboon. These intelligent, curious, emotional, and long-lived creatures are capable of employing stratagems and forming relationships that are not easily detected by traditional research methods. In the process of unraveling their complex social relationships, Smuts has revealed that these masters of strategy and aggressive competition are equally capable of patience, tenderness, and concern.

Job: The Victim of His People


René Girard - 1985
    The hero complains endlessly. He has just lost his children all his livestock. He scratches his ulcers. The misfortunes of which he complains are all duly enumerated in the prologue. They are misfortunes brought on him by Satan with God's permission.We think we know, but are we sure? Not once in the Dialogues does Job mention either Satan or anything about his misdeeds. Could it be that they are too much on his mind for him to mention them?Possibly, yet Job mentions everything else, and does much more than mention. He dwells heavily on the cause of his misfortune, which is none of those mentioned in the prologue. The cause is not divine, satanic nor physical, but merely human.

Between Theater and Anthropology


Richard Schechner - 1985
    The way performances are created--in training, workshops, and rehearsals--is the key paradigm for social process.

Women's Folklore, Women's Culture


Rosan A. Jordan - 1985
    Long ignored, women's folklore is often collaborative and frequently is enacted in the privacy of the domestic sphere. This book provides insights balancing traditional folklore scholarship. All of the authors also explore the relationship between make and female views and worlds.The book begins with the private world of women, performances within the intimacy of family and fields; it then studies women's folklore in the public arena; finally, the book looks at the interrelationships between public and private arenas and between male and female activities.By turning our attention to previously ignored women's realms, these essays provide a new perspective from which to view human culture as a whole and make Women's Folklore, Women's Culture a significant addition to folklore scholarship

Arctic World


Fred Bruemmer - 1985
    

Space, Text, and Gender: An Anthropological Study of the Marakwet of Kenya


Henrietta L. Moore - 1985
    Henrietta Moore focuses on the relationship between the organization of household space and gender relations, showing how that relation shifts due to changing social and economic conditions, including such factors as wage labor and education. This updated edition contains a new foreword and afterword in which Moore relates her work to more recent developments around gender, resistance, difference, and spatiality.

Village Journey: The Report of the Alaska Native Review Commission


Thomas R. Berger - 1985
    

The Spellbinders: Charismatic Political Leadership


Ann Ruth Willner - 1985
    Candidates for President . . . would do well to refer to it. Ordinary citizens would do even better to read it, so they can recognize charismatic appeals that might mislead, as well as lead, our society."-- Bruce Mazlish, The New York Times Book Review"Of exceptional value for social scientists and even administrators, this should also interest educated general readers. Highly recommended."-- David Steiniche, Library Journal"An ingenious and useful book."-- Anatole Broyard, The New York Times"A book of impeccable scholarly quality and of immensely rich and even exciting material."-- James MacGregor Burns, Williams College"The book should be of wide interest, especially to those political leaders – many of them in the Third World – who see themselves as charismatic merely because they have acquired power."-- T. J. S. George, Asiaweek

Tellico Archaeology Rev Ed: 12000 Years Native American History


Jefferson Chapman - 1985
    For fourteen years (1967–1981), archaeologists from the University of Tennessee conducted excavations and surveys in the Little Tennessee River Valley, which was being inundated by the TVA's creation of the Tellico Reservoir. The project produced a wealth of new information about more than 12,000 years of Native American history in the region.  This revision retains the full text and illustrations of the original edition, with its compelling descriptions of ancient ways of life and the archaeological detective work that was done to obtain that knowledge. The new material, contained in a postscript, summarizes the discoveries, research methods, and other developments that have, over the past ten years, further enhanced our knowledge of the Native Americans who occupied the area. Included, for example, are details about some fascinating new techniques for dating human remains, as well as discussions of burial practices, native crops, new archaeological laws, and the "Bat Creek Stone," a controversial artifact that, according to some claims, gives evidence of migrations of Mediterranean peoples to the New World during Roman times.The Author: Jefferson Chapman is director of the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a research associate professor in the department of anthropology.

Vikings of the Sunrise


Peter Henry Buck - 1985
    

The Irish Tinkers: The Urbanization Of An Itinerant People


George Gmelch - 1985
    Gmelch lucidly describes the Tinkers' cityward migration, their adaptation to their new urban environment, and the drive by government and others to settle them. The Tinkers represent a classic case of a small, powerless society struggling to cope with a new lifestyle that threatens to overwhelm them.

Tlingit Tales: Potlatch and Totem Pole


Lorie K. Harris - 1985
    Harris compiled these tales, told by Robert Zuboff, eighty-year-old chief of the Beaver Clan at Angoon, Admiralty Island, who spent hours sharing tribal lore with the children. These tales picture the atmosphere of the Tlingit culture far more vividly than a textbook can. They are meant to instruct, inform, and warn, and as such have been a valuable tool in the education of the Native American for eons of time.

The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname


Wim Hoogbergen - 1985
    They are the descendants of Surinamese slaves who escaped from plantations during the period of slavery. After protracted fighting on Surinamese territory, they finally fled to French Guiana. This is a fascinating account of the genesis of the Boni- Maroons and their continuous warfare against the white planters and their colonial armies. The works that have been published on the Boni-Maroons, for instance John Gabriel Stedman's famous 'Narrative' from 1796, represent only fragments of the Boni-history. Wim Hoogbergen's book is a successful attempt to paint an overall picture of this interesting Maroon-history. The author combed the archives of The Netherlands, France and Surinam in search of data referring to the Boni-Maroons from their origins until 1860, with astonishing results.