Best of
Anthropology
1992
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Carl Sagan - 1992
. . A tour de force of a book that begs to be seen as well as to be read."--The Washington Post Book WorldWorld renowned scientist Carl Sagan and acclaimed author Ann Druyan have written a Roots for the human species, a lucid and riveting account of how humans got to be the way we are. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a thrilling saga that starts with the origin of the Earth. It shows with humor and drama that many of our key traits--self-awareness, technology, family ties, submission to authority, hatred for those a little different from ourselves, reason, and ethics--are rooted in the deep past, and illuminated by our kinship with other animals.Sagan and Druyan conduct a breathtaking journey through space and time, zeroing in on critical turning points in evolutionary history, and tracing the origins of sex, altruism, violence, rape, and dominance. Their book culminates in a stunningly original examination of the connection between primate and human traits. Astonishing in its scope, brilliant in its insights, and an absolutely compelling read, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a triumph of popular science.
From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society
Fei Xiaotong - 1992
Written in Chinese from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience, From the Soil describes the contrasting organizational principles of Chinese and Western societies, thereby conveying the essential features of both. Fei shows how these unique features reflect and are reflected in the moral and ethical characters of people in these societies. This profound, challenging book is both succinct and accessible. In its first complete English-language edition, it is likely to have a wide impact on Western social theorists.Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng's translation captures Fei's jargonless, straightforward style of writing. Their introduction describes Fei's education and career as a sociologist, the fate of his writings on and off the Mainland, and the sociological significance of his analysis. The translators' epilogue highlights the social reforms for China that Fei drew from his analysis and advocated in a companion text written in the same period.
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge
Terence McKenna - 1992
Illustrated.
Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil
Nancy Scheper-Hughes - 1992
Bringing her readers to the impoverished slopes above the modern plantation town of Bom Jesus de Mata, where she has worked on and off for 25 years, Nancy Scheper-Hughes follows three generations of shantytown women as they struggle to survive through hard work, cunning and triage. It is a story of class relations told at the most basic level of bodies, emotions, desires and needs. Most disturbing – and controversial – is her finding that mother love, as conventionally understood, is something of a bourgeois myth, a luxury for those who can reasonably expect, as these women cannot, that their infants will live.
Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas
Ronald Wright - 1992
This incisive single-volume report tells the stories of the conquest and survival of five great American cultures — Aztec, Maya, Inca, Cherokee, and Iroquois. Through their eloquent words, we relive their strange, tragic experiences — including, in a new epilogue, incidents that bring us up to the twenty-first century.
AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame
Paul Farmer - 1992
Does the scientific "theory" that HIV came to North America from Haiti stem from underlying attitudes of racism and ethnocentrism in the United States rather than from hard evidence? Anthropologist-physician Paul Farmer answers in the affirmative with this, the first full-length ethnographic study of AIDS in a poor society.
Birth as an American Rite of Passage
Robbie E. Davis-Floyd - 1992
Her new preface to this 2003 edition of a book that has been read, applauded, and loved by women all over the world, makes it clear that the issues surrounding childbirth remain as controversial as ever.
The Sorcerer's Crossing: A Woman's Journey
Taisha Abelar - 1992
This virtual sorcerers' manual is a pioneering work of women's spirituality.
Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire
Wade Davis - 1992
Traveling from the mountains of Tibet to the jungles of the Amazon, Davis delves into the mysteries of shamanic healing, experiences first-hand hallucinogenic plants, explores the vanishing Borneo rain forests, and describes the ingenuity of the Inuit as they hunt narwhale on the Arctic ice. A compelling and utterly unique celebration of the beauty and diversity of our planet, Shadows in the Sun is about landscape and character, the wisdom of lives drawn directly from the land, and the hunger of those who seek to rediscover such understanding. Davis shows that preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is as important as preserving endangered plants and animals--and vital to our understanding of who we are.
An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology
Pierre Bourdieu - 1992
Yet, despite the influence of his work, no single introduction to his wide-ranging oeuvre is available. This book, intended for an English-speaking audience, offers a systematic and accessible overview, providing interpretive keys to the internal logic of Bourdieu's work by explicating thematic and methodological principles underlying his work. The structure of Bourdieu's theory of knowledge, practice, and society is first dissected by Loic Wacquant; he then collaborates with Bourdieu in a dialogue in which they discuss central concepts of Bourdieu's work, confront the main objections and criticisms his work has met, and outline Bourdieu's views of the relation of sociology to philosophy, economics, history, and politics. The final section captures Bourdieu in action in the seminar room as he addresses the topic of how to practice the craft of reflexive sociology. Throughout, they stress Bourdieu's emphasis on reflexivity—his inclusion of a theory of intellectual practice as an integral component of a theory of society—and on method—particularly his manner of posing problems that permits a transfer of knowledge from one area of inquiry into another. Amplified by notes and an extensive bibliography, this synthetic view is essential reading for both students and advanced scholars.
The Paper Canoe: A Guide to Theatre Anthropology
Eugenio Barba - 1992
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Indo-European Poetry and Myth
M.L. West - 1992
Martin West investigates their traditional mythologies, religions, and poetries, and points to elements of common heritage. In The East Face of Helicon (1997), West showed the extent to which Homeric and other early Greek poetry was influenced by Near Eastern traditions, mainly non-Indo-European. His new book presents a foil to that work by identifying elements of more ancient, Indo-European heritage in the Greek material. Topics covered include the status of poets and poetry in Indo-European societies; metre, style, and diction; gods and other supernatural beings, from Father Sky and Mother Earth to the Sun-god and his beautiful daughter, the Thunder-god and other elemental deities, and earthly orders such as Nymphs and Elves; the forms of hymns, prayers, and incantations; conceptions about the world, its origin, mankind, death, and fate; the ideology of fame and of immortalization through poetry; the typology of the king and the hero; the hero as warrior, and the conventions of battle narrative.
The Propensity of Things: Toward a History of Efficacy in China
François Jullien - 1992
Jullien traces its appearance from military strategy to politics, from the aesthetics of calligraphy and painting to the theory of literature, and from reflection on history to "first philosophy."At the point where these various domains intersect, a fundamental intuition, assumed to be self-evident for centuries on end, emerges: namely, that reality -- every kind of reality -- may be perceived as a particular deployment or arrangement of things to be relied upon and worked to one's advantage. Art or wisdom, as conceived by the Chinese, lies in strategically exploiting the propensity that emanates from this particular configuration of reality. Jullien's analysis of shi and his excursion through Chinese culture ultimately deepen our own comprehension of the world of things and renew the impulse to discover the endless pleasures of inquiry.
Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World
David Maybury-Lewis - 1992
He argues that tribal peoples have not tried (& failed) to be like us, but have actually chosen to live differently. By examining the roads they took that we did not, we can get a better insight into the choices we ourselves make, the price we pay for them, & the possibility of modifying them. The book includes full-color photographic essays on the Dogon, Xavante, Aborigines, Makuna, Gabra, Wodaabe, Weyewa, Nyinba, Huichol, & Navajo peoples.
Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World And America
Stephen M. Fjellman - 1992
It's a pedestrian's world, where the streets are clean, the employees are friendly, and the trains run on time. All of its elements are themed, presented in a consistent architectural, decorative, horticultural, musical, even olfactory tone, with rides, shows, restaurants, scenery, and costumed characters coordinated to tell a consistent set of stories. It is beguiling and exasperating, a place of ambivalence and ambiguity. In Vinyl Leaves Professor Fjellman analyzes each ride and theater show of Walt Disney World and discusses the history, political economy, technical infrastructure, and urban planning of the area as well as its relationship with Metropolitan Orlando and the state of Florida.Vinyl Leaves argues that Disney, in pursuit of its own economic interests, acts as the muse for the allied transnational corporations that sponsor it as well as for the world of late capitalism, where the commodity form has colonized much of human life. With brilliant technological legerdemain, Disney puts visitors into cinematically structured stories in which pieces of American and world culture become ideological tokens in arguments in favor of commodification and techno-corporate control. Culture is construed as spirit, colonialism and entrepreneurial violence as exotic zaniness, and the Other as child.Exhaustion and cognitive overload lead visitors into the bliss of Commodity Zen—the characteristic state of postmodern life. While we were watching for Orwell, Huxley rode into town, bringing soma, cable, and charge cards—and wearing mouse ears. This book is the story of our commodity fairyland.
An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
Mary Ellen Miller - 1992
Yet, until now, no single-volume introduction has existed to act as a guide to this labyrinthine symbolic world. In The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya nearly 300 entries, from accession to yoke, describe the main gods and symbols of the Olmecs, Zapotecs, Maya, Teotihuacanos, Mixtecs, Toltecs, and Aztecs. Topics range from jaguar and jester gods to reptile eye and rubber, from creation accounts and sacred places to ritual practices such as bloodletting, confession, dance, and pilgrimage. Two introductory essays provide succinct accounts of Mesoamerican history and religion, while a substantial bibliographical survey directs the reader to original sources and recent discussions. Dictionary entries are illustrated with photographs and specially commissioned line drawings. This authoritative work serves as a standard reference for students, scholars, and travelers.
Shamans, Healers, and Medicine Men
Holger Kalweit - 1992
The author shows that for these extraordinary men and women, healing is not merely the alleviation of symptoms but entails a transformation of one's relationship to life.
Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia
Richard Evans Schultes - 1992
Over 160 documentary photos, some of the most signifi cant ever taken on the subject, bring the reader along a journey to a world in which healing with plants, ritual and magic play an essential role in everyday life. Richard Evans Schultes, former Director of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University, led an extraordinary life that bridged the worlds of academia and tribal cultures. Carrying out extensive fi eld studies since 1939 as an ethnobotanist and conservationist, Schultes has received acclaim from many sources, including the Cross of Boyac�-- Colombia's highest honor, the Tyler Prize for environmental achievement, the Linnean Gold Medal, the highest prize a botanist can receive, and many more.
Imperial Eyes: Studies in Travel Writing and Transculturation
Mary Louise Pratt - 1992
The study of travel writing has, however, tended to remain either naively celebratory, or dismissive, treating texts as symptoms of imperial ideologies.Imperial Eyes explores European travel and exploration writing, in conjunction with European economic and political expansion since 1700. It is both a study in the genre and a critique of an ideology. Pratt examines how travel books by Europeans create the domestic subject of European imperialism, and how they engage metropolitan reading publics with expansionist enterprises whose material benefits accrued mainly to the very few. These questions are addressed through readings of travel accounts connected with particular sentimental historical travel writing. It examines the links with abolitionist rhetoric; discursive reinventions of South America during the period of its independence (1800-1840); and 18th-century European writings on Southern Africa in the context of inland expansion.
A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest
Alex Patterson - 1992
The Field Guide brings together 600 commentaries on specific symbols by over 100 archaeologists, researchers, and Native American informants. Covers the northern states of Mexico to Utah and from California to Colorado.
Framer Framed: Film Scripts and Interviews
Trinh T. Minh-ha - 1992
Framer Framed brings together for the first time the scripts and detailed visuals of three of Trinh Minh-ha's provocative films: Reassemblage, Naked Spaces--Living isRound, and Surname Viet Given Name Nam.
Breaking the Maya Code
Michael D. Coe - 1992
Among the more exciting advances to be described are: the discovery of the specific Maya language and sophisticated grammar used by the ancient scribes on stone monuments and painted vases; archaeological explorations of tombs and buildings of the ancient founders of the great city of Copan, whose very existence had been predicted by epigraphers through glyphic decipherment; the realization that many small city-states were dominated by two rival giants, Tikal and Calakmul, through a potent combination of military conquest, diplomacy, and royal marriages.
Age of the Great Goddess: Ancient Roots of the Emerging Feminine Consciousness
Marija Gimbutas - 1992
On "The Age of the Great Goddess," Marija Gimbutas, Professor Emeritus of Archeology at UCLA, uncovers the rich world of this lost culture, documenting her ideas with a lifetime of research and discovery. The story of the audio session begins in the 1920s, when Marija Gimbutas was a young girl living in Lithuania. Gimbutas was fascinated with the folk tales of the region, where Christianity was introduced relatively late (the 16th century). Many of these stories concerned the "Old Religion" and the Great Goddess--and were passed down as folklore from before the birth of Christ.After training as an archeologist, Gimbutas led five expeditions over three decades to explore the origins of the earliest European religions. What emerged from her life's work is evidence of an advanced culture, based not on weapons and fear, but on the presence of a unique female figure symoblizing a sacred union with all of nature. "The Age of the Great Goddes" describes the dramatic findings of Marija Gimbutas, and her quest for a sacred heritage lost in antiquity.
How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Cherokee Trickster Stories
Gayle Ross - 1992
Like all stories in the oral tradition, the Rabbit stories amuse, entertain, and educate. Full color.
Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity
Néstor García Canclini - 1992
This now-classic work features a new introduction in which Nestor Garcia Canclini calls for a cultural politics to contain the damaging effects of globalization and responds to relevant theoretical developments over the past decade.Garcia Canclini questions whether Latin America can compete in a global marketplace without losing its cultural identity. He moves with ease from the ideas of Gramsci and Foucault to economic analysis, from appraisals of the exchanges between Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges to Chicano film and grafitti. Hybrid Cultures at once clarifies the development of democratic institutions in Latin America and reveals that the most destructive ideological trends are still going strong.
The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions: A Comprehensive Guide to the Spiritual Traditions and Practices of North American Indians
Arlene B. Hirschfelder - 1992
The volume features a foreword written by Walter R. Echo-Hawk, a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, whose legal experience includes cases involving religious freedom and reburial rights. This volume is available in paperback for the first time. Featuring more than 1,200 cross-referenced entries, this encyclopedia is a fascinating guide to the spiritual traditions of Native Americans in the United States and Canada, including coverage of beliefs about the afterlife, symbolism, creation myths, and vision quests; important ceremonies and dances; prominent American Indian religious figures; and events, legislation, and tribal court cases that have shaped the development of Native American religions. Reviews: Praise for the hardcover edition: "...recommended." -Booklist
Managerial Dilemmas: The Political Economy of Hierarchy
Gary J. Miller - 1992
The former stresses the importance of managerial leadership and cooperation among employees, while the latter focuses on the engineering of incentive systems that will induce efficiency, and profitability, by rewarding worker self-interest. In this innovative book, Gary Miller bridges the gap between these literatures. He demonstrates that it is impossible to design an incentive system based on self-interest that will effectively discipline all subordinates and superiors and obviate or overcome the roles of political conflict, collective action, and leadership in an organization. Applying game theory to the analysis of the roles of cooperation and political leadership in organizational hierarchies, he concludes that the organization whose managers can inspire cooperation and the transcendence of short-term interest in its employees enjoys a competitive advantage.
River of Compassion: A Christian Commentary of the Bhagavad Gita
Bede Griffiths - 1992
"One of today's leading spiritual fathers in a world where there are too few". -- Raimundo Pannikar
After Jews And Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture
Ammiel Alcalay - 1992
Besides grounding Middle Eastern literary studies in ongoing theoretical debates, and also serving as a wide-ranging introduction to inaccessible and neglected literature, After Jews and Arabs will compel a revision of Jewish studies by placing contemporary Israeli culture within its Middle Eastern context and the terms of colonial, postcolonial, postcolonial, and multicultural discourse.
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols
Ellen Frankel - 1992
Jews have always studied, interpreted, and revered sacred texts; they have also adorned the settings and occasions of sacred acts. Calligraphy and ornamentation have transformed Hebrew letters into art; quotation, interpretation, legend, and wordplay have made ceremonial objects into narrative. This book represents just such a collaboration between art and language. Ellen Frankel and Betsy Platkin Teutsch, writer and artist, have brought their extensive knowledge and talents together to create The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols, the first reference guide of its kind, designed for use by educators, artists, rabbis, folklorists, feminists, Jewish and non-Jewish scholars, and lay readers.
The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance
M. Annette Jaimes - 1992
Includes, among other topics, treaty rights and international status, self-governance, U.S. repression, spiritual hucksterism, resource development and uranium contamination on reservations, religious freedom, and the implications of the Columbus Quincentenary celebration.
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution
Steve Jones - 1992
Over seventy scholars worldwide have collaborated on the Encyclopedia, which is divided into ten main sections. Following a keynote introduction asking simply What makes us human?, the coverage ranges widely: from genetics, primatology and fossil origins to human biology and ecology, brain function and behavior, and demography and disease. Emphasis is placed throughout on the biological diversity of modern people and the increasing convergence of the fossil and genetic evidence for human evolution that has emerged in recent years. Because of the need to look at humankind in the context of our closest relatives, the Encyclopedia also pays particular attention to the evolution and ecology of the living primates--lemurs, lorises, monkeys and apes. It deals with the evolution and ecology of human society, as reconstructed from archaeological remains, and from studies of indigenous peoples and living primates today. It considers the biology of uniquely human abilities such as language and upright walking, and it reviews the biological future of humankind in the face of challenges greater than those ever before experienced. Boxes highlighting key issues and techniques are provided throughout the text, and there are numerous maps, photographs, diagrams, and ready-reference tables--all the reader needs in a single volume to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of how humankind has developed and how scientists set about investigating the origin of our species.
Samurai Mountie and Cowboy
David Kopel - 1992
Increased violence, gang wars in metropolitan areas, and the prevalence of guns in the United States frequently bring this debate to new crescendos of public concern. How can we find answers that maintain safety while protecting individual liberty? "The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy" offers a compelling look at how other democracies have attempted to solve their own gun problems, and what we can learn from these countries.
The Post-Modern Reader
Charles Jencks - 1992
This book includes: New Culture Theory, Late Modernism as Post-Modernism, Literature, Art, Architecture, Film, Sociology, Politics, Geography, Feminism, Science and Religion.
Jane and Michael Stern's Encyclopedia of Pop Culture: An A to Z Guide of Who's Who and What's What, from Aerobics and Bubble Gum to Valley of the Dolls and Moon Unit Zappa
Jane Stern - 1992
The bestselling author of The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste present their latest work--an encyclopedic overview of American popular culture from World War II to the present. The first and only reference book of its kind. 200 photographs; 50 line drawings.
Sick Societies
Robert B. Edgerton - 1992
He surveys a range of ethnographic writings, and shows that many of these so-called innocent societies were cruel, confused, and misled.
Corn is Our Blood: Culture & Ethnic Identity in a Contemporary Aztec Indian Village
Alan R. Sandstrom - 1992
-- Choice.
Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African Healing
Edith Turner - 1992
Through her analysis, she presents a view not common in anthropological writings--the view of millions of Africans--that ritual is the harnessing of spiritual power.
Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human
Richard E. Leakey - 1992
Richard Leakey's personal account of his fossil hunting and landmark discoveries at Lake Turkana, his reassessment of human prehistory based on new evidence and analytic techniques, and his profound pondering of how we became "human" and what being "human" really means.
Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology
Algirdas Julien Greimas - 1992
He is both storyteller and explicator, deciphering the symbolic world of Lithuanian mythology.This first English translation of Apie Dievus ir zmones is a brilliant convergence of Greimas's historical and folkloric studies. Greimas examines the origins of ancient deities; discusses the concepts of life and death, fate and fortune; looks at codes used by farmers to organize systems of mutual obligations and implicit contracts; examines pranks and games associated with agrarian seasonal changes; and discusses the semantic reconstruction of the names and functions of several deities.Emphasizing the historic dimension of myth analysis, Greimas assembles concepts and deities from scattered texts, integrating them into their Lithuanian cultural context. This study of mythology is his archeology of culture.
Anthropology of Everyday Life
Edward T. Hall - 1992
A delightfully readable odyssey of one of the most original and creative spirits of anthropology." -- Ashley Montagu"An engaging, even charming, intellectual biography." -- "Kirkus Reviews
Braindance: New Discoveries about Human Origins and Brain Evolution
Dean Falk - 1992
Biological anthropologist Dean Falk now brings the discussion into the 21st century. In this revised edition with a new preface and updated information through 2003, she reexamines her groundbreaking research of how the human brain evolved and reveals how this process continues to impact our species. Around two million years ago, our earliest hominin ancestors experienced an explosive brain expansion, at least one million years after they began to walk upright. Rather than linking bipedalism alone with brain expansion, as previously theorized, Falk’s explanation involves climate. She contends that bipedalism allowed our ancestors to wander farther afield in savannah-like regions, where their brains were subjected to solar heating. Falk and her colleagues discovered that one hominin line developed a complicated brain-cooling system to combat the destructive effects of excessive heat. This ability and expanding brain size evolved together, thus producing hominins with a brain capacity three times greater than their ancestors. Falk further discusses the evolution of visual skills, right-handedness, language ability, right-brain/left-brain and male/female differences—and the uniquely human ability to dance. The specifics of how we tapped, toed, and twisted through the prehistoric "brain dance" form the story line of this book. And what did two million years of bigger brains produce? The last chapter summarizes Falk’s ideas on human cognitive and conscious capacities for the future.
The poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece
Claude Calame - 1992
Avoiding Foucault's philosophical paradigm of dominance/submission, Claude Calame uses an anthropological and linguistic approach to re-create indigenous categories of erotic love. He maintains that Eros, the joyful companion of Aphrodite, was a divine figure around which poets constructed a physiology of desire that functioned in specific ways within a network of social relations. Calame begins by showing how poetry and iconography gave a rich variety of expression to the concept of Eros, then delivers a history of the deity's roles within social and political institutions, and concludes with a discussion of an Eros-centered metaphysics.Calame's treatment of archaic and classical Greek institutions reveals Eros at work in initiation rites and celebrations, educational practices, the Dionysiac theater of tragedy and comedy, and in real and imagined spatial settings. For men, Eros functioned particularly in the symposium and the gymnasium, places where men and boys interacted and where future citizens were educated. The household was the setting where girls, brides, and adult wives learned their erotic roles--as such it provides the context for understanding female rites of passage and the problematics of sexuality in conjugal relations. Through analyses of both Greek language and practices, Calame offers a fresh, subtle reading of relations between individuals as well as a quick-paced and fascinating overview of Eros in Greek society at large.
After Nature: English Kinship in the Late Twentieth Century
Marilyn Strathern - 1992
Marilyn Strathern challenges the traditional separation of Western kinship studies from the study of the wider society. If contemporary society appears diverse, changing and fragmented, these same features also apply to people's ideas about kinship. She views ideas of relatedness, nature and the biological constitution of persons in their cultural context, and offers new insights into the late twentieth-century values of individualism and consumerism. After Nature is a timely reflection at a moment when advances in reproductive technology raise questions about the natural basis of kinship relations.
Foreign Bodies: Performance, Art, and Symbolic Anthropology
A. David Napier - 1992
David Napier explores the ways in which the foreign becomes literally and metaphorically embodied as a part of cultural identity rather than being seen as something outside it. Pre-classical Greece, Baroque Italy, and Western postmodernism are among the artistic domains Napier considers, while the symbolic terrain ranges from Balinese cosmography to body symbolism in biomedicine.
Herbal and Magical Medicine: Traditional Healing Today
James K. Kirkland - 1992
In documenting the vitality of such seemingly unusual healing traditions as talking the fire out of burns, wart-curing, blood-stopping, herbal healing, and rootwork, the contributors to this volume demonstrate how the region’s folk medical systems operate in tandem with scientific biomedicine.The authors provide illuminating commentary on the major forms of naturopathic and magico-religious medicine practiced in the United States. Other essays explain the persistence of these traditions in our modern technological society and address the bases of folk medical concepts of illness and treatment and the efficacy of particular pratices. The collection suggests a model for collaborative research on traditional medicine that can be replicated in other parts of the country. An extensive bibliography reveals the scope and variety of research in the field.Contributors. Karen Baldwin, Richard Blaustein, Linda Camino, Edward M. Croom Jr., David Hufford, James W. Kirland, Peter Lichstein, Holly F. Mathews, Robert Sammons, C. W. Sullivan III
Human Motives and Cultural Models
Roy G. D'Andrade - 1992
For too many years studies of motivation have drawn from different theoretical paradigms. Typically, human motivation has been modeled on animal behavior, while culture has been described as pure knowledge or symbol. The result has been insufficient appreciation of the role of culture in human motivation and a truncated view of culture as disembodied knowledge. The anthropologists in this volume have attempted a different approach, seeking to integrate knowledge, desire, and action into a single explanatory framework. This research builds on recent work in cognitive anthropology on cultural models.
Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why
Ellen Dissanayake - 1992
In her view, art is intimately linked to the origins of religious practices and to ceremonies of birth, death, transition, and transcendence. Drawing on her years in Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and Papua New Guinea, she gives examples of painting, song, dance, and drama as behaviors that enable participants to grasp and reinforce what is important to their cognitive world."--Publishers Weekly"Homo Aestheticus offers a wealth of original and critical thinking. It will inform and irritate specialist, student, and lay reader alike."--American AnthropologistA thoughtful, elegant, and provocative analysis of aesthetic behavior in the development of our species--one that acknowledges its roots in the work of prior thinkers while opening new vistas for those yet to come. If you're reading just one book on art anthropology this year, make it hers."--Anthropology and Humanism
Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes: The Anthropology of Museums
Michael M. Ames - 1992
In it, Michael Ames, an internationally renowned museum director, challenges popular concepts and criticisms of museums and presents an alternate perspective which reflects his experiences from many years of museum work.Based on the author’s previous book, Museums, the Public and Anthropology, the new edition includes seven new essays which argue, as in the previous volume, that museums and anthropologists must contextualize and critique themselves – they must analyse and critique the social, political and economic systems within which they work. In the new essays, Ames looks at the role of consumerism and the market economy in the production of such phenomena as worlds’ fairs and McDonald’s hamburger chains, referring to them as “museums of everyday life” and indicating the way in which they, like museums, transform ideology into commonsense, thus reinforcing and perpetuating hegemonic control over how people think about and represent themselves. He also discusses the moral/political ramifications of conflicting attitudes towards Aboriginal art (is it art or artifact?); censorship (is it liberating or repressive?); and museum exhibits (are they informative or disinformative?).The earlier essays outline the development of museums in the Western world, the problems faced by anthropologists in attempting to deal with the often conflicting demands of professional as opposed to public interests, the tendency to both fabricate and stereotype, and the need to establish a reciprocal rather than exploitative relationship between museums/anthropologists and Aboriginal people.Written during the course of the last decade, these essays offer an accessible, often anecdotal, journey through one professional anthropologist’s concerns about, and hopes for, his discipline and its fu
Science as Practice and Culture
Andrew Pickering - 1992
Andrew Pickering has invited leading historians, philosophers, sociologists, and anthropologists of science to prepare original essays for this volume. The essays range over the physical and biological sciences and mathematics, and are divided into two parts. In part I, the contributors map out a coherent set of perspectives on scientific practice and culture, and relate their analyses to central topics in the philosophy of science such as realism, relativism, and incommensurability. The essays in part II seek to delineate the study of science as practice in arguments across its borders with the sociology of scientific knowledge, social epistemology, and reflexive ethnography.
Beliefs and Holy Places: A Spiritual Geography of the Pimería Alta
James S. Griffith - 1992
One need look no further than the roadside crosses along desert highways or the diversity of local celebrations to sense the richness of this cultural commingling. Folklorist Jim Griffith has lived in the Pimería Alta for more than thirty years, visiting its holy places and attending its fiestas, and has uncovered a background of belief, tradition, and history lying beneath the surface of these cultural expressions. In Beliefs and Holy Places, he reveals some of the supernaturally sanctioned relationships that tie people to places within that region, describing the cultural and religious meanings of locations and showing how bonds between people and places have in turn created relationships between places, a spiritual geography undetectable on physical maps. Throughout the book, Griffith shows how culture moves from legend to art to belief to practice, all the while serving as a dynamic link between past and future. Now as the desert gives way to newcomers, Griffith's book offers visitors and residents alike a rare opportunity to share in these rich traditions.
Sexual Strategies: How Females Choose Their Mates
Mary Batten - 1992
In Sexual Strategies, science journalist Mary Batten presents a provocative exploration of female/male behavior in the animal kingdom and its powerful implications for human relationships. Science increasingly acknowledges that much of human behavior is influenced by biology as well as culture. Human reproductive strategies in particular have come to look more like those of the birds and the bees than anyone imagined. In actuality, it is the females, not the males, of many species that actively select their mates. Although Charles Darwin introduced the theory of female mate choice more than a century ago, only in recent years has this controversial idea been appreciated by the scientific community. Studies of female choice are demolishing the age-old myth of the passive female. From fruitflies to primates, Batten shows how female choice truly plays a pivotal role in the evolution of species. By understanding female mate choice and the female's true power in evolution, we see our own complex species with greater clarity. We gain greater insight into why males and females, including men and women, have built-in conflicts in their mating behavior. In addition, Batten illuminates the roots of current social problems related to gender competition and shows that they cannot be fully understood outside a biological context.
Principles of Geoarchaeology: A North American Perspective
Michael R. Waters - 1992
While a number of previous books have provided broad geographic and temporal treatments of geoarchaeology, this new volume presents a single author's view intended for North American archaeologists. Waters deals with those aspects of geoarchaeology—stratigraphy, site formation processes, and landscape reconstruction—most fundamental to archaeology, and he focuses on the late Quaternary of North America, permitting in-depth discussions of the concepts directly applicable to that research. Assuming no prior geologic knowledge on the part of the reader, Waters provides a background in fundamental geological processes and the basic tools of geoarchaeology. He then proceeds to relate specific physical processes, microenvironments, deposits, and landforms associated with riverine, desert, lake, glacial, cave, coastal, and other environments to archaeological site formation, location, and context. This practical volume illustrates the contributions of geoarchaeological investigations and demonstrates the need to make such studies an integral part of archaeological research. The text is enhanced by more than a hundred line drawings and photographs. CONTENTS 1. Research Objectives of Geoarchaeology 2. Geoarchaeological Foundations: The Archaeological Site Matrix: Sediments and Soils / Stratigraphy / The Geoarchaeological Interpretation of Sediments, Soils, and Stratigraphy 3. Alluvial Environments: Streamflow / Sediment Erosion, Transport, and Deposition / Alluvial Environments: Rivers, Arroyos, Terraces, and Fans / Alluvial Landscapes Evolution and the Archaeological Record / Alluvial Landscape Reconstruction 4. Eolian Environments: Sediment Erosion, Transport, and Deposition / Sand Dunes / Loess and Dust / Stone Pavements / Eolian Erosion / Volcanic Ash (Tephra) 5. Springs, Lakes, Rockshelters, and Other Terrestrial Environments: Springs / Lakes / Slopes / Glaciers / Rockshelters and Caves 6. Coastal Environments: Coastal Processes / Late Quaternary Sea Level Changes / Coastal Environments / Coastal Landscape Evolution and the Archaeological Record / Coastal Landscape Reconstruction 7. The Postburial Disturbance af Archaeological Site Contexts: Cryoturbation / Argilliturbation / Graviturbation / Deformation / Other Physical Disturbances / Floralturbation / Faunalturbation 8. Geoarchaeological Research Appendix A: Geoarchaeological Studies Illustrating the Effects of Fluvial Landscape Evolution on the Archaeological Record Appendix B: Geoarchaeological Studies Illustrating Site-Specific Synchronic and Diachronic Alluvial Landscape Reconstructions Appendix C: Geoarchaeological Studies Illustrating Regional Synchronic and Diachronic Alluvial Landscape Reconstructions
Hidden People: How a Remote New Guinea Culture Was Brought Back from the Brink of Extinction
Lynette Oates - 1992
Interpreting the Universe
John Macmurray - 1992
His concern for community, or persons in relation, has become one of the major preoccupations of many cutting-edge debates in contemporary philosophy and religion and inspires new directions in moral theory.
Hidatsa Social and Ceremonial Organization
Alfred W. Bowers - 1992
Bowers recorded in the early 1930s from the last generation of Hidatsas who lived in the historic village of Like-a-Fishhook. This documentary record of their nineteenth-century lifeways is now a classic in American ethnography. The book is distinguished for its presentation of extensive personal and ritual narratives that allow Hidatsa elders to articulate directly their conceptions of traditional culture. It combines archeological and ethnographic approaches to reconstruct a Hidatsa culture history that is shaped by a concern for cultural detail stemming from the American ethnographic tradition of Franz Boas. At the same time, its concern for the understanding of social structure reflects the influence of the British structural-functional approach of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. The most comprehensive account ever published on the Hidatsas, it is of enduring value and interest.
Archaeology: The Science of Once and Future Things
Brian Hayden - 1992
In archaeology he sets out a broad overview of the subject emphasizing the most interesting problems and conclusions. His approach is to shows how the world works from an archaeological perspective. He teaches students how to develop the conceptual tools of archaeology, how to examine the many specific eras in prehistory and sites to demonstrate how archaeologists draw conclusions, find answers and interpret the findings in their fieldwork. He believes this will stimulate their interest and provide the springboard for further study. archaeology is a gentle introduction to the often intimidating topics of science and theory, which are both approachable and enjoyable.
Place Attachment
Irwin Altman - 1992
In step with the growing interest in place attachment, this volume examines the phenomena from the perspective of several disciplines-including anthropology, folklore, and psychology-and points towards promising directions of future research.
Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior
Eric Alden Smith - 1992
--American Journal of Human Biology This excellent book can serve both as a text1/4book and as a scholarly reference. --American Scientist
Dreaming in the Middle Ages
Steven F. Kruger - 1992
Stephen Kruger studies the development of theories of dreaming, from the Neoplatonic and patristic writers to late medieval re-interpretations, and shows how these theories relate to autobiographical accounts and to more popular treatments of dreaming. He considers previously neglected material including one important dream vision by Nicole Oresme, and arrives at a new understanding of this literary genre, and of medieval attitudes to dreaming in general.
Chimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution
William C. McGrew - 1992
These African apes make and use a rich and varied kit of tools, and of the primates they are the only consistent and habitual tool-users and tool-makers. Chimpanzees meet the criteria of a culture as originally defined for human beings by socio-cultural anthropologists. They show sex differences in using tools to obtain and to process a variety of plant and animal foods. The technological gap between chimpanzees and human societies that live by foraging (hunter-gatherers) is surprisingly narrow at least for food-getting. Different communities of wild chimpanzees have different tool-kits and not all of this regional and local variation can be explained by the demands of the physical and biotic environments in which they live. Some differences are likely to be customs based on socially derived and symbolically encoded traditions. This book describes and analyzes the tool-use of humankind's nearest living relation. It focuses on field studies of these apes across Africa, comparing their customs to see if they can justifiably be termed cultural. It makes direct comparisons with the material culture of human foraging peoples. The book evaluates the chimpanzee as an evolutionary model, showing that chimpanzee behavior helps us to infer the origins of technology in human prehistory.
The Spirit In The Land: Statements Of The Gitksan And Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs In The Supreme Court Of British Columbia, 1987 1990
Gisday Wa - 1992
Contemporary Pacific Societies: Studies in Development and Change
Victoria S. Lockwood - 1992
Chapters are written by noted specialists in all areas and are well mixed regionally and topically to give a broad perspective on contemporary change and development in the Pacific Islands. For social scientists working throughout Oceania and all those interested in contemporary Pacific cultures.
Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility
Takie Sugiyama Lebra - 1992
Established as a class at the beginning of the Meiji period, the kazoku ranked directly below the emperor and his family. Officially dissolved in 1947, this group of social elites is still generally perceived as nobility. Lebra gained entry into this tightly knit circle and conducted more than one hundred interviews with its members. She has woven together a reconstructive ethnography from their life histories to create an intimate portrait of a remote and archaic world.As Lebra explores the culture of the kazoku, she places each subject in its historical context. She analyzes the evolution of status boundaries and the indispensable role played by outsiders.But this book is not simply about the elite. It is also about commoners and how each stratum mirrors the other. Revealing previously unobserved complexities in Japanese society, it also sheds light on the universal problem of social stratification.
The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and Democracy
Arturo EscobarMaría Teresa Findji - 1992
This book surveys the full spectrum of movements in Latin America today-from peasant and squatter movements to women’s and gay movements, as well as environmental and civic movements – examining how this diverse mosaic of emergent social actors has prompted social scientists to rethink the dynamics of Latin American social and political change.Whereas the prevailing theories of social movements have largely drawn on Western cases, this volume includes the work of prominent Latin American scholars and incorporates analytical perspectives originating in the region. Contributors discuss the three dimensions of change most commonly attributed to Latin American social movements in the 1980s: their role in forging collective identities; their innovative social practices and political strategies; and their actual or potential contributions to alternative visions of development and to the democratization of political institutions and social relations.This interdisciplinary text provides both specialists and students of social movements with a unique, comprehensive, and accessible collection of essays that is unprecedented in theoretical and empirical scope. It will be useful in a wide range of graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in Latin American studies, comparative politics, sociology and anthropology, development studies, political economy, and contemporary political and cultural theory.
The American Way of Birth
Jessica Mitford - 1992
Now in a book as fresh, provocative, and fearless as anything else she has written, she shows us how and in what circumstances Americans give birth. At the start, she knew no more of the subject, and not less, than any mother does. Recalling her experiences in the 1930s and 1940s of giving birth - in London, in Washington, D.C., and in Oakland, California - she observes, "A curious amnesia takes over in which all memory of the discomforts you have endured is wiped out, and your determination never, ever to do that again fast fades." But then, years later in 1989 - when her own children were adults, and birth a subject of no special interest to her - she meet a young woman, a midwife in Northern California who was being harassed by government agents and the medical establishment. Her sympathies, along with her reportorial instincts, were immediately stirred. There was a story there that needed to be explored and revealed. Far more than she anticipated then, she was at the beginning of an investigation that would lead her over the next three years to the writing of this extraordinary book. This is not a book about the miracle of life. It is about the role of money and politics in a lucrative industry; a saga of champagne birthing suites for the rich and desperate measures for the poor. It is a colorful history - from the torture and burning of midwives in medieval times, through the absurd pretensions of the modest Victorian age, to this century's vast succession of anaesthetic, technological, and "natural" birthing fashions. And it is a comprehensive indictment of the politics of birth and national health. Jessica Mitford explores conventional and alternative methods, and the costs of having a child. She gives flesh-and-blood meaning to the cold statistics. Daring to ask hard questions and skeptical of soft answers
Symbolism, the Sacred and the Arts
Mircea Eliade - 1992
In his lifelong quest to understand the presence of the Sacred throughout human history, Eliade has been fascinated by two central themes: Creation and Time.
I Become Part of It: Sacred Dimensions in Native American Life
D.M. Dooling - 1992
Some of the topics explored include Ikachinas/I, the irreverent Hopi clowns; Navajo healing sand paintings; a dramatic firsthand description of a spirit-quest; the purpose of art in Native cultures; and the role of masks in ritual and in self-knowledge. The stories included are retellings of traditional tales; the text is further enhanced by a series of powerful illustrations by contemporary Native American artists.PAuthor Biography#58; D. M. Dooling was founder and editorial director of IParabola/I magazine and president of the Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition. Paul Jordan-Smith served as a senior editor of IParabola/I, with responsibility for the "Epicycles," retellings of traditional stories, myths, and legend.
Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories
Lila Abu-Lughod - 1992
Living in this Egyptian Bedouin settlement for extended periods during the following decade, Abu-Lughod took part in family life, with its moments of humor, affection, and anger. She witnessed striking changes, both cultural and economic, and she recorded the stories of the women. Writing Women's Worlds is Abu-Lughod's telling of those stories; it is also about what happens in bringing the stories to others.As the new teller of these tales Abu-Lughod draws on anthropological and feminist insights to construct a critical ethnography. She explores how the telling of these stories challenges the power of anthropological theory to render adequately the lives of others and the way feminist theory appropriates Third World women. Writing Women's Worlds is thus at once a vivid set of stories and a study in the politics of representation.
Mamatoto: 2a Celebration of Birth
Carroll Dunham - 1992
Photos and illustrations.
A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990
James Forsyth - 1992
It covers from the early history of Siberia after the Russian conquest to collectivization and conscription during World War II and to the 1980s movement ror native rights. In this, the first substantive post-Glasnost account to appear, James Forsyth compares the Siberian experience with that of Indians and Eskimos in North America.
California Indian Shamanism (Ballena Press Anthropological Papers ; No. 39)
Lowell John Bean - 1992
A feast for the scholar or layman interested in shamanism.
Hasidic People: A Place in the New World
Jerome R. Mintz - 1992
Hasidic People takes the reader from the various neighborhood settlements through years of growth to today's tragic incidents and conflicts. In an engaging style, rich with personal insight, Mintz invites us into this old world within the new, a way of life at once foreign and yet intrinsic to the American experience.
Dancing Colors: Paths of the Native American Woman
C.J. Brafford - 1992
From exquisitely beaded buckskin dresses in scarlet and yellow hues to carefully executed moccasins, leggings, breast- plates, and cradle boards; from intricately woven sashes and shawls that rival the finest contemporary works of art to superbly crafted bone and silver jewelry inlaid with semiprecious stones, "Dancing Colors" portrays a wealth of ceremonial clothing items, many of such remarkable beauty and refinement that they can only be categorized as wearable art. In addition to the vivid full-color photographs that bring these splendid artifacts to life, the book also includes a brief introduction, bibliography, and index, as well as legends myths, and stories focusing on the powers of Native American women. An exceptional volume for those intrigued by Indian culture and customs, "Dancing Colors" will also inspire and enthrall anyone with an interest in fashion and design.
Southwestern Indian Jewelry
Dexter Cirillo - 1992
The focus then shifts to the much-admired and avidly collected work in silver — often set with turquoise and other stones — by Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni artists. The book culminates in an exploration of striking contemporary work in which many artists have adapted traditional approaches to create original designs. A collector's guide offers invaluable advice as well as an illustrated glossary of materials, techniques, objects, and designs. A nationwide directory of sources concludes the book.
Rivers of Change: Essays on Early Agriculture in Eastern North America
Bruce D. Smith - 1992
Focusing on data derived from the expanding discipline of archaeobotany, Bruce D. Smith presents a provocative alternative theory of how prehistoric North American societies developed from hunting and gathering systems to food-producing economies. Eastern North America remains one of the world's best-documented independent centers of domestication and will clearly be the focus of sustained and rewarding research for many years to come.
The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia
John L. Cotter - 1992
Based on more than thirty years of intensive archaeological investigations in the greater Philadelphia area, this study contains the first record of many nationally important sites linking archaeological evidence to historical documentation, including Interdependence and Valley Forge National Historical Parks. It provides an archaeological tour through the houses and life-ways of both the great figures and the common people. It reveals how people dined, what vessels and dishes they used, and what their trinkets (and secret sins) were.
The Deer Goddess Of Ancient Siberia: A Study In The Ecology Of Belief (Studies In The History Of Religions)
Esther Jacobson - 1992
By examining the symbolic structures revealed in the art and archaeology of the Early Nomads, the author challenges existing theories regarding Early Nomadic cosmology. The reconstruction of meanings embedded in the deer image carries the investigation back to rock carvings, paintings, and monolithic stelae of South Siberia and northern Central Asia, from the Neolithic period down through the early Iron Age. The succession of images dominating that artistic tradition is considered against the background of cultures including the Baykal Neolithic Afanasevo, Okunev, Andronovo, and Karasuk evolving from a hunting-fishing dependency to a dependency on livestock. The archaic mythic traditions of specific Siberian groups are also found to lend critical detail to the changing symbolic systems of South Siberia."
After the Flood: World Politics and Democracy in the Wake of Communism
Bogdan Denis Denitch - 1992
After the Flood addresses the significance of the political left in the resulting 'new order' and analyzes the dynamics of the current social and political situation by focusing on issues of social justice, ethnic conflicts unleashed by the decline in state centralism, and prospects for the third world in the emerging global context.
Right tools for the job
Adele E. Clarke - 1992
The contributors draw upon and extend the multidisciplinary perspectives in current science studies to understand the processes through which scientific researchers constructed the right--and, in some cases, the wrong--tools for the job. The articles portray the crafting or accessing of specific materials, techniques, instruments, models, funds, and work arrangements involved in doing scientific work. They demonstrate the historical and local contingencies of scientific problem construction and solving by highlighting the articulation between the tools and jobs. Indeed, the very "rightness" of the tools is contingently constructed, maintained, lost, and refashioned. The cases examined include evolutionary biology laboratory systems (James R. Griesemer), the plasmid prep procedure in molecular biology (Kathleen Jordan and Michael Lynch), models in the human ecology of African pastoralists (Peter Taylor), the micromanometer in metabolic studies (Frederic L. Holmes), genetics research and the role played by Planaria (Gregg Mitman and Anne Fausto-Sterling) and by corn (Barbara A. Kimmelman), quantitative data in field biology (Yrj Haila), taxidermy in natural history (Susan Leigh Star), technical standardization in bacteriology (Patricia Peck Gossell), and the discipline of immunology as the tool for stabilizing conceptual definitions in the field (Peter Keating, Alberto Cambrosio, and Michael Mackenzie).
Portals of Power: Shamanism in South America
E. Jean Matteson Langdon - 1992
Yet, alien to a positivistic worldview and characterized by hysteria, ecstasy, and magic, shamanism has continued to be classified as vestigial or archaic long after such labels have become meaningless. Lately, a fresh approach has emerged that rejects arbitrary definition in favor of symbolic analysis and native interpretation. Portals of Power explores this new perspective. Researchers from South America, Europe, and the United States examine shamanism in twelve South American societies. In considering such aspects as visionary experience, native conceptions of power, ritual efficacy, expressive culture, and response to change, contributors to this volume present shamanism as an enduring cultural form, rather than an archaic religion. This is a work that transcends debates about "true" shamanism, to present a global view of shamanism as a dynamic aspect of culture.
Stress, The Aging Brain, And The Mechanisms Of Neuron Death
Robert M. Sapolsky - 1992
Strategies to reduce stress and methods to protect neurons from further damage are proposed, and the relevance for humans of the animal research findings are clearly delineated.
Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of the Human Fossils
Marvin L. Lubenow - 1992
The last chapter, repudiating the compromising views of many modern evangelicals on this subject, is illuminating. Lubenow has made an invaluable contribution to scientific biblical creationism.
Maid In The U. S. A
Mary Romero - 1992
Focusing on both paid and unpaid domestic work,
Maid in the USA
expands the theoretical understanding of reproductive labor to explain the dynamics of race, class and gender in housework. Through interviews with 25 Chicana private household workers, Mary Romero provides a unique exploration of their working conditions, and the social constraints which shape their personal lives.
The Spiritual Churches of New Orleans: Origins, Beliefs, and Rituals of an African-American Religion
Claude F. Jacobs - 1992
Influenced by Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Spiritualism, and Voodoo, the group is a New World syncretic faith, similar to Espiritismo, Santeria, and Umbanda. The Spiritual Churches of New Orleans combines a historical account of the emergence of this religion with careful ethnographic description of current congregations. At the same time, text and photographs eloquently convey the ecstasy at the heart of the Spiritual experience. The Spiritual churches began in the 1920s as a women's movement. Men later assumed leadership in an effort to legitimate the group within the New Orleans religious community and form associations with Spiritual churches elsewhere in the United States. Unlike earlier researchers, who treated practices in the churches as expressions of black folk traditions, the authors see Spiritual ritual not as based on magic, but as the way the sacred is acted out within an African-American aesthetic. During worship, members may be filled by the Holy Spirit, as in Pentecostal churches, or "entertain" spirits or spirit guides, as in Spiritualism or Voodoo. Prophecy and healing are presented as the markers of this faith, and the Native American figure Black Hawk as a major symbol of empowerment. Based on extensive interviews with church members, years of participant observation, and careful research in documentary sources, this book achieves rigorous conceptual clarity in a straightforward, engaging style.
Conversations: Straight Talk with America's Sister President
Johnnetta Betsch Cole - 1992
Cole speaks directly to her younger sisters--America's Black women--and calls out to them to take or active role, as she is doing, to help make their world a better place.
Idea Into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought
Erik Hornung - 1992
Book by Hornung, Erik
The Caddo Nation: Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Perspectives
Timothy K. Perttula - 1992
Hester, "The Caddo Nation" investigates the early contacts between the Caddoan peoples of the present-day Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas region and Europeans, including the Spanish, French, and some Euro-Americans.Perttula's study explores Caddoan cultural change from the perspectives of both archaeological data and historical, ethnographic, and archival records. The work focuses on changes from A.D. 1520 to ca. A.D. 1800 and challenges many long-standing assumptions about the nature of these changes.
Anthropology and Photography, 1860-1920
Elizabeth Edwards - 1992
This book looks at the significance and relevance of still photography in British anthropology from about 1860 until 1920. It examines how photography provides evidence of the past and how this evidence is used in conjunction with more traditional forms of anthropological information and it considers the reflexive and critical nature of the photographic way of seeing within anthropology.
Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida
Jerald T. Milanich - 1992
Hudson and Milanich have collaborated on determining the route of de Soto in Florida for several years and this book represents their current conclusions. . . . The world became whole five hundred years ago and Florida was at center stage."--Dan F. Morse, University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University Hernando de Soto, the Spanish conquistador, is legendary in the United States today: counties, cars, caverns, shopping malls, and bridges all bear his name. This work explains the historical importance of his expedition, an incredible journey that began at Tampa Bay in 1539 and ended in Arkansas in 1543. De Soto's exploration, the first European penetration of eastern North America, preceded a demographic disaster for the aboriginal peoples in the region. Old World diseases, perhaps introduced by the de Soto expedition and certainly by other Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, killed many thousands of Indians. By the middle of the 18th century only a few remained alive. The de Soto narratives provide the first European account of many of these Indian societies as they were at the time of European contact. This work interprets these and other 16th century accounts in the light of new archaeological information, resulting in a more comprehensive view of the native peoples. Matching de Soto's route and camps to sites where artifacts from the de Soto era have been found, the authors reconstruct his route in Florida and at the same time clarify questions about the social geography and political relationships of the Florida Indians. They link names once known only from documents (e.g., the Uzita, who occupied territory at the de Soto landing site, and the Aguacaleyquen of north peninsular Florida) to actual archaeological remains and sites. Peering through the mists of centuries, Milanich and Hudson enlarge the picture of native groups of Florida at the point of European contact, allowing historians and anthropologists to conceive of these peoples in a new fashion. Jerald T. Milanich is curator of archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville. He is coeditor of First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and the United States, 1492-1570 (UPF, 1989) and cocurator of the "First Encounters" exhibit that has traveled to major museums throughout the United States. He is the author or editor of a number of other books, including Florida Archaeology. Charles Hudson is professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia. He is the author or editor of nine books, including The Southeastern Indians, The Juan Pardo Expeditions, and Four Centuries of Southern Indians. In 1992 he was awarded the James Mooney Award from the Southern Anthropology Society.
Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5mtumr-2346
Tim D. White - 1992
Tim White's analysis of human bones from an Anasazi pueblo in southwestern Colorado, site 5MTUMR-2346, reveals that nearly thirty men, women, and children were butchered and cooked there around A.D. 1100. Their bones were fractured for marrow, and the remains discarded in several rooms of the pueblo. By comparing the human skeletal remains with those of animals used for food at other sites, the author analyzes evidence for skinning, dismembering, cooking, and fracturing to infer that cannibalism took place at Mancos. As White evaluates claims for cannibalism in ethnographic and archaeological contexts worldwide, he describes how cultural biases can often distort the interpretation of scientific data. This book applies and introduces anatomical, taphonomic, zooarchaeological, and forensic methods in the investigation of prehistoric human behavior. It is an important example of how we can exchange opinion for knowledge. Cannibalism is a controversial topic because many people do not want to believe that their prehistoric ancestors engaged in such activity, but they will be hard put to reject this meticulous study.--Kent V. Flannery, University of Michigan This is the best piece of detailed research yet to appear that seeks to put in place a body of justified knowledge and a procedure for its use in making inferences about the past. No student of bones can ignore this work.--Lewis R. Binford, University of New Mexico This could be one of the most important books in archaeology written in the last decade.--James F. O'Connell, University of Utah Paleontologists and zooarchaeologists, archaeologists and physical anthropologists, taphonomists, and forensic scientists should all read this work. Quite frankly, I think this will become one of the most important books of the 1990s...--R. Lee Lyman, University of Missouri-ColumbiaOriginally published in 1992.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.
The Muria and Their Ghotul
Verrier Elwin - 1992
Providing a comprehensive study of ghotul life and organization, the book also covers other aspects of Muria life and background outside the ghotul including the geopolitical background of the Muria, their economic life and its organization, the course of Muria life from birth to death, their religion and mythology.
The Power of Silence: Social and Pragmatic Perspectives
Adam Jaworski - 1992
The author argues that in theoretically pragmatic terms, silence can be accounted for by the same principles as those of speech. A later, more applied section of the book explores the power of silencing in politics. A concluding chapter shows the importance of silence beyond linguistics and politics in terms of artistic expression. The approach is intentionally eclectic in order to explore the concept of silence as a rich and
Barter, Exchange and Value: An Anthropological Approach
Caroline Humphrey - 1992
For their part, anthropologists are more concerned with the social and moral complexities of the gift, and treat barter as mere haggling. The authors in this collection do not accept that barter occupies a residual space between monetary and gift economies. Using accounts from different parts of the world, they demonstrate that it is more than a simple and self-evident economic institution. Barter may constitute a mode of exchange with its own social characteristics, occupying its own moral space. This novel treatment of barter represents an original and topical addition to the literature on economic anthropology.
Gardens of Prehistory: The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica
Thomas W. Killion - 1992
From the tropical forests of Central America to the arid environments or northern New Mexico, Native American farmers made use of a distinctive set of cultigens and cropping systems that supported—with varying degrees of success—growing populations and expanding economies. Lacking most domesticated animals, so important to the mixed agricultural systems of the Old World, Precolumbian farmers developed intensive and resilient systems of agricultural production. These systems supported large societies of people who altered the landscapes they inhabited and generated a unique archaeological record of the evolution of farming in the New World.
Conceptualizing Society (European Association of Social Anthropologists)
Adam Kuper - 1992
Offers a lively account of the state of general theory in social anthropology today.