Best of
Anthropology

2004

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology


David Graeber - 2004
    Anarchists repeatedly appeal to anthropologists for ideas about how society might be reorganized on a more egalitarian, less alienating basis. Anthropologists, terrified of being accused of romanticism, respond with silence . . . . But what if they didn't?This pamphlet ponders what that response would be, and explores the implications of linking anthropology to anarchism. Here, David Graeber invites readers to imagine this discipline that currently only exists in the realm of possibility: anarchist anthropology.

A Short History of Progress


Ronald Wright - 2004
    The twentieth century—a time of unprecedented progress—has produced a tremendous strain on the very elements that comprise life itself: This raises the key question of the twenty-first century: How much longer can this go on? With wit and erudition, Ronald Wright lays out a-convincing case that history has always provided an answer, whether we care to notice or not. From Neanderthal man to the Sumerians to the Roman Empire, A Short History of Progress dissects the cyclical nature of humanity's development and demise, the 10,000-year old experiment that we've unleashed but have yet to control. It is Wright's contention that only by understanding and ultimately breaking from the patterns of progress and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we avoid the onset of a new Dark Age. Wright illustrates how various cultures throughout history have literally manufactured their own end by producing an overabundance of innovation and stripping bare the very elements that allowed them to initially advance. Wright's book is brilliant; a fascinating rumination on the hubris at the heart of human development and the pitfalls we still may have time to avoid.

Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject


Saba Mahmood - 2004
    Unlike those organized Islamist activities that seek to seize or transform the state, this is a moral reform movement whose orthodox practices are commonly viewed as inconsequential to Egypt's political landscape. Saba Mahmood's compelling exposition of these practices challenges this assumption by showing how the ethical and the political are indelibly linked within the context of such movements.Not only is this book a sensitive ethnography of a critical but largely ignored dimension of the Islamic revival, it is also an unflinching critique of the secular-liberal principles by which some people hold such movements to account. The book addresses three central questions: How do movements of moral reform help us rethink the normative liberal account of politics? How does the adherence of women to the patriarchal norms at the core of such movements parochialize key assumptions within feminist theory about freedom, agency, authority, and the human subject? How does a consideration of debates about embodied religious rituals among Islamists and their secular critics help us understand the conceptual relationship between bodily form and political imaginaries? Politics of Piety is essential reading for anyone interested in issues at the nexus of ethics and politics, embodiment and gender, and liberalism and postcolonialism.

When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth


Elizabeth Wayland Barber - 2004
    George actually fought dragons, since dragons don't exist? Strange though they sound, however, these myths did not begin as fiction.This absorbing book shows that myths originally transmitted real information about real events and observations, preserving the information sometimes for millennia within nonliterate societies. Geologists' interpretations of how a volcanic cataclysm long ago created Oregon's Crater Lake, for example, is echoed point for point in the local myth of its origin. The Klamath tribe saw it happen and passed down the story--for nearly 8,000 years.We, however, have been literate so long that we've forgotten how myths encode reality. Recent studies of how our brains work, applied to a wide range of data from the Pacific Northwest to ancient Egypt to modern stories reported in newspapers, have helped the Barbers deduce the characteristic principles by which such tales both develop and degrade through time. Myth is in fact a quite reasonable way to convey important messages orally over many generations--although reasoning back to the original events is possible only under rather specific conditions.Our oldest written records date to 5,200 years ago, but we have been speaking and mythmaking for perhaps 100,000. This groundbreaking book points the way to restoring some of that lost history and teaching us about human storytelling.

Human (Dk Smithsonian Institution)


Robert Winston - 2004
    Profiling more than 250 peoples who inhabit the world and examining fascinating facts - from environmental and health issues to beliefs and customs - Human is the definitive illustrated guide to our species.

Teasing Secrets from the Dead: My Investigations at America's Most Infamous Crime Scenes


Emily Craig - 2004
    In this absorbing, surprising, and undeniably compelling book, forensics expert Emily Craig tells her own story of a life spent teasing secrets from the dead.Emily Craig has been a witness to history, helping to seek justice for thousands of murder victims, both famous and unknown. It's a personal story that you won't soon forget.Emily first became intrigued by forensics work when, as a respected medical illustrator, she was called in by the local police to create a model of a murder victim's face. Her fascination with that case led to a dramatic midlife career change: She would go back to school to become a forensic anthropologist——and one of the most respected and best-known "bone hunters" in the nation.As a student working with the FBI in Waco, Emily helped uncover definitive proof that many of the Branch Davidians had been shot to death before the fire, including their leader, David Koresh, whose bullet-pierced skull she reconstructed with her own hands. Upon graduation, Emily landed a prestigious full-time job as forensic anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with an alarmingly high murder rate and thousands of square miles of rural backcountry, where bodies are dumped and discovered on a regular basis. But even with her work there, Emily has been regularly called to investigations across the country, including the site of terrorist attack on the the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, where a mysterious body part——a dismembered leg——was found at the scene and did not match any of the known victims. Through careful scientific analysis, Emily was able to help identify the leg's owner, a pivotal piece of evidence that helped convict Timothy McVeigh.In September 2001, Emily recieved a phone call summoning her to New York City, where she directed the night-shift triage at the World Trade Centre's body identification site, collaborating with forensics experts from all over the country to collect and identify the remains of September 11 victims.From the biggest new stories of our time to stranger-than-true local mysteries, these are unforgettable stories from the case files of Emily Craig's remarkable career.

Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art


Sean Cliver - 2004
    Longtime skateboard artist Sean Cliver put together this staggering survey of over 1,000 skateboard graphics from the last 30 years, creating an indispensable insiders' history as he did so.Alongside his own history, Sean has assembled a wealth of recollections and stories from prominent artists and skateboarders such as: Andy Howell, Barry McGee, Ed Templeton, Steve Caballero, and Tony Hawk.The end result is a fascinating historical account of art in the skateboard subculture, as told by those directly involved with shaping its legendary creative face.

Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century


Carolyn Nordstrom - 2004
    She captures the human face of the front lines, revealing both the visible and the hidden realities of war in the twenty-first century. Shadows of War is grounded in ethnographic research carried out at the epicenters of political violence on several continents. Its pages are populated not only with the perpetrators and victims of war but also with the scoundrels, silent heroes, and average families who live their lives in the midst of explosive violence. War reconfigures our most basic notions of humanity, Nordstrom demonstrates. This book, of crucial importance at the present moment, shows that war is enmeshed in struggles over the very foundations of the sovereign state, the crafting of economic empires both legal and illegal, and innovative searches for peace. Nordstrom describes the multi-trillion-dollar international financial networks that support warfare. She traces the entangled routes by which illegal drugs, precious gems, weapons, basic food supplies, and pharmaceuticals are moved by an international cast of businesspeople, profiteers, and black-market operators. Shadows of War demonstrates how the experiences of both the architects of war and of ordinary people are deleted from media accounts and replaced with stories about soldiers, weapons, and territory. For the first time, this book retrieves from the shadows the faces of those whose stories seldom reach the light of international recognition.

Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them


Robert A. Orsi - 2004
    In this boldly argued and beautifully written book, Robert Orsi also considers how scholars of religion occupy the ground in between belief and analysis, faith and scholarship.Orsi infuses his analysis with an autobiographical voice steeped in his own Italian-American Catholic background--from the devotion of his uncle Sal, who had cerebral palsy, to a "crippled saint," Margaret of Castello; to the bond of his Tuscan grandmother with Saint Gemma Galgani.Religion exists not as a medium of making meanings, Orsi maintains, but as a network of relationships between heaven and earth involving people of all ages as well as the many sacred figures they hold dear. Orsi argues that modern academic theorizing about religion has long sanctioned dubious distinctions between "good" or "real" religious expression on the one hand and "bad" or "bogus" religion on the other, which marginalize these everyday relationships with sacred figures.This book is a brilliant critical inquiry into the lives that people make, for better or worse, between heaven and earth, and into the ways scholars of religion could better study of these worlds.

A Deadly Audio Collection: Déjà Dead / Death du Jour / Deadly Décisions


Kathy Reichs - 2004
    Temperance Brennan fights one-woman battle to expose a link between similar brutal rapes and murders that have occured in the city of Montreal. As she herself becomes the target, Tempe must rely on her wits to save her life."DEATH DU JOUR"Read by Katherine BorowitzIn the bitter cold of Montreal winter, Dr. Temperance Brennan digs for a corpse buried more than a century ago. Though she thrives on enigmas from the past, a chain of contemporary deaths and disappearances in South Carolina seizes her attention. Tempe is ideally placed to make a chilling connection between seemingly unrelated events. But time is running out and a nerve-shattering test of her forensic expertise is the key to her survival."DEADLY DECISIONS"Read by Katherine BorowitzNine-year-old Emily Anne Toussaint is shot dead on a Montreal street. A North Carolina teenager disappears from her home. Parts of what may be her skeleton are found hundreds of miles away. For. Dr. Temperance Brennan the deaths kindle deep emotions that propel her on harrowing journey through the world of outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Splitting Heirs: Giving Money & Things to Your Children Without Ruining Their Lives


Ron Blue - 2004
    That is what we are called to do in Scripture, but where will our money and possessions finish? The Bible has the principles that provide answers to the challenge of parenting and passing along an in heritage. Within the next decade, over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS will change hands from one generation to the next. Individuals with adult children will need to transfer that wealth without ruining their heirs' lives.Ron Blue, an authority on personal and business finance, will help:~Identify exactly how much money would be transferred were the reader to die today~Identify the need for creating a will~Identify tax-wise financial planning~Teach the way to leave money without creating an unhealthy dependence

Seven Ages Of Britain


Justin Pollard - 2004
    overlooked story - the history of the people as a whole and their experience of life through the ages. This book explores the lives and times of the ordinary people of Britain who rarely emerge into the light of written history but nonetheless were witness to its every twist and turn. their experience of life in each age against the backdrop of the grander events of that time. It is the story of those who never had the privilege of making history but to whom it happened nonetheless - who lived with it and survived its consequences.

Silent America: Essays from a Democracy at War


Bill Whittle - 2004
    SILENT AMERICA: ESSAYS FROM A DEMOCRACY AT WAR has been read by hundreds of thousands of people online. Now you can own the collection that has been called "required reading for every high school and college in America." HONOR. EMPIRE. STRENGTH. MAGIC. HISTORY. FREEDOM... fourteen powerful essays on the American spirit. Join the thousands who have laughed, and cried, and who have found in SILENT AMERICA the words they have been searching for to describe the wonder and pride they feel for America.

Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk


Susan Tyler Hitchcock - 2004
    With a text as fascinating as it is authoritative; vivid photographs that evoke the reverence, rituals, and rewards of each spiritual tradition; and a rich variety of essays, sidebars, and maps, this magnificent book charts the many paths that guide us to God. Chapters on each of the 5 major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—explore the landscapes and cultures where they took hold and flourished. Eminent scholars share the faiths they live and study, revealing their sacred scriptures and rites. Every page offers new insights into religious history and doctrine, along with stunning images of believers at prayer, the holy places they cherish, and their houses of worship—from soaring cathedrals and magnificent mosques to humble shrines infused with a blessed simplicity. Fittingly, each chapter closes with a photo-essay on pilgrims and their devotional journeys—a wonderful visual reminder that no matter which faith we may embrace, we are all fellow travelers in our search for the truth. "The 200 photographs demonstrating the diversity of architecture, people, and terrain, are stunning in their beauty and simplicity." —Publishers Weekly

Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview


Umeek / E Richard Atleo - 2004
    Reason, that particularly exalted human quality, has become steadily distanced from the metaphysical aspects of existence, such as spirit, faith, and intuition. In Tsawalk, hereditary chief Umeek introduces us to an alternative indigenous worldview--an ontology drawn from the Nuu-chah-nulth origin stories.A valuable contribution to Native studies, anthropology, philosophy, and the study of science, Tsawalk offers a revitalizing and thoughtful complement to Western scientific worldviews.

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South


Richard F. Townsend - 2004
    and A.D. 1500. This fascinating book presents exciting new information on the art and cultures of these ancient peoples and features hundreds of gorgeous photographs of important artworks, artifacts, and ritual objects excavated from Amerindian archaeological sites.Drawing on excavation findings and extensive research, the contributors to the book document a succession of distinct ancient populations in the pre-Columbian world of the American Midwest and Southeast. A team of interdisciplinary scholars examines the connections between archaeological remains of different regions and the themes, forms, and rituals that continue in specific tribes of today. The book also includes the personal reflections of contemporary Native Americans who discuss their perspectives on the significance of the fascinating and beautiful prehistoric artifacts as well as their own cultural practices today.

Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture and Vice Versa


Marshall Sahlins - 2004
    Here, Marshall Sahlins takes on Thucydides and the conceptions of history he wrought with a groundbreaking new book that shows what a difference an anthropological concept of culture can make to the writing of history.Sahlins begins by confronting Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War with an analogous "Polynesian War," the fight for the domination of the Fiji Islands (1843-55) between a great sea power (like Athens) and a great land power (like Sparta). Sahlins draws parallels between the conflicts with an eye to their respective systems of power and sovereignty as well as to Thucydides' alternation between individual (Pericles, Themistocles) and collective (the Athenians, the Spartans) actors in the making of history. Characteristic of most histories ever written, this alternation between the agency of "Great Men" and collective entities leads Sahlins to a series of incisive analyses ranging in subject matter from Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world" for the 1951 Giants to the history-making of Napoleon and certain divine kings to the brouhaha over Elián Gonzalez. Finally, again departing from Thucydides, Sahlins considers the relationship between cultural order and historical contingency through the recounting of a certain royal assassination that changed the course of Fijian history, a story of fratricide and war worthy of Shakespeare.In this most convincing presentation yet of his influential theory of culture, Sahlins experiments with techniques for mixing rich narrative with cultural explication in the hope of doing justice at once to the actions of persons and the customs of people. And he demonstrates the necessity of taking culture into account in the creation of history—with apologies to Thucydides, who too often did not.

James and Other Apes


James Mollison - 2004
    This title provides Close-Up Large Format Photographs Of The Faces Of Great Apes.

Rome Then & Now


Federica D'Orazio - 2004
    They survive in an enchanting urban tableau of classicism and modern Italian culture. Here are all of Rome's most famous tourist attractions -- the Coliseum, St. Peter's Square, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps -- represented in dozens of photographs, old and new, that bring the great city to life.

Clouds in the West: Lessons from the Martial Arts of Japan


Dave Lowry - 2004
    CLOUDS IN THE WEST is a thought-provoking look at the essence of traditional Asian martial arts--and how it has been adapted, misunderstood, sometimes perverted, and sometimes enhanced in the West.

Only Hope: Coming of Age Under China’s One-Child Policy


Vanessa L. Fong - 2004
    What are these children like? What are their values, goals, and interests? What kinds of relationships do they have with their families? This is the first in-depth study to analyze what it is like to grow up as the state-appointed vanguard of modernization. Based on surveys and ethnographic research in China, where the author lived with teenage only children and observed their homes and classrooms for 27 months between 1997 and 2002, the book explores the social, economic, and psychological consequences of the government's decision to accelerate the fertility transition.Only Hope shows how the one-child policy has largely succeeded in its goals, but with unintended consequences. Only children are expected to be the primary providers of support and care for their retired parents, grandparents, and parents-in-law, and only a very lucrative position will allow them to provide for so many dependents. Many only children aspire to elite status even though few can attain it, and such aspirations lead to increased stress and competition, as well as intense parental involvement.

Musicology: The Key Concepts


David Beard - 2004
    Its clear and accessible entries cover a comprehensive range of terms including:- aesthetics- canon- culture- deconstruction- ethnicity- identity- subjectivity- value- workFully cross-referenced and with suggestions for further reading, this is an essential resource for all students of music.

Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror, and Hope


Beatriz Manz - 2004
    In this compelling book, Beatriz Manz—an anthropologist who spent over two decades studying the Mayan highlands and remote rain forests of Guatemala—tells the story of the village of Santa María Tzejá, near the border with Mexico. Manz writes eloquently about Guatemala's tortured history and shows how the story of this village—its birth, destruction, and rebirth—embodies the forces and conflicts that define the country today. Drawing on interviews with peasants, community leaders, guerrillas, and paramilitary forces, Manz creates a richly detailed political portrait of Santa María Tzejá, where highland Maya peasants seeking land settled in the 1970s. Manz describes these villagers' plight as their isolated, lush, but deceptive paradise became one of the centers of the war convulsing the entire country. After their village was viciously sacked in 1982, desperate survivors fled into the surrounding rain forest and eventually to Mexico, and some even further, to the United States, while others stayed behind and fell into the military's hands. With great insight and compassion, Manz follows their flight and eventual return to Santa María Tzejá, where they sought to rebuild their village and their lives.

My Cocaine Museum


Michael Taussig - 2004
    Although modeled on the famous Gold Museum in Colombia's central bank, the Banco de la República, Taussig's museum is also a parody aimed at the museum's failure to acknowledge the African slaves who mined the country's wealth for almost four hundred years.Combining natural history with political history in a filmic, montage style, Taussig deploys the show-and-tell modality of a museum to engage with the inner life of heat, rain, stone, and swamp, no less than with the life of gold and cocaine.This effort to find a poetry of words becoming things is brought to a head by the explosive qualities of those sublime fetishes of evil beauty, gold and cocaine. At its core, Taussig's museum is about the lure of forbidden things, charged substances that transgress moral codes, the distinctions we use to make sense of the world, and above all the conventional way we write stories.

Our Culture Is Our Resistance: Repression, Refuge, and Healing in Guatemala


Rigoberta Menchú - 2004
    The result is Our Culture Is Our Resistance , a collection of portraits taken during that decade, revealing stories of life and death, of hope and despair, and of struggles for survival, respect, and truth. The beauty and strength of Moller’s photographs and the accompanying texts not only document and preserve the faces and events associated with this land and its history, but also display for the viewer the humanity and dignity of these largely Mayan indigenous peoples. Featuring one hundred forty-seven tritone portraits, Our Culture Is Our Resistance also includes a preface by Guatemalan Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum; short essays by Francisco Goldman, Susanne Jonas, and Ricardo Falla; and prose and poetry by Eduardo Galeano, Julia Esquivel, Francisco Morales Santos, Humberto Ak’abal, and Heather Dean. In addition, the book includes testimonies and reflections by Guatemalan community members and survivors, as well as statements by photographer Sebastião Salgado, Eduardo Galeano, and William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International U.S.A. Among the sponsors and official endorsers of Our Culture Is Our Resistance are Amnesty International, the Soros Foundation, Global Exchange, The Nation Institute, the Photo Review, Witness for Peace, and Cultural Survival. In addition to Moller images, Our Culture is Our resistance features: a preface by Rigoberta Menchú Tum; essays by Ricardo Falla, Eduardo Galeano, and Francisco Morales Santos; and, statements by Eduardo Galeano, Sebastiấo Salgado, and William F. Shultz.

Money and the Early Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy


Richard Seaford - 2004
    By transforming social relations, monetization contributed to the concepts of the universe as an impersonal system (fundamental to Presocratic philosophy) and of the individual alienated from his own kin and from the gods, as found in tragedy.

Call of the Desert: The Sahara


Philippe BourseillerMalika Hachid - 2004
    Here in 200 compelling images ranging from the white sands of Arguin to the colourful baks of the Niger river, the rock paintings of Tassili to the lakes of Ennedi, Bourseiller communicates his powerful experience of the desert.

The Myth of the Military-Nation: Militarism, Gender, and Education in Turkey


Ayşe Gül Altınay - 2004
    Altinay examines how the myth that the military is central to Turkey's national identity was created, perpetuated, and acts to shape politics. This historical and anthropological investigation probes the genesis of the myth that the Turkish nation is a military nation, traces how the ideology of militarism has been actualized through education and conscription, and reveals the implications for ethnic and gender relations. Altinay sheds light both on the process of how national identities are constructed and on the deep roots of the challenges facing Turkey as it potentially moves from being a plural to a pluralistic society.

Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry


Vincent Lyon-Callo - 2004
    As advocates, activists, policy makers, and homeless people focused attention on market-based and individualized practices of reform and governance, collective efforts that challenged an economy dependent on low wage jobs, declining housing affordability, and the dismantling of the social safety net were marginalized and ignored. Homelessness continued, despite, and partly due to, the limitations of the neoliberal approach. Combining the rich detail of an ethnographic study with the systemic examination of political economic studies, this book offers a view of homelessness and inequality that is rarely explored elsewhere. Chapters include discussion of the medicalization of homelessness, the difficulty of finding paid employment given broader political economic conditions, how shelter staff are trained to manage homeless people, how statistics are used to produce ideas of homeless people as deviants, and how funding concerns affect possibilities for resistance. Key to the study is an activist approach that raises the possibilities and problems associated with a publicly engaged anthropology.

Transcending Boundaries: Zhejiangcun: The Story of a Migrant Village in Beijing


Biao Xiang - 2004
    Based on long years of fieldwork, the book takes us to a highly unlikely site in Beijing Zhejiangcun (literally Zhejiang village ), the biggest migrant community in China, located only five kilometres south of Tian anmen Square -- where 100,000 migrants, mostly from Wenzhou, have organised a vibrant garment industry despite regular state crackdowns. It documents the spontaneous evolution of Zhejiangcun into a hub of nationwide migrant business networks transcending officially imposed boundaries. The book also makes use of Chinese folk insights and philosophical traditions as analytical tools for tackling fluid social relationships unconfined to physical space."

The Afterlife Is Where We Come From


Alma Gottlieb - 2004
    Far from being a tabula rasa, a Beng infant is thought to begin its life filled with spiritual knowledge. How do these beliefs affect the way the Beng rear their children?In this unique and engaging ethnography of babies, Alma Gottlieb explores how religious ideology affects every aspect of Beng childrearing practices—from bathing infants to protecting them from disease to teaching them how to crawl and walk—and how widespread poverty limits these practices. A mother of two, Gottlieb includes moving discussions of how her experiences among the Beng changed the way she saw her own parenting. Throughout the book she also draws telling comparisons between Beng and Euro-American parenting, bringing home just how deeply culture matters to the way we all rear our children.All parents and anyone interested in the place of culture in the lives of infants, and vice versa, will enjoy The Afterlife Is Where We Come From."This wonderfully reflective text should provide the impetus for formulating research possibilities about infancy and toddlerhood for this century." — Caren J. Frost, Medical Anthropology Quarterly “Alma Gottlieb’s careful and thought-provoking account of infancy sheds spectacular light upon a much neglected topic. . . . [It] makes a strong case for the central place of babies in anthropological accounts of religion.  Gottlieb’s remarkably rich account, delivered after a long and reflective period of gestation, deserves a wide audience across a range of disciplines.”—Anthony Simpson, Critique of Anthropology

The Way of the Elders: West African Spirituality & Tradition


Adama Doumbia - 2004
    Yet, there are few written records of West Africa's major beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies. "The Way of the Elders" co-authored by a West African native raised in the Mande tradition offers rare and authentic insight into the spirituality of West Africa, and particularly the Mande culture. This spiritual guidebook explains fundamental beliefs, such as reverence for the One Spirit, that permeate tribal life. Offerings, charms, herbal healing, shamans and their functions, the importance of wildlife, and the four elements of nature are discussed in detail. The second half of the book is devoted to sacred living and focuses on village life, sacred music and dance, pregnancy, birth, childhood initiation, marriage, death, and funerals.

The Origin and Evolution of Cultures


Robert Boyd - 2004
    Their interdisciplinary research is based on two notions. First, that culture is crucial for understanding human behavior; unlike other organisms, socially transmitted beliefs, attitudes, and values heavily influence our behavior. Secondly, culture is part of biology: the capacity to acquire and transmit culture is a derived component of human psychology, and the contents of culture are deeply intertwined with our biology. Culture then is a pool of information, stored in the brains of the population that gets transmitted from one brain to another by social learning processes. Therefore, culture can account for both our outstanding ecological success as well as the maladaptations that characterize much of human behavior. The interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science.

Once Upon a Virus


Diane E. Goldstein - 2004
    Notions that appear in narratives of who gets AIDS, how and why, are indicators of broad issues involving health beliefs, concerns, and needs.

Human Bones: A Scientific and Pictorial Investigation


R. McNeill Alexander - 2004
    R. McNeill Alexander, the world's foremost authority on biomechanics, takes the reader on a tour of the human skeleton, investigating and celebrating the human body's 213 bones. Alexander explores the nature of human bones as well as their relationship with other parts of the body in this lucid and informative book. Beginning by reminding readers that bones are living organs-they grow, suffer damage, and repair themselves just like other organs-Alexander elucidates the form and function of the myriad bones in the skull, the arms and legs, and the torso. How the bones in the arm combine with the torso at the shoulder to create a wide range of motion, and the relationship among the various parts of the skull-the nose and mouth cavities, for example-are some of the topics explored.

New Religions: A Guide: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities


Christopher Partridge - 2004
    New Religions offers an authoritative and lavishly illustrated guide to more than two hundred of these wildly varied groups and movements. The volume is organized according to an entirely new method of classification, which associates movements, sects, and spiritualities with the religious traditions from which they arose. Rastafarianism, for example, is shown to have its roots in Christianity, while Bahai is an offshoot of Islam. Included are both long-established groups like the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Hutterites and more recent movements like Santeria, the Unification Church, and ISKCON (the Hare Krishnas). In addition to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Indian Religions, and the Religions of East Asia, sections are devoted to movements and groups inspired by Indigenous and Pagan Traditions, and by Western Esoteric and New Age Traditions. Particularly fascinating is the discussion of the religious offspring of Modern Western Culture, including Scientology, UFO-based groups (such as the Raelians), and even the worship of celebrities like Elvis and Princess Diana. Each entry clearly and concisely explains the history, beliefs and practices, and status in the world today of the movement or group in question. Special entries highlight broad topics such as New Religions in China as well as intriguing subjects such as Cargo Cults, Martial Arts, Astrology, and Feng Shui. Written by specialists, New Religions is a fascinating and colorful guide to the bewildering array of religious and spiritual options available to the modern seeker.

Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today


Stephen B. Bevans - 2004
    Helps members of every denomination understand how they fit into the mosaic of the many churchesÂ� witness to the Gospel.

The Impact of Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Healthier


Richard G. Wilkinson - 2004
    Richard Wilkinson, a pioneering social scientist, addresses the growing feeling--so common in the United States--that modern societies, despite their material success, are social failures. The Impact of Inequality explains why inequality has such devastating effects on the quality and length of our lives.Wilkinson shows that inequality leads to stress, stress creates sickness on the individual and mass level, and overall society suffers widespread unhappiness and high levels of violence, depression, and mistrust across the social spectrum. The evidence he presents is incontrovertible: social and political equality are essential to improve life for everyone. Wilkinson argues that even small reductions in inequality can make an important difference--for, as this book explains, social relations are always built on material foundations.

Race Is a Four-Letter Word: The Genesis of the Concept


C. Loring Brace - 2004
    An ardent and eloquent opponent of typology, essentialism, and stereotyping, C. Loring Brace has based this engaging study on the Problems of Race course that he has taught at the University of Michigan for the past thirty-five years. Opening with an explanation of why the concept of race is biologically indefensible, Race Is a Four-Letter Word shows how the major elements of human biological variation have unrelated distributions and cannot be understood if the existence of races is assumed as a starting point. The book then examines the course of events that created the concept of race, journeying through time from Herodotus through Marco Polo; to the Renaissance and the role of the New World; on up to the American Civil War, the curious results of the alliance switch in World War I, Arthur Jensen, The Bell Curve, J. Philippe Rushton, and the Pioneer Fund in the twenty-first century. Ideal as a supplementary text in anthropology courses, Race Is a Four-Letter Word can also be used in history of science courses and sociology courses. It is captivating reading for professionals and anyone else who seeks enlightenment on the socially debatable issue of race.

Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History


Wolfgang Behringer - 2004
    Drawing on the latest historical and anthropological findings, Behringer sheds new light on the history of European witchcraft, while demonstrating that witch-hunts are not simply part of the European past. Although witch-hunts have long since been outlawed in Europe, other societies have struggled with the idea that witchcraft does not exist. As Behringer shows, witch-hunts continue to pose a major problem in Africa and among tribal people in America, Asia and Australia. The belief that certain people are able to cause harm by supernatural powers endures throughout the world today. Wolfgang Behringer explores the idea of witchcraft as an anthropological phenomenon with a historical dimension, aiming to outline and to understand the meaning of large-scale witchcraft persecutions in early modern Europe and in present-day Africa. He deals systematically with the belief in witchcraft and the persecution of witches, as well as with the process of outlawing witch-hunts. He examines the impact of anti-witch-hunt legislation in Europe, and discusses the problems caused in societies where European law was imposed in colonial times. In conclusion, the relationship between witches old and new is assessed. This book will make essential reading for all those interested in the history and anthropology of witchcraft and magic.

A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination


Angus Fletcher - 2004
    He lays out a fresh approach to American poetry at large, the first in several decades, expounding a defense of the art that will resonate well into the new century.Breaking with the tired habit of treating American poets as the happy or rebellious children of European romanticism, Fletcher uncovers a distinct lineage for American poetry. His point of departure is the fascinating English writer, John Clare; he then centers on the radically American vision expressed by Emerson and Walt Whitman. With Whitman this book insists that "the whole theory and nature of poetry" needs inspiration from science if it is to achieve a truly democratic vista. Drawing variously on Complexity Theory and on fundamentals of art and grammar, Fletcher argues that our finest poetry is nature-based, environmentally shaped, and descriptive in aim, enabling poets like John Ashbery and other contemporaries to discover a mysterious pragmatism.Intense, resonant, and deeply literary, this account of an American poetics shows how today's consumerist and conformist culture subverts the imagination of a free people. While centering on American vision, the argument extends our horizon, striking a blow against all economically sanctioned attacks upon the finer, stronger human capacities. Poetry, the author maintains, is central to any coherent vision of life.

Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection


Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing - 2004
    Rubbing two sticks together produces heat and light; one stick alone is just a stick. In both cases, it is friction that produces movement, action, effect. Challenging the widespread view that globalization invariably signifies a "clash" of cultures, anthropologist Anna Tsing here develops friction in its place as a metaphor for the diverse and conflicting social interactions that make up our contemporary world. She focuses on one particular "zone of awkward engagement"--the rainforests of Indonesia--where in the 1980s and the 1990s capitalist interests increasingly reshaped the landscape not so much through corporate design as through awkward chains of legal and illegal entrepreneurs that wrested the land from previous claimants, creating resources for distant markets. In response, environmental movements arose to defend the rainforests and the communities of people who live in them. Not confined to a village, a province, or a nation, the social drama of the Indonesian rainforest includes local and national environmentalists, international science, North American investors, advocates for Brazilian rubber tappers, UN funding agencies, mountaineers, village elders, and urban students, among others--all combining in unpredictable, messy misunderstandings, but misunderstandings that sometimes work out.Providing a portfolio of methods to study global interconnections, Tsing shows how curious and creative cultural differences are in the grip of worldly encounter, and how much is overlooked in contemporary theories of the global.

From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich


Gretchen E. Schafft - 2004
    Schafft shows the total range of anti-human activity from within the confines of a particular discipline. Based on seven years of archival research in the United States and abroad, the work includes many original photos and documents, most of which have never before been published. It uses primary data and original texts whenever possible, including correspondence written by perpetrators. The book also reveals that the United States was not merely a bystander in this research, but instead contributed professional and financial support to early racial research that continued through the first five years of Hitler’s regime.

Our Emotional Makeup


Vinciane Despret - 2004
    But if our emotions appear obvious to us, are they necessarily real or universal? This, of course, is what researchers in physiology and psychology assert, but they will ultimately be disappointed. Vinciane Despret sets out in this book to show how some of our emotions, precisely those we thought were a natural part of our make-up, do not exist unless they have been inscribed in our subjectivity through the mediation of culture. Emotions do not exist per se, but only within relations to others. Anthropologists and ethnologists often return from distant regions and remote islands with emotions unknown to their peers at home, and which can only be expressed in the tribal tongue they have learned. Following such discoveries, one should not be surprised to find that anger does not exist among the Uktus, and the Ikfalus have to teach fear to their children. One only has to consider the emotions of other cultures and traditions to recognize that they are human productions with wide and significant variations, like good manners. Our emotions, finally, represent the way that we see the world and try to make it our own.

Sand Buried Ruins Of Khotan: Personal Narrative Of A Journey Of Archaeological And Geographical Exploration In Chinese Turkestan


Aurel Stein - 2004
    Fisher Unwin, London.

Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century


Andrew Wiese - 2004
    Two dozen homes line the street; behind them wooden decks and living-room windows open onto vast woodland properties. Residents returning from their jobs steer SUVs into long driveways and emerge from their automobiles. They walk to the front doors of their houses past sculptured bushes and flowers in bloom.For most people, this cozy image of suburbia does not immediately evoke images of African Americans. But as this pioneering work demonstrates, the suburbs have provided a home to black residents in increasing numbers for the past hundred years—in the last two decades alone, the numbers have nearly doubled to just under twelve million. Places of Their Own begins a hundred years ago, painting an austere portrait of the conditions that early black residents found in isolated, poor suburbs. Andrew Wiese insists, however, that they moved there by choice, withstanding racism and poverty through efforts to shape the landscape to their own needs. Turning then to the 1950s, Wiese illuminates key differences between black suburbanization in the North and South. He considers how African Americans in the South bargained for separate areas where they could develop their own neighborhoods, while many of their northern counterparts transgressed racial boundaries, settling in historically white communities. Ultimately, Wiese explores how the civil rights movement emboldened black families to purchase homes in the suburbs with increased vigor, and how the passage of civil rights legislation helped pave the way for today's black middle class.Tracing the precise contours of black migration to the suburbs over the course of the whole last century and across the entire United States, Places of Their Own will be a foundational book for anyone interested in the African American experience or the role of race and class in the making of America's suburbs. Winner of the 2005 John G. Cawelti Book Award from the American Culture  Association. Winner of the 2005 Award for Best Book in North American Urban  History from the Urban History Association.

Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination


Arachu Castro - 2004
    The authors reveal that in light of prevailing social inequalities, health policies may intend to protect public health, but in fact they often represent significant structural threats to the health and well being of the poor, ethnic minorities, women, and other subordinate groups. The volume focuses on the 'anthropology of policy, ' which is concerned with the process of decision-making, the influences on decision-makers, and the impact of policy on human lives. This collaboration will be a critical resource for researchers and practitioners in medical anthropology, applied anthropology, medical sociology, minority issues, public policy, and health care issues

Ancient Puebloan Southwest


John Kantner - 2004
    Based on a diverse range of archaeological data, historical accounts, oral history and ethnographic records, this introduction for students of the Pueblo Southwest is vital reading for any archaeologist concerned with the origins of early civilizations.

Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists


Getzel M. Cohen - 2004
    Breaking Ground highlights the remarkable careers of twelve pioneers-a compelling narrative of personal, social, intellectual, and historical achievement."-Claire Lyons, The Getty Museum"Behind these pioneering women lie a wide range of fascinating and inspiring life stories. Though each of their tales is unique, they were all formidable scholars whose important contributions changed the field of archaeology. Kudos to the authors for making their stories and accomplishments known to us all!"-Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillThis book presents twelve fascinating women whose contributions to the development and progress of Old World archaeology---in an area ranging from Italy to Mesopotamia---have been immeasurable. Each essay in this collection examines the life of a pioneer archaeologist in the early days of the discipline, tracing her path from education in the classics to travel and exploration and eventual international recognition in the field of archaeology. The lives of these women may serve as models both for those interested in gender studies and the history of archaeology because in fact, they broke ground both as women and as archaeologists. The interest inherent in these biographies will reach well beyond defined disciplines and subdisciplines, for the life of each of these exciting and accomplished individuals is an adventure story in itself

Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism


Robert Decaroli - 2004
    The idea that Indian society had declined from an earlier Golden Age helped justify the colonial presence. It was said, for example, that modern Buddhism had fallen away from its original identity as a purely rational philosophy that arose in the mythical 5th-century BCE Golden Age unsullied by the religious and cultural practices that surrounded it. In this book Robert DeCaroli seeks to place the formation of Buddhism in its appropriate social and political contexts. It is necessary, he says, to acknowledge that the monks and nuns who embodied early Buddhist ideals shared many beliefs held by the communities in which they were raised. In becoming members of the monastic society these individuals did not abandon their beliefs in the efficacy and the dangers represented by minor deities and spirits of the dead. Their new faith, however, gave them revolutionary new mechanisms with which to engage those supernatural beings. Drawing on fieldwork, textual, and iconographic evidence, DeCaroli offers a comprehensive view of early Indian spirit-religions and their contributions to Buddhism-the first attempt at such a study since Ananda Coomaraswamy's pioneering work was published in 1928. The result is an important contribution to our understanding of early Indian religion and society, and will be of interest to those in the fields of Buddhist studies, Asian history, art history, and anthropology.

Caring for American Indian Objects: A Practical and Cultural Guide


Sherelyn Ogden - 2004
    Precious and irreplaceable pieces of a people's heritage can turn to dust, either slowly or rapidly, depending upon their composition and the ways in which they are stored and handled. Caring for American Indian Objects: A Practical and Cultural Guide offers invaluable information and advice to anyone who wants to preserve these objects. Twenty-one contributors, fourteen of whom are American Indians, discuss general aspects of museum care, explain techniques for particular materials, and address important cultural considerations. This practical guide, with over 100 color and black-and-white photos, offers Indian and non-Indian caregivers, conservators, and collectors helpful information on standard museum practice to aid them in making decisions to slow deterioration. "An excellent and valuable book that will be useful to students, conservators, and tribal museum staff. It will make a great textbook as well as reference book." -- Dr. Andrew Gulliford, Director, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College

Mythology: Myths, Legends & Fantasies


Book Sales Inc. - 2004
    Divided into 26 sections and illustrated in full color with more than 2,000 images sourced from leading galleries, museums and private collections from around the world.

The Story of London


Richard Brassey - 2004
    A perfect introduction to the capital.'' -The Mail on Sunday

The Cord Keepers: Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village


Frank Salomon - 2004
    Ancient Andean peoples encoded knowledge in knotted cords of cotton or wool called khipus. In The Cord Keepers, the distinguished anthropologist Frank Salomon breaks new ground with a close ethnography of one Andean village where villagers, surprisingly, have conserved a set of these enigmatic cords to the present day. The “quipocamayos,” as the villagers call them, form a sacred patrimony. Keying his reading to the internal life of the ancient kin groups that own the khipus, Salomon suggests that the multicolored cords, with their knots and lavishly woven ornaments, did not mimic speech as most systems of writing do, but instead were anchored in nonverbal codes. The Cord Keepers makes a compelling argument for a close intrinsic link between rituals and visual-sign systems. It indicates that, while Andean graphic representation may differ radically from familiar ideas of writing, it may not lie beyond the reach of scholarly interpretation.In 1994, Salomon witnessed the use of khipus as civic regalia on the heights of Tupicocha, in Peru’s central Huarochirí region. By observing the rich ritual surrounding them, studying the village’s written records from past centuries, and analyzing the khipus themselves, Salomon opens a fresh chapter in the quest for khipu decipherment. He draws on a decade’s field research, early colonial records, and radiocarbon and fiber analysis. Challenging the prevailing idea that the use of khipus ended under early Spanish colonial rule, Salomon reveals that these beautiful objects served, apparently as late as the early twentieth century, to document households’ contribution to their kin groups and these kin groups’ contribution to their village. The Cord Keepers is a major contribution to Andean history and, more broadly, to understandings of writing and literacy.

National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City


Adriana Konzevik - 2004
    & 450 color illus. folio.

Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanácatl: A Sourcebook on the Psilocybin Mushroom


Ralph Metzner - 2004
    Teonanácatl was the name given to the visionary mushrooms used in ancient Mesoamerican shamanic ceremonies, mushrooms that contain psilocybin, the psychoactive agent identified by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD. The rediscovery of these visionary mushrooms thru the Mazatec healer Maria Sabina by mycologist R. Gordon Wasson ignited a worldwide mushroom culture that inspired the consciousness revolution of the 60s. This book describes the consciousness-expanding experiences of psychoactive mushroom users--from artists to psychologists--& the healing visionary inspiration received. It provides 1sthand accounts of studies performed in the Harvard Psilocybin Project, including the Concord Prison study & the Good Friday study. It describes how the use of the psilocybe mushroom spread from the mountains of Mexico into the USA, Asia & Europe by seekers of consciousness-expansion. It also details how psilocybin has been used since the 60s in psychotherapy, prisoner rehabilitation, the enhancement of creativity & the induction of mystical experiences & is being studied as a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder.

El genio del idioma


Álex Grijelmo - 2004
    Linguists often refer to their soul as ?the language genie, but which are these rules? Where do they come from? What criteria does this genie follow? Understanding the language genie means understanding the structure of our thinking and understanding how we speak.

Trust


Alphonso Lingis - 2004
    We ask a stranger for directions, or for a ride. We live among people whose language, culture, and motivations we don't understand. Trust binds us to another with an intoxicating energy; it is brave, giddy, joyous, and lustful. A sudden attraction careens into sexual surrender, and trust becomes unconditional. Trust laughs at danger and leaps into the unknown.The author of Abuses and Foreign Bodies, Alphonso Lingis has traveled the globe for many years, and in Trust he reflects on journeys from Latin America to Asia to Antarctica. Whether feeding chocolate sauce and tuna to the baboons who visit his campsite in Ethiopia, celebrating the millennial New Year in Mongolia, or indulging in a passionate love affair in Vietnam, Lingis evaluates what happens around him and how it affects him and others. From these experiences he gains new understandings about spirituality, masculinity, love, death, ecstasy, and change.In the tradition of such international travelers as Paul Theroux, Pico Iyer, and Ryszard Kapuscinski, and with insight reminiscent of John Berger and Joan Didion, Lingis shares both the private revelations and the universal connections he acquires on his exotic journeys. "Travel far enough," he concludes, "and we find ourselves happily back in the infantile world"-where trust is ultimate.Alphonso Lingis is author of The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common, Dangerous Emotions, Abuses, and Foreign Bodies. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at Pennsylvania State University.

First Peoples in Canada


Alan D. McMillan - 2004
    Incorporating the latest research in anthropology, archaeology, ethnography and history, this new edition describes traditional ways of life, traces cultural changes that resulted from contacts with the Europeans, and examines the controversial issues of land claims and self-government that now affect Aboriginal societies.Most importantly, this generously illustrated edition incorporates a Nativist perspective in the analysis of Aboriginal cultures.

Unforgiving Tides: A Young Doctor Encounters Mud, Medicine and Magic on a Remote South Pacific Island


Ross Pennie - 2004
    Pennie, and not James Herriot, writes about the most fascinating creatures of all: people - Canadians, Americans, Australians, and aboriginals in an exotic setting.

The Myths of Zionism


John Rose - 2004
    John Rose shows how this powerful political force is based in mythology; ancient, medieval and modern. Many of these stories, as with other mythologies, have no basis in fact. However, because Zionism is a living political force, these myths have been used to justify very real and political ends -- namely, the expulsion and continuing persecution of the Palestinians.Rose scrutinises the roots of the myths of Zionism. Mobilising recent scholarship, he separates fact from fiction presenting a detailed analysis of their origins and development. This includes a challenge to Zionism's biblical claims using very recent and very startling Israeli archaeological conclusions.This book shows clearly how Zionism makes many false claims on Jewish religion and history.

Becoming a Reflexive Researcher - Using Our Selves in Research


Kim Etherington - 2004
    Read it and research!'- Lapidus'She has achieved her aim of the book being readable and giving insight into the processes of doing research through the lenses of the personal stories of researchers, whilst still writing a text that could be used as a core research method text for those who are themselves becoming reflective researchers. No matter what your background in the social sciences this original book, grounded in the reflexive practice of an experienced teacher and researcher, is well worth checking out'.- Escalate'Etherington (U, of Bristol) uses several narratives, including her own research diary and conversations with students and academics to demonstrate the way reflective research works in practice. Illustrating her points with poetry, paintings, metaphors and dreams, she suggests that recognizing the role of self in research can open up opportunities for creative and personal transformations. She also explores the use of reflexivity in counseling and psychotherapy practice and research.'- Book NewsThis book raises important questions about whether or not researchers can ever keep their own lives out of their work. In contrast to traditional impersonal approaches to research, reflexive researchers acknowledge the impact of their own history, experiences, beliefs and culture on the processes and outcomes of inquiry.In this thought-provoking book, Kim Etherington uses a range of narratives, including her own research diary and conversations with students and academics, to show the reader how reflexive research works in practice, linking this with underpinning philosophies, methodologies and related ethical issues. Placing her own journey as a researcher alongside others, she suggests that recognising the role of self in research can open up opportunities for creative and personal transformations, and illustrates this idea with poetry, paintings and the use of metaphors and dreams. She explores ways in which reflexivity is used in counselling and psychotherapy practice and research, enabling people to become agents in their own lives.This book encourages researchers to reflect on how self-awareness can enrich relationships with those who assist them in their research. It will inspire and challenge students and academics across a wide range of disciplines to find creative ways of practising and representing their research.

The Chimera Principle: An Anthropology of Memory and Imagination


Carlo Severi - 2004
    Setting himself against a tradition that has long seen the memory of people “without writing”—which relies on such ephemeral records as ornaments, body painting, and masks—as fundamentally disordered or doomed to failure, he argues strenuously that ritual actions in these societies pragmatically produce religious meaning and that they demonstrate what he calls a “chimeric” imagination.Deploying philosophical and ethnographic theory, Severi unfolds new approaches to research in the anthropology of ritual and memory, ultimately building a new theory of imagination and an original anthropology of thought. This English-language edition, beautifully translated by Janet Lloyd and complete with a foreword by David Graeber, will spark widespread debate and be heralded as an instant classic for anthropologists, historians, and philosophers.

Global Assemblages


Aihwa Ong - 2004
     Offers a ground-breaking approach to central debates about globalization with chapters written by leading scholars from across the social sciences. Examines a range of phenomena that articulate broad structural transformations: technoscience, circuits of exchange, systems of governance, and regimes of ethics or values. Investigates these phenomena from the perspective of the "anthropological" problems they pose. Covers a broad range of geographical areas: Africa, the Middle East, East and South Asia, North America, South America, and Europe. Grapples with a number of empirical problems of popular and academic interest -- from the organ trade, to accountancy, to pharmaceutical research, to neoliberal reform.

True Sexual Morality: Recovering Biblical Standards for a Culture in Crisis


Daniel R. Heimbach - 2004
    He gives us an in-depth look at the moral relativism that has spread through our culture and opens our eyes to the effects that nonbiblical sexual choices have on individuals, the family, the church, and the culture.

Human Osteology and Skeletal Radiology: An Atlas and Guide


Evan W. Matshes - 2004
    This atlas of skeletal anatomy covers general and specific anatomic terms, includes comparative images of bones in photographic and radiographic form to aid in recognition, and notes important comparisons among adult, juvenile, and fetal bones. It discusses each bone on an individual basis and describes how to side bones and identify fragments.Intended as a field guide for investigations and a lab guide in gross anatomy and skeletal specimen studies, this atlas provides easy and rapid identification of bone material. It takes you far beyond the bare bones of anatomy to aid in skeletal recognition in any situation.

Ancient Worlds, Modern Reflections: Philosophical Perspectives on Greek and Chinese Science and Culture


G.E.R. Lloyd - 2004
    The issues range from the debate about realism and relativism in philosophy of science to doubts concerning the universal applicability of the discourse of human rights. Lloyd provides compelling evidence that ancient civilizations have much to offer contemporary debates in many fields of study.

Stewards of the Sacred


Lawrence R. Sullivan - 2004
    Drawn from a conference organized by Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions, the book's leading authors cover a full range of topics, including community involvement in conservation and interpretation of sacred objects, representing spirituality for widely diverse visitors, acknowledging the sacred nature of non-religious objects, and sharing authority with Native communities. Includes sample policies and procedures related to these activities, as well as a comprehensive bibliography.

Communication, Knowledge, and Memory in Early Modern Spain


Fernando Bouza Álvarez - 2004
    Seeking to address the reductive opposition both between written and oral texts and between script and print in the Early Modern period, Fernando Bouza, one of Spain's most influential cultural historians, makes an elegant case for the equality and complementary natures of the various modes of communication. While the advent of printing is commonly thought to have resulted in the demise of the manuscript, Bouza upholds that the progress of textual culture in all its forms did not undermine the importance of other mediums of knowledge.The history of the book and of reading is often considered separately from the history of the uses of writing and speech, but according to Bouza, the boundaries between the spheres are artificial constructions that fail to honor the realities of the transfer of knowledge and information. While recognizing that reading and writing belong to two distinct models of acculturation, Bouza refuses to accept the myth that has identified rationality and modernity with written culture only, while the languages of images and the practices of orality are relegated to the past. Considering the uses of text, image, and speech in social settings ranging from the most humble to the most aristocratic, he argues that orality is as strongly present in the world of the court as in popular milieux, that the image was put to uses both naive and learned, and that writing--far from a privilege of the powerful--touched the lives of even the illiterate.This original and brilliant book is bound to transform current understandings of the intellectual practices of the Golden Age.

Conversion To Islam In The Balkans: Kisve Bahası Petitions And Ottoman Social Life, 1670 1730


Anton Minkov - 2004
    It reconstructs the stages of the Islamization process from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries and examines the factors and stimuli behind it. The practice of accepting Islam in the front of the sultan, characteristic of the last period of Islamization, and granting to new Muslims an amount of money known as kisve bahas , is shown in the context of Ottoman social development. An innovative structural analysis of the petitions requesting kisve bahas leads to examining the origins of the practice and constructing a collective portrait of the new Muslims who submitted them. Facsimiles and translations of the most interesting petitions are appended."

Photographs Objects Histories: On the Materiality of Images


Elizabeth Edwards - 2004
    The case studies presented focus on photographs active in different institutional, political, religious and domestic spheres, where physical properties, the nature of their use and the cultural formations in which they function make their 'objectness' central to how we should understand them.The book's contributions are drawn from disciplines including the history of photography, visual anthropology and art history, with case studies from a range of countries such as the Netherlands, North America, Australia, Japan, Romania and Tibet. Each shows the methodological strategies they have developed in order to fully exploit the idea of the materiality of photographic images.

Pain, Sex and Time: A New Outlook on Evolution and the Future of Man


Gerald Heard - 2004
    First published in 1939, its philosophy converted a generation of leading thinkers from the scientific worldview to the perspective of the mystics.Gerald Heard (1889-1971) was a well-known British polymath and science commentator for the BBC. He later toured and lectured prolifically in the United States. Heard wrote thirty-eight books including The Ascent of Humanity, The Social Substance of Religion and A Taste for Honey, a detective story which sold over half a million copies. Referring to Heard’s influence on Western notables, Ellery Queen wrote, “Gerald Heard is the spiritual godfather of this Western movement.”Aldous Huxley (from his 1939 review of Pain, Sex and Time): “Gerald Heard’s book represents a significant attempt to reinterpret in contemporary terms and in the light of modern knowledge the teachings, practical no less than theoretical, of the traditional religious philosophies...”Professor Huston Smith, (from his 2004 Foreword toPain, Sex and Time): “Overnight, the book in hand converted me from the scientific worldview to the vaster world of the mystics. I applaud the decision to bring this book back into print.”In this absorbing and provocative book, Gerald Heard shows that a fissure in human consciousness, which has been rapidly widening for 400 years, is the cause of modern man’s tragic dismay. Believing his problem external, when it is really in his own mind, man at last faces a “veritable Copernican revolution” psychologically. Science tells us that man is the only animal capable of continued evolution. It shows further that he can evolve in only one way—mentally. Pain, Sex and Time is then a new outlook, a new promise for the future, a new exploration of those strange and little-known powers of human consciousness of which man is becoming increasingly aware. Harper & Brothers, 1939Pain, Sex and Time was James Dean’s favorite book.Pain, Sex and Time has been out of print for 60 years.

Ancient Jomon of Japan


Junko Habu - 2004
    This text presents an overview of the archaeology of the Jomon Period between 10,000 and 300 BC within the context of more recent complex hunter-gatherer societies. It bridges the gap between academic traditions in Japanese and Anglo-American archaeology and represents an invaluable source of reflection on the development of human complexity.

Don't Let the Sun Step Over You: A White Mountain Apache Family Life, 1860–1975


Eva Tulene Watt - 2004
    Living under the authority of nervous Indian agents, pitiless government-school officials, and menacing mounted police, they knew that resistance to American authority would be foolish. But some Apache families did resist in the most basic way they could: they resolved to endure. Although Apache history has inspired numerous works by non-Indian authors, Apache people themselves have been reluctant to comment at length on their own past. Eva Tulene Watt, born in 1913, now shares the story of her family from the time of the Apache wars to the modern era. Her narrative presents a view of history that differs fundamentally from conventional approaches, which have almost nothing to say about the daily lives of Apache men and women, their values and social practices, and the singular abilities that enabled them to survive. In a voice that is spare, factual, and unflinchingly direct, Mrs. Watt reveals how the Western Apaches carried on in the face of poverty, hardship, and disease. Her interpretation of her people’s past is a diverse assemblage of recounted events, biographical sketches, and cultural descriptions that bring to life a vanished time and the men and women who lived it to the fullest. We share her and her family’s travels and troubles. We learn how the Apache people struggled daily to find work, shelter, food, health, laughter, solace, and everything else that people in any community seek. Richly illustrated with more than 50 photographs, Don’t Let the Sun Step Over You is a rare and remarkable book that affords a view of the past that few have seen before—a wholly Apache view, unsettling yet uplifting, which weighs upon the mind and educates the heart.

In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia


Neil L. Whitehead - 2004
    This collection challenges that assumption by showing that dark shamans are, in many Amazonian cultures, quite different from shamanic healers and prophets. Assault sorcery, in particular, involves violence resulting in physical harm or even death. While highlighting the distinctiveness of such practices, In Darkness and Secrecy reveals them as no less relevant to the continuation of culture and society than curing and prophecy. The contributors suggest that the persistence of dark shamanism can be understood as a form of engagement with modernity.These essays, by leading anthropologists of South American shamanism, consider assault sorcery as it is practiced in parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and Peru. They analyze the social and political dynamics of witchcraft and sorcery and their relation to cosmology, mythology, ritual, and other forms of symbolic violence and aggression in each society studied. They also discuss the relations of witchcraft and sorcery to interethnic contact and the ways that shamanic power may be co-opted by the state. In Darkness and Secrecy includes reflections on the ethical and practical implications of ethnographic investigation of violent cultural practices.Contributors. Dominique Buchillet, Carlos Fausto, Michael Heckenberger, Elsje Lagrou, E. Jean Langdon, George Mentore, Donald Pollock, Fernando Santos-Granero, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Márnio Teixeira-Pinto, Silvia Vidal, Neil L. Whitehead, Johannes Wilbert, Robin Wright

Constructing Childhood: Theory, Policy and Social Practice


Allison James - 2004
    Through an interdisciplinary synthesis combining social theory, social policy and the empirical findings of social science research, it bridges the current gap between theory and practice, offering an incisive theoretical account of childhood that is grounded in substantive areas of children's lives such as health, education, crime and the family. This furthers understanding of the impact of policy on children's everyday lives and social experiences.

Whitening Race: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism


Aileen Moreton-Robinson - 2004
    It creates a new intellectual space that investigates the nature of racialised conditions and their role in reproducing colonising relations in Australia.

The Human Genome


Julia E. Richards - 2004
    Genetic issues are now playing a large role in health and public policy, and new knowledge in this field will continue to have significant implications for individuals and society. Written for the non-majors human genetics course, Human Genetics, 3E will increase the genetics knowledge of students who are learning about human genetics for the first time. This thorough revision of the best-selling Human Genome,2E includes entirely new chapters on forensics, stem cell biology, bioinformatics, and societal/ethical issues associated with the field. New special features boxes make connections between human genetics and human health and disease. Carefully crafted pedagogy includes chapter-opening case studies that set the stage for each chapter; concept statements interspersed throughout the chapter that keep first-time students focused on key concepts; and end-of-chapter questions and critical thinking activities. This new edition will contribute to creating a genetically literate student population that understands basic biological research, understands elements of the personal and health implications of genetics, and participates effectively in public policy issues involving genetic information .

Woman's Identity and the Qur'an: A New Reading


Nimat Hafez Barazangi - 2004
    Barazangi asserts that Muslim women have been generally excluded from full participation in Islamic society, and thus from full and equal Islamic identity, primarily because of patriarchal readings of the Qur'an and the entire range of early Qur'anic literature. Based on her study of the sacred text, she argues that Islamic higher learning is a basic human right, that women have equal authority to participate in the interpretation of Islamic primary sources, and that women will realize their just role in society and their potential as human beings only when they are involved in the interpretation of the Qur'an.        Barazangi offers a curricular framework for self-teaching that could prepare Muslim women for an active role in citizenship and policymaking in a pluralistic society by affirming the self-identity of the Muslim woman as an autonomous spiritual and intellectual human being.

Among Orangutans: Red Apes and the Rise of Human Culture


Carel van Schaik - 2004
    In a richly illustrated narrative, a distinguished biological anthropologist introduces the colorful characters and complex lives of the orangutans who inhabit the rapidly vanishing forests of Sumatra.

Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy: Theoria in Its Cultural Context


Andrea Wilson Nightingale - 2004
    This book examines how philosophers of the period articulated the new conception of knowledge and how cultural conditions influenced this development. It provides an interdisciplinary study of the attempts to conceptualize theoretical activity during a foundational period in the history of Western philosophy.

Dreamworld Tibet: Western Illusions


Martin Brauen - 2004
    Starting with romantic notions of 17th-century adventurers in search of a Himalayan Utopia, Brauen discusses misconceptions both amusing and disturbing, such as the distortions of 20th-century neo-Nazis. The author also details the cynical exploitation of Tibetan Buddhism—a fundamental objective of which is the elimination of human greed—to further Western commercial aims. Nor does Brauen absolve Tibetans themselves in the use of the more benign, even flattering, of these distorted images, as they strive to draw the world's attention to their own politically and socially tenuous situation. Here the author lists the traditionally tolerant nature of Buddhist beliefs, the tendency of Tibetans to submit without question to authority figures, and some inherent naiveté as contributing factors. The book concludes with a caution on the dangers that these misconceptions pose to a mature presentation of the great value that Tibetan culture holds for the world. The illustrations are a fascinating and diverse collection drawn from movies, comic books, and popular literature. Illustrations of the commercial packaging of Tibet, its spiritual icons and religious leaders, are vivid and at times even shocking, as they portray the promotion of products ranging from cars to cosmetics, T-shirts, ash trays, and even soft pornography. In a world in which the elimination of cultural misunderstanding may be the key to ending human strife, Dreamworld Tibet offers a thoughtful and timely contribution.

The Figured Landscapes of Rock-Art: Looking at Pictures in Place


Christopher Chippindale - 2004
    The book draws together the work of many well-known scholars from key regions of the world known for rock-art and rock-art research. It provides insight into the location and structure of rock-art and its role within the landscapes of ancient worlds.

Jacob's Tears: The Priestly Work Of Reconciliation


Mary Douglas - 2004
    Mary Douglas argues that the editors, far from being a separate elite unconcerned with their congregation's troubles, cherished a political agenda, a religious protest against the government of Judah's exclusionary policies. The priestly theology depends on God's Covenant with all the descendants of Jacob, including the sons of Joseph. It would have been unpatriotic, even subversive, to speak against the wars with Samaria. This book suggest an explanation of the editors' disappearance from the history of Israel.

Native North American Armor, Shields, and Fortifications


David E. Jones - 2004
    An impressive array of offensive weaponry and battle tactics gave rise to an equally impressive range of defensive technology. Native Americans constructed very effective armor and shields using wood, bone, and leather. Their fortifications ranged from simple refuges to walled and moated stockades to multiple stockades linked in strategic defensive networks. In this book, David E. Jones offers the first systematic comparative study of the defensive armor and fortifications of aboriginal Native Americans. Drawing data from ethnohistorical accounts and archaeological evidence, he surveys the use of armor, shields, and fortifications both before European contact and during the historic period by American Indians from the Southeast to the Northwest Coast, from the Northeast Woodlands to the desert Southwest, and from the Sub-Arctic to the Great Plains. Jones also demonstrates the sociocultural factors that affected warfare and shaped the development of different types of armor and fortifications. Extensive eyewitness descriptions of warfare, armor, and fortifications, as well as photos and sketches of Indian armor from museum collections, add a visual dimension to the text.

Introduction to Tribal Legal Studies


Justin B. Richland - 2004
    It addresses the power of tribal courts and tribal legal systems as key to the exercise and expansion of tribal sovereignty. Richland and Deer discuss in depth the histories, structures, and practices of tribal justice systems, efforts to balance tribal legal heritage and Anglo-American law, the scope of criminal and civil jurisdictions, child welfare and civil rights, traditional dispute resolution mechanisms in contemporary tribal law, models of peacemaking, and means for assuring integrity of tribal courts. This text will be an invaluable resource for legal scholars and students. Published in cooperation with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, visit their web page; Turtle Mountain Community College; and the Native Nations Law and Policy Center, University of California, Los Angeles.

Stigmas of the Tamil Stage: An Ethnography of Special Drama Artists in South India


Susan Seizer - 2004
    Held in towns and villages throughout the region, Special Drama performances last from 10 p.m. until dawn. There are no theatrical troupes in Special Drama; individual artists are contracted “specially” for each event. The first two hours of each performance are filled with the kind of bawdy, improvisational comedy that is the primary focus of this study; the remaining hours present more markedly staid dramatic treatments of myth and history. Special Drama artists themselves are of all ages, castes, and ethnic and religious affiliations; the one common denominator in their lives is their lower-class status. Artists regularly speak of how poverty compelled their entrance into the field. Special Drama is looked down upon by the middle- and upper-classes as too popular, too vulgar, and too “mixed.” The artists are stigmatized: people insult them in public and landlords refuse to rent to them. Stigma falls most heavily, however, on actresses, who are marked as “public women” by their participation in Special Drama. As Susan Seizer’s sensitive study shows, one of the primary ways the performers deal with such stigma is through humor and linguistic play. Their comedic performances in particular directly address questions of class, culture, and gender deviations—the very issues that so stigmatize them. Seizer draws on extensive interviews with performers, sponsors, audience members, and drama agents as well as on careful readings of live Special Drama performances in considering the complexities of performers’ lives both on stage and off.

Occupied by Memory: The Intifada Generation and the Palestinian State of Emergency


John Collins - 2004
    Based on extensive interviews with members of the intifada generation, those who were between 10 and 18 years old when the intifada began in 1987, the book provides a detailed look at the intifada memories of ordinary Palestinians. These personal stories are presented as part of a complex and politically charged discursive field through which young Palestinians are invested with meaning by scholars, politicians, journalists, and other observers. What emerges from their memories is a sense of a generation caught between a past that is simultaneously traumatic, empowering, and exciting--and a future that is perpetually uncertain. In this sense, Collins argues that understanding the stories and the struggles of the intifada generation is a key to understanding the ongoing state of emergency for the Palestinian people. The book will be of interest not only to scholars of the Middle East but also to those interested in nationalism, discourse analysis, social movements, and oral history.

Jungle Medicine: One Woman's Journey from Pharmacist to Shaman


Connie Grauds - 2004
    The author, Connie Grauds, is a pharmacist and a shamana. She stands with her feet firmly planted in two very different worlds...the world of the rational and the world of the irrational. "Jungle Medicine" is a memoir of the author's decade of shamanic apprenticeship in the jungles of Peru. This book takes the reader on a vivid personal journey into deep jungle medicine and magic.

A Suitable Amount of Crime


Nils Christie - 2004
    In this book, Nils Christie argues that crime is a fluid and shallow concept - acts that could be construed as criminal are unlimited and crime is therefore in endless supply. It should not be forgotten that there are alternatives, both in the definition of crime, and in responses to it.A Suitable Amount of Crime looks at the great variations between countries over what are considered 'unwanted acts', how many are constructed as criminal and how many are punished. It explains the differences between eastern and western Europe, between the USA and the rest of the world. The author laments the size of prison populations in countries with large penal sectors, and asks whether the international community has a moral obligation to 'shame' states that are punitive in the extreme.The book is written in an engaging and easily accessible style that will appeal to anyone interested in understanding contemporary problems of crime and punishment.

Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires


Stephen J. Pyne - 2004
    Traces the ancient alliance between fire and humanity, delves into the role of European expansion and the creation of fire-prone public lands, and then explores the effects wrought by changing policies of letting burn and suppression.

Reports From a Wild Country: Ethics of Decolonisation


Deborah Bird Rose - 2004
    Written in the midst of rapid social and environmental change and in a time of uncertainty and division, it offers powerful stories and arguments for ethical choice and commitment. The focus is on reconciliation between Indigenous and ‘Settler’ peoples, and with nature.

Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor


Elizabeth C. Dunn - 2004
    Using a blend of ethnography and economic geography, Elizabeth C. Dunn shows how management technologies like niche marketing, accounting, audit, and standardization make up flexible capitalism's unique form of labor discipline. This new form of management constitutes some workers as self-auditing, self-regulating actors who are disembedded from a social context while defining others as too entwined in social relations and unable to self-manage.Privatizing Poland examines the effects privatization has on workers' self-concepts; how changes in personhood relate to economic and political transitions; and how globalization and foreign capital investment affect Eastern Europe's integration into the world economy. Dunn investigates these topics through a study of workers and changing management techniques at the Alima-Gerber factory in Rzesz�w, Poland, formerly a state-owned enterprise, which was privatized by the Gerber Products Company of Fremont, Michigan.Alima-Gerber instituted rigid quality control, job evaluation, and training methods, and developed sophisticated distribution techniques. The core principle underlying these goals and strategies, the author finds, is the belief that in order to produce goods for a capitalist market, workers for a capitalist enterprise must also be produced. Working side-by-side with Alima-Gerber employees, Dunn saw firsthand how the new techniques attempted to change not only the organization of production, but also the workers' identities. Her seamless, engaging narrative shows how the employees resisted, redefined, and negotiated work processes for themselves.

Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge: Family Ties, Warrior Culture, Commodity Foods, Rez Dogs, and the Sacred


Vic Glover - 2004
    Together, with humor and perseverance, they are strengthened as they try to overcome the social and political forces that threaten their community. Native and non-native alike will find a poignant honesty that grabs them from the opening line to the end. For some it will feel like familiar territory; for others, a heart-opening awakening to the struggles and spirit of The People.

On the Philosophy of Communication


Gary P. Radford - 2004
    ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMMUNICATION presents a general overview of communication, this practical and affordable philosophy text will help you understand and identify key ideas so that you can easily succeed in this course.

SuburbiaNation: Reading Suburban Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Fiction and Film


Robert A. Beuka - 2004
    Or is it? To judge by the depiction of suburbia in prominent works of American fiction and film, the suburbs are also home to dysfunctional families, broken communities, and widespread misery. Clearly, despite the continued popularity of the suburbs as a place to live, the prevailing image of suburbia has changed markedly since the days of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best. In this book, Robert Beuka argues that in order to begin to understand our conflicted relationship toward the suburbs, we need to understand how suburbia has come to be defined through its representation in the popular media and arts. SuburbiaNation looks carefully at the suburban landscape through the lens of fiction and of film, and Beuka weaves together such classics as It's a Wonderful Life, The Stepford Wives, The Great Gatsby, The Swimmer, The Graduate, and House Party to discuss the suburb and its significance in American culture.

Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal


June McDaniel - 2004
    The year's biggest holidays are devoted to the goddesses Durga and Kali, with lavish rituals, decorated statues, fireworks, and parades. In Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls, June McDaniel provides a broad, accessibly written overview of Bengali goddess worship. McDaniel identifies three major forms of goddess worship, and examines each through its myths, folklore, songs, rituals, sacred texts, and practitioners. In the folk/tribal strand, which is found in rural areas, local tribal goddesses are worshipped alongside Hindu goddesses, with an emphasis on possession, healing, and animism. The tantric/yogic strand focuses on ritual, meditation, and visualization as ways of experiencing the power of the goddess directly. The devotional or bhakti strand, which is the most popular form, involves the intense love and worship of a particular form of the goddess. McDaniel traces these strands through Bengali culture and explores how they are interwoven with each other as well as with other forms of Hinduism. She also discusses how these practices have been reinterpreted in the West, where goddess worship has gained the values of sexual freedom and psychological healing, but lost its emphases on devotion and asceticism. Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls takes the reader inside the lives of practicing Shaktas, including holy women, hymn singers, philosophers, visionaries, gurus, ascetics, healers, musicians, and businessmen, and offers vivid descriptions of their rituals, practices, and daily lives. Drawing on years of fieldwork and extensive research, McDaniel paints a rich, expansive portrait of this fascinating religious tradition.

Abu Bakr al Siddiq: His Life and Times


Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki - 2004
    

American Flintknappers: Stone Age Art in the Age of Computers


John C. Whittaker - 2004
    In the United States, knappers gather at regional “knap-ins” to socialize, exchange ideas and material, buy and sell both equipment and knapped art, and make stone tools in the company of others. In between these gatherings, the knapping community stays connected through newsletters and the Internet. In this book, avid knapper and professional anthropologist John Whittaker offers an insider’s view of the knapping community. He explores why stone tools attract modern people and what making them means to those who pursue this art. He describes how new members are incorporated into the knapping community, how novices learn the techniques of knapping and find their roles within the group, how the community is structured, and how ethics, rules, and beliefs about knapping are developed and transmitted. He also explains how the practice of knapping relates to professional archaeology, the trade in modern replicas of stone tools, and the forgery of artifacts. Whittaker’s book thus documents a fascinating subculture of American life and introduces the wider public to an ancient and still rewarding craft.

The Bernard Cohn Omnibus: An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge, India: The Social Anthropology of a Civilization


Bernard S. Cohn - 2004
    In the first book, Cohn traced the development of Indian civilization by combining historical and anthropological approaches to the subject and provided a framework by example for the study of any complex society. The second book has become a legend of sorts, cited extensively in glowing terms by a whole host of scholars, who have taken the essays in this book to be a starting point for a methodology which combines the historical and anthropological approaches. The third title is a brilliant collection of Cohn's writings from the last fifteen years, discussing areas in which the colonial impact has generally been overlooked.