Best of
Anthropology

2007

The Ascent of Humanity


Charles Eisenstein - 2007
    Eisenstein traces all of the converging crises of our age to a common source, which he calls Separation. It is the ideology of the discrete and separate self that has generated these crises; therefore, he argues, nothing less than a "revolution in human beingness" will be sufficient to transform our relationship to each other and the planet. And this revolution is underway already. In all realms of human endeavor, an Age of Reunion is emerging out of the birth-pangs of a planet in crisis. The range and depth of Eisenstein's thesis is breath-taking. Encompassing science, religion, spirituality, technology, economics, medicine, education, and more, he details a vast paradigm shift reflecting a more fundamental shift in the human sense of self. Even in this dark hour, he says, a more beautiful world is possible -- but not through the extension of millennia-old methods of management and control. The convergence of crises is revealing the final bankruptcy of those methods. Soon, he says, we will abandon the Babelian effort to build a tower to Heaven, as we realize that the sky is all around us already. Then, we will turn our efforts to creating a new kind of civilization, a conscious civilization designed for beauty rather than height.

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest


Craig Childs - 2007
    Drawing on scholarly research and archaeological evidence, the author examines the accomplishments of the Anasazi people of the American Southwest and speculates on why the culture vanished by the 13th century.

Ordinary Affects


Kathleen Stewart - 2007
    Known for her focus on the poetics and politics of language and landscape, the anthropologist Kathleen Stewart ponders how ordinary impacts create the subject as a capacity to affect and be affected. In a series of brief vignettes combining storytelling, close ethnographic detail, and critical analysis, Stewart relates the intensities and banalities of common experiences and strange encounters, half-spied scenes and the lingering resonance of passing events. While most of the instances rendered are from Stewart’s own life, she writes in the third person in order to reflect on how intimate experiences of emotion, the body, other people, and time inextricably link us to the outside world.Stewart refrains from positing an overarching system—whether it’s called globalization or neoliberalism or capitalism—to describe the ways that economic, political, and social forces shape individual lives. Instead, she begins with the disparate, fragmented, and seemingly inconsequential experiences of everyday life to bring attention to the ordinary as an integral site of cultural politics. Ordinary affect, she insists, is registered in its particularities, yet it connects people and creates common experiences that shape public feeling. Through this anecdotal history—one that poetically ponders the extremes of the ordinary and portrays the dense network of social and personal connections that constitute a life—Stewart asserts the necessity of attending to the fleeting and changeable aspects of existence in order to recognize the complex personal and social dynamics of the political world.

Complete Pompeii


Joanne Berry - 2007
    This up-to-date new survey draws on evidence produced at the cutting edge of modern archaeological research, revealing how the evidence for life in this city was first uncovered, and how archaeologists over the centuries have unpeeled the layers that enable us to reconstruct Pompeii's history.With its lavish illustrations, covering monumental architecture and inscriptions, shops, graffiti, wall-paintings, and mosaics, plus its numerous box features ranging from theatrical entertainments to water supply, The Complete Pompeii is the ultimate resource and inspirational guide to this iconic ancient town.Among the many topics covered:How Pompeii was destroyed in the eruption of AD 79What we know of the lives and deaths of its inhabitantsWhat the houses tell us about the people who lived in themWho was involved in politicsWhat can be reconstructed about religious practices

Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire


David Graeber - 2007
    Not only does he accomplish this profound feat, he redoubles it by the critical task—now more urgent than ever—of making the possibilities of other people’s worlds the basis for understanding our own.” —Marshall Sahlins, University of Chicago“Graeber’s ideas are rich and wide-ranging; he pushes us to expand the boundaries of what we admit to be possible, or even thinkable.”—Steven Shaviro, Wayne State UniversityIn this new collection, David Graeber revisits questions raised in his popular book, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Written in an unpretentious style that uses accessible and entertaining language to convey complex theoretical ideas, these twelve essays cover a lot of ground, including the origins of capitalism, the history of European table manners, love potions in rural Madagascar, and the phenomenology of giant puppets at street protests. But they’re linked by a clear purpose: to explore the nature of social power and the forms that resistance to it have taken, or might take in the future.Anarchism is currently undergoing a worldwide revival, in many ways replacing Marxism as the theoretical and moral center of new revolutionary social movements. It has, however, left little mark on the academy. While anarchists and other visionaries have turned to anthropology for ideas and inspiration, anthropologists are reluctant to enter into serious dialogue. David Graeber is not. These essays, spanning almost twenty years, show how scholarly concerns can be of use to radical social movements, and how the perspectives of such movements shed new light on debates within the academy.David Graeber has written for Harper’s Magazine, New Left Review, and numerous scholarly journals. He is the author or editor of four books and currently lives in New York City.In Oakland, California on March 24, 2015 a fire destroyed the AK Press warehouse along with several other businesses. Please consider visiting the AK Press website to learn more about the fundraiser to help them and their neighbors.

An Illustrated Short History of Progress


Ronald Wright - 2007
    

Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America


Krishnan Ramaswamy - 2007
    However, a powerful counterforce within the American Academy is systematically undermining core icons and ideals of Indic Culture and thought. For instance, scholars of this counterforce have disparaged the Bhagavad Gita as “a dishonest book”; declared Ganesha’s trunk a “limp phallus”; classified Devi as the “mother with a penis” and Shiva as “a notorious womanizer” who incites violence in India; pronounced Sri Ramakrishna a pedophile who sexually molested the young Swami Vivekananda; condemned Indian mothers as being less loving of their children than white women; and interpreted the bindi as a drop of menstrual fluid and the “ha” in sacred mantras as a woman’s sound during orgasm.Are these isolated instances of ignorance or links in an institutionalized pattern of bias driven by certain civilizational worldviews?Are these academic pronouncements based on evidence, and how carefully is this evidence cross-examined? How do these images of India and Indians created in the American Academy influence public perceptions through the media, the education system, policymakers and popular culture?Adopting a politically impartial stance, this book, the product of an intensive multi-year research project, uncovers the invisible networks behind this Hinduphobia, narrates the Indian Diaspora’s challenges to such scholarship, and documents how those who dared to speak up have been branded as “dangerous”. The book hopes to provoke serious debate. For example:How do Hinduphobic works resemble earlier American literature depicting non-whites as dangerous savages needing to be civilized by the West?Are India’s internal social problems going to be managed by foreign interventions in the name of human rights?How do power imbalances and systemic biases affect the objectivity and quality of scholarship?What are the rights of practitioner-experts in “talking back” to academicians?What is the role of India’s intellectuals, policymakers and universities in fashioning an authentic and enduring response?

Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA


Daniel J. Fairbanks - 2007
    In recent years, opponents of "Darwin’s dangerous idea" have mounted history’s most sophisticated and generously funded attack, claiming that evolution is "a theory in crisis." Ironically, these claims are being made at a time when the explosion of information from genome projects has revealed the most compelling and overwhelming evidence of evolution ever discovered. Much of the latest evidence of human evolution comes not from our genes, but from so-called "junk DNA," leftover relics of our evolutionary history that make up the vast majority of our DNA. Relics of Eden explores this powerful DNA-based evidence of human evolution. The "relics" are the millions of functionally useless but scientifically informative remnants of our evolutionary ancestry trapped in the DNA of every person on the planet. For example, the analysis of the chimpanzee and Rhesus monkey genomes shows indisputable evidence of the human evolutionary relationship with other primates. Over 95 percent of our genome is identical with that of chimpanzees and we also have a good deal in common with other animal species. Author Daniel J. Fairbanks also discusses what DNA analysis reveals about where humans originated. The diversity of DNA sequences repeatedly confirms the archeological evidence that humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa (the "Eden" of the title) and from there migrated through the Middle East and Asia to Europe, Australia, and the Americas. In conclusion, Fairbanks confronts the supposed dichotomy between evolution and religion, arguing that both science and religion are complementary ways to seek truth. He appeals to the vast majority of Americans who hold religious convictions not to be fooled by the pseudoscience of Creationists and Intelligent Design advocates and to abandon the false dichotomy between religion and real science. This concise, very readable presentation of recent genetic research is completely accessible to the nonspecialist and makes for enlightening and fascinating reading.

Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs


Rane Willerslev - 2007
    Basing his study on firsthand experience with Yukaghir hunters, Rane Willerslev focuses on the practical implications of living in a "hall-of-mirrors" world—one inhabited by humans, animals, and spirits, all of whom are understood to be endless mimetic doubles of one another. In this world human beings inhabit a betwixt-and-between state in which their souls are both substance and nonsubstance, both body and soul, both their own individual selves and reincarnated others. Hunters are thus both human and the animals they imitate, which forces them to steer a complicated course between the ability to transcend difference and the necessity of maintaining identity.

Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory


Ahmad H. Sa'di - 2007
    But for Palestinians themselves, the iniquities of the present are experienced as a continuous replay of the injustice of the past.By focusing on memories of the Nakba or "catastrophe" of 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were dispossessed to create the state of Israel, the contributors to this volume illuminate the contemporary Palestinian experience and clarify the moral claims they make for justice and redress.The book's essays consider the ways in which Palestinians have remembered and organized themselves around the Nakba, a central trauma that continues to be refracted through Palestinian personal and collective memory. Analyzing oral histories and written narratives, poetry and cinema, personal testimony and courtroom evidence, the authors show how the continuing experience of violence, displacement, and occupation have transformed the pre-Nakba past and the land of Palestine into symbols of what has been and continues to be lost.Nakba brings to light the different ways in which Palestinians experienced and retain in memory the events of 1948. It is the first book to examine in detail how memories of Palestine's cataclysmic past are shaped by differences of class, gender, generation, and geographical location. In exploring the power of the past, the authors show the urgency of the question of memory for understanding the contested history of the present.Contributors: Lila Abu Lughod, Columbia University; Diana Keown Allan, Harvard University; Haim Bresheeth, University of East London; Rochelle Davis, Georgetown University; Samera Esmeir, University of California, Berkeley; Isabelle Humphries, University of Surrey; Lena Jayyusi, Zayed University; Laleh Khalili, SOAS, University of London; Omar Al-Qattan, filmmaker; Ahmad H. Sa'di, Ben-Gurion University; Rosemary Sayigh, Lebanon-based anthropologist; Susan Slyomovics, University of California, Los Angeles

Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry


Laura María Agustín - 2007
    Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radical analysis. Frequently, says Agustín, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry. Although they are treated as a marginalised group, they form part of the dynamic global economy.Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice.-from the back cover

The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding


Mark Johnson - 2007
    Johnson uses recent research into infant psychology to show how the body generates meaning even before self-consciousness has fully developed. From there he turns to cognitive neuroscience to further explore the bodily origins of meaning, thought, and language and examines the many dimensions of meaning—including images, qualities, emotions, and metaphors—that are all rooted in the body’s physical encounters with the world. Drawing on the psychology of art and pragmatist philosophy, Johnson argues that all of these aspects of meaning-making are fundamentally aesthetic. He concludes that the arts are the culmination of human attempts to find meaning and that studying the aesthetic dimensions of our experience is crucial to unlocking meaning's bodily sources.           Throughout, Johnson puts forth a bold new conception of the mind rooted in the understanding that philosophy will matter to nonphilosophers only if it is built on a visceral connection to the world. “Mark Johnson demonstrates that the aesthetic and emotional aspects of meaning are fundamental—central to conceptual meaning and reason, and that the arts show meaning-making in its fullest realization. If you were raised with the idea that art and emotion were external to ideas and reason, you must read this book. It grounds philosophy in our most visceral experience.”—George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics

Meerkat Manor: Flower of the Kalahari


Timothy Hugh Clutton-Brock - 2007
    Behind-the-scenes detail provided by expert author Tim Clutton-Brock sheds light on Flower's early years, her fight to rule the Whiskers, and her struggle to stay on top. With beautiful illustrations and a meerkat's-eye view of life in the Kalahari, "Meerkat Manor" also contains an easy-to-understand introduction to animal societies, meerkats, their predators and prey.Like humans, meerkats can be cute, cuddly, affectionate, fearless, and amazingly unselfish; also like us, they can become vicious, vindictive, and even murderous within a split second. By explaining the lives of the Whiskers, Clutton-Brock shares his perspective on how the lives of all animals (including humans) are structured by the need both to compete and to cooperate.

African Masks: The Barbier-Mueller Collection


Iris Hahner - 2007
    Now available in paperback, this beautiful volume presents nearly 250 of the finest African masks from the incomparable Barbier-Mueller Collection, which is unique in its vast number of artifacts and wide geographic scope.The book includes one hundred color plates accompanied by in-depth descriptions, as well as numerous black-and-white photographs of the masks as they are used in religious and secular celebrations. Introductory texts from renowned scholars describe how the masks are constructed, examine their significance in African culture, and offer insight into the universal practice of masquerading. A unique contribution to literature on African art, this book is also a wonderful introduction to countless fascinating, ages-old spiritual traditions still being practiced today.

The Inner Touch: Archaeology of a Sensation


Daniel Heller-Roazen - 2007
    Aristotle was perhaps the first to define this faculty when in his treatise On the Soul he identified a sensory power, irreducible to the five senses, by which animals perceive that they are perceiving: the simple -sense, - as he wrote, -that we are seeing and hearing.- After him, thinkers returned, time and again, to define and redefine this curious sensation. The classical Greek and Roman philosophers as well as the medieval Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin thinkers who followed them all investigated a power they called -the common sense, - which one ancient author likened to -a kind of inner touch, by which we are able to grasp ourselves.- Their many findings were not lost with the waning of the Middle Ages. From Montaigne and Francis Bacon to Locke, Leibniz, and Rousseau, from nineteenth-century psychiatry and neurology to Proust and Walter Benjamin, the writers and thinkers of the modern period have turned knowingly and unknowing to the terms of older traditions in exploring the perception that every sensitive being possesses of its life.The Inner Touch reconstructs and reconsiders the history of this perception. In twenty-five concise chapters that move freely among ancient, medieval, and modern cultures, Daniel Heller-Roazen investigates a set of exemplary phenomena that have played central roles in philosophical, literary, psychological, and medical accounts of the nature of animal existence. Here sensation and self-sensation, sleeping and waking, aesthetics and anesthetics, perception and apperception, animal nature and human nature, consciousness and unconsciousness, all acquire a new meaning.The Inner Touch proposes an original, elegant, and far-reaching philosophical inquiry into a problem that has never been more pressing: what it means to feel that one is alive.Winner of the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies

Magic: A Treatise On Natural Occultism


Manly P. Hall - 2007
    Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

The Nation and Its Ruins: Antiquity, Archaeology, and National Imagination in Greece


Yannis Hamilakis - 2007
    It also shows how, in return, national imagination has created and shaped classical antiquities and archaeological practice from the nineteenth century to the present. Yannis Hamilakis covers a diverse range of topics, including the role of antiquities in the foundation of the Greek state in the nineteenth century, the Elgin marbles controversy, the role of archaeology under dictatorial regimes, the use of antiquities in the detention camps of the Greek civil war, and the discovery of the so-called tomb of Philip of Macedonia.

Women's Power to Heal: Through Inner Medicine


Maya Tiwari - 2007
    Through this sacred energy, what you love becomes part of your vital tissues, your immunity, and your destiny. In this extraordinary book, women will learn to realign their natural biorhythms in accord with their ongoing relationship to the Earth, sun, moon, sky, water, forest, animals, and children, living in perennial initiation within the Mother Consciousness and evoking their Inner Medicine healing potential.

Telling About Society


Howard S. Becker - 2007
    The work has neither a beginning nor an end. Nor does it contain any analysis. But it nonetheless reveals profound truths about French society during the 1940s and 50s. Taking Perec’s book as its cue, Telling About Society explores the unconventional ways we communicate what we know about society to others. The third in distinguished teacher Howard Becker’s best-selling series of writing guides for social scientists, the book explores the many ways knowledge about society can be shared and interpreted through different forms of telling—fiction, films, photographs, maps, even mathematical models—many of which remain outside the boundaries of conventional social science. Eight case studies, including the photographs of Walker Evans, the plays of George Bernard Shaw, the novels of Jane Austen and Italo Calvino, and the sociology of Erving Goffman, provide convincing support for Becker’s argument: that every way of telling about society is perfect—for some purpose. The trick is, as Becker notes, to discover what purpose is served by doing it this way rather than that. With Becker’s trademark humor and eminently practical advice, Telling About Society is an ideal guide for social scientists in all fields, for artists interested in saying something about society, and for anyone interested in communicating knowledge in unconventional ways.

Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece


Joan Breton Connelly - 2007
    Connelly presents the fullest and most vivid picture yet of how priestesses lived and worked, from the most famous and sacred of them--the Delphic Oracle and the priestess of Athena Polias--to basket bearers and handmaidens. Along the way, she challenges long-held beliefs to show that priestesses played far more significant public roles in ancient Greece than previously acknowledged.Connelly builds this history through a pioneering examination of archaeological evidence in the broader context of literary sources, inscriptions, sculpture, and vase painting. Ranging from southern Italy to Asia Minor, and from the late Bronze Age to the fifth century A.D., she brings the priestesses to life--their social origins, how they progressed through many sacred roles on the path to priesthood, and even how they dressed. She sheds light on the rituals they performed, the political power they wielded, their systems of patronage and compensation, and how they were honored, including in death. Connelly shows that understanding the complexity of priestesses' lives requires us to look past the simple lines we draw today between public and private, sacred and secular.The remarkable picture that emerges reveals that women in religious office were not as secluded and marginalized as we have thought--that religious office was one arena in ancient Greece where women enjoyed privileges and authority comparable to that of men. Connelly concludes by examining women's roles in early Christianity, taking on the larger issue of the exclusion of women from the Christian priesthood. This paperback edition includes additional maps and a glossary for student use.

The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War


David Livingstone Smith - 2007
    It tells the story of why all human beings have the potential to be hideously cruel and destructive to one another. Why are we our own worst enemy? The book shows us that war has been with us---in one form or another---since prehistoric times, and looking at the behavior of our close relatives, the chimpanzees, it argues that a penchant for group violence has been bred into us over millions of years of biological evolution. The Most Dangerous Animal takes the reader on a journey through evolution, history, anthropology, and psychology, showing how and why the human mind has a dual nature: on the one hand, we are ferocious, dangerous animals who regularly commit terrible atrocities against our own kind, on the other, we have a deep aversion to killing, a horror of taking human life. Meticulously researched and far-reaching in scope and with examples taken from ancient and modern history, The Most Dangerous Animal delivers a sobering lesson for an increasingly dangerous world.

Human Rights and Empire: The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism


Costas Douzinas - 2007
    Addressing the paradox of a contemporary humanitarianism that has abandoned politics in favour of combating evil, Douzinas, a leading scholar and author in the field of human rights and legal theory, considers the most pressing international questions.Asking whether there 'is an intrinsic relationship between human rights and the recent wars carried out in their name?' and whether 'human rights are a barrier against domination and oppression or the ideological gloss of an emerging empire?' this book examines a range of topics, including:the normative characteristics, political philosophy and metaphysical foundations of our age the subjective and institutional aspects of human rights and their involvement in the creation of identity and definition of the meaning and powers of humanity the use of human rights as a justification for a new configuration of political, economic and military power.Exploring the legacy and the contemporary role of human rights, this topical and incisive book is a must for all those interested in human rights law, jurisprudence and philosophy of law, political philosophy and political theory.

There Never Was a West (Or, Democracy Emerges From the Spaces In Between)


David Graeber - 2007
    

The Dietrich von Hildebrand LifeGuide


Dietrich von Hildebrand - 2007
    His profound philosophical work on love, man and woman, sexuality, the heart and the emotions, the foundations of the moral life, natural and Christian virtues, the place of beauty in the life of persons, person and community have inspired and influenced many. But these contributions are still not known as they deserve to be.In this volume you will find a broad selection of von Hildebrand’s most beautiful and significant insights, presented in a readily accessible way. It will serve as an excellent introduction to the main themes of this outstanding but neglected Catholic thinker.St. Augustine’s Press’s new LifeGuide™ Series will offer collections of the most memorable thoughts from some of the most inspiring authors in history. Some will be new translations (and, if so, will feature the original languages as well as English), some will be English-only, but all will present the thoughts and words that have changed the lives of millions. Bound in a small, convenient size, LifeGuides™ will all be very reasonably priced to make them attractive, enduring gifts.

Coming Out the Door for the Ninth Ward


Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club - 2007
    It continues as the Housing Authority of New Orleans begins to demolish the Desire, and Nine Times begins to parade in the Ninth Ward. Written by the members during the year after Katrina, Nine Times writes about their lives, their parades, the storm and the rebuilding process. Through interviews, photographs, and writing, Nine Times brings readers into their world of second lines, brass bands, Magee's Lounge, and the ties that bind.

Mathematical Models of Social Evolution: A Guide for the Perplexed


Richard McElreath - 2007
    But students in these disciplines often seriously lack the tools to understand them. A primer on behavioral modeling that includes both mathematics and evolutionary theory, Mathematical Models of Social Evolution aims to make the student and professional researcher in biology and the social sciences fully conversant in the language of the field.Teaching biological concepts from which models can be developed, Richard McElreath and Robert Boyd introduce readers to many of the typical mathematical tools that are used to analyze evolutionary models and end each chapter with a set of problems that draw upon these techniques. Mathematical Models of Social Evolution equips behaviorists and evolutionary biologists with the mathematical knowledge to truly understand the models on which their research depends. Ultimately, McElreath and Boyd’s goal is to impart the fundamental concepts that underlie modern biological understandings of the evolution of behavior so that readers will be able to more fully appreciate journal articles and scientific literature, and start building models of their own.

The Scar of Visibility: Medical Performances and Contemporary Art


Petra Kuppers - 2007
    In doing so they emphasize the unknowability of another’s bodily experience and the effects—physical, emotional, and social—of medical procedures.In The Scar of Visibility, Petra Kuppers examines the use of medical imagery practices in contemporary art, as well as different arts of everyday life (self-help groups, community events, Internet sites), focusing on fantasies and “knowledge projects” surrounding the human body. Among the works she investigates are the controversial Body Worlds exhibition of plastinized corpses; video projects by Shimon Attie on diabetes and Douglas Gordon on mental health and war trauma; performance pieces by Angela Ellsworth, Bob Flanagan, and Kira O’Reilly; films like David Cronenberg’s Crash and Marina de Van’s In My Skin that fetishize body wounds; representations of the AIDS virus in the National Museum of Health and on CSI: Crime Scene Investigations; and the paintings of outsider artist Martin Ramírez.At the heart of this work is the scar—a place of production, of repetition and difference, of multiple nerve sensations, fragile skin, outer sign, and bodily depth. Through the embodied sign of the scar, Kuppers articulates connections between subjective experience, history, and personal politics. Illustrated throughout, The Scar of Invisibility broadens our understanding of the significance of medical images in visual culture.Petra Kuppers is associate professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the author of Disability and Contemporary Performance: Bodies on Edge.

Authentic Though Not Exotic: Essays on Filipino Identity


Fernando Nakpil Zialcita - 2007
    It suggests that through a dialectical process, this encounter has generated a broader sense of community that has transcended the kin. Local genius transformed Spanish influences, even as it was itself transformed by the latter, resulting in a new culture. Finally, Southeast Asia is a recent construct that should be redefined to reflect the diversity of cultures present in it.

Calvin, Participation, and the Gift: The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ


J. Todd Billings - 2007
    Todd Billings addresses these questions by exploring Calvin's theology of participation in Christ. He argues that Calvin's theology of participation gives a positive place to the human, such that grace fulfills rather than destroys nature, affirming a differentiated union of God andhumanity in creation and redemption. Calvin's trinitarian theology extends to his view of prayer, sacraments, the law, and the ecclesial and civil orders. In light of Calvin's doctrine of participation, Billings reframes the critiques of Calvin in the Gift discussion and opens up new possibilitiesfor contemporary theology, ecumenical theology, and Calvin scholarship as well.

Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development


Miriam Jorgensen - 2007
    It is a quiet revolution, largely unnoticed in society at large. But it is profoundly important. From the High Plains states and Prairie Provinces to the southwestern deserts, from Mississippi and Oklahoma to the northwest coast of the continent, Native peoples are reclaiming their right to govern themselves and to shape their future in their own ways. Challenging more than a century of colonial controls, they are addressing severe social problems, building sustainable economies, and reinvigorating Indigenous cultures. In effect, they are rebuilding their nations according to their own diverse and often innovative designs. Produced by the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy at the University of Arizona and the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, this book traces the contours of that revolution as Native nations turn the dream of self-determination into a practical reality. Part report, part analysis, part how-to manual for Native leaders, it discusses strategies for governance and community and economic development being employed by American Indian nations and First Nations in Canada as they move to assert greater control over their own affairs.Rebuilding Native Nations provides guidelines for creating new governance structures, rewriting constitutions, building justice systems, launching nation-owned enterprises, encouraging citizen entrepreneurs, developing new relationships with non-Native governments, and confronting the crippling legacies of colonialism. For nations that wish to join that revolution or for those who simply want to understand the transformation now underway across Indigenous North America, this book is a critical resource.CONTENTS Foreword by Oren Lyons Editor's Introduction Part 1 Starting Points 1. Two Approaches to the Development of Native Nations: One Works, the Other Doesn't Stephen Cornell and Joseph P. Kalt 2. Development, Governance, Culture: What Are They and What Do They Have to Do with Rebuilding Native Nations? Manley A. Begay, Jr., Stephen Cornell, Miriam Jorgensen, and Joseph P. Kalt Part 2 Rebuilding the Foundations 3. Remaking the Tools of Governance: Colonial Legacies, Indigenous Solutions Stephen Cornell 4. The Role of Constitutions in Native Nation Building: Laying a Firm Foundation Joseph P. Kalt 5 . Native Nation Courts: Key Players in Nation Rebuilding Joseph Thomas Flies-Away, Carrie Garrow, and Miriam Jorgensen 6. Getting Things Done for the Nation: The Challenge of Tribal Administration Stephen Cornell and Miriam Jorgensen Part 3 Reconceiving Key Functions 7. Managing the Boundary between Business and Politics: Strategies for Improving the Chances for Success in Tribally Owned Enterprises Kenneth Grant and Jonathan Taylor 8. Citizen Entrepreneurship: An Underutilized Development Resource Stephen Cornell, Miriam Jorgensen, Ian Wilson Record, and Joan Timeche 9. Governmental Services and Programs: Meeting Citizens' Needs Alyce S. Adams, Andrew J. Lee, and Michael Lipsky 10. Intergovernmental Relationships: Expressions of Tribal Sovereignty Sarah L. Hicks Part 4 Making It Happen 11. Rebuilding Native Nations: What Do Leaders Do? Manley A. Begay, Jr., Stephen Cornell, Miriam Jorgensen, and Nathan Pryor 12. Seizing the Future: Why Some Native Nations Do and Others Don't Stephen Cornell, Miriam Jorgensen, Joseph P. Kalt, and Katherine Spilde Contreras Afterword by Satsan (Herb George) References About the Contributors Index

Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia


Susan Meller - 2007
    More than 175 spectacular patterns spanning a variety of periods and styles, from Art Nouveau florals to Soviet-era agitprop, are featured. The people in these Central Asian countries—including Uzbeks, Tadjiks, and Turkmen—incorporated the brightly patterned material into their clothing, particularly their robes, and in their household items. Brief essays by the author and fellow textile experts describe the “social life” of the fabrics and the fascinating history of this merging of Russian, Western, and Central Asian aesthetic styles; Robert Kushner contributes a lively text on how an artist “sees” and is inspired by these designs. Complementing the pattern images are vintage photographs from the turn of the 20th century as well as beautifully detailed reproductions of the robes and other articles that were lined and embellished with these cloths. This is a must-have book for the inspiration library of every artist; professional fashion, interior, and product designer; crafter; and anyone with a love of extraordinary visual design.   “Seldom does a new textile book invite one to view its subject matter in an entirely new light, from an entirely new perspective. Russian Textiles does just this. These cloths, with their boldly printed designs, are generally considered to be of little importance, and have been viewed with little contextual foundation.  Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia, changes this landscape and presents a collage of information and startling visuals.  It fills a niche in our knowledge and appreciation of the dynamics of the textile trade in Central Asia, a niche that most of us were hardly aware was empty and needed to be addressed.   Such is the groundbreaking nature of this book.” - - Thomas Cole, HALI Magazine, Spring 2008  “Meller’s book is a voyage of discovery…a joyous celebration of pattern and colour, and of a way of life in Central Asia” - - Brigid Keenan STEPPE Magazine, Summer 2008 “The intriguing title with its mingling of the commonplace and the exotic, neatly sums up the esoteric collecting field that fascinates Meller and sets her apart from the typical high-end textile hunter who is searching for silken ikats or woven carpets.  According to Meller’s view, machine-printed textiles qualify as ‘fine art that happens to be for a commercial product.’” – Andrea DiNoto, American Craft Magazine, Oct/Nov 2008 “Russian Textiles is one of those rare and serendipitous books that can be judged by its cover.  From first bold photo to final footnote, the bright, complex language of Russian trade cottons is given full voice in Susan Meller’s new book.” - - HAND/EYE, The Aid to Artisans Magazine, Summer 2008 “This is a beautiful book to be cherished for its look as well as its content.” - - Frances Pritchard, SELVEDGE Magazine, September 2008

Write Your Own Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Names, Greetings, Insults, Sayings


Angela McDonald - 2007
    In Ancient Egypt, only an elite few could read and write hieroglyphs, but now you too can recognize and write a selection of names, titles, descriptions, sayings, greetings—even insults! For the ancient Egyptians, nothing could exist without a name—names held the spark of life. In this colorful illustrated guide, Angela McDonald explains how the Egyptians composed names for the elements of their world and along the way opens a fascinating window on their ancient culture—their gods, enemies, animals, and more. With practical guides and a lively, informative text, she shows how to create many charming and useful phrases in hieroglyphs for yourself, your friends, your pets—even your house. There are step-by-step tips on how to draw some of the trickier signs and a collection of genuine Egyptian phrases—greetings, laments, and insults—for use in your own compositions. In the words of one Egyptian papyrus, "By day write with your fingers, recite by night. Befriend the scroll and the palette—it's more fulfilling than wine!" Copub: British Museum Press

Dance Lest We All Fall Down


Margaret Willson - 2007
    She, a white American anthropologist, joins forces with an African-Brazilian shantytown activist to change the violence and despair they see around them. Their pledge to the residents to create a top-quality educational center for girls becomes a turbulent journey that takes us from the shantytowns of Northeastern Brazil to urban Seattle to high-society London. With the author, we experience a world of drug dealers, street urchins, and capoeiristas, English socialites, power-hungry "do-gooders," and wise teachers. This is a true story of insight and inspiration, courage, passion, and intrigue.

Lines: A Brief History


Tim Ingold - 2007
    In this extraordinary book Tim Ingold imagines a world in which everyone and everything consists of interwoven or interconnected lines and lays the foundations for a completely new discipline: the anthropological archaeology of the line.Ingold's argument leads us through the music of Ancient Greece and contemporary Japan, Siberian labyrinths and Roman roads, Chinese calligraphy and the printed alphabet, weaving a path between antiquity and the present.Setting out from a puzzle about the relation between speech and song, Ingold considers how two kinds of line - threads and traces - can turn into one another as surfaces form or dissolve. He reveals how our perception of lines has changed over time, with modernity converting to point-to-point connectors before becoming straight, only to be ruptured and fragmented by the postmodern world.Drawing on a multitude of disciplines including archaeology, classical studies, art history, linguistics, psychology, musicology, philosophy and many others, and including more than seventy illustrations, this book takes us on an exhilarating intellectual journey that will change the way we look at the world and how we go about in it.

The Devil's Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa


George Steinmetz - 2007
    During this period, dramatically different policies were enacted in the colonies: in Southwest Africa, German troops carried out a brutal slaughter of the Herero people; in Samoa, authorities pursued a paternalistic defense of native culture; in Qingdao, China, policy veered between harsh racism and cultural exchange.Why did the same colonizing power act in such differing ways? In The Devil’s Handwriting, George Steinmetz tackles this question through a brilliant cross-cultural analysis of German colonialism, leading to a new conceptualization of the colonial state and postcolonial theory. Steinmetz uncovers the roots of colonial behavior in precolonial European ethnographies, where the Hereros were portrayed as cruel and inhuman, the Samoans were idealized as “noble savages,” and depictions of Chinese culture were mixed. The effects of status competition among colonial officials, colonizers’ identification with their subjects, and the different strategies of cooperation and resistance offered by the colonized are also scrutinized in this deeply nuanced and ambitious comparative history.

The World Encyclopedia of Archaeology: The World's Most Significant Sites and Cultural Treasures


Aedeen Cremin - 2007
    Here is a comprehensive view of the past as seen through the remnants of civilizations as they emerge and expand. The book begins by defining modern and ancient archaeology and gives the history of archaeology through the centuries. The different types of archaeology are explored, along with the techniques used for each and the problems, concerns and issues archaeologists face today.The main section of the book details each region of the world, with the authoritative text revealing the fascinating history of important archaeological sites. This global perspective includes more than 700 illustrations. The atlas section with detailed maps provides placements throughout history.Accurate, in-depth and up to date, The World Encyclopedia of Archaeology is compelling reading. It serves as an outstanding reference for professionals, researchers, history buffs and general readers.The World Encyclopedia of Archaeology includes:The first humans Early hunter-gatherers and farmers Megalithic builders The Bronze Age The Greeks and Romans The Dark Ages Ancient Mesopotamia The Persian Empire Nomadic states The Indus civilization China's dynasties and empires Japan and Southeast Asian kingdoms Early Mesoamericans The Maya, Aztec and Inca Ancient Egypt and the Upper Nile Iron Age Africa Australian Aborigines. Highlights:Compiled and written by an international team of archaeologists and historians Reveals the most up-to-date findings and their significance Organized geographically by region and key sites Uncovers the world's most important sites and treasures Spans all periods of human settlement Locator guide to sites by country List of World Heritage Sites 18 special features focus on intriguing topics Further readings and a glossary More than 700 color illustrations Attractive maps that show locations of key sites.

Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Shrinking Society


Ghassan Hage - 2007
    Hage brings insights from political economy and psychoanalysis, defining societies as mechanisms for the production and distribution of hope.

The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics


Tania Murray Li - 2007
    Focusing on attempts to improve landscapes and livelihoods in Indonesia, Tania Murray Li carefully exposes the practices that enable experts to diagnose problems and devise interventions, and the agency of people whose conduct is targeted for reform. Deftly integrating theory, ethnography, and history, she illuminates the work of colonial officials and missionaries; specialists in agriculture, hygiene, and credit; and political activists with their own schemes for guiding villagers toward better ways of life. She examines donor-funded initiatives that seek to integrate conservation with development through the participation of communities, and a one-billion-dollar program designed by the World Bank to optimize the social capital of villagers, inculcate new habits of competition and choice, and remake society from the bottom up.Demonstrating that the “will to improve” has a long and troubled history, Li identifies enduring continuities from the colonial period to the present. She explores the tools experts have used to set the conditions for reform—tools that combine the reshaping of desires with applications of force. Attending in detail to the highlands of Sulawesi, she shows how a series of interventions entangled with one another and tracks their results, ranging from wealth to famine, from compliance to political mobilization, and from new solidarities to oppositional identities and violent attack. The Will to Improve is an engaging read—conceptually innovative, empirically rich, and alive with the actions and reflections of the targets of improvement, people with their own critical analyses of the problems that beset them.

Health Care in Maya Guatemala: Confronting Medical Pluralism in a Developing Country


Walter Randolph Adams - 2007
    Because practitioners trained in Western science tend to ignore traditional medicine in developing countries, conflict is inevitable.Health Care in Maya Guatemala examines medical systems and institutions in three K’iche’ Maya communities to reveal the conflicts between indigenous medical care and the Guatemalan biomedical system. The editors and contributors show how people in this rapidly modernizing society think about traditional practices—and reveal that health conditions in traditional communities deteriorate over time as long-standing medical practices erode in the face of Western encroachment.The contributors first consider cultural, institutional, and behavioral aspects of health care in Guatemala. Then they look closely at the nature and treatment of specific health issues, such as dentistry and mental health—especially depression. Finally they provide new insight on midwifery, nutrition, ethnomedicine, and other topics.As a whole, the volume proposes steps toward a health care system more accessible to Mayas, incorporating K’iche’ concepts with Western thought. Representing trends seen throughout the world, it shows the necessity of cultural understanding if poor people are to have access to medicine that combines the best of both local tradition and international biomedicine. Although Western medicine continues to ignore the importance of local culture in its attempt to be “scientific,” this book makes a strong argument for giving tradition its due.

Island of the Setting Sun: In Search of Ireland's Ancient Astronomers


Anthony Murphy - 2007
    This book tells the story of their genesis. It explores the invasion myths of Ireland, the link between the ancient astronomers and St Patrick, and the true inspiration behind Newgrange's white quartz facade.

Understanding Trauma


Laurence J. Kirmayer - 2007
    Each perspective presents critical and creative challenges to the other. The first section reviews the effects of early life stress on the development of neural systems and vulnerability to persistent effects of trauma. The second section of the book reviews a wide range of clinical approaches to the treatment of the effects of trauma. The final section of the book presents cultural analyses of personal, social, and political responses to massive trauma and genocidal events in a variety of societies. This work goes well beyond the neurobiological models of conditioned fear and clinical syndrome of post-traumatic stress disorder to examine how massive traumatic events affect the whole fabric of a society, calling forth collective responses of resilience and moral transformation.

Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography


F. Kent Reilly III - 2007
    This edited work brings together ten essays, analysing the iconography of Mississippian art in order to reconstruct the ritual activities, cosmological vision, and ideology of these ancient precursors to several groups of contemporary Native Americans.

The Coolie Speaks: Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves in Cuba


Lisa Yun - 2007
    Examining these narratives of resistance,  the book  reconceptualizes diasporic representations and histories to offer transformative re-examinations of "Chinese," "African," and "Latino" in mutually imbricated contexts.

Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind


Dorothy L. Cheney - 2007
    Baboons live in groups of up to 150, including a handful of males and eight or nine matrilineal families of females. Such numbers force baboons to form a complicated mix of short-term bonds for mating and longer-term friendships based on careful calculations of status and individual need.           But Baboon Metaphysics is concerned with much more than just baboons’ social organization—Cheney and Seyfarth aim to fully comprehend the intelligence that underlies it. Using innovative field experiments, the authors learn that for baboons, just as for humans, family and friends hold the key to mitigating the ill effects of grief, stress, and anxiety.           Written with a scientist’s precision and a nature-lover’s eye, Baboon Metaphysics gives us an unprecedented and compelling glimpse into the mind of another species.  “The vivid narrative is like a bush detective story.”—Steven Poole, Guardian “Baboon Metaphysics is a distillation of a big chunk of academic lives. . . . It is exactly what such a book should be—full of imaginative experiments, meticulous scholarship, limpid literary style, and above all, truly important questions.”—Alison Jolly, Science “Cheney and Seyfarth found that for a baboon to get on in life involves a complicated blend of short-term relationships, friendships, and careful status calculations. . . . Needless to say, the ensuing political machinations and convenient romantic dalliances in the quest to become numero uno rival the bard himself.”—Science News “Cheney and Seyfarth’s enthusiasm is obvious, and their knowledge is vast and expressed with great clarity. All this makes Baboon Metaphysics a captivating read. It will get you thinking—and maybe spur you to travel to Africa to see it all for yourself.”—Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature “Through ingenious playback experiments . . . Cheney and Seyfarth have worked out many aspects of what baboons used their minds for, along with their limitations. Reading a baboon’s mind affords an excellent grasp of the dynamics of baboon society. But more than that, it bears on the evolution of the human mind and the nature of human existence.”—Nicholas Wade, New York Times

The Politics of Public Memory in Turkey


Esra Özyürek - 2007
    It has been said that there is no social memory in Turkey before Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey after World War I. Indeed, in 1923, the newly founded Turkish Republic committed to a modernist future by erasing the memory of its Ottoman past. Now, almost eighty years after the establishment of the Republic, the grandchildren of the founders have a different relationship with history. New generations make every effort to remember, record, and reconcile earlier periods. The multiple, personalized representations of the past which they have recovered allow contemporary Turkish citizens to create alternative identities for themselves and their communities. Unlike its futuristic and homogenizing character at the turn of the twentieth century, Turkish nationalism today uses memories to generate varied narratives for the nation and its minority groups. Contributors to this volume come from such diverse disciplines as anthropology, comparative literature, and sociology, but they share a common understanding of contemporary Turkey and how its different representations of the past have become metaphors through which individuals and groups define their cultural identity and political position. They explore the ways people challenge, reaffirm, or transform the concepts of history, nation, homeland, and "Republic" through acts of memory- effectively demonstrating that memory can be both the basis of cultural reproduction and a form of resistance. The introduction of comparative material to other societies is rare and adds an important new dimension to the analyses.

The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa


Michael Van Notten - 2007
    It is compensatory, for example, rather than punitive. Instead of being imprisoned or otherwise punished, law breakers are required to compensate their victims. A victim seldom fails to receive compensation, moreover, because every Somali is insured by near kin against his or her liabilities under the law. Being based on custom, Somali law has no need of legislation or legislators, hence is happily free of political influences. Even so, the author points out areas in the law that are in need of change. These do not require legislation, however; many desirable changes, such as ending restrictions on the sale of land and enhancing the status of women, are implicit in economic development. As for the Somali political system, not only is there no need to set up a democracy, the author clearly shows why any attempt to do so must inevitably produce chaos. This book by a trained and sympathetic observer shows how, viewed in global perspective, Somali law stands with the Latin and Medieval laws and the English common law against the statutory law that originated in continental Europe with the modern nation state. It explains many seeming anomalies about present-day Somalia and describes its prospects as well as the dangers facing it. Born in Zeist, the Netherlands, in 1933, Michael van Notten graduated from Leiden University in Law and was admitted into practice in Rotterdam. He later served with a New York law firm and directed the Institution Europaeum, a Belgium-based policy research organization. In the early 1990s, he became interested in the prospect of Somalia developing in the modern world of a stateless society, and for the next twelve years, he studied Somali customary law. A keen analyst of the intricacies of clan politics, he traveled fearlessly in war-torn Somalia. He died in Nimes, France, on June 5th, 2002

The Spiritual Technology of Ancient Egypt: Sacred Science and the Mystery of Consciousness


Edward F. Malkowski - 2007
    With the development of quantum mechanics, the notion that everything is solid matter is being replaced with the idea that information or “thought” may be the true source of physical reality. Such scientific inquiry has led to a growing interest in the brain’s unique and mysterious ability to create perception, possibly through quantum interactions. Consciousness is now being considered as much a fundamental part of reality as the three dimensions we are so familiar with. Although this direction in scientific thought is seen as a new approach, the secret wisdom of the ancients presented just such a view thousands of years ago.Building on René A. Schwaller de Lubicz’s systematic study of Luxor’s Temple of Amun-Mut-Khonsu during the 1940s and ’50s, Edward Malkowski shows that the ancient Egyptians' worldview was not based on superstition or the invention of myth but was the result of direct observation using critical faculties attuned to the quantum manifestation of the universe. This understanding of reality as a product of human consciousness provided the inspiration for the sacred science of the ancients--precisely the philosophy modern science is embracing today. In the philosophical tradition of Schwaller de Lubicz, The Spiritual Technology of Ancient Egypt investigates the technical and religious legacy of ancient Egypt to reveal its congruence with today’s “New Science.”

Engaging Contradictions: Theory, Politics, and Methods of Activist Scholarship


Charles R. Hale - 2007
    Some advocate on behalf of the communities they study; others incorporate the knowledge and leadership of their informants directly into the process of knowledge production. What ethical, political, and practical tensions arise in the course of such work? In this wide-ranging and multidisciplinary volume, leading scholar-activists map the terrain on which political engagement and academic rigor meet.Contributors: Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Edmund T. Gordon, Davydd Greenwood, Joy James, Peter Nien-chu Kiang, George Lipsitz, Samuel Martínez, Jennifer Bickham Mendez, Dani Nabudere, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Jemima Pierre, Laura Pulido, Shannon Speed, Shirley Suet-ling Tang, João Vargas

Beyond the Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of Material Life


Margaret M. Lock - 2007
    They have begun to perceive embodiment as dynamic rather than static, as experiences that vary over time and across the world as they are shaped by discourses, institutions, practices, technologies, and ideologies. What has emerged is a multiplicity of bodies, inviting a great many disciplinary points of view and modes of interpretation. The forty-seven readings presented in this volume range from classic works of social theory, history, and ethnography to more recent investigations into historical and contemporary modes of embodiment.Beyond the Body Proper includes nine sections conceptually organized around themes such as everyday life, sex and gender, and science. Each section is preceded by interpretive commentary by the volume’s editors. Within the collection are articles and book excerpts focused on bodies using tools and participating in rituals, on bodies walking and eating, and on the female circumcision controversy, as well as pieces on medical classifications, spirit possession, the commodification of body parts, in vitro fertilization, and an artist/anatomist’s “plastination” of cadavers for display. Materialist, phenomenological, and feminist perspectives on embodiment appear along with writings on interpretations of pain and the changing meanings of sexual intercourse. Essays on these topics and many others challenge Eurocentric assumptions about the body as they speak to each other and to the most influential contemporary trends in the human sciences.With selections by: Henry Abelove, Walter Benjamin, Janice Boddy, John Boswell, Judith Butler, Caroline Walker Bynum, Stuart Cosgrove, Michel de Certeau, Gilles Deleuze, Alice Domurat Dreger, Barbara Duden, Friedrich Engels, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Judith Farquhar, Marcel Granet, Felix Guattari, Ian Hacking, Robert Hertz, Patricia Leyland Kaufert, Arthur Kleinman, Shigehisa Kuriyama, Jean Langford, Bruno Latour, Margaret Lock, Emily Martin, Karl Marx, Marcel Mauss, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Nancy K. Miller, Lisa Jean Moore, John D. O’Neil, Aihwa Ong, Mariella Pandolfi, Susan Pedersen, Gregory M. Pflugfelder, Rayna Rapp, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Kristofer Schipper, Matthew Schmidt, Peter Stallybrass, Michael Taussig, Charis Thompson, E.P. Thompson, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Victor Turner, Terence Turner, Jose van Dijck, Keith Wailoo, Brad Weiss, Allon White

Oman's Insurgencies: The Sultanate's Struggle for Supremacy


J.E. Peterson - 2007
    It does, however, have a long history of internal strife. In the twentieth century, this strife took the form of two internal conflicts.The Northern Oman or al-Jabal al-Akhdar War of the 1950s was a struggle between the forces of the old tribally based Imamate and the newer Sultanate in the northern part of the country. In the Dhufar War of the 1960s-70s an anti-Sultanate – and later Marxist – front sought secession in the south.J. E. Peterson takes a detailed look at these two wars in the context of insurgency and counter-insurgency warfare. He surveys Oman’s transition from a strictly traditional regime controlling only parts of the country to a modern, inclusive state, particularly in terms of security concerns. Peterson analyses the development of the Sultanate’s successful responses to security challenges, especially in the creation and evolution of modern armed forces.J.E. Peterson is a historian and political analyst specialising in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf. He has taught at several universities in the US and spent some years in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defence in the Sultanate of Oman. He is the author of Oman in the Twentieth Century, Yemen: The Search for a Modern State, Defending Arabia and Saudi Arabia: The Illusion of Security.

Science 101: Forensics


Edward R. Ricciuti - 2007
    It examines tried-and-true forensics methods, as well as cutting-edge forensic disciplines little known to the general public.Information on fingerprint and DNA identification, trace evidence, arson detection, crime-scene procedures, and moreHistory of forensics from ancient times to the present day, with an explanation of the many scientific fields that contribute to forensicsMore than 250 full-color photographs and illustrationsReady Reference section with at-a-glance facts on forensics

Rembrandt Drawings: 116 Masterpieces in Original Color


Rembrandt - 2007
    From his intimate observations of everyday life to his richly envisioned biblical allegories, the Dutch master created moving, inspiring images that have captivated viewers across four centuries. This original collection offers an unusual perspective on the artist, consisting exclusively of his drawings—all in their original colors, and most of them in their original sizes.These acclaimed drawings date from the 1620s to the 1660s, spanning Rembrandt's prolific career and documenting his changes in style and focus. Superb examples from every genre of the artist's work include landscape drawings, figure studies, scenes from the Old and New Testaments, animal sketches, and several portraits, including a few of the self-images for which he is famed.Beautifully produced in a generous format on high-quality paper, this deluxe edition offers a rare variety of 116 works from more than twenty major European and American museums. Informative captions accompany each illustration.

Another Knowledge Is Possible: Beyond Northern Epistemologies


Boaventura de Sousa Santos - 2007
    Another Knowledge is Possible explores the struggles against moral and cultural imperialism and neoliberal globalization that have taken place over the past few decades, and the alternatives that have emerged in countries throughout the developing world from Brazil and Colombia, to India, South Africa and Mozambique. In particular it looks at the issue of biodiversity, the confrontation between scientific and non- scientific knowledges, and the increasing difficulty experienced by great numbers of people in accessing information and scientific- technological knowledge.

The Story of Archaeology: In 50 Great Discoveries


Justin Pollard - 2007
    Illustrated with 150 full color photographs offering a visual record of the extraordinary range of human societies that have inhabited our planet.

Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals about the Mind


Margalit Fox - 2007
    Just such a village -- an isolated Bedouin community in Israel with an unusually high rate of deafness -- is at the heart of "Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind." There, an indigenous sign language has sprung up, used by deaf and hearing villagers alike. It is a language no outsider has been able to decode, until now.A "New York Times" reporter trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox is the only Western journalist to have set foot in this remarkable village. In "Talking Hands, " she follows an international team of scientists that is unraveling this mysterious language.Because the sign language of the village has arisen completely on its own, outside the influence of any other language, it is a living demonstration of the "language instinct," man's inborn capacity to create language. If the researchers can decode this language, they will have helped isolate ingredients essential to all human language, signed and spoken. But as "Talking Hands" grippingly shows, their work in the village is also a race against time, because the unique language of the village may already be endangered."Talking Hands" offers a fascinating introduction to the signed languages of the world -- languages as beautiful, vital and emphatically human as any other -- explaining why they are now furnishing cognitive scientists with long-sought keys to understanding how language works in the mind.Written in lyrical, accessible prose, "Talking Hands" will captivate anyone interested in language, the human mind and journeys to exotic places.

Conflicted Antiquities: Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian Modernity


Elliott Colla - 2007
    Consulting the relevant Arabic archives, Elliott Colla demonstrates that the emergence of Egyptology—the study of ancient Egypt and its material legacy—was as consequential for modern Egyptians as it was for Europeans. The values and practices introduced by the new science of archaeology played a key role in the formation of a new colonial regime in Egypt. This fact was not lost on Egyptian nationalists, who challenged colonial archaeologists with the claim that they were the direct heirs of the Pharaohs, and therefore the rightful owners and administrators of ancient Egypt’s historical sites and artifacts. As this dispute developed, nationalists invented the political and expressive culture of “Pharaonism”—Egypt’s response to Europe’s Egyptomania. In the process, a significant body of modern, Pharaonist poetry, sculpture, architecture, and film was created by artists and authors who looked to the ancient past for inspiration.Colla draws on medieval and modern Arabic poetry, novels, and travel accounts; British and French travel writing; the history of archaeology; and the history of European and Egyptian museums and exhibits. The struggle over the ownership of Pharaonic Egypt did not simply pit Egyptian nationalists against European colonial administrators. Egyptian elites found arguments about the appreciation and preservation of ancient objects useful for exerting new forms of control over rural populations and for mobilizing new political parties. Finally, just as the political and expressive culture of Pharaonism proved critical to the formation of new concepts of nationalist identity, it also fueled Islamist opposition to the Egyptian state.

Cave Art: A Guide to the Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe


Paul G. Bahn - 2007
    There you can see the art – paintings, engravings, bas-reliefs or drawings – in its original, natural setting, and stand where the artists did 30,000–10,000 years ago. For speleologists and holidaymakers alike – indeed anyone who wants to add a visit to a cave to their itinerary – here is an essential handbook. The first guide to all the decorated Ice Age caves in Europe that are open to the public, Cave Art covers more than 50 caves in England, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, as well as relevant museums and centres.

Rights in Rebellion: Indigenous Struggle and Human Rights in Chiapas


Shannon Speed - 2007
    Through a multi-sited ethnography of various groups in the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico—from paramilitaries to a Zapatista community, an indigenous human rights organization, and the Zapatista Good Governance Councils—the book explores how different groups actively engage with the discourse of rights, adapting it to their own individual subjectivities and goals, and develop new forms of resistance to the neoliberal model and its particular configurations of power.Far from being a traditional community study, this book instead follows the discourse of human rights and indigenous rights through their various manifestations. The author offers a compelling argument for the importance of a critical engagement between the anthropologist and her "subjects," passionately making the case for activist research and demonstrating how such an engagement will fortify and enliven academic research.

Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival


João Biehl - 2007
    But anthropologist Jo�o Biehl also tells why this policy, hailed as a model worldwide, has been so difficult to implement among poor Brazilians with HIV/AIDS, who are often stigmatized as noncompliant or untreatable, becoming invisible to the public. More broadly, Biehl examines the political economy of pharmaceuticals that lies behind large-scale treatment rollouts, revealing the possibilities and inequalities that come with a magic bullet approach to health care.By moving back and forth between the institutions shaping the Brazilian response to AIDS and the people affected by the disease, Biehl has created a book of unusual vividness, scope, and detail. At the core of Will to Live is a group of AIDS patients--unemployed, homeless, involved with prostitution and drugs--that established a makeshift health service. Biehl chronicled the personal lives of these people for over ten years and Torben Eskerod represents them here in more than one hundred stark photographs.Ethnography, social medicine, and art merge in this unique book, illuminating the care and agency needed to extend life amid perennial violence. Full of lessons for the future, Will to Live promises to have a lasting influence in the social sciences and in the theory and practice of global public health.

A Tribal Order: Politics and Law in the Mountains of Yemen


Shelagh Weir - 2007
    Contrary to the popular image of Middle Eastern tribes as warlike, lawless, and invariably opposed to states, the tribes of Razih have stable structures of governance and elaborate laws and procedures for maintaining order and resolving conflicts with a minimum of physical violence. Razihi leaders also historically cooperated with states, provided the latter respected their customs, ideals, and interests. Weir considers this system in the context of the rugged environment and productive agricultural economy of Razih, and of centuries of continuous rule by Zaydi Muslim regimes and (latterly) the republican governments of Yemen. The book is based on Weir’s extended anthropological fieldwork on Jabal Razih, and on her detailed study of hundreds of handwritten contracts and treaties among and between the tribes and rulers of Razih. These documents provide a fascinating insight into tribal politics and law, as well as state-tribe relations, from the early seventeenth to the late twentieth century. A Tribal Order is also enriched by case histories that vividly illuminate tribal practices. Overall, this unusually wide-ranging work provides an accessible account of a remarkable Arabian society through time.

Mutha Is Half a Word: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture


L.H. Stallings - 2007
     L. H. Stallings offers distinct close readings of understudied African American women’s texts through a critical engagement with folklore and queer theory. To date, most studies on the trickster figure have rarely reflected the boldness and daring of the figure itself. Emblematic of change and transgression, the trickster has inappropriately become the methodological tool for conservative cultural studies analysis. Mutha’ is Half a Word strives to break that convention. This book provides a much-needed analysis of trickster tradition in regard to gender, sexuality, and Black female sexual desire. It is the only study to focus specifically on trickster figures and African American female culture. In addition, it contributes to conversations regarding the cultural representation of Black female desire in ways that are not strategically invested in heteronormative binaries of male/female and heterosexual/homosexual. The study is distinctly different because it explores folklore, vernacular, and trickster strategies of queerness alongside theories of queer studies to create new readings of desire in literary texts, hip-hop and neo-soul music, and comedic performances by Black females.

Crossing the Water: A Photographic Path to the Afro-Cuban Spirit World


Claire Garoutte - 2007
    A chance encounter led them to the home of Santiago Castañeda Vera, a priest-practitioner of Santería, Palo Monte, and Espiritismo, a Cuban version of nineteenth-century European Spiritism. Out of that initial meeting, a unique collaboration developed. Santiago opened his home and many aspects of his spiritual practice to Garoutte and Wambaugh, who returned to his house many times during the next five years, cameras in hand. The result is Crossing the Water, an extraordinary visual record of Afro-Cuban religious experience.A book of more than 150 striking photographs in both black and white and color, Crossing the Water includes images of elaborate Santería altars and Palo spirit cauldrons, as well as of Santiago and his religious “family” engaged in ritual practices: the feeding of the spirits, spirit possession, and private and collective healing ceremonies. As the charismatic head of a large religious community, Santiago helps his godchildren and others who consult him to cope with physical illness, emotional crises, contentious relationships, legal problems, and the hardships born of day-to-day survival in contemporary Cuba. He draws on the distinct yet intertwined traditions of Santería, Palo Monte, and Espiritismo to foster healing of both mind and body—the three religions form a coherent theological whole for him.Santiago eventually became Garoutte’s and Wambaugh’s spiritual godfather, and Crossing the Water is informed by their experiences as initiates of Santería and Palo Monte. Their text provides nuanced, clear explanations of the objects and practices depicted in the images. Describing the powerful intensity of human-spirit interactions, and evoking the sights, smells, sounds, and choreography of ritual practice, Crossing the Water takes readers deep inside the intimate world of Afro-Cuban spirituality.

Bonebeds: Genesis, Analysis, and Paleobiological Significance


Raymond R. Rogers - 2007
    Often spectacularly preserved, bonebeds—both modern and ancient—can reveal more about life histories, ecological associations, and preservation patterns than any single skeleton or bone. For this reason, bonebeds are frequently studied by paleobiologists, geologists, and archeologists seeking to piece together the vertebrate record.Thirteen respected researchers combine their experiences in Bonebeds, providing readers with workable definitions, theoretical frameworks, and a compendium of modern techniques in bonebed data collection and analysis. By addressing the historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of bonebed research, this edited volume—the first of its kind—provides the background and methods that students and professionals need to explore and understand these fantastic records of ancient life and death.

Rethinking the Human Revolution


Paul Mellars - 2007
    The 34 papers cover topics ranging from the DNA and skeletal evidence for modern human origins in Africa, through the archaeological evidence for the emergence of distinctively 'modern' patterns of human behaviour and cognition, to the various lines of evidence for the geographical dispersal patterns of biologically and behaviourally modern populations from their African origins throughout Asia, Australasia and Europe, over the past 60,000 years.

A Gullah Alpahbet


Margie Willis Clary - 2007
    The gullah used in this text is spoken on Johns Island and Wadmalaw Island. Joe Harold Middleton, a well-known Gullah storyteller, made Gullah come alive to all who knew him. His knowledge and presentation of the language through the telling of stories brought enjoyment to all. It was Joe who inspired this book. He died in February of 2007 while collaborating on this Gullah alphabet translation.

The Human Lineage


Matt Cartmill - 2007
    the sheer quality of the writing and explanatory synthesis in this book will undoubtedly make it a valuable resource for students for many years. --PaleoAnthropology, 2010 This book focuses on the last ten million years of human history, from the hominoid radiations to the emergence and diversification of modern humanity. It draws upon the fossil record to shed light on the key scientific issues, principles, methods, and history in paleoanthropology. The book proceeds through the fossil record of human evolution by historical stages representing the acquisition of major human features that explain the success and distinctive properties of modern Homo sapiens.Key features: Provides thorough coverage of the fossil record and sites, with data on key variables such as cranial capacity and body size estimates Offers a balanced, critical assessment of the interpretative models explaining pattern in the fossil record Each chapter incorporates a Blind Alley box focusing on once prevalent ideas now rejected such as the arboreal theory, seed-eating, single-species hypothesis, and Piltdown man Promotes critical thinking by students while allowing instructors flexibility in structuring their teaching Densely illustrated with informative, well-labelled anatomical drawings and photographs Includes an annotated bibliography for advanced inquiry Written by established leaders in the field, providing depth of expertise on evolutionary theory and anatomy through to functional morphology, this textbook is essential reading for all advanced undergraduate students and beginning graduate students in biological anthropology.

Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the Disciplines


Martin Nakata - 2007
    An alternative reading for those struggling at the contradictory and ambiguous intersections of academia and Indigenous experience, this book moves beyond the usual criticisms of the disciplines providing an alternative for understanding Indigenous peoples.

Crusader Castles and Modern Histories


Ronnie Ellenblum - 2007
    These modern histories have interpreted the Crusades in terms of dichotomous camps, Frankish and Muslim. In this revisionist study, Ronnie Ellenblum presents an interpretation of Crusader historiography that instead defines military and architectural relations between the Franks, local Christians, Muslims and Turks in terms of continuous dialogue and mutual influence. Through close analysis of siege tactics, defensive strategies and the structure and distribution of Crusader castles, Ellenblum relates patterns of crusader settlement to their environment and demonstrates the influence of opposing cultures on tactics and fortifications. He argues that fortifications were often built according to economic and geographic considerations rather than for strategic reasons or to protect illusory 'frontiers', and that Crusader castles are the most evident expression of a cultural dialogue between east and west.

Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality


David Owen - 2007
    David Owen provides a detailed analysis of the Genealogy, situating it in the context of the development of Nietzsche's philosophy as a whole, as well as providing a lucid account of Nietzsche's reasons for adopting a genealogical investigation of moral values. Highlighting the key features of Nietzsche's critique of morality and his call for a re-evaluation of values, Owen shows how the arguments and rhetoric of the Genealogy combine to undermine our modern understanding of moral agency.

Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives


Wenda Trevathan - 2007
    Trevathan, E. O. Smith, and James J. McKenna provide an up-to-date and thought-provoking introduction to the field with this new collection of essays. Ideal for courses in evolutionary medicine, medical anthropology, and the evolution of human disease, Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives presents twenty-three original articles that examine how human evolution relates to a broad range of contemporary health problems including infectious, chronic, nutritional, and mental diseases and disorders. Topics covered include disease susceptibility in cultural context, substance abuse and addiction, sleep disorders, preeclampsia, altitude-related hypoxia, the biological context of menstruation, and the role of stress in modern life. An international team of preeminent scholars in biological anthropology, medicine, biology, psychology, and geography contributed the selections. Together they represent a uniquely integrative and multidisciplinary approach that takes into account the dialogue between biology and culture as it relates to understanding, treating, and preventing disease. A common theme throughout is the description of cases in which biological human development conflicts with culturally based individual behaviors that determine health outcomes. Detailed, evidence-based arguments make the case that all aspects of the human condition covered in the volume have an evolutionary basis, while theoretical discussions using other empirical evidence critique the gaps that still remain in evolutionary approaches to health. Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives features an introductory overview that covers the field's diverse array of topics, questions, lines of evidence, and perspectives. In addition, the editors provide introductions to each essay and an extensive bibliography that represents a state-of-the-art survey of the literature. A companionwebsite at www.oup.com/us/evolmed offers a full bibliography and links to source articles, reports, and databases. Written in an engaging style that is accessible to students, professionals, and general readers, this book offers a unique look at how an evolutionary perspective has become increasingly relevant to the health field and medical practice.

The Religious History of American Women: Reimagining the Past


Catherine A. Brekus - 2007
    Mary Dyer, a Quaker who was hanged for heresy; Lizzie Robinson, a former slave and laundress who sold Bibles door to door; Sally Priesand, a Reform rabbi; Estela Ruiz, who saw a vision of the Virgin Mary--how do these women's stories change our understanding of American religious history and American women's history?In this provocative collection of twelve essays, contributors explore how considering the religious history of American women can transform our dominant historical narratives. Covering a variety of topics--including Mormonism, the women's rights movement, Judaism, witchcraft trials, the civil rights movement, Catholicism, everyday religious life, Puritanism, African American women's activism, and the Enlightenment--the volume enhances our understanding of both religious history and women's history. Taken together, these essays sound the call for a new, more inclusive history.The contributors are Ann Braude, Catherine A. Brekus, Anthea D. Butler, Emily Clark, Kathleen Sprows Cummings, Amy Koehlinger, Janet Moore Lindman, Susanna Morrill, Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Pamela S. Nadell, Elizabeth Reis, and Marilyn J. Westerkamp. Contributors: Ann Braude, Harvard Divinity SchoolCatherine A. Brekus, University of Chicago Divinity SchoolAnthea D. Butler, University of RochesterEmily Clark, Tulane UniversityKathleen Sprows Cummings, University of Notre DameAmy Koehlinger, Florida State UniversityJanet Moore Lindman, Rowan UniversitySusanna Morrill, Lewis and Clark CollegeKristy Nabhan-Warren, Augustana CollegePamela S. Nadell, American UniversityElizabeth Reis, University of OregonMarilyn J. Westerkamp, University of California, Santa Cruz

Linguistic Fieldwork: A Practical Guide


Claire Bowern - 2007
    This book is a guide to conducting that interaction in order to produce research which benefits not only the linguistic community, but also language speakers. Given the rapidity of decline in global linguistic diversity, the next 30 years will be crucial for future knowledge of languages all over the world.

As If Silent and Absent: Bonds of Enslavement in the Islamic Middle East


Ehud R. Toledano - 2007
    Focusing in particular on the Islamic Middle East from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, Ehud R. Toledano examines how bonded persons experienced enslavement in Ottoman societies. He draws on court records and a variety of other unexamined primary sources to uncover important new information about the Africans and Circassians who were forcibly removed from their own societies and transplanted to Middle East cultures that were alien to them. Toledano also considers the experiences of these enslaved people within the context of the global history of slavery.The book looks at the bonds of slavery from an original perspective, moving away from the traditional master/slave domination paradigm toward the point of view of the enslaved and their responses to their plight. With keen and original insights, Toledano suggests new ways of thinking about enslavement.

The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian


Candace S. Greene - 2007
    This volume is an unprecedented assemblage of information on the important collection of Lakota winter counts at the Smithsonian, a core resource for the study of Lakota history and culture. Fourteen winter counts are presented in detail, with a chapter devoted to the newly discovered Rosebud Winter Count. Together these counts constitute a visual chronicle of over two hundred years of Lakota experience as recorded by Native historians. A visually stunning book, The Year the Stars Fell features full-color illustrations of the fourteen winter counts plus more than 900 detailed images of individual pictographs. Explanations, provided by their nineteenth-century Lakota recorders, are arranged chronologically to facilitate comparison among counts. The book provides ready access to primary source material, and serves as an essential reference work for scholars as well as an invaluable historical resource for Native communities.

The Ainu and Their Folklore


John Batchelor - 2007
    In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

Handbook of Archaeological Theories


R. Alexander Bentley - 2007
    This handbook gathers original, authoritative articles from leading archaeologists to compile the latest thinking about archaeological theory.

iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era


Mark Andrejevic - 2007
    From Amazon to iTunes, cell phones to GPS devices, Google to TiVo-all of these products and services give us an expansive sense of choice, access, and participation. But, in an era now marked by large-scale NSA operations that secretly monitor our email exchanges and internet surfing, Mark Andrejevic shows how these new technologies are increasingly employed as modes of surveillance and control. Many contend that our proliferating interactive media empower individuals and democratize society. But, Andrejevic asks, at what cost? In iSpy, he reveals that these and other highly touted benefits are accompanied by hidden risks and potential threats that tend to be ignored by mainstream society. His book offers the first sustained critique of a concept that has been a talking point for twenty years, an up-to-the-minute survey of interactivity across multiple media platforms. It debunks the false promises of the digital revolution still touted by the popular media while seeking to rehabilitate, rather than simply write off, the potentially democratic uses of interactive media. Andrejevic opens up the world of digital rights management and the data trail each of us leaves-data about our locations, preferences, or life events that are already put to use in various economic, political, and social contexts. He notes that, while citizens are becoming increasingly transparent to private and public monitoring agencies, they themselves are unable to access the information gathered about them-or know whether it's even correct. (The watchmen, it seems, don't want to be watched.) He also considers the appropriation of consumer marketing for political campaigns in targeting voters, and also examines the implications of the Internet for the so-called War on Terror. In iSpy, Andrejevic poses real challenges for our digital future. Amazingly detailed, compellingly readable, it warns that we need to temper our enthusiasm for these technologies with a better understanding of the threats they pose-to be able to distinguish between interactivity as centralized control and as collaborative participation.

Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a Single Mom


Louise Sloan - 2007
    In this honest and often hilarious guide, Louise Sloan shares the details of her own funny and heartbreaking journey to single motherhood-including cyberstalking an anonymous sperm donor, dealing with exploding semen vials, and being mistaken for a horse breeder-as well as the experiences of many other women across the country. "Knock Yourself Up" offers an inside look at the logistical and legal processes of opting for single motherhood, drawing on the personal stories of women who have done it. Addressing a range of topics such as coping with loneliness, financial struggles, complex reactions of family members, and more, "Knock Yourself Up" covers the emotional and practical issues and provides the kind of intimate answers you won't find anywhere else to questions like: - When is the right time to decide to have a baby alone? - How do I choose the right sperm? - Is this fair to the kid? - How do I tell my parents? - How do I tell my dates? - What's it like to be pregnant on your own? - If I do this, will I ever have sex-or a life-again? Informative and entertaining, Knock Yourself Up is a fun-to-read, up-to-date guide for any woman who is considering taking the baby plunge, with inspiring stories from women who have created happy families on their own.

Signs, Cures, and Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore


Gerald C. Milnes - 2007
    Many of the immigrants, and their progeny, settled in the Appalachian frontier. Here they established a particularly old set of religious beliefs and traditions based on a strong sense of folk spirituality. They practiced astrology, numerology, and other aspects of esoteric thinking and left a legacy that may still be found in Appalachian folklore today. Based in part on the author's extensive collection of oral histories from the remote highlands of West Virginia, Signs, Cures, and Witchery; German Appalachian Folklore describes these various occult practices, symbols, and beliefs; how they evolved within New World religious contexts; how they arrived on the Appalachian frontier; and the prospects of those beliefs continuing in the contemporary world. By concentrating on these inheritances, Gerald C. Milnes draws a larger picture of the German influence on Appalachia. Much has been written about the Anglo-Celtic, Scots-Irish, and English folkways of the Appalachian people, but few studies have addressed their German cultural attributes and sensibilities. Signs, Cures, and Witchery sheds startling light on folk influences from Germany, making it a volume of tremendous value to Appalachian scholars, folklorists, and readers with an interest in Appalachian folklife and German American studies.

Anthropology, History and Education


Immanuel Kant - 2007
    Some of these works, which were published over a thirty-nine year period between 1764 and 1803, had never before been translated into English. Kant's question 'What is the human being?' is approached indirectly in his famous works on metaphysics, epistemology, moral and legal philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of religion, but it is approached directly in his extensive but less well-known writings on physical and cultural anthropology, the philosophy of history, and education which are gathered in the present volume. Kant repeatedly claimed that the question 'What is the human being?' should be philosophy's most fundamental concern, and Anthropology, History, and Education can be seen as effectively presenting his philosophy as a whole in a popular guise.

Folk Psychological Narratives: The Sociocultural Basis of Understanding Reasons


Daniel D. Hutto - 2007
    In Folk Psychological Narratives, Daniel Hutto challenges this view (held in somewhat different forms by the two dominant approaches, "theory theory" and simulation theory) and argues for the sociocultural basis of this familiar ability. He makes a detailed case for the idea that the way we make sense of intentional actions essentially involves the construction of narratives about particular persons. Moreover he argues that children acquire this practical skill only by being exposed to and engaging in a distinctive kind of narrative practice. Hutto calls this developmental proposal the narrative practice hypothesis (NPH). Its core claim is that direct encounters with stories about persons who act for reasons (that is, folk psychological narratives) supply children with both the basic structure of folk psychology and the norm-governed possibilities for wielding it in practice. In making a strong case for the as yet underexamined idea that our understanding of reasons may be socioculturally grounded, Hutto not only advances and explicates the claims of the NPH, but he also challenges certain widely held assumptions. In this way, Folk Psychological Narratives both clears conceptual space around the dominant approaches for an alternative and offers a groundbreaking proposal.

Handbook of the Indians of California


Alfred Louis Kroeber - 2007
    In the north they approximated the cultures of the Northwest Coast; in the center they developed distinctive, elaborate cultures based on local food supplies; and in the south and east they approximated the more primitive desert groups — all in all showing a host of adaptations within a relatively small geographical area. In addition, despite successive decimations by missionaries, colonial administrations, settlers, and exploiters, enough Indians survived (though sometimes only a couple of each group) to make their study possible. For these reasons they have long been an important topic in anthropological circles.Far and away the most important work ever prepared about this complex situation was the monumental Handbook of the Indians of California by Kroeber. Based on more than 15 years of exhaustive research by Kroeber, it is a summation of just about everything of importance known about these Indians. Kroeber covered demographic situations, linguistic relations (which are also extraordinarily complex), social structures, folkways, religion, material culture, and whatever else was needed to offer a full picture of each “tribe.” The resulting book is a survey of each group, the typologically more important groups like the Yurok, Pomo, Maidu, Yokuts, and Mohave naturally receiving the most detail. Indispensable for every student of the American Indian, it can be read with great profit by both specialists and lay readers.

Bringing Down the Mountains: the Impact of Moutaintop Removal Surface Coal Mining on Southern West Virginia Communities


Shirley Stewart Burns - 2007
    For more than a century, West Virginia has answered the energy call of the nation—and the world—by mining and exporting its coal. In 2004, West Virginia’s coal industry provided almost forty thousand jobs directly related to coal, and it contributed $3.5 billion to the state’s gross annual product. And in the same year, West Virginia led the nation in coal exports, shipping over 50 million tons of coal to twenty-three countries. Coal has made millionaires of some and paupers of many. For generations of honest, hard-working West Virginians, coal has put food on tables, built homes, and sent students to college. But coal has also maimed, debilitated, and killed.Bringing Down the Mountains provides insight into how mountaintop removal has affected the people and the land of southern West Virginia. It examines the mechanization of the mining industry and the power relationships between coal interests, politicians, and the average citizen. Shirley Stewart Burns holds a BS in news-editorial journalism, a master’s degree in social work, and a PhD in history with an Appalachian focus, from West Virginia University. A native of Wyoming County in the southern West Virginia coalfields and the daughter of an underground coal miner, she has a passionate interest in the communities, environment, and histories of the southern West Virginia coalfields. She lives in Charleston, West Virginia.

The Archaeology of Race and Racialization in Historic America


Charles E. Orser Jr. - 2007
    He demonstrates this in two case studies, one from the Five Points excavation in New York City focusing on an immigrant Irish population, the second from a Chinese laundry in Stockton, California. Orser argues that race has not always been defined by skin color; through time, its meaning has changed. The process of racialization has marked most groups who came to the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; this book demonstrates ways that historical archaeology can contribute to understanding a fundamental element of the American immigrant experience.

Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times


Roopali Mukherjee - 2007
    Drinking a "Caring Cup" of coffee at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to support fair trade. Driving a Toyota Prius to fight global warming. All these commonplace activities point to a central feature of contemporary culture: the most common way we participate in social activism is by buying something.Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser have gathered an exemplary group of scholars to explore this new landscape through a series of case studies of "commodity activism." Drawing from television, film, consumer activist campaigns, and cultures of celebrity and corporate patronage, the essays take up examples such as the Dove "Real Beauty" campaign, sex positive retail activism, ABC's Extreme Home Makeover, and Angelina Jolie as multinational celebrity missionary.Exploring the complexities embedded in contemporary political activism, Commodity Activism reveals the workings of power and resistance as well as citizenship and subjectivity in the neoliberal era. Refusing to simply position politics in opposition to consumerism, this collection teases out the relationships between material cultures and political subjectivities, arguing that activism may itself be transforming into a branded commodity.

Multiculturalism Without Culture


Anne Phillips - 2007
    In Multiculturalism without Culture, Anne Phillips contends that critics misrepresent culture as the explanation of everything individuals from minority and non-Western groups do. She puts forward a defense of multiculturalism that dispenses with notions of culture, instead placing individuals themselves at its core.Multiculturalism has been blamed for encouraging the oppression of women--forced marriages, female genital cutting, school girls wearing the hijab. Many critics opportunistically deploy gender equality to justify the retreat from multiculturalism, hijacking the equality agenda to perpetuate cultural stereotypes. Phillips informs her argument with the feminist insistence on recognizing women as agents, and defends her position using an unusually broad range of literature, including political theory, philosophy, feminist theory, law, and anthropology. She argues that critics and proponents alike exaggerate the unity, distinctness, and intractability of cultures, thereby encouraging a perception of men and women as dupes constrained by cultural dictates.Opponents of multiculturalism may think the argument against accommodating cultural difference is over and won, but they are wrong. Phillips believes multiculturalism still has an important role to play in achieving greater social equality. In this book, she offers a new way of addressing dilemmas of justice and equality in multiethnic, multicultural societies, intervening at this critical moment when so many Western countries are poised to abandon multiculturalism.

Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader


Michael R. Dove - 2007
    Provides the historical perspective that is typically missing from recent work in environmental anthropology Includes an extensive intellectual history and commentary by the volume's editors Offers a unique perspective on current interest in cross-cultural environmental relations Divided into five thematic sections: (1) the nature/culture divide; (2) relationship between environment and social organization; (3) methodological debates and innovations; (4) politics and practice; and (5) epistemological issues of environmental anthropology Organized into a series of paired papers, which 'speak' to each other, designed to encourage readers to make connections that they might not customarily make

Daily Life in Stuart England


Jeffrey L. Forgeng - 2007
    Still very much an agrarian society, approximately 80% of the population lived in rural settlements, and even citydwellers were in walking distance of farmland. However, as the the century came to an end a growing proportion of the population was living in urban areas. London in particular grew from some 200,000 people in 1600 to 575,000 by 1700 and went from being the 3rd largest city in Europe to the largest. Homes were larger than previously and the wealth of a family could be determined by how many fireplaces were in the home. Clothing was another important facet of Stuart culture and not only protected the wearer against the elements but was a statement of their position in society. Clothing and homes weren't the only marker of social status, even sports and games were often divided along class lines - many in the lower classes played football while the upper-classes were consumed with billiards. Forgeng brings life in Stuart England alive for students and general readers alike. Chapters devoted to the course of life and cycles of time; the living environment; clothing and accoutrements; food and drink; and entertainments detail the day-to-day lives of those living in Stuart England; while the role of women; religion; science and technology; the military; and trade and economy are also explored.Greenwood's Daily Life through History series looks at the everyday lives of common people. This book will illuminate the lives of those living in Stuart England and provide a basis for further research. Black and white photographs, maps and charts are interspersed throughout the text to assist readers. Reference features include a timeline of historic events, sources for further reading, glossary of terms, bibliography and index.

Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient Americancosmology


Anna Sofaer - 2007
    Compiled by Anna Sofaer and her Solstice Project team of geographers, astronomers, archaeologists, and Native scholars, the book includes nine compelling and detailed chapters, with photographs, charts, diagrams, appendices.

Intimate Enemies: Landowners, Power, and Violence in Chiapas


Aaron Bobrow-Strain - 2007
    Scholarly discussion of agrarian politics has typically cast landed elites as “bad guys” with predetermined interests and obvious motives. Aaron Bobrow-Strain takes the landowners of Chiapas seriously, asking why coffee planters and cattle ranchers with a long and storied history of violent responses to agrarian conflict reacted to land invasions triggered by the Zapatista Rebellion of 1994 with quiescence and resignation rather than thugs and guns. In the process, he offers a unique ethnographic and historical glimpse into conflicts that have been understood almost exclusively through studies of indigenous people and movements. Weaving together ethnography, archival research, and cultural history, Bobrow-Strain argues that prior to the upheavals of 1994 landowners were already squeezed between increasingly organized indigenous activism and declining political and economic support from the Mexican state. He demonstrates that indigenous mobilizations that began in 1994 challenged not just the economy of estate agriculture but also landowners’ understandings of progress, masculinity, ethnicity, and indigenous docility. By scrutinizing the elites’ responses to land invasions in relation to the cultural politics of race, class, and gender, Bobrow-Strain provides timely insights into policy debates surrounding the recent global resurgence of peasant land reform movements. At the same time, he rethinks key theoretical frameworks that have long guided the study of agrarian politics by engaging political economy and critical human geography’s insights into the production of space. Describing how a carefully defended world of racial privilege, political dominance, and landed monopoly came unglued, Intimate Enemies is a remarkable account of how power works in the countryside.

In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities


Patricia Foxen - 2007
    As several said to the author, Now you have lived with your own skin what we have gone through, only you can leave at any time.This ethnography juxtaposes the context of post-war reconstruction at home, shaped by a fragile institutional peace process and emerging pan-Maya movement, with the hidden, marginal lives of mostly undocumented K'iche' transmigrants in New England, and describes the continuous movement of people, money, symbols, and ideas between the two locations. Transnational migration creates tension between material success and K'iche' traditional suspicion of standing out and displaying that success. Showing off or losing touch with one's responsibilities at home can invite envidias (envy), chismes (malicious gossip), and even brujer�a (witchcraft).Some of the perpetrators of violence in Guatemala have re-created their positions of dominance in Providence. One K'iche' recounts, He used a notebook, like the one you have, and each time I took even a glass of water he would write it down. He charged me $300 just for arriving, those $300 were like a tip for him. He told me he would not help me find work, and he would drink a lot and would say, 'You thought it would be easy here, you thought it is just picking up dollars here--well, you are screwed.'For students, the book provides rich accounts of the difficulties of entering the field and maintaining trust among people in divided and changing communities.

Women and ETA: The gender politics of radical Basque nationalism


Carrie Hamilton - 2007
    It analyses several aspects of women's nationalist activism: collaboration and direct activism in ETA, cultural movements, motherhood, prison and feminism. By focusing on gender politics Women and ETA offers new perspectives on the history of ETA, including recruitment, the militarization of radical Basque nationalism, and the role of the media in shaping popular understandings of 'terrorism'. These arguments are directly relevant to the study of women in other insurgence and terrorist movements. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of history, Hispanic studies, gender studies, anthropology and politics, as well as to journalists and readers interested in women's participation in contemporary conflicts and terrorist movements.

A Cultural History of the Native Peoples of Southern New England: Voices from Past and Present


Moondancer - 2007
    Standard academic books read like a clinical autopsy of a dead culture from many years ago. Contrary to this, A Cultural History of the Native Peoples of Southern New England provides an understanding of the ways, customs, and language of the southern New England American Indians from the Native's perspective. For the first time, a book written about the Native American peoples of southern New England is written by the Natives themselves. Incorporating voices of modern Elders and other Natives to the historic records of the 1500s and 1600s, everything about the beauty, power, and richness of their culture has been included. Sections of the book cover appearance, language, family and relations, religion, the body and senses, marriage, sickness, war, games, hunting, and much more. The proud and fiercely independent Native American peoples of southern New England once walked tall and proud on this land. With this book, they are now beginning to walk tall again.

Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions


Rhacel Salazar Parreñas - 2007
    This volume brings together these streams of inquiry and proposes a synthetic approach to examine various processes of migration and community formation on a global scale.The essays included in Asian Diasporas look at the worldwide dispersal of Asian populations through the lens of diaspora. They illustrate the underlying structures of inequality that create diasporic communities—the cultural barriers that impede belonging to the place they inhabit and the place they call "homeland," the unequal processes that embody globalization, and the social inequalities in host and origin country alike. Five major themes connect and cut across the collection: the recognition of inter-Asian strife; the persistence of the nation state; the salience of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality; the forces of labor, colonialism, and globalization; and the centrality of culture.

Wholphin No. 5: A DVD Magazine of Unseen Things


NOT A BOOK - 2007
    Each issue of Wholphin will contain a variety of extraordinary short films, documentaries, instructional videos, foreign sitcoms, and other cinema hybrids that deserve to be seen on very expensive televisions.Recent issues have included films from Steven Soderbergh, Spike Jonze, David O'Russell, Errol Morris, and Alexander Payne, with scripts from Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), the writers of The Daily Show and Bob Odenkirk. And unique performances by Dennis Hopper, John C. Reilly, Andy Richter, Donald Trump and Miranda July, as well as a trap-jaw ant, a pregnant squid and a monkey-faced eel.

The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology) (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology)


Richard J. Chacon - 2007
    The editors and contributors (which include Native Peoples from both continents) examine the evidence and causes of Amerindian trophy taking. Additionally, they present objectively and discuss dispassionately the topic of human proclivity toward ritual violence. This book fills the gap in literature on this subject.

At the Dawn of the Human History (Problems of Paleopsychology)


Boris Porshnev - 2007
    

Lorenzo Dow Turner: Father of Gullah Studies


Margaret Wade-Lewis - 2007
    A scholar whose work dramatically influenced the world of academia but whose personal story--until now--has remained an enigma, Turner (1890-1972) emerges from behind the shadow of his germinal 1949 study Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect as a man devoted to family, social responsibility, and intellectual contribution.

Native American Life-History Narratives: Colonial and Postcolonial Navajo Ethnography


Susan Berry Brill de Ramírez - 2007
    Nevertheless, the vast majority of the published narratives about the colonization of Indian peoples and lands have been framed and controlled by European and, later, Euroamerican chroniclers. After historical overviews of the early years of Native American and, specifically, Navajo ethnography, the greater part of the volume introduces a method that enables the reading of editorially reorganized ethnographic texts as a means of accessing and listening to informants' rich stories.The central chapters discuss the well-known volume "Son of Old Man Hat: A Navaho Autobiography." They question the extent to which the stories used for the text were actually about the storyteller's life. Once hailed as exemplary ethnography, Brill de Ram rez shows that "Son of Old Man Hat" is, in fact, just the opposite.The volume concludes with an introduction of ethnographic work in Navajo country that has been distinguished for its reliability, accuracy, and authenticity. These collections were primarily initiated from within the tribal community and produced through collaborative relationships.Brill de Ram rez demonstrates beneficial folklore tools for postcolonial study of colonial ethnography--thereby enabling readers to access and listen to the storytelling voices of generations of indigenous "informants" whose stories await postcolonial listener-readers.

Questions of Anthropology


Rita Astuti - 2007
    Questions of Anthropology brings these issues back to the centre of anthropological concerns. Individual essays explore birth, death and sexuality, puzzles about the relationship between science and religion, questions about the nature of ritual, work, political leadership and genocide, and our personal fears and desires, from the quest to control the future and to find one's "true" identity to the fear of being alone. Each essay starts with a question posed by individual ethnographic experience and then goes on to frame this question in a broader, comparative context.