Book picks similar to
Dancing Tango: Passionate Encounters in a Globalizing World by Kathy Davis
anthropology
dance
frg
gender
The Dancing Girls of Lahore: Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Pleasure District
Louise Brown - 2005
The twenty-first century goes on outside the walls of this ancient quarter but scarcely registers within. Though their trade can be described with accuracy as prostitution, the dancing girls have an illustrious history: Beloved by emperors and nawabs, their sophisticated art encompassed the best of Mughal culture. The modern-day Bollywood aesthetic, with its love of gaudy spectacle, music, and dance, is their distant legacy. But the life of the pampered courtesan is not the one now being lived by Maha and her three girls. What they do is forbidden by Islam, though tolerated; but they are gandi, "unclean," and Maha's daughters, like her, are born into the business and will not leave it. Sociologist Louise Brown spent four years in the most intimate study of the family life of a Lahori dancing girl. With beautiful understatement, she turns a novelist's eye on a true story that beggars the imagination. Maha, a classically trained dancer of exquisite grace, had her virginity sold to a powerful Arab sheikh at the age of twelve; when her own daughter Nena comes of age and Maha cannot bring in the money she once did, she faces a terrible decision as the agents of the sheikh come calling once more.
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation
Olivia Judson - 2002
It explains all this and much more. It discloses the best time to have a sex change, how to have a virgin birth, when to seduce your sisters or eat your lover. Quirky and brilliant, it takes as its starting point all creatures great and small worried about their bizarre sex lives, and the letters they write to the wise Dr Tatiana, the only agony aunt in all creation with a prodigious knowledge of both natural history and evolutionary biology.
Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy - 1999
But is it? In this provocative, groundbreaking book, renowned anthropologist (and mother) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy shares a radical new vision of motherhood and its crucial role in human evolution.Hrdy strips away stereotypes and gender-biased myths to demonstrate that traditional views of maternal behavior are essentially wishful thinking codified as objective observation. As Hrdy argues, far from being "selfless," successful primate mothers have always combined nurturing with ambition, mother love with sexual love, ambivalence with devotion. In fact all mothers, in the struggle to guarantee both their own survival and that of their offspring, deal nimbly with competing demands and conflicting strategies.In her nuanced, stunningly original interpretation of the relationships between mothers and fathers, mothers and babies, and mothers and their social groups, Hrdy offers not only a revolutionary new meaning to motherhood but an important new understanding of human evolution. Written with grace and clarity, suffused with the wisdom of a long and distinguished career, Mother Nature is a profound contribution to our understanding of who we are as a species--and why we have become this way.
Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School
C.J. Pascoe - 2007
Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in a racially diverse working-class high school, Dude, You're a Fag sheds new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices. C. J. Pascoe's unorthodox approach analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process but also a sexual one. She demonstrates how the "specter of the fag" becomes a disciplinary mechanism for regulating heterosexual as well as homosexual boys and how the "fag discourse" is as much tied to gender as it is to sexuality.
The Descent of Woman
Elaine Morgan - 1972
On its first publication in 1972 it sparked an international debate and became a rallying-point for feminism, changing the terminology of anthropologists forever. Starting with her demolition of the Biblical myth that woman was an afterthought to the creation of man, Elaine Morgan rewrites human history and evolution.This lively, informative book sets out to solve the riddle of our origins; its answer is controversial. Elaine Morgan has made The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis a plausible alternative to conventional theories of evolution and The Descent of Woman first set out an understanding of who humans are and where they came from.Elaine Morgan was best known as a writer for television until the publication of The Descent of Woman in 1972, which became an international bestseller. She then spent ten years researching human evolution before publishing The Aquatic Ape (published by Souvenir Press as a revised edition, The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis) in 1982. In the years since, The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis has gone on to win widespread support among scientists.It is a measure of Elaine Morgan's enduring importance, provocative thought and international reputation that in January 2006, the first Chinese translation of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis became a Number 1 bestseller in Taiwan.
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century
Henry Jenkins - 2009
A growing body of scholarship suggests potential benefits of these activities, including opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, development of skills useful in the modern workplace, and a more empowered conception of citizenship. Some argue that young people pick up these key skills and competencies on their own by interacting with popular culture; but the problems of unequal access, lack of media transparency, and the breakdown of traditional forms of socialization and professional training suggest a role for policy and pedagogical intervention.This report aims to shift the conversation about the digital divide from questions about access to technology to questions about access to opportunities for involvement in participatory culture and how to provide all young people with the chance to develop the cultural competencies and social skills needed. Fostering these skills, the authors argue, requires a systemic approach to media education; schools, afterschool programs, and parents all have distinctive roles to play.The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning
The Joy of Forest Bathing: The Mysterious Japanese Art of Shinrin-Yoku
Melanie Choukas-Bradley - 2018
The Joy of Forest Bathing is a simple antidote to our nature-starved lives. The Joy of Forest Bathing is a beginner’s guide to forest bathing—or Shinrin-yoku, in Japan-- the meditative practice of connecting with nature and disconnecting from the distractions of daily life. Reduce your stress and anxiety levels as you enter a nature filled journey. Forest bathe through the seasons while also learning how to deal with difficult situations. Get enthralled in the landscapes around you as you discover the health benefits of reconnecting with the wild. This helpful guide is useful for all ages and stages of life and will help you incorporate the wonderous world of nature into your everyday life. The Joy of Forest Bathing is both an invitation to take up the practice of forest bathing and inspiration to heal both the planet and humanity.
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
Camille Paglia - 1990
It ultimately challenges the cultural assumptions of both conservatives and traditional liberals. 47 photographs.
Photographer's Guide to the Sony DSC-RX100
Alexander S. White - 2012
With its larger-than-normal image sensor, superior image quality, and impressive array of features for creative photography, this camera has attracted a large and dedicated following in the photography community. However, the camera does not come with a printed manual, or even a PDF manual that can readily be printed for reference. So, until now, it has been difficult for users of the camera to find answers to their questions about the use of the camera’s many controls, menus, and features.With the release of this new book, White Knight Press has provided users of the RX100 with a comprehensive guide to all operations, features, menus, and controls of this amazing camera. Using a patient, tutorial-like approach, the book provides guidance to beginning and intermediate photographers not only about how to accomplish things with the RX100, but when and why to use the camera’s many features. The book does not assume any specialized knowledge by the reader as it explains topics such as autofocus, manual focus, depth of field, aperture priority, shutter priority, exposure compensation, white balance, and ISO sensitivity. The book also provides full details of the camera’s numerous menu options for playback, setup, and customizing the operation of the various buttons and other controls.The book’s more than 300 photographs, most of them in full color when viewed on a color device, illustrate the RX100’s controls, shooting screens, and menus. The photographs also provide examples of the various types of photographs that can be taken using the many creative settings of the camera, including the Photo Creativity settings, which let the photographer alter the color processing of images; the Scene shooting mode, with settings that are optimized for various subjects, including landscapes, portraits, and action shots; the Creative Style and Picture Effect menu options, which offer dramatic options for altering the appearance of images; and the camera’s strong array of features for continuous shooting and shooting in dim lighting.In addition, the book goes beyond the bounds of everyday photography, and provides introductions to more advanced topics such as infrared photography, street photography, astrophotography, and macro photography.The book also includes a full discussion of the video recording abilities of the RX100, which can shoot high-definition (HD) video with stereo sound, and which offers manual control of exposure and focus during movie recording.In three appendices, the book provides information about accessories available for the RX100, including cases, external flash units, and filter adapters, and includes a list of web sites and other resources for further information. Also, the book includes a detailed appendix with helpful “quick tips” that give particular insights into how to take advantage of the camera’s features in the most efficient ways possible.
Customs of the World: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherever You Are
David Livermore - 2013
Based on groundbreaking research, these twenty-four lectures address dynamics and customs related to working, socializing, dining, marriage and family--all the areas necessary to help you function with a greater level of respect and effectiveness wherever you go. You'll also encounter practical tips and crucial context for greeting, interacting with, and even managing people from other parts of the world.In the first half, you'll analyze ten cultural value dimensions researchers have identified as helpful for comparing cultures, and you'll see how these "archetypes" play out in day-to-day lives. In the second half, you'll examine ten cultural clusters around the world that, when combined with your understanding of the ten cultural dimensions, provide strategic insight into how to be more effective as you live, work, and travel in the globalized world.
The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society
Debra Soh - 2020
Debra Soh uses a research-based approach to address this hot-button topic, unmasking popular misconceptions about the nature vs. nurture debate and exploring what it means to be a woman or a man in today’s society. Both scientific and objective, and drawing on original research and carefully conducted interviews, Soh tackles a wide range of issues, such as gender-neutral parenting, gender dysphoric children, and the neuroscience of being transgender. She debates today’s accepted notion that gender is a social construct and a spectrum, and challenges the idea that there is no difference between how male and female brains operate. The End of Gender is a conversation-starting work that will challenge what you thought you knew about gender, identity, and everything in between. Timely, informative, and provocative, it will arm you with the facts you need to come to your own conclusions about gender identity and its place in the world today.
Do Muslim Women Need Saving?
Lila Abu-Lughod - 2013
Lila Abu-Lughod boldly challenges this conclusion. An anthropologist who has been writing about Arab women for thirty years, she delves into the predicaments of Muslim women today, questioning whether generalizations about Islamic culture can explain the hardships these women face and asking what motivates particular individuals and institutions to promote their rights.In recent years Abu-Lughod has struggled to reconcile the popular image of women victimized by Islam with the complex women she has known through her research in various communities in the Muslim world. Here, she renders that divide vivid by presenting detailed vignettes of the lives of ordinary Muslim women, and showing that the problem of gender inequality cannot be laid at the feet of religion alone. Poverty and authoritarianism--conditions not unique to the Islamic world, and produced out of global interconnections that implicate the West--are often more decisive. The standard Western vocabulary of oppression, choice, and freedom is too blunt to describe these women's lives.Do Muslim Women Need Saving? is an indictment of a mindset that has justified all manner of foreign interference, including military invasion, in the name of rescuing women from Islam--as well as a moving portrait of women's actual experiences, and of the contingencies with which they live.
The Evolution Of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating
David M. Buss - 1994
Based on the most massive study of human mating ever undertaken, encompassing more than 10,000 people of all ages from thirty-seven cultures worldwide, The Evolution of Desire is the first book to present a unified theory of human mating behavior.Now in an updated edition with two new chapters by the author, The Evolution of Desire presents the latest research in the field, including starting new discoveries about the evolutionary advantages of infidelity, orgasm, and physical attractiveness.
Job Free: Four Ways to Quit the Rat Race and Achieve Financial Freedom on Your Terms
Jake Desyllas - 2015
A job-free life is possible, and you have options about how to achieve it. This book provides real-world examples of people who have successfully quit the rat race using four different strategies: extreme saving, unjobbing, lifestyle businesses, and startups. Whether you want to achieve financial independence and retire early, or simply never work for anyone else again, this book provides an essential guide to the different lifestyle-design strategies open to you. An inspiring and concise introduction to job freedom and financial independence, by someone who has achieved both.
Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind
George Lakoff - 1987
In addition, it should have repercussions in a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology and psychology to epistemology and the philosophy of science. . . . Lakoff asks: What do categories of language and thought reveal about the human mind? Offering both general theory and minute details, Lakoff shows that categories reveal a great deal."—David E. Leary, American Scientist