Book picks similar to
Email from Ngeti: An Ethnography of Sorcery, Redemption, and Friendship in Global Africa by James H. Smith
non-fiction
read-for-school
uc-davis
anthropology
L'Enfant Noir: De Camara Laye
Irène Assiba d'Almeida - 2004
The list of works for the 2008 exam include: Le Cid, L'Ecole des femmes, Candide, Pierre et Jean, Moderato Cantabile, Une Tempête and La Poésie (updated for 2008 exam.)
Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon
Mitchell Pacelle - 2001
From the day it was erected, it has been the object of obsession for the heads of empires, conjuring their most hidden vices. In a riveting chronicle of betrayal, revenge, family rivalry, and raw greed, award-winning journalist Mitchell Pacelle tells the compelling tale of the history of the Empire State Building and the battle for ownership which reveals the inner workings of a world of powerful, self-made men. Pacelle brings to life the colorful cast of characters involved-a dramatis personae including the most powerful players in the international real estate markets both old and new, including John Raskob and Pierre du Pont alongside Donald Trump, the Helmsleys, Peter Malkin, and the eccentric Japanese billionaire Hideki Yokoi. Before the tale is over, Yokoi will accuse his beloved illegitimate daughter of stealing the building from him, several participants will land in jail, one will die suddenly, and a tense legal standoff will leave the landmark in limbo. One of the most fascinating characters to emerge from this richly layered story is the building itself, with its legendary romances and suicides, its odd tenants, and the countless human triumphs and tragedies that have been played out within its towering walls.
Money Has No Smell: The Africanization of New York City
Paul Stoller - 2002
In Money Has No Smell, Paul Stoller offers us a more complete portrait of the complex lives of West African immigrants like Diallo, a portrait based on years of research Stoller conducted on the streets of New York City during the 1990s.Blending fascinating ethnographic description with incisive social analysis, Stoller shows how these savvy West African entrepreneurs have built cohesive and effective multinational trading networks, in part through selling a simulated Africa to African Americans. These and other networks set up by the traders, along with their faith as devout Muslims, help them cope with the formidable state regulations and personal challenges they face in America. As Stoller demonstrates, the stories of these West African traders illustrate and illuminate ongoing debates about globalization, the informal economy, and the changing nature of American communities.
Let That Be a Lesson: A Teacher’s Life in the Classroom
Ryan Wilson - 2021
Bracing yourself for Parents' Evening. Refereeing teenage relationship dramas. This is not what you see in the adverts. From the age of eight, Ryan Wilson dreamt of being a teacher. This is the inside story of his time at the chalkface, from fresh-faced trainee with grand ideals to exhausted assistant head battling ever-changing government demands. It is a tribute to the colleagues who befriended him and to the chaotic, brilliant, maddening students who inspired and enraged him. From Sean, the wannabe gangster with a soft heart, to David, the king of innuendo, and terrifyingly clever Amelia. And, above all, it's about the lessons they taught him: how to be patient and resilient, how to live authentically and how to value every day. 'Hilarious, inspiring and so terrifyingly true' Lucy Kellaway'A delightfully frank and funny book - with a very serious message' Jacqueline Wilson 'A hilarious love letter to teaching - and to teenagers. It throws open the doors to the staff room and our ears to the gossip inside' Christie Watson
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
Ted Conover - 1999
When Conover’s request to shadow a recruit at the New York State Corrections Officer Academy was denied, he decided to apply for a job as a prison officer. So begins his odyssey at Sing Sing, once a model prison but now the state’s most troubled maximum-security facility. The result of his year there is this remarkable look at one of America’s most dangerous prisons, where drugs, gang wars, and sex are rampant, and where the line between violator and violated is often unclear.
Grave Secrets: Leading Forensic Expert Reveals Startling Truth about O.J. Simpson, David Koresh, Vincent Foster, and Other Sensational Cases
Cyril H. Wecht - 1996
has been involved in some of the most sensational cases of our time. Now Grave Secrets takes you on a personal tour behind the scenes of these notorious incidents-touching on cases as varied as O.J. Simpson, Vincent Foster, and even the much-publicized "Alien Autopsy." Through shocking eyewitness testimony and crucial findings of facts, Cyril Wecht's expert opinion is sure to enlighten and fascinate true crime fans everywhere! � Newly updated for paperback! br� GRAVE SECRETS provides controversial and stunning revelations, such as: br� Evidence pointing to a second killer in the O.J. Simpson murder case br� Whether or not White House counselVincent Foster really committed suicide br� Why the secrets surrounding the "Alien Autopsy" continue to elude the public br� Cyril Wecht has provided expert commentary on "20/20," "Nightline," "The Larry King Show," and news specials with Dan Rather, Geraldo Rivera, Tom Snyder, and Maury Povich br� Cyril Wecht is the former president of both the American Academy of Forensic Science and the American College of Legal Medicine br� Contains 8 pages of compelling photos
How Musical Is Man?
John Blacking - 1973
He is here presenting new information resulting from his research into African music, especially among the Venda. Venda music, he discovered is in its way no less complex in structure than European music. Literacy and the invention of nation may generate extended musical structures, but they express differences of degree, and not the difference in kind that is implied by the distinction between 'art' and 'folk' music. Many, if not all, of music's essential processes may be found in the constitution of the human body and in patterns of interaction of human bodies in society. Thus all music is structurally, as well as functionally, 'folk' music in the sense that music cannot be transmitted of have meaning without associations between people.If John Blacking's guess about the biological and social origins of music is correct, or even only partly correct, it would generate new ideas about the nature of musicality, the role of music in education and its general role in societies which (like the Venda in the context of their traditional economy) will have more leisure time as automation increases.
Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory
Paul A. Erickson - 2001
The readings have broad anthropological appeal, emphasizing cultural anthropology in the North American and European traditions.Thematic coverage begins with nineteenth-century foundations and forerunners, before moving on to the early and mid-twentieth century when anthropology comes of age. The last section looks at numerous late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-centurydevelopments in anthropological theory, including feminist anthropology, postmodernity, medical anthropology, and globalization. "
Gangsters Without Borders: An Ethnography of a Salvadoran Street Gang
T.W. Ward - 2012
Ward's eight and a half years in Los Angeles conducting participant observation with MS-13, Gangsters Without Borders: An Ethnography of a Salvadoran Street Gang takes an inside look at gang life in the United States and in a global context.Taking us through their journey from their homeland in El Salvador to the mean streets of Los Angeles, Gangsters Without Borders offers a perspective from the point of view of the hard-core members who live this hard, fast, and dangerous life.A powerful and engaging overview of gang dynamics, Gangsters Without Borders contextualizes the sources and severity of the marginalization felt by Salvadoran immigrants and debunks myths about street gangs in the United States. This account of gangsters' lives before, during, and after theirinvolvement with the gang delivers an intimate and analytical portrait unlike any other.
Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society
Holly Wardlow - 2006
Focusing on Huli “passenger women,” (women who accept money for sex) Wayward Women explores the socio-economic factors that push women into the practice of transactional sex, and asks how these transactions might be an expression of resistance, or even revenge. Challenging conventional understandings of “prostitution” and “sex work,” Holly Wardlow contextualizes the actions and intentions of passenger women in a rich analysis of kinship, bridewealth, marriage, and exchange, revealing the ways in which these robust social institutions are transformed by an encompassing capitalist economy. Many passenger women assert that they have been treated “olsem maket” (like market goods) by their husbands and natal kin, and they respond by fleeing home and defiantly appropriating their sexuality for their own purposes. Experiences of rape, violence, and the failure of kin to redress such wrongs figure prominently in their own stories about becoming “wayward.” Drawing on village court cases, hospital records, and women’s own raw, caustic , and darkly funny narratives, Wayward Women provides a riveting portrait of the way modernity engages with gender to produce new and contested subjectivities.
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc - 2003
Focusing on two romances - Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George, and Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar - Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies. Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin, while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between survival and death. Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and, throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty.Charting the tumultuous cycle of the generations - as girls become mothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation - LeBlanc slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and true story.
Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America
Jonathan Kozol - 2012
A winner of the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and countless other honors, he has persistently crossed the lines of class and race, first as a teacher, then as the author of tender and heart-breaking books about the children he has called “the outcasts of our nation’s ingenuity.” But Jonathan is not a distant and detached reporter. His own life has been radically transformed by the children who have trusted and befriended him. Never has this intimate acquaintance with his subjects been more apparent, or more stirring, than in Fire in the Ashes, as Jonathan tells the stories of young men and women who have come of age in one of the most destitute communities of the United States. Some of them never do recover from the battering they undergo in their early years, but many more battle back with fierce and, often, jubilant determination to overcome the formidable obstacles they face. As we watch these glorious children grow into the fullness of a healthy and contributive maturity, they ignite a flame of hope, not only for themselves, but for our society. The urgent issues that confront our urban schools – a devastating race-gap, a pathological regime of obsessive testing and drilling students for exams instead of giving them the rich curriculum that excites a love of learning – are interwoven through these stories. Why certain children rise above it all, graduate from high school and do well in college, while others are defeated by the time they enter adolescence, lies at the essence of this work. Jonathan Kozol is the author of Death at an Early Age, Savage Inequalities, and other books on children and their education. He has been called “today’s most eloquent spokesman for America’s disenfranchised.” But he believes young people speak most eloquently for themselves; and in this book, so full of the vitality and spontaneity of youth, we hear their testimony.
Cultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach
Richard H. Robbins - 1993
The book is organized around problems rather than topics, creating a natural and integrated discussion of such traditional concerns as kinship, caste, gender roles, and religion within the context of meaningful questions, including How can people begin to understand beliefs and behaviors that are different from their own. How do societies give meaning to and justify collective violence? Why are some societies more industrially advanced that others? What can anthropology tell us about attempts to link intelligence and class?
How the Other Half Lives
Jacob A. Riis - 1890
With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
My Idols - Journey of a Cricket Crazy
Pankaj Agrawal - 2013
Cricket and Bollywood. So there are only two kinds of people, who have unconditional fan following in India. That is Film actors and Cricket players. There are millions of Indians, who are huge fan of Cricket and cricketers. The book is all about collection of memoirs of the author in regard with his idols in the game. Book gives inside in to career span of few of the most prolific Indian cricketers in contemporary Cricket and few of greatest in international Cricket. The career path of them is embedded with most splendid performance of these players and interesting anecdotes (few of them are untold). All in all, a full sketch of these players in a very concise and interesting manner. There are chapters on:- Sachin Tendulkar Kapil Dev Kris Srikkanth Javagal Srinath Mohd. Azharruddin Ajay Jadeja Rahul Dravid Viv Richard Wasim Akram Shane Warne Author – Pankaj Agrawal