Anthropology Books

Book SynopsisNow available in a revised second edition, this popular introduction to the anthropology of religion combines discussion of the origin and development of debates within the field, with a look at where the subject is heading. Introduces readers to the central theoretical ideas in the anthropology of religion and illustrates them with specific case studies. Features self-contained chapters, each with its own comprehensive bibliography, so that they can be approached in any order. Contains an additional chapter on mythology and a number of new illustrations. Incorporates coverage of the following topics in the existing structure: pilgrimage, spirit possession and cargo cults. Includes a list of ethnographic films and videos that can be used to illustrate and extend discussion of particular issues. Table of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Acknowledgments. 1 Theories and Controversies. Introduction. Issues in the Study of Religion. The Origins of Religion. Defining Religion. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 2 The Body as Symbol. Introduction. Symbolic Classification and the Body. Training the Body and Social Control. Personal and Cultural Symbols. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 3 Maintaining and Transforming Boundaries: the Politics of Religious Identity. Introduction. Ritual Purity and Social Boundaries. Negotiating Identities. Contesting Boundaries. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 4 Sex, Gender, and the Sacred. Introduction. Looking at Women. Reflexivity and Gender. Gendered Studies. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 5 Religion, Culture, and Environment. Introduction. Cosmology. Mythology, Gender, and the Environment. Totemism and the Dreamtime. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 6 Ritual Theory, Rites of Passage, and Ritual Violence. Introduction. What is Ritual?. Rites of Passage. Ritual Violence. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 7 Shamanism. Introduction. Different Approaches to the Study of Shamanism. Arctic Shamanism. Shamanism in the Industrialized West. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 8 Witchcraft and the Evil Eye. Introduction. Witchcraft in Africa. Witchcraft in Rural France. The Evil Eye. The Mentalities Debate. Notes. References and Further Reading. 9 Pilgrimage. Introduction. Approaches to the Study of Pilgrimage. The Politics of Religious Synthesis. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. 10 Myth. Introduction. Myth and Ritual. Malinowski and the Function of Myth. The Power of Myth. The Structural Study of Myth. Joseph Campbell and the Monomyth. History, Myth, and Memory. Conclusion. Notes. References and Further Reading. Appendix: Film and Video Resources. Index

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Book SynopsisEvery year in the US, thousands of women and hundreds of men participate in sexual assault forensic examinations. Drawing on four years of participatory research in a Baltimore emergency room, this book reveals the realities of sexual assault response in the forensic age.Trade Review"[A] book that is both personal, critical, profound and at times difficult to read." * Metapsychology *"Once in a while comes along a book that not only adds a new dimension to existing knowledge of a phenomenon but changes our angle of vision on it. The Violence of Care is such a book. Through the lens of forensic nursing, Sameena Mulla rearranges categories of law, violence, care, kinship, and obligation, shifting our horizon of thought and allowing new aspects of these familiar categories to dawn on us. A stunning achievement." -- Veena Das,Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University"The book is a masterful call to reflection and reform. It deserves to be read by scholars in any discipline concerned with institutional responses to sexual violence and how they transform patient-provider encounters in spaces where medicine and law converge." * Theoretical Criminology *Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Sexual Violence in the City 1 1. "The Hand of God": DNA and Victim Subjectivity in 37 Sexual Assault Intervention 2. Making Time: Temporalities of Law, Healing, and Sexual Violence 57 3. On Truth and Disgust: Managing Emotion in the Forensic 76 Intervention 4. Re/production: Articulating Paths to Healing and Justice 103 5. Facing Victims: Vision and Visage in the Forensic Exam 130 6. Documentary Agency: Institutional Dispositions toward 152 Gender and Rape Myths 7. There Is No Place Like Home: Home, Harm, and Healing 176 8. Patient and Victim Compliance: Drugs, AIDS, and Local 195 Geographies of Care Conclusion: "We're Not There for the Victim": The Violence 217 of Forensic Care Notes 231 Bibliography 243 Index 267 About the Author 277

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Book SynopsisIn her role as devoted wife, the Hindu goddess Parvati is the divine embodiment of viraha, the agony of separation from one's beloved, a form of love that is also intense suffering. These contradictory emotions reflect the overlapping dissolutions of love, family, and mental health explored by Sarah Pinto in this visceral ethnography. Daughters of Parvati centers on the lives of women in different settings of psychiatric care in northern India, particularly the contrasting environments of a private mental health clinic and a wing of a government hospital. Through an anthropological consideration of modern medicine in a nonwestern setting, Pinto challenges the dominant framework for addressing crises such as long-term involuntary commitment, poor treatment in homes, scarcity of licensed practitioners, heavy use of pharmaceuticals, and the ways psychiatry may reproduce constraining social conditions. Inflected by the author's own experience of separation and single motherhood during her fieldwork, Daughters of Parvati urges us to think about the ways women bear the consequences of the vulnerabilities of love and family in their minds, bodies, and social worlds.Trade Review"Pinto’s complex and moving ethnography explores women’s lives in the context of different psychiatric care settings in a North Indian city. Woven together with Pinto’s own experiences of love’s breakdowns between India and Boston, Daughters of Parvati centres on the ways women take on the vulnerabilities and dependencies of marriage and family, and how psychiatric care, pharmaceuticals, and institutions mediate when relationships fall apart. [A]n illuminating ethnography [and] a complex and intimate example of feminist ethnography at its most vulnerable and powerful….[A] magisterial contribution to anthropological studies of global psychiatry and of kinship and care. It is also a moving and intimately reflexive book suggesting the power of ethnographic writing in its limits and possibilities." * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *"“[A] compelling ethnography about women’s engagement with Western psychiatric care in North India. In bearing witness to the difficult lives of women on the verge of mental and relational breakdowns, Pinto offers a nuanced account of the gendered particularities of everyday psychiatric practice in India. Her observations of the Indian context open windows onto global anthropological debates about the ethics of institutional care and medical therapeutics, the vicissitudes of biopolitical power and subject making, and the challenges of reflexive research in conditions of human crises and abuses.…[S]ome of the most sophisticated anthropological writings on the subject." * American Anthropologist *"Daughters of Parvati is critical reading for scholars of medical anthropology, disability studies, gender and sexuality studies, and feminist methodologies...Pinto’s work reveals not only the limits and constraints of our ethnographic methodologies (and, in turn, clinical and diagnostic settings) but also, crucially, their possibilities. " * Isis *"One of the most compelling ethnographies I have read in recent years." * Veena Das, Medical Anthropology Quarterly *"A poignant, compelling, complex, and provocative example of anthropological storytelling. Based on original and evidently difficult fieldwork focused on the treatment of women's mental illnesses in north India, the book offers a gendered reading of psychiatry. It is also very much an intimate and intensely reflexive ethnography." * Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University *"An important book, making interventions in how we think about choreographies of clinical mental health work with families broken and repaired. Its ethnographic specificities have to do with India, but its accounts of medical, familial, and narrative crises are of broad theoretical import." * Michael M. J. Fischer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Table of ContentsNote on Transliterations Introduction: Love and Affliction Chapter 1. Rehabilitating Ammi Chapter 2. On Dissolution Chapter 3. Moksha and Mishappenings Chapter 4. On Dissociation Chapter 5. Making a Case Chapter 6. Ethics of Dissolution Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisSonic ethnography makes a compelling argument for taking sound seriously as a crucial component of social life and as an ethnographic form of representation. This volume explores the role of sound-making and listening practices in the formation of local identities in the southern Italian region of Basilicata. With an approach that cuts across sensory anthropology, sound studies and ethnomusicology, Sonic ethnography demonstrates how acoustic tradition is made and disrupted and acoustic communities are brought together in shared temporality and space. Based extensive research, this volume provides an innovative take on soundful cultural performances such as tree rituals, carnivals, pilgrimages and more informal musical performances, with particular attention to the interactions between classic ethnographic scholarship from the past century and the local politics of heritage.Featuring stunning colour photographs and more than an hour of sound recordings, Sonic ethnography uses a unique combination of media to investigate distinctive ways of knowing, beyond more traditional ethnographic forms of representation. Two methodological chapters, respectively on music-making as creative research practice and on photo-ethnography, make the book an essential contribution for those interested in the production of sounds and still images as relational and interactive approaches to fieldwork. The pioneering anthropologist of sound, Steven Feld, collaborated to some of the research and contributed to the book an afterword and a soundscape composition.Trade Review'This multi-layered, long-term ethnographic research was conducted through intimate musical knowledge and participation with the study communities and focuses on the relationship of sound structure to social structure. A unique methodological approach to studying ritual, festival, and symbolic behavior is the introduction of listening as a methodology, which might appear simplistic but is not. Using listening as methodology includes searching for patterns and “mechanisms” of sound; that is, sound recognized as marking ritual space and organizing action. This publication presents valuable alternatives in the use of still photography with text and sound by showing us a variety of design in this text As Craig Campbell stated in his recommendation letter, this makes it a rich, innovative source for teaching Visual Anthropology. This publication effectively combines excellence in the use of still photography integrating the photos beautifully in relationship to sound and text.'Judging panel, John Collier Jr. Award for Still Photography'This is a sublime and exhilarating work. Its multi-faceted, multi-media approach is truly breathtaking; the photography itself conveys sound just as much as the text and sound files do.'Judging panel, 2021 ICTM Book Prize 'The sensory submersion into cultural practice has the effect of bringing the audience in as participants; a truly successful way of imparting knowledge and experience.'Judging panel, 2021 ICTM Book Prize 'Their thoughtful reflections on methodology and theoretical musings provide a wealth of insights on cultural politics, heritage policies, arts practice research, creative interventions, and photography in anthropology.'Judging panel, 2021 ICTM Book Prize -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction1 When the trees resound: towards a sonic ethnography of the Maggio festival in Accettura2 Soundmasks in resounding places: listening to the Campanaccio of San Mauro Forte3 Sonic devotion and sonic control: struggles for power over a festival soundscape4 Sounds and images of nostalgia: the revival of Lucanian wheat festivals5 Voices across the ocean: recorded memories and diasporic identity in the archive of Giuseppe Chiaffitella6 Doing research in sound: music-making as creative intervention7 Photographing as an anthropologist: notes on developing a photo-ethnographic practice in BasilicataAfterword by Steven FeldListening guideAudio tracks:Soundscape composition – Accettura 2005 – Tuesday (17 May) by Steven FeldSound-chapters:1 The saint and the tree2 Rhythms in the dark3 'We came a long way…'4 Dancing with wheat5 Memories from a loyal companion6 A musical journey with my zampognaReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR BEST SPECIALIST BUSINESS BOOK AT THE BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2021Have you ever relied on your hand to remember your pin rather than your memory?Or acted out a golf stroke before going for it?Or listened to your gut on a big decision?In this insightful new book, leading business anthropologist Simon Roberts breaks down the revolutionary idea of embodied knowledge: the information that is unconsciously picked up by our body for use in every area of our lives.Drawing on his own experience working with some of the world's leading industry experts and looking at a range of real-life examples and cutting-edge science, Roberts explains the various ways in which our body acquires, retains and employs information and why we should learn to trust the instincts that inform the most crucial decisions and actions in our lives.The Power of Not Thinking shows why humans are capable of far more than we are currently led to believe.We just have to stop thinking and start trusting our bodies.Trade ReviewEmbodied habits matter deeply, as illustrated powerfully in Roberts' timely new book. * Financial Times *A humanistic perspective on tech * Maria Bezaitis, Intel *An incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking book about the power of not over-thinking * Charles Leadbeater, social innovator and author *'Has the potential to change the way you think about understanding people' * Martha Cotton, Fjord/Accenture *Roberts shows us that our bodies, as well as our minds, have a vital role to play in the contribution that human beings make * Stefan Stern, author of How To Be A Better Leader *An excellent and delightfully readable book * Christian Madsbjerg, Professor of Applied Humanities *This book is as timely as it is important. Bodies have always mattered but it takes a voice as clear as Simon Roberts to remind us of just how very much, and why embodiment should be a critical part of all our conversations about the future. * Genevieve Bell *A lovely account that explains why executives, financiers, policy makers (and everybody else) needs to embrace walking in someone else's shoes * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisIf you’re intrigued by the question “What makes us human?”, strap in for this whirlwind tour of the highlights of anthropology From the first steps of our prehistoric ancestors, to the development of complex languages, to the intricacies of religions and cultures across the world, diverse factors have shaped the human species as we know it. Anthropology strives to untangle this fascinating web of history to work out who we were in the past, what that means for human beings today and who we might be tomorrow. This pocket-sized introduction includes accessible primers on: Influential anthropologists such as Franz Boas, Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict The key branches of anthropology, from physical and linguistic anthropology to archaeology How anthropologists study topics such as communication, identity, sex and gender, religion and culture How we can approach one of life’s most enduring questions: what is it that truly makes us human? This illuminating little book will introduce you to the key thinkers, themes and theories you need to know to understand the development of human beings, and how our history has informed the way we live today. A perfect gift for anyone taking their first steps into the world of anthropology, as well as for those who want to brush up their knowledge.

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Book SynopsisBy considering the folklore of Cornwall in a Northern European context, this book casts light on a treasury of often-ignored traditions. Folklore studies internationally have long considered Celtic material, but scholars have tended to overlook Cornwall’s collections. The Folklore of Cornwall fills this gap, placing neglected stories on a par with those from other regions where Celtic languages have deep roots. The Folklore of Cornwall demonstrates that Cornwall has a distinct body of oral tradition, even when examining legends and folktales that also appear elsewhere. The way in which Cornish droll tellers achieved this unique pattern is remarkable; with the publication of this book, it becomes possible for folklorists to look to the peninsula beyond the River Tamar for insight. A very readable text with popular appeal, this book serves as an introduction to folklore studies for the novice while also offering an alternative means to consider Cornish studies for advanced scholars. The comparative analysis combined with an innovative method of The Folklore of Cornwall is not to be found in other treatments of the subject.Trade ReviewIn making available and drawing our attention to folklore which has too often been left unnoted and unanalyzed, this volume is a gift to Cornish studies, an easy-to-read, scholarly work, which provides historic and theoretic perspective along with its valuable body of cultural information. -- Elissa R. Henken * Journal of Folklore Research *In short, we have here a truly grown-up and up-to-date study, supported by a preface from the pen of Philip Payton of Flinders University. As an appendix we have a much-needed type-index for Cornish narrative, bringing together references to tales from many parts of north-west Europe. As James points out, the list can and should be augmented by additional research. Take for instance ML 6055, ‘Fairy Cows’, where much remains to be discovered about the relationship between Hunt’s variant and the much longer one provided by Bottrell, let alone about the place in the system of congeners from farther afield. There are copious and detailed notes, and a wide-ranging bibliography that will be welcomed not least by students wedded to a comparative approach. ...The study of Cornish folklore has well and truly entered the twenty-first century. -- J. B. Smith * Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries *The author brings an unrivalled level of scholarship to the subject and shares this with the reader in plain, easily understood language. He provides a clear introduction to the science that helps us understand folklore. We quickly learn how to differentiate between myths, legends, memorates, and the importance of understanding 'folkways' as a window into the world of our predecessors. -- Merv Davey * Old Cornwall *Endorsements: 'Our first real book on Cornish folklore since 1890 … and, my goodness, it has been worth the wait. You can count the great names in Cornish folklore studies on the fingers of one hand: Bottrell, Courtney, Hunt, Tregarthen … and now, a century after Tregarthen put down her pen, Ron James. He has confirmed his membership of the club with this remarkable new work. The Folklore of Cornwall will prove an inspiration not only for Cornish scholars, but for folklorists more generally.' Simon Young, University of Virginia (Siena, CET) 'Professor James is extraordinarily well-versed in European folklore, having a seemingly exhaustive array of legends to draw upon for his comparative analysis. His explication of folktale origins is convincing as well as interesting, and his explication of their meanings as a way of explaining pre-modern beliefs is especially intriguing.' Kevin J. Gardner, Professor and Chair, Department of English, Baylor University, USA ‘His detailed research in the United States, for example, reveals how emigrant Cornish men and women took their folklore to the mining frontier of the American West, adapting it to local conditions (as in the ‘tommyknockers’), yet further evidence of the tradition’s continuing vitality and relevance. ‘Cornish folklore has been literally global in its impact and extent, and in this important book Ronald M. James encourages us to look at this fascinating subject in new and innovative ways. It is sure be the standard volume for many years to come.’ Philip Payton, Professor of History, Flinders University, Australia ‘Exploring a wealth of interesting and enjoyable tales, James sets the rich folklore of Cornwall – from the indigenous piskie to the emigrant tommyknocker – within a much wider historic and geographic context. This book is both highly informative and a real pleasure to read.’ Dr Ceri Houlbrook, Researcher in the History Group, University of Hertfordshire An important reference book -- William Orchard * Folklore *Beautifully written… While being a work of deep scholarship, this book is very accessible and eminently readable. -- Linda-May Ballard * Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies *What joy! ...It is a treat to have West Country tales, legends, and traditions comprehensively covered, and be shown distinctive ways in which folklore can be contextualised, made relevant and retold. -- Helen Cornish, Fortean TimesTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface by Philip Payton Introduction Chapter 1 The Collectors Chapter 2 The Droll Tellers Chapter 3 Folkways and Stories Chapter 4 Piskies, Spriggans, and Bucca Chapter 5 Piskies and Migratory Legends Chapter 6 Seeking the Companionship of People Chapter 7 Mermaids Chapter 8 The Spectral Bridegroom Chapter 9 Giants Chapter 10 Knockers in the Mines Chapter 11 Tommyknockers, Immigration, and the Modern World Conclusion Appendix: Type Index for Cornish Narrative Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how philanthropy is perceived and practiced in a predominantly Muslim society. It is the first academic quantification of philanthropic giving and volunteering using a representative sample of the Egyptian population, providing the reader with a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the state of philanthropy in Egypt. The book discusses traditional and religious philanthropic mechanisms and provides a thorough explanation of the waqf system, how it is perceived today, and how it could support innovation. Furthermore, as a solid direct product of the research embodied in the creation of a community foundation, it discusses reviving and modernizing the concept of waqf, thus elaborating an example of how academic studies may be employed to create proto-types for learning and calculated action.

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Book SynopsisSartor Resartus is a satirical novel by Scottish author Thomas Carlyle. The book is divided into three sections, with the first section providing a biographical account of Teufelsdröckh's life and his philosophical ideas, which include a rejection of traditional morality and the importance of the individual's subjective experience. The second section explores the symbolism and meaning behind clothing and fashion, using it as a metaphor for the ways in which people construct their identities and relationships with the world. Finally, the third section, titled The Everlasting No, addresses the idea of skepticism and doubt, arguing that questioning and rejecting established beliefs can lead to a more meaningful life. Throughout the book, Carlyle employs a complex and sometimes obscure writing style, incorporating elements of poetry, philosophy, and history, and often satirizing the conventions of traditional narrative. Sartor Resartus has been praised for its innovative form and challenging ideas.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe three environmental policy positions and their exemplary representatives would be enough to turn the study into a cutting edge look at the recent past and present of one of the world's most controversial and at the same time most vulnerable ecosystems. Blavascunas can and wants to do more, namely not only to write ethnographically, but also to convince. It expressly does not absolutize the Kossaks, Szumarskis and Korbels, as would contemporary historical approaches, whose narratives cannot do without heroes and a simple conclusion: for or against the jungle and its preservation or deforestation. But it sets other accents; it is about a mapping of what would be possible outside of this pro-contra dichotomy. . . . Foresters, Borders, and Bark Beetles . . . dares a partisan intervention for the not so human actors in an ancient forest. -- Bruno Arich-Gerz * TEXTEM *Table of Contents1. Puszcza: Of Forests and Time 2. The Forester 3. Scientists and the Communist Past: Syndromes, Disorders, and a Proper Elite 4. Post-peasant Cosmopolitics: Man of the Forest 5. Borderline Engagements: Relict Forest, Relict Communism 6. Resurgence: Outbreaks of Bark Beetle and Right-wing Nationalism 7. Temporal Dimensions: The Past is not Safe at all

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Book SynopsisCharts how revolutions in genomics, bioinformatics, and remote sensing have pressed marine biologists to see the sea as animated by its smallest inhabitants: marine microbes.Trade Review"Unique [and] innovative... Captures the excitement and crucial nature of oceanographic research... Perhaps Alien Ocean will inspire the next generation to fulfill the promise of environmental genomic sequencing." Nature "Intriguingly, Alien Ocean's main characters are arguably not the scientists, nor Helmreich, but the sea itself and the bizarre microbial communities recently found there." Seed Magazine "Erudite, widely ranging account of currently important aspects of marine microbiology and their broader implications." -- A. J. Kohn Choice "One of the pleasures of Alien Ocean is Helmreich's playfulness." Technology Review "Opens new vistas, creates fresh associations, and raises profound questions... Helmreich's work is a brilliant piece of scholarship." Mast "An engaging treatise of a fascinating topic." Microbe Magazine "Alien Ocean opens up whole new exciting realms of connections." IsisTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Moorings Acknowledgments Introduction: Life at Sea 1. The Message from the Mud: Making Meaning Out of Microbes in Monterey Bay 2. Dissolving the Tree of Life: Alien Kinship at Hydrothermal Vents 3. Blue-Green Capitalism: Marine Biotechnology in Hawaii 4. Alien Species, Native Politics: Mixing Up Nature and Culture in Ocean Oahu 5. Abducting the Atlantic: How the Ocean Got Its Genome 6. Submarine Cyborgs: Transductive Ethnography at the Seafloor, Juan de Fuca Ridge 7. Extraterrestrial Seas: Astrobiology and the Nature of Alien Life Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe fruit of many years teaching Philosophical Anthropology, conducting Phenomenological Workshops, and reading classic texts in the light of a reflective awareness of the field of experience, Being Human is intended to look to what is typically assumed but not examined in much of current philosophical literature.

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Book SynopsisA journey through unexplored spaces that foreground new ways of inhabiting the urban One of the fundamental dimensions of urbanization is its radical transformation of nature. Today domestic animals make up more than twice the biomass of people on the planet, and cities are replete with nonhuman life. Yet current accounts of the urban remain resolutely anthropocentric. Lively Cities departs from conventions of urban studies to argue that cities are lived achievements forged by a multitude of entities, drawing attention to a suite of beings—human and nonhuman—that make up the material politics of city making.From macaques and cattle in Delhi to the invasive parakeet colonies in London, Maan Barua examines the rhythms, paths, and agency of nonhumans across the city. He reconceptualizes several key themes in urban thought, including infrastructure, the built environment, design, habitation, and everyday practices of dwelling and provides a critical intervention in animal and urban studies. Generating fresh conversations between posthumanism, postcolonialism, and political economy, Barua reveals how human and nonhuman actors shape, integrate, subsume, and relate to urban space in fascinating ways.Through novel combinations of ethnography and ethology, and focusing on interlocutors that are not the usual suspects animating urban theory, Barua’s work considers nonhuman lifeworlds and the differences they make in understanding urbanicity. Lively Cities is an agenda-setting intervention, ultimately proposing a new grammar of urban life.Trade Review "Urbanities are the intersection and always provisional conjunctions of multiple inhabitations negotiated across a heterogeneity of agencies and forces—engendering dispositions always unsettled in their everyday encounters and unruly ecologies. This text is an unparalleled exploration of the liveliness that other-than-human beings infuse into a sociality extended beyond biopolitical conceptualization and control, underlining an urban economy more attuned to its natural surrounds. An essential excursion across the shifting landscapes of incipient sustenance."—AbdouMaliq Simone, author of The Surrounds: Urban Life within and beyond Capture

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Book SynopsisHumanity is at a crossroads. We face mounting inequality, escalating political violence, warring fundamentalisms and an environmental crisis of planetary proportions. How can we fashion a world that has room for everyone, for generations to come? What are the possibilities, in such a world, of collective human life? These are urgent questions, and no discipline is better placed to address them than anthropology. It does so by bringing to bear the wisdom and experience of people everywhere, whatever their backgrounds and walks of life.In this passionately argued book, Tim Ingold relates how a field of study once committed to ideals of progress collapsed amidst the ruins of war and colonialism, only to be reborn as a discipline of hope, destined to take centre stage in debating the most pressing intellectual, ethical and political issues of our time. He shows why anthropology matters to us all.Introducing Polity’s Why It Matters series: In these short and lively books, world-leading thinkers make the case for the importance of their subjects and aim to inspire a new generation of students.Trade Review"Ingold, one of the most original and radical thinkers alive, presents his unique vision in a crystal-clear and passionate way. The book deserves a wide readership inside and outside the discipline."—Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo "Anthropology: Why It Matters is both an introduction to and a profound meditation on the classic questions of anthropology. It is a model of what I would call 'companionable thinking.'"—Veena Das, Johns Hopkins UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Chapter 1: On taking others seriously Chapter 2: Similarity and difference Chapter 3: A discipline divided Chapter 4: Rethinking the social Chapter 5: Anthropology for the future Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisPresenting an ethnographic study about Morocco, this title describes a series of encounters with the author's informants in that study, from a French innkeeper clinging to the vestiges of a colonial past, to the rural descendants of a seventeenth-century saint.Table of ContentsPreface to the Thirtieth Anniversary Edition Forward by Robert N. Bellah Introduction 1 Remnants of a Dying Colonialism 2 Packaged Goods 3 Ali: An Insider's Outsider 4 Entering 5 Respectable Information 6 Transgression 7 Self-Consciousness 8 Friendship Conclusion Afterword by Pierre Bourdieu Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisA new edition of the classic anthropology textbook which shows how anthropology is a revolutionary way of thinking about the human worldTable of ContentsSeries Preface Part I: Entrances 1. Why Anthropology? 2. Key Concepts 3. Ethnography 4. Theory Part II: Fields 5. Reciprocity 6. Kinship 7. Nature 8. Thought 9. Social Identity Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMarrying the findings of the new field of social neuroscience together with gripping human stories, award-winning author and psychologist Susan Pinker explores the impact of face-to-face contact from cradle to grave, from city to Sardinian mountain village, from classroom to workplace, from love to marriage to divorce. Her results are enlightening and enlivening, and they challenge our assumptions. Most of us have left the literal village behind, and don't want to give up our new technologies to go back there. But, as Pinker writes so compellingly, we need close social bonds and uninterrupted face-time with our friends and families in order to thrive - even to survive. Creating our own 'village effect' can make us happier. It can also save our lives.Trade ReviewA terrific book . . . Pinker makes a hardheaded case for a softhearted virtue. Read this book. Then talk about it - in person! - with a friend. * Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human *Susan Pinker's delightful book shows why face-to-face interaction at home, school, and work makes us healthier, smarter, and more successful. * Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit *The benefits of the digital age have been oversold. Or to put it another way: there is plenty of life left in face-to-face, human interaction. That is the message emerging from this entertaining book by Susan Pinker, a Canadian psychologist. Citing a wealth of research and reinforced with her own arguments, Pinker suggests we should make an effort - at work and in our private lives - to promote greater levels of personal intimacy. * Financial Times *Drawing on scores of psychological and sociological studies, Pinker suggests that living as our ancestors did, steeped in face-to-face contact and physical proximity, is the key to health, while loneliness is less an exalted existential state than a public health risk. * Boston Globe *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A work of impressive scholarship that ranges across a vast territory, both in theory and in the case studies.” —Dan Lawrence, Antiquity“A vital contribution to understanding the deep roots of our present environmental and climatic crisis”—Julian Thomas, Journal of Royal Anthropological InstituteSelected for Choice's 2019 Outstanding Academic Titles List "In this important book, Ian Hodder demonstrates why things matter, not because they represent something, but because the entangled interdependence of all things gives rise to the forward direction of history."—John C. Barrett, Professor Emeritus, University of Sheffield"Ian Hodder offers a new evolutionary model that gives real prominence to the human entanglement with things, in a brilliantly lucid account of the long paths along which humans and things lead each other."—Carl Knappett, Department of Art, University of Toronto“Running counter to studies giving human agency the big share in our embeddedness with things, Hodder’s sparkling essay advances the legacy of systems of things as entrapping human evolution.”—Pierre Lemonnier, author of Mundane Objects. Materiality and Non-verbal Communication “Ian Hodder frames a new archaeological perspective on the grand narrative of human evolution. Where Are We Heading? provides the first compelling explanation of directionality in cultural change.”—Dorian Fuller, University College London

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Book SynopsisForty thousand years ago, the human species existed as thousands of small, virtually autonomous bands, roaming a world almost entirely untouched their presence, each band in contact with a few neighbors but unaware of the thousands of others spread across the planet. Today, no life can unfold in isolation from the general flux and flow of human activity. Every habitable inch of the planet is inhabited by humans, there is no place left untouched by our presence, and events anywhere on this planet can have consequences felt by people anywhere else on this planet. The center of the world no longer seems to be this place or that place but the system as a whole. This journey - from vulnerable small groups to a planet-encompassing hive - is the subject of Tamim Ansary's elegant and gripping history. His object is not just to describe the journey, but to illuminate origins of distinct ways of understanding the world, organizing ourselves, and making sense of what we experience. What each of us sees when we look up at the stars-or at the political landscape of this moment-is shaped by a narrative begun many thousands of years ago; and by the environment, tools, and language that informed that narrative. Ansary also reveals our various gods and laws, our rulers and bankers, our philosophers and outcasts, each of which is a continuous presence in the various global cultures. They are the survivors in the human drama, whereas nation states, corporations, policies and political ideas are all susceptible to violent upheaval and dramatic erasure. Our current moment, Ansary shows, is one of revolutionary reinvention, as old habits are cast aside and reconfigured by the ever more intertwined world we have created. The whole of human history, after all, has been leading up to it.

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Book SynopsisImportant writings by the leading theorist of anarchism, including the brief but moving Spirit of Revolt, Law and Authority, an argument for social control through custom and education, and other documents. An invaluable addition to the libraries of instructors, students, and anyone interested in history, government, and anarchist thought.

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Book SynopsisOliver Sacks was born in 1933 in London and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford. He completed his medical training at San Francisco's Mount Zion Hospital and at UCLA before moving to New York, where he soon encountered the patients whom he would write about in his book Awakenings.Dr Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations, about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as 'the poet laureate of medicine', and over the years he received many awards, including honours from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.Trade ReviewThis is a wonderful book, made better by Sacks' exceptionally gentle descriptions of patients. He also captures the unimaginable sadness of the Pacific. * Spectator *There is no one at the present time who writes like Oliver Sacks . . . He is a superb clinician who can take a seemingly arid and obscure medical condition, and convert it into a moving, personal odyssey, a testament of tenacity, courage and will. * Literary Review *Dr Sacks is an elegant and beguiling writer, and when he describes a condition such as achromatopsia (total colour-blindness), he is not content merely to describe it from the outside, but he tries to imagine what the world is like to a person with the condition. * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisAre the “culture wars” over? When did they begin? What is their relationship to gender struggle and the dynamics of class? In her first full treatment of postcolonial studies, a field that she helped define, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, one of the world’s foremost literary theorists, poses these questions from within the postcolonial enclave.Trade ReviewGayatri Spivak’s most recent text, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, brings together in a single volume a wide range of her work in postcolonial studies… She weaves together these multiple levels of critique brilliantly, presenting a rigorous reading of the discourses of imperialism… A Critique of Postcolonial Reason presents a scrupulous discussion of imperialism in European philosophy, literature, history, and culture. -- Rachel Riedner * American Studies International *Gayatri Spivak’s long-awaited book…sets out to challenge the very fields Spivak has herself been most associated with—postcolonial studies and third world feminism… [A Critique of Postcolonial Reason] is remarkable for the warnings it provides—powerful critiques of diverse positions structure the author’s stance—as guardian in the margin. Spivak forcefully interrogates the practices, politics and subterfuges of intellectual formations ranging from nativism, elite poststructuralist theory, metropolitan feminism, cultural Marxism, global hybridism, and ‘white boys talking postcoloniality.’ -- Yogita Goyal * New Formations *A Critique of Postcolonial Reason is almost above all else self-conscious, self-aware, self-deprecating. In 139 brilliant footnotes to ‘Culture,’ Spivak carries on a running engagement with the flotsam and jetsam (what Walter Benjamin called the ‘detritus’ of culture or ‘Trash of History’) of what passes for public life and the attendant information and culture industry in this global thing we live in: ad campaigns by clothing designers, articles and stories from the New York Times or ‘Good Morning America’… Spivak’s tone makes the book a constant pleasure. A mocking smile seems always present, along with sincere engagement with important issues… From the first page of the preface to her footnote almost 400 pages later about the exchange with the World Bank official at the European Parliament, Spivak focuses on the ignorant, arrogant Eurocentric destruction of people and the environment and the enabling practices of culture that make it possible… This is a most important and significant book. -- David S. Gross * World Literature Today *Spivak focuses on the relationship of debates in philosophy, history, and literature to the emergence of a postcolonial problematic. Overall, she seeks to distance herself from mainstream postcolonial literature and to reassert the value of earlier theorists such as Kant and Marx… Those already interested in the postmodern and postcolonial debates may find her style invigorating. -- Kent Worcester * Library Journal *Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, one of the foremost thinkers in postcolonial theory, looks at the place of her discipline in the academic ‘culture wars.’ A Critique of Post-Colonial Reason includes a reworking of her most influential essay, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ which has previously appeared in only one anthology. * Publishers Weekly *Gayatri Spivak works with remarkable complexity and skill to evoke the local details of emergent agency in an international frame. Her extraordinary attention to the texts she reads and her ability to track the reach of global power make her one of the unparalleled intellectuals of our time. -- Judith Butler, author of The Psychic Life of PowerA founder of postcolonial studies surveys the current state of the field and finds much to criticize. This is vintage Spivak—dazzling, often exasperating, but unfailingly powerful. -- Partha Chatterjee, author of The Nation and Its FragmentsIn these pages Gayatri Spivak performs what often seems either impossible or purely gestural—a critique of transnational globalization which manages to be equally attuned to its cultural and economic effects. This book deserves to be read for its modulated defense of Marxism and feminism alone. It will be welcomed as the clearest statement to date of Spivak’s own relationship to the postcolonial theory with which she herself—wrongly, as she forcefully argues here—is so often identified. With a brilliance that is uniquely hers, Spivak issues a challenge which will be very hard to avoid to the limits of theory and of academic institutions alike. -- Jacqueline Rose, author of States of FantasyGayatri Spivak tells us that here she charts her progress from colonial discourse studies to transnational cutlural studies. She does so brilliantly. And she does so much more. She constructs this extraordinary progress through an intricate labyrinth, but one with blazing lights in every corner. -- Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and Its DiscontentsTable of Contents* Preface *1. Philosophy *2. Literature *3. History *4. Culture * Appendix: The Setting to Work of Deconstruction * Index

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Book Synopsis"There is nothing quite like this well-researched book."—Library JournalTrade Review"This book will certainly become one of the key sources for tracing symbols and their meanings." -- American Libraries

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Book SynopsisAn evocative symbol of the 1960s was its youth counterculture. This study reveals that the youthful revolutionaries were augmented by such unlikely allies as the advertising industry and the men's clothing business. The ad industry celebrated irrepressible youth and promoted defiance and revolt.

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Book SynopsisPerpetrators of mass violence are commonly regarded as evil. Their violent nature is believed to make them commit heinous crimes as members of state agencies, insurgencies, terrorist organizations, or racist and supremacist groups. Upon close examination, however, perpetrators are contradictory human beings who often lead unsettlingly ordinary and uneventful lives. Drawing on decades of on-the-ground research with perpetrators of genocide, mass violence, and enforced disappearances in Cambodia and Argentina, Antonius Robben and Alex Hinton explore how researchers go about not just interviewing and writing about perpetrators, but also processing their own emotions and considering how the personal and interpersonal impact of this sort of research informs the texts that emerge from them. Through interlinked ethnographic essays, methodological and theoretical reflections, and dialogues between the two authors, this thought-provoking book conveys practical wisdom for the benefit of other researchers who face ruthless perpetrators and experience turbulent emotions when listening to perpetrators and their victims. Perpetrators rarely regard themselves as such, and fieldwork with perpetrators makes for situations freighted with emotion. Research with perpetrators is a difficult but important part of understanding the causes of and creating solutions to mass violence, and Robben and Hinton use their expertise to provide insightful lessons on the epistemological, ethical, and emotional challenges of ethnographic fieldwork in the wake of atrocity.Trade Review"In Robben and Hinton's 'encounter with humanity's dark side' the perpetrator researcher and the evildoer become inextricably intertwined. Researchers' intimate fieldwork contact with perpetrators of mass atrocity sullies them, they feel dirty. And, yet, it reveals complex and contradictory human beings that unsettle facile assumptions about their monstrosity. How do researchers incorporate cognitive and affective empathy to understand the 'priming' that make atrocities possible, while condemning those acts? Perpetrators establishes the craft for doing so."—Leigh Payne, Oxford University"Written as a sustained conversation between two foundational figures in the field of perpetrator studies, this book offers a rich exploration of the individuals who operate the machinery of mass murder. The authors combine profound insights into universal phenomena, while demonstrating the importance of understanding local specificities and moral economies. This unsettling book charts a future research agenda for those who seek to understand the disturbing, unholy mixture of humanity among those who engage in lethal violence."—Kimberly Theidon, Tufts University"Perpetrators[:] Encountering Humanity's Dark Side provides a therapeutic and rewarding read for anthropologists and social scientists who have come into contact with agents of violence through their research, as well as for those who expect to do so."—Sergen Bahceci, Anthropology Book Forum"The book offers a curative reading: healing and, at the same time, crafting together pieces to be displayed in search of meaning. A necessary and exceptional book not only for anthropologists researching genocide and mass violence but also for a broader audience interested on how to approach and write about violence."—Corina Tulbure, Conflict and Society"Robben and Hinton set out to at once impart insights they acquired through decades of ethnographical research into genocide and mass violence, which they call phronesis following the ancient Greeks, and to do so in experimental and thought-provoking ways. Perpetrators is more of a guide than a 'how-to' manual, and yet it manages to provide the reader with practical and suggestive ideas for conducting ethnographic research and writing in a way that avoids the rigidity imposed by academia."—Stevan Bozanich, H-Genocide"In writing this book, Robben and Hinton provide a comprehensive and original contribution to the scholarly research on perpetrators of mass violence.... This is a must-read book. Highly recommended."—A. Kolin, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: Approaching Perpetrator Research 1. Spectacular Perpetrators 2. Seductive Perpetrators Interlude: The Perpetrator and the Witness Interlude: "They Were No More. None of Them. They Had Become Disappeared." 3. The Night Stalkers 4. Ruin Interlude: For the Sake of the Fatherland Interlude: Interrogation: Comrade Duch's Abecedarian 5. Nearing the Paradox 6. Curation Conclusion: Six Guideposts for Perpetrator Research

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Book Synopsis'A work of remarkable scope' - GuardianFT Best science books of 2018Primate Change has been adapted into a radio series for the BBC WORLD SERVICE.*This is the road from climate change to primate change.PRIMATE CHANGE is a wide-ranging, polemical look at how and why the human body has changed since humankind first got up on two feet. Spanning the entirety of human history - from primate to transhuman - Vybarr Cregan-Reid's book investigates where we came from, who we are today and how modern technology will change us beyond recognition.In the last two hundred years, humans have made such a tremendous impact on the world that our geological epoch is about to be declared the 'Anthropocene', or the Age of Man. But while we have been busy changing the shape of the world we inhabit, the ways of living that we have been building have, as if under the cover of darkness, been transforming our bodies and altering the expression of our DNA, too.Primate Change beautifully unscrambles the complex architecture of our modern human bodies, built over millions of years and only starting to give up on us now.'Our bodies are in a shock. Modern living is as bracing to the human body as jumping through a hole in the ice. Our bodies do not know what century they were born into and they are defending and deforming themselves in response.'Trade ReviewNature and nurture commingle to fascinating effect. - NatureA work of remarkable scope. - GuardianAbsorbing. - Telegraph IndiaAn excellent evaluation of our bodily shortcomings. - Financial Times

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Book SynopsisAdvances in forensic odontology have led to improvements in dental identification for individual cases as well as in disaster victim identification (DVI). New and updated technologies mean advances in bitemark analysis and age estimation. Growth in the field has strengthened missing personsâ networks leading to more and faster identifications of unidentified individuals. A product of the American Society of Forensic Odontology, the Manual of Forensic Odontology, Fifth Edition provides comprehensive and up-to-date information involving all facets of forensic dentistry and explores critical issues relating to the scientific principles supporting the fieldâs evaluations and conclusions.New information in the Fifth Edition includes Scientific principles and the need for more and better research in the field Oral and maxillofacial radiographic features of forensic inTable of ContentsHistory of Forensic Odontology. Forensic Pathology. Science and Forensic Odontology. Dental Identification. Dental, Oral, and Maxillofacial Radiographic Features of Forensic Interest. Disaster Victim Identification. Missing and Unidentified Persons. Dental Age Estimation. Bitemarks. Animal Bitemarks. Abuse and Violence. Jurisprudence and Expert Witness Testimony. Organized Forensic Dentistry. Becoming Involved in Forensic Odontology. Appendix A: Educational Outcomes and Objectives. Appendix B: Past Presidents: American Society of Forensic Sciences. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe last 20 years have witnessed tremendous growth in theoretical and empirical work on emotions, including groundbreaking work on anger, disgust, pride, shame, sexual jealousy, romantic love, and more. Such work has demonstrated that emotions pervade nearly all aspects of psychological life, and that emotions are key to survival and reproduction and are therefore prime targets of natural selection. Emotions have also been implicated in a variety of psychological disorders, from the obvious (depression, anxiety) to the much less so (schizoid personality disorder, borderline personality disorder).In The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions, Laith Al-Shawaf and Todd K. Shackelford have gathered a group of leading scholars in the field to present a centralized resource for researchers and students wishing to understand emotions from an evolutionary perspective. Together, the chapters provide a comprehensive overview of the literature, with a special focus on 1) conceptual foundations of evolutionary approaches to the emotions, 2) specific emotions, such as love, jealousy, anger, pride, disgust, shame, and others, 3) the importance of emotions in daily life, and 4) emotion disorders. The volume consists of four parts; the first part covers conceptual foundations of evolutionary approaches to the emotions (Evolution and the Emotions: Conceptual Foundations). The second part consists of specific emotions (Evolutionary Approaches to Specific Emotions). The third part focuses on the role of emotions in daily life, including spheres such as friendship, romantic relationships, morality, and politics (Evolutionary Approaches to Emotions in Daily Life). The fourth and final part consists of chapters on distinct emotion disorders (Evolutionary Approaches to Emotion Disorders). Comprehensive and integrative in nature, this Handbook is as an essential resource for students and scholars from a diversity of fields wishing to build upon our theoretical and empirical understanding of the emotions.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisSince his pioneering application of economic analysis to racial discrimination, Gary S. Becker has shown that an economic approach can provide a unified framework for understanding all human behavior. In a highly readable selection of essays Becker applies this approach to various aspects of human activity, including social interactions; crime and punishment; marriage, fertility, and the family; and irrational behavior. Becker's highly regarded work in economics is most notable in the imaginative application of 'the economic approach' to a surprising breadth of human activity. Becker's essays over the years have inevitably inspired a surge of research activity in testimony to the richness of his insights into human activities lying 'outside' the traditionally conceived economic markets. Perhaps no economist in our time has contributed more to expanding the area of interest to economists than Becker, and a number of these thought-provoking essays are collected in this book.ChoiceGary

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Book SynopsisA contemporary analyses of the problem of technology.

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Book SynopsisA reference and guide for students, scholars, and practitioners of ethnography and beyond. It discusses about the deskwork of fieldwork and the various ways culture is put forth in print.Trade Review"John Van Maanen here gives us a spirited, self-reflexive guide to the rhetorical styles used in 'the cultural representation trade,' a quirky performance-art Strunk and White for ethnographers and their readers." (American Journal of Sociology) "Van Maanen has written a powerful statement, in the guise of a mere introduction, that compels us to rethink what we are doing and how well we are doing it.... This book is a terrific piece of work!" (Karl E. Weick, Administrative Science Quarterly)"

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisWhat teeth can tell us about human evolution, development, and behavior.Our teeth have intriguing stories to tell. These sophisticated time machines record growth, diet, and evolutionary history as clearly as tree rings map a redwood''s lifespan. Each day of childhood is etched into tooth crowns and roots?capturing birth, nursing history, environmental clues, and illnesses. The study of ancient, fossilized teeth sheds light on how our ancestors grew up, how we evolved, and how prehistoric cultural transitions continue to affect humans today. In The Tales Teeth Tell, biological anthropologist Tanya Smith offers an engaging and surprising look at what teeth tell us about the evolution of primates?including our own uniqueness.Humans'' impressive set of varied teeth provides a multipurpose toolkit honed by the diet choices of our mammalian ancestors. Fossil teeth, highly resilient because of their substantial mineral content, are all that is left of some long-extinct species. Smith explains how researchers employ painstaking techniques to coax microscopic secrets from these enigmatic remains. Counting tiny daily lines provides a way to estimate age that is more powerful than any other forensic technique. Dental plaque?so carefully removed by dental hygienists today?records our ancestors'' behavior and health in the form of fossilized food particles and bacteria, including their DNA. Smith also traces the grisly origins of dentistry, reveals that the urge to pick one''s teeth is not unique to humans, and illuminates the age-old pursuit of ?dental art.? The book is generously illustrated with original photographs, many in color.

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Book SynopsisThis study examines aspects of political leadership and governance in the last decades of the 20th century. It examines seven world leaders who assumed power in this time, and discusses issues such as the political-economic context and the leader's political programme.Table of ContentsPreface Global Turbulence: Political Change at Century's End The New Political Environment: Six Changed Relationships Margaret Thatcher: Economic Decline and Turbulence in the United Kingdom Helmut Kohl and the German Reunification Project Lech Walesa and the Emergence of Postcommunist Poland Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and the Democratization of Russia Rajiv Gandhi: Economic Liberalization in India Deng Xiaoping: China's Economic Transformation Leadership in the Age of Turbulence Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the 1950s the Romani people lived on the brink of great change. In their bright wooden wagons they journeyed between horse-fairs and traditional stopping places - stoic, humorous and wild, often poverty-stricken but protective of their freedom - on the fringes of a society that was soon to close around them. Dominic Reeve describes his life among the Gypsies: the feuds and fairs, the joyful muddy squalor of an outdoor existence. He evokes an unforgettable cast of fireside characters - bold children, fierce matriarchs and dandyish villains in snap-brimmed hats - and tells of sharp deals done and rings run round country policemen, of love affairs, dances and open-air feasting. Smoke in the Lanes is the vivid, memorable record of a disappeared world.Trade ReviewThe real deal ... a fascinating, unflinching portrait of the rich diversity of characters and traditions of the Romani life at a time when it was threatened as never before' * Choice magazine *

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Book SynopsisWhy are humans so fond of water? Why is our skin colour so variable?Why arenât we hairy like our close ape relatives?A savannah scenario of human evolution has been widely accepted primarily due to fossil evidence; and fossils do not offer insight into these questions. Other alternative evolutionary scenarios might, but these models have been rejected. This book explores a controversial idea â that human evolution was intimately associated with watery habitats as much or more than typical savannahs. Written from a medical point of view, the author presents evidence supporting a credible alternative explanation for how humans diverged from our primate ancestors. Anatomical and physiological evidence offer insight into hairlessness, different coloured skin, subcutaneous fat, large brains, a marine-type kidney, a unique heat regulation system and speech. This evidence suggests that humans may well have evolved, not just as savannah mammals, as is generally believed, but with more affinity for aquatic habitats â rivers, streams, lakes and coasts.Key Features:Presents the evidence for a close association between riparian habitats and the origin of humansReviews the savannah ape hypothesis for human originsDescribes various anatomical adaptations that are associated with hypotheses of human evolution Explores characteristics from the head and neck such as skull and sinus structures, the larynx and ear structures and functions Trade Review"In my view, this is a totally incontrovertible demonstration that our view of the paleo history of humanity has been quite misguided. So, to me, this is a very, very important book. You will find at least two (arguments) which are, to my mind, conclusive. One is to do with exostoses which develop as bulging growths in the ear canal, which occur amongst people today who spend a lot of time diving – extraordinary – and they can be discovered in the skulls in the period that we are talking about – early human skulls. Another extraordinary revelation in Peter’s book, which is also new, is that human babies, when they are born, are covered in a membrane called the vernix. It is a very strange thing – nobody quite understands why. There is no other primate that we know has a vernix. Peter and his co-workers have discovered that there is another creature which has a vernix – seals. What is more, the chemistry, the biochemistry, the molecule which is responsible and the gene which is responsible for producing a vernix, is identical." Sir David Attenborough"Congratulations on your new book. The shoreline and riverbank are fertile sources of small animal life, as any exploratory schoolboy knows, and the creatures living there are comparatively simple to catch. It does look as if our species went through a temporary water-loving phase, and spent a great deal of its time fishing around beneath the surface. With this as an encouragement, the Aquatic Theory sees early man becoming more and more engrossed in his dabblings and divings, living in tribal groups close to the water’s edge and slowly adapting to this new pattern of living. So, I approve of your title The Waterside Ape. In 1977, Desmond Morris wrote: "Hopefully, future fossil-hunters will unearth some evidence to resolve this question. All we need now is some hard, tangible evidence to clinch the idea"."Desmond Morris, Author of The Naked Ape"I found this a fascinating book. We have a very thought provoking, if surprisingly controversial, theory, to which an ENT expert has obviously been able to make a major contribution It shows how much can be learnt from comparative anatomy and is of special interest to an ENT readership. I thought it presented very convincing evidence for a theory that the anthropologists should address with a better counterargument than presently offered".Liam M Flood FRCS, Editor, Journal of Laryngology and Otology"The waterside theory of homo evolution has been around for a long time and more and more fossil evidence is being unearthed constantly to support the already copious amounts of evidence from comparative biology. This book sheds light on both the existing evidence and new evidence that has come to light. Books like this should be taught in schools and colleges as it explains so much about our species. The author clearly knows his subject and writes in a way that is both comprehensible and interesting to the layman and full of scientific insight to academics. He picks up where Elaine Morgan left off and continues to challenge the head in the sand scientists who refuse to even consider this topic"Francesca Mansfield, Founder/Director, Odyssey Sailing"This book adds the latest information to the growing body of evidence that Homo sapiens had a period in its evolutionary history where water played an important part. This explains why modern humans have characteristics that do not align with other terrestrial mammals and in particular any other of the primate apes. This idea was first proposed by the eminent marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy in 1964. It was not well received by the biological establishment at that time. It was subsequently taken up by Elaine Morgan in her first book The Descent of Woman. She wrote several more books as updates on the theory. It addresses the questions of why we are bipedal, naked (nearly), can hold our breath for extended periods, have subcutaneous fat, a very large brain to bodyweight ratio, have speech as the consequence of a descended larynx, etc, etc.The zoological establishment have resisted this theory for nearly sixty years but there are signs of light dawning amongst the younger fraternity without the prejudice and bias of the conventional view that modern humans evolved on the African savannah. As a retired scientist, I can tell you that prejudice blights my discipline as it does the rest of humanity; but I would urge you all to remember the words of Max Planck - a nuclear physicist who had trouble with his establishment. He said: "Scientists never change their minds but eventually, they die!"Gray Mage, Retired Scientist"Well written and referenced, fairly balanced although always returning to the interesting underlying hypothesis that extended time in waterside environments near the Rift Valley of Africa selected for hominids with key adaptive features that helped the progression toward modern Homo sapiens. Artificial selection within populations, which also seems plausible, and similarly, the elimination of other tribe-equivalents, are not discussed. The book persuades me to read recent work by the master of human evolution, Desmond Morris." Gerald McLaughlin"Rhys-Evans provides an up-to-date account of all the paleontological, environmental and medical evidence for the aquatic ape hypothesis. The information is interesting, makes use of well-referenced scientific articles, and applies logic where gaps need to be filled in. A variety of human "attributes" are compared with similar attributes in terrestrial, semi-aquatic and aquatic animals. Any speculation on the author's part is noted as such. The information is presented in a straight-forward manner, with the use of the correct technical terms for anatomical organs/structures, which may require some effort on the part of non-medical readers. Illustrations are provided where relevant. The information contained in this book is fascinating and really should be read by anyone even vaguely interested in human evolution." Jill Schroeder"In my view, this is a totally incontrovertible demonstration that our view of the paleo history of humanity has been quite misguided. So, to me, this is a very, very important book. You will find at least two (arguments) which are, to my mind, conclusive. One is to do with exostoses which develop as bulging growths in the ear canal, which occur amongst people today who spend a lot of time diving – extraordinary – and they can be discovered in the skulls in the period that we are talking about – early human skulls. Another extraordinary revelation in Peter’s book, which is also new, is that human babies, when they are born, are covered in a membrane called the vernix. It is a very strange thing – nobody quite understands why. There is no other primate that we know has a vernix. Peter and his co-workers have discovered that there is another creature which has a vernix – seals. What is more, the chemistry, the biochemistry, the molecule which is responsible and the gene which is responsible for producing a vernix, is identical." Sir David Attenborough"Congratulations on your new book. The shoreline and riverbank are fertile sources of small animal life, as any exploratory schoolboy knows, and the creatures living there are comparatively simple to catch. It does look as if our species went through a temporary water-loving phase, and spent a great deal of its time fishing around beneath the surface. With this as an encouragement, the Aquatic Theory sees early man becoming more and more engrossed in his dabblings and divings, living in tribal groups close to the water’s edge and slowly adapting to this new pattern of living. So, I approve of your title The Waterside Ape. In 1977, Desmond Morris wrote: "Hopefully, future fossil-hunters will unearth some evidence to resolve this question. All we need now is some hard, tangible evidence to clinch the idea"."Desmond Morris, Author of The Naked Ape"I found this a fascinating book. We have a very thought provoking, if surprisingly controversial, theory, to which an ENT expert has obviously been able to make a major contribution It shows how much can be learnt from comparative anatomy and is of special interest to an ENT readership. I thought it presented very convincing evidence for a theory that the anthropologists should address with a better counterargument than presently offered".Liam M Flood FRCS, Editor, Journal of Laryngology and Otology"The waterside theory of homo evolution has been around for a long time and more and more fossil evidence is being unearthed constantly to support the already copious amounts of evidence from comparative biology. This book sheds light on both the existing evidence and new evidence that has come to light. Books like this should be taught in schools and colleges as it explains so much about our species. The author clearly knows his subject and writes in a way that is both comprehensible and interesting to the layman and full of scientific insight to academics. He picks up where Elaine Morgan left off and continues to challenge the head in the sand scientists who refuse to even consider this topic"Francesca Mansfield, Founder/Director, Odyssey Sailing"This book adds the latest information to the growing body of evidence that Homo sapiens had a period in its evolutionary history where water played an important part. This explains why modern humans have characteristics that do not align with other terrestrial mammals and in particular any other of the primate apes. This idea was first proposed by the eminent marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy in 1964. It was not well received by the biological establishment at that time. It was subsequently taken up by Elaine Morgan in her first book The Descent of Woman. She wrote several more books as updates on the theory. It addresses the questions of why we are bipedal, naked (nearly), can hold our breath for extended periods, have subcutaneous fat, a very large brain to bodyweight ratio, have speech as the consequence of a descended larynx, etc, etc.The zoological establishment have resisted this theory for nearly sixty years but there are signs of light dawning amongst the younger fraternity without the prejudice and bias of the conventional view that modern humans evolved on the African savannah. As a retired scientist, I can tell you that prejudice blights my discipline as it does the rest of humanity; but I would urge you all to remember the words of Max Planck - a nuclear physicist who had trouble with his establishment. He said: "Scientists never change their minds but eventually, they die!"Gray Mage, Retired Scientist, "Well written and referenced, fairly balanced although always returning to the interesting underlying hypothesis that extended time in waterside environments near the Rift Valley of Africa selected for hominids with key adaptive features that helped the progression toward modern Homo sapiens. Artificial selection within populations, which also seems plausible, and similarly, the elimination of other tribe-equivalents, are not discussed. The book persuades me to read recent work by the master of human evolution, Desmond Morris." Gerald McLaughlin"Rhys-Evans provides an up-to-date account of all the paleontological, environmental and medical evidence for the aquatic ape hypothesis. The information is interesting, makes use of well-referenced scientific articles, and applies logic where gaps need to be filled in. A variety of human "attributes" are compared with similar attributes in terrestrial, semi-aquatic and aquatic animals. Any speculation on the author's part is noted as such. The information is presented in a straight-forward manner, with the use of the correct technical terms for anatomical organs/structures, which may require some effort on the part of non-medical readers. Illustrations are provided where relevant. The information contained in this book is fascinating and really should be read by anyone even vaguely interested in human evolution." Jill SchroederTable of ContentsForeword by Gareth Morgan.Chapter 1 Theories of Human Evolution. Chapter 2 The Aquatic Debate.Chapter 3 Our Genetic Heritage. Chapter 4 Our Early Ancestors. Chapter 5 The Neanderthals and Their Demise. Chapter 6 The Waterside Ape – Why Are We So Different? Chapter 7 The Naked Ape. Chapter 8 Why We Lost Our Costs: The Early Hominin Tailors. Chapter 9 Evolutionary Adaptations in the Human Skull and Sinuses. Chapter 10 Human Skull Buoyancy and the Diving Reflex. Chapter 11 Surfer’s Ear. Chapter 12 Evolution of the Human Brain. Chapter 13 Food for Thought and the Cognitive Revolution. Chapter 14 The Human Larynx and Evolution of Voice. Chapter 15 Obstetric and Neonatal Considerations. Chapter 16 Marine Adaptations in the Human Kidney. Chapter 17 Scars of Evolution. Chapter 18 We Are What We Eat. Chapter 19 An Incredible Journey. Glossary

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Book SynopsisTheoretical Approaches in Bioarchaeology emphasizes how several different theoretical perspectives can be used to reconstruct the biocultural experiences of humans in the past.Over the past few decades, bioarchaeology has been transformed through methodological revisions, technological advances, and the inclusion of external theoretical frameworks from the social and natural sciences. These interdisciplinary perspectives became the backbone of bioarchaeology and strengthened the discipline's ability to address questions about past biological and social dynamics. Consequently, how, why, and when to apply external theory to studies of past populations are central and timely questions tied to future developments of the discipline. This book facilitates ongoing dialogues about theoretical applications within the field and interdisciplinary connections between bioarchaeology, biological anthropology, and other disciplines. Each chapter highlights how a theoretical Table of ContentsForeword; Chapter 1 – Theory in Bioarchaeology: An Introduction; Chapter 2 – Embodying Bioarchaeology: Theory and Practice; Chapter 3 – Gender; Chapter 4 – Bioarchaeological Applications of Intersectionality; Chapter 5 – Life Course Approaches and Life History Theory: Synergistic Perspectives for Bioarchaeology; Chapter 6 – Reconstructing Immune Competence in Skeletal Samples: A Theoretical and Methodological Approach; Chapter 7 – Niche Construction Theory in Bioarchaeology; Chapter 8 – Live Through This: Developing a Sustainable Pathway for Resilience Theory in Bioarchaeological Research; Chapter 9 – Structural Violence and Political Economy: Epistemological Considerations for Bioarchaeology; Chapter 10 – Making Silenced Voices Speak: Restoring Neglected and Ignored Identities in Anatomical Collections; Chapter 11 – Theoretical Approaches to Bioarchaeology: The View from Across the Pond; Chapter 12 – Towards a Bioarchaeology beyond Nature and Culture: Potentials and Possibilities in Contemporary Theoretical Bioarchaeology

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Book SynopsisThis book engages with the classic philosophical question of mind and matter, seeking to show its altered meaning and acuteness in the era of the Anthropocene. Arguing that matter, and, more broadly, the natural world, has been misconceived since Descartes, it explores the devastating impact that this has had in practice in the West. As such, alternatives are needed, whether philosophical ones such as those offered by figures such as Whitehead and Nagel, or posthumanist ones such as those developed by Barad and Latour. Drawing on recent anthropological work ignored by philosophers and sociologists alike, the author considers a radical alternative cosmology: animism understood as panpsychism in practice. This understanding of mind and matter, of culture and nature, is then turned against present-day posthumanist critiques of what the Anthropocene amounts to, showing them up as philosophically misguided, politically mute, and ethically wanting. A ground-breaking reconceptualization of the natural world and our treatment of it, Cosmologies of the Anthropocene will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, philosophy and anthropology with interests in our understanding of and relationship with nature.Trade Review"How ought one do philosophy in a time defined by the human impact on earthly systems and ecologies? That is, what does the Anthropocene require of philosophers? Many believe that thinking closely about human existence demands thinking closely about the environmental devastation that seems to accompany that existence. For Vetlesen (Univ. of Oslo), the best way to address the anthropocentric excesses that give rise to environmental crises is to move from anthropocentrism (as a cosmological conception and moral vision) to panpsychism. Drawing on research in anthropology, Vetlesen argues that “animism is panpsychism in practice” (p. 15). He offers substantive engagement with Thomas Nagel, Alfred North Whitehead, and the “agential realism” of Karen Barad, providing a rigorously analytic treatment that appreciates the philosophical contributions of Continental thought. Whether or not one ultimately agrees with Vetlesen’s conclusions regarding the promise of panpsychism, this book is an important contribution to debates about devoting philosophical attention to a transformed, and sustainable, relationship between humans and others (whether human or not). This is a compelling but controversial text."-J. A. Simmons, Furman UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Introduction: From Anthropocentrism to the Anthropocene 1. Getting it Right about Mind, Nature, and Cosmos 2. Panpsychism as "Inner Physics": Whitehead’s Project 3. Prospects and Pitfalls of Agential Realism 4. Animism – Panpsychism in Practice 5. Agency Posthumanist Style: Proliferation or Decimation?

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Book SynopsisLike any other subject, the study of religion is a child of its time. Shaped and forged over the course of the twentieth century, it has reflected the interests and political situation of the world at the time. As the twenty-first century unfolds, it is undergoing a major transition along with religion itself. This volume showcases new work and new approaches to religion which work across boundaries of religious tradition, academic discipline and region.The influence of globalizing processes has been evident in social and cultural networking by way of new media like the internet, in the extensive power of global capitalism and in the increasing influence of international bodies and legal instruments. Religion has been changing and adapting too. This handbook offers fresh insights on the dynamic reality of religion in global societies today by underscoring transformations in eight key areas: Market and Branding; Contemporary Ethics and Virtues; Intimate Identities; TransnationTrade ReviewThe four editors of the Routledge Handbook of Religion in Global Society are to be congratulated on bringing together a stellar team of scholars, both established and emergent, in a publication that is vibrant, varied and packed with information. The book is characterised by inclusivity of subject matter and approaches, and is above all truly contemporary, providing readers with a snapshot of religion in the evermore globalised and interdependent twenty-first century. Carole M. Cusack, Professor, The University of Sydney Table of ContentsIntroduction: Religion in Global Societies; Part I: Market and Branding; 1. Christian Churches’ Responses to Marketization: Comparing Institutional and Non-denominational Discourse and Practice; 2. ‘The Greatest Leader of All’: The Faces of Leadership and Christianity in Contemporary Brazil (1980s–2010s); 3. JPCC: A Megachurch Brand Story in Indonesia; 4. Rebranding the Soul: Rituals for the Well-made Man in Market Society; Part II: Contemporary Ethics and Values; 5. The Prosperity Ethic: The Rise of the New Prosperity Gospel; 6. Islamic Ethics in Muslim Eurasia: Prosperity Theology vs. Renunciation?; 7. Public Morality and the Transformation of Islamic Media in Indonesia; 8. Pious-Modern Subjectivities in the Palestine West Bank: Their Formations and Contours between the Familial, the Local and the Global; 9. ‘We Are Overfed’: Young Evangelicals, Globalization, and Social Justice; 10. ‘Mediacosmologies’: The Convergence and Renewal of Indigenous Religiosities in Cyberspace; Part III: Intimate Identities; 11. Saints, Sinners, and Same-Sex Marriages: Ecclesiological Identity in the Church of England and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark; 12. When Two Worlds Collide: Asian Christian LGBTQs Coming Out to Parents; 13. Gender Politics and Education in the Gülen Movement; 14. Global Catholicism, Gender Conversion and Masculinity; Part IV: Transnational Movements; 15. Pilgrimage, Travelling Gurus and Transnational Networks: The Lay Meditation Movement in Contemporary Chinese Societies; 16. Globalization and Asceticism: Foreigner Ascetics on the Threshold of Hindu Religious Orders; 17. Maya Revival Movements: Between Transnationality and Authenticity; 18. Defending Tradition and Confronting Secularity: The Catholic Buen Pastor Institute; 19. The Globalization of the Catholic Church: History, Organization, Theology; Part V: Diasporic Communities; 20. Dialectics between Transnationalism and Diaspora: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community; 21. Transnational Religious Movement: The Turkish Süleymanlı in Indonesia; 22. Youth Buddhists in Australia: Negotiating Transnational Flows; 23. The Formation of Global Chinese Identities; 24. Church as a Homeland and Home as a Place of Worship: The Transformation of Religiosity among Georgian Migrants in Paris; Part VI: Responses to Diversity; 25. Interreligious Dialogue (IRD) in International Politics: From the Margins of the Religious Field to the Centre of Civil Society; 26. Faith, Identity and Practices: The Current Refugee Crisis and its Challenges to Religious Diversity in Southern Europe; 27. Urban Public Space and the Emergence of Interdenominational Syncretism; 28. ‘As Local as Possible, as International as Necessary’: Investigating the Place of Religious and Faith-Based Actors in the Localization of the International Humanitarian System; 29. Religion, National Identity and Foreign Policy: The Case of Eastern Christians and the French Political Imaginary; 30. Religious Echoes in Secular Dialogues: Global Glimpses of Peacebuilding; 31. City of Gods and Goods: Exploring Religious Pluralism in the Neoliberal City; Part VII: National Tensions; 32. Islam, Politics and Legitimacy: The Role of Saudi Arabia in the Rise of Salafism and Jihadism; 33. Religion and Nationalism in Post-Soviet Space: Between State, Society and Nation; 34. Religion, Nationalism and Transnationalism in the South Caucasus; 35. The Sacred and Secular-Economic: A Cross-Country Comparison of the Regulation of the Economic Activities of Religious Organizations. Perspectives from France, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States; 36. Religious Identities in Times of Crisis: An Analysis of Europe; 37. Poetry in Iran’s Contemporary Theo-Political Culture; Part VIII: Reflections on ‘Religion’; 38. Questioning the Boundaries of ‘Religious’ and Non-Religious’ Actions and Meanings; 39. Religion in the Anthropocene: Nonhuman Agencies, (Re)Enchantment and the Emergence of a New Sensibility; 40. Science and Religion in a Global Context; 41. Religion Through the Lens of ‘Marketization’ and ‘Lifestyle’

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Book SynopsisAudiovisual and Digital Ethnography is a state-of-the-art introduction to this dynamic and growing subject. The authors explain its fundamental aspects in a clear and systematic way. The chapters cover topics including: learning to see and listen in the field and the role of sensory attention the mediation of the senses doing anthropological fieldwork with video observational filmmaking ethnographic drawing multimodal anthropology digital ethnography interactive documentary the ethics and management of audiovisual and digital data. The result is a much-needed, up-to-date and concise guide to both the fundamental skills required for audiovisual and digital ethnographic production and the essential theoretical knowledge relating to this. It will be particularly useful for studentsTable of Contents1. Audiovisual and digital ethnography at Leiden 2. Learning to see 3. Sonic ethnography 4. Graphic anthropology: a foundation for multimodality 5. Dialoguing events: an audiovisual toolkit for extended participatory observation 6. Observational cinema as process, skill and method 7. Interactive documentaries 8. Digital ethnography, or ‘deep hanging out’ in the age of big data 9. Navigating conflicting instruments of data morality

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Book SynopsisA lively, illustrated exploration of the 500-million-year history of bone, a touchstone for understanding vertebrate life and human culture.

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Book SynopsisBy addressing questions of culture, identity and politics, Cartographies of Diaspora throws new light on discussions about 'difference', and 'diversity', informed by feminism and post-structuralism.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Situated Identities/Diasporic Transcription 1. Constructions of the `Asian' in post-war Britain: Culture, Politics and Identity in Pre-Thatcher Years 2. Unemployment, Gender and Racism 3. Gendered Space: Women of South Asian Descent in 1980s Britain 4. Questions of `Difference' and Global Feminisms 5. Difference, Diversity, Differentiation 6. `Race' and Culture in the Gendering of Labour Markets: South Asian Muslim Women and the Labour Market 7. Re-framing Europe: En-gendered Racisms, Ethnicities and Nationalisms in Contemporary Western Europe 8. Diaspora, Border, and Transnational Identities 9. Refiguring the `Multi': The Politics of Difference, Commonality, and Universalism

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Book SynopsisOffers a fascinating snapshot of magic throughout various cultures as well as deep sociological and religious insights still very much relevant today.Trade Review'It is enough to recall that Mauss' influence is not limited to ethnographers, none of whom could claim to have escaped it, but extends also to linguists, psychologists, historians or religion and orientalists.' - Claude Lévi-Strauss'Marcel Mauss, Emile Durkheim's nephew and most distinguished pupil, was a man of unusual ability and learning, and also of integrity and strong conviction. After Durkheim's death he was the leading figure in French sociology.' - Sir E.E. Evans-Pritchard'It is enough to recall that Mauss' influence is not limited to ethnographers, none of whom could claim to have escaped it, but extends also to linguists, psychologists, historians or religion and orientalists.' - Claude Lévi-Strauss

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Book SynopsisIn addresses written for a wide general audience, one of the twentieth century''s most prominent thinkers, Claude Lévi-Strauss, here offers the insights of a lifetime on the crucial questions of human existence. Responding to questions as varied as ''Can there be meaning in chaos?'', ''What can science learn from myth?'' and ''What is structuralism?'', Lévi-Strauss presents, in clear, precise language, essential guidance for those who want to learn more about the potential of the human mind.Trade Review'Some thinkers are influential, a few create schools, a very few characterize a period... it is possible that just as we speak of the age of Aquinas or of Goethe, later ages will speak of our time as the age of Levi-Strauss... he is a maker of the modern mind.' - James RedfieldTable of ContentsChapter 01 The Meeting of Myth and Science; Chapter 02 ‘Primitive’ Thinking and the ‘Civilized’ Mind; Chapter 03 Harelips and Twins: the Splitting of a Myth; Chapter 04 When Myth Becomes History; Chapter 05 Myth and Music;

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