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Book SynopsisIt''s not just a war over horses. It''s a battle for the soul of Australia.This is a book about the intense culture war raging around Australia''s wild horses, known as brumbies. It pits a vision of the legendary Man from Snowy River and the iconic ANZAC Light Horse against the spectre of ecosystems destroyed by feral pests. The debate involves powerful politicians and media commentators, and stars an animal mythologised in Australian poetry and prose. But in essence, this is about us. The Brumby Wars is about Australians at war with each other over their vision of an ideal Australia.To ecologists and people who ski, walk and fish in the High Country and other areas where the brumbies proliferate, they are a feral menace which must be removed to save delicate alpine landscapes. To the descendants of cattle families and many Australians in urban and regional areas, brumbies are untouchable, a symbol of wildness and freedom.Something has to give. But what? The land or the horses? This war is set to escalate dramatically before we have an answer. Featuring interviews with characters from all sides of the debate, The Brumby Wars is the riveting account of a major national issue and the very human passions it inspires. It is also a journey, a quest to understand what makes us tick in our increasingly polarised country.Praise for Anthony Sharwood''s From Snow to Ash''Makes for inspirational reading'' West Australian''A distinctive, charming narrative ... a thinking, caring man''s trek'' Canberra Times''A joyous read with personality in spades ... A book for the adventurer in us all'' Australian Geographic

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Book SynopsisExamining the emergence of modernism from the fin-de-siecle primitivist project this volume shows how ethnographic materials shaped a variety of high and low discourses (ethnology, social theory, gender construction, classical scholarship, as well as travel photography) at the turn of the century. Illustrated with 98 photographs and drawings.Trade Review“This is an unusually rich, subtle, and rewarding collection that brings varied approaches to a crucial topic in modern cultural history. . . . The essays recognize the multi-faceted and complicated nature of the fin-de-siècle conundrum of modernism and primitivism.”—Michael P. Steinberg, Cornell UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush; Part I. Savage Anxieties: 1. The presence of the past: ethnographic thinking/literary politics Ronald Bush; 2. Savage crowds, modernism, and modern politics Robert Nye; 3. Victorian promiscuity: Greek ethics and primitive exemplars Elazar Barkan; Part II. Raw Anthropology: 4. The moment of prestidigitation: magic, illusion and mana in the thought of Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss Vincent Crapanzano; 5. Patterns of strangeness: Franz Boas, modernism, and the origins of anthropology Julia E. Liss; Part III. Victorian Vertigo: 6. In a glass darkly: photography, the premodern, and Victorian horror Joss Lutz Marsh; Part IV. (Ethno)graphic Images: 7. Manipulated images: European photographs of Pacific peoples Virgina-Lee Webb; 8. Travel engravings and the construction of the primitive Christopher B. Steiner; 9. Gauguin's French baggage: decadence and colonialism in Tahiti Nancy Perloff; 10. Modernism's African mask: the Stein-Pica sso collaboration Michael North; Part V. Culture and Displacements: 11. The kind of person you have to sound like to sing 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' Robert Dawidoff; 12. Primitive self: colonial impulses in Michel Leiris's L'Afrique fantome Marie-Denise Shelton; 13. Tolerance and taboo: modernist primitivisms and postmodernist pieties Marjorie Perloff; Part VI. Modernism Reconsidered: 14. Modernism, postmodernism and explanation Frank Kermode; Notes; Index.

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Book SynopsisCombining psychoanalytic, literary and queer theory, Paul Morrison seeks to account for the explanatory power attributed to homosexuality and its relationship to compulsory heterosexuality. He presents a scathing indictment of psychoanalysis and its impact on the study of sexuality.Trade ReviewPaul Morrison brings a refreshing and unique style to the practice of queer theory. With his extravagant attitude, epigrammatic wit, and political drive, he unsettles the complacencies of heterosexual certainty and gay self-congratulation alike, while forcing us to confront the breadth and depth of homophobia in our culture. Whether he is exploding liberal pieties or exhorting us not to allow sex to degenerate into love, Morrison startles and instructs. A challenging and necessary book. -- David M. Halperin,University of Michigan, Ann ArborThough the irony of his title refuses the explanatory totalization that would follow from taking it straight, Paul Morrison's dazzlingly ferocious new book explains beyond all doubt why those of us familiar with his wide-ranging work recognize him as the most profoundly and provocatively Wildean critic of his generation. -- Lee Edelman,Tufts UniversityWhy is it that our culture's explanation for everything is homosexuality? In this judiciously argued and brilliantly conceived study, Morrison offers a compelling explanation of his own. The specter of "the homosexual" provides the perfect political scapegoat for acts of injustice that are, in truth, systemic and social in nature. If there is a culprit in contemporary scientific and cultural explanations of modern villainy, it is the predilection of critics themselves to find latent homosexuality here, there, and everywhere. A shrewd, quick-witted, and penetrating book. -- Diana Fuss,Princeton University

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Book SynopsisReflects on the author's long academic career and the movement of ideas he helped to shape through his insightful writings on liberal education in America.

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Book SynopsisWhat is it like to be a person today? To think, feel, and act as an individual in a time of accelerated social, cultural, technological, and political change? This question is inspired by the double meaning of subjectivity as both the 'first-personness' of consciousness (being a subject of experience) and the conditioning of that consciousness within society (being subject to power, authority, or influence). The contributors to this volume explore the perils and promise of the self in today's world. Their shared aim is to describe where we stand and what is at stake as we move ahead in the twenty-first century. They do so by interrogating the historical moment as a predicament of the subject. Their shared focus is on subjectivity as a dialectic of self and other, or individual and society, and how the defining tensions of subjectivity are reflected in contemporary forms of individualism, identity, autonomy, social connection, and political consciousness.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Subjectivity and strong relationality Frank C. Richardson and Robert L. Woolfolk; 2. A multi-voiced and dialogical self and the challenge of social power in a globalizing world Hubert J. M. Hermans; 3. Technology and the tributaries of relational being Kenneth J. Gergen; 4. Melancholic subjectivity Stephen Frosh; 5. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose: self-consciousness in the twenty-first century John Hewitt; 6. New kinds of subjective uncertainty? Technologies of art, self, and confusions of memory in the twenty-first century Ciarán Benson; 7. Radical subjectivity and the n-row wampum: a general model for autonomous relations against and beyond the dominant global order? Richard J. F. Day and Adam Lewis; 8. The theory of new individualism Anthony Elliott; 9. Feminism, Foucault, and globalized subjectivity Margaret A. McLaren.

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Book SynopsisBased on ten years of research, Santanu Das''s India, Empire, and First World War Culture: Writings, Images, and Songs recovers the sensuous experience of combatants, non-combatants and civilians from undivided India in the 19141918 conflict and their socio-cultural, visual, and literary worlds. Around 1.5 million Indians were recruited, of whom over a million served abroad. Das draws on a variety of fresh, unusual sources - objects, images, rumours, streetpamphlets, letters, diaries, sound-recordings, folksongs, testimonies, poetry, essays, and fiction - to produce the first cultural and literary history, moving from recruitment tactics in villages through sepoy traces and feelings in battlefields, hospitals, and POW camps to post-war reflections on Europe and empire. Combining archival excavation in different countries across several continents with investigative readings of Gandhi, Kipling, Iqbal, Naidu, Nazrul, Tagore, and Anand, this imaginative study opens up the worlds of sepoysTrade Review'India, Empire and First World War Culture is an astonishing achievement, an amazing feat of scholarship that unearths an extraordinary range of sources and fragments. Through close and sensitive readings of poems, songs, paintings, photographs and a diverse range of objects, Santanu Das succeeds in unmuting a vast host of voices that have for far too long been silenced or forgotten. Rarely have the skills of the literary critic and historian been as imaginatively fused as in India, Empire and First World War Culture.' Amitav Ghosh, author of The Great Derangement'In Santanu Das's brilliant book, we can feel the real bodies of the men from India mobilised during the Great War through the traces of touch and intimacy they left behind. His beautiful and moving study brings to us what he terms echoes of the Sepoy's heart. To do so, he uses an astonishing array of sources, moving with grace from the textual and the testimonial to the visual, the tactile, and the oral. Here is a book that not only adds substantially to what we know about the 1914–18 conflict, but brings out as well with affection and wit the sheer humanity of these soldiers and the world they left behind.' Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History (Emeritus), Yale University, Connecticut'Das brilliantly combines two approaches - 'a redefinition of the archive' and close, attentive reading … Das proves that detective work pays off but it is how he reads these treasures that is compelling. Thrillingly, this close reading elevates some of Das's protagonists to a form of equality with the traditional First World War canon, to a kind of parity with Owen and Sassoon.' Yasmin Khan, The Times Literary Supplement'In the deluge of books, articles, exhibits, films, and commemorative events during and around the years of the centenary of the Great War, Das's book stands out as one of the most important, exhaustively researched, and exquisitely rendered interventions. It will instantly become, and will remain, a classic in the field of First World War studies. But more, it is an important contribution to the history of modern South Asia, and an inspiring example of how historians may attempt to recover, present, and understand the histories of colonized peoples even in the absence of plentiful sources of the kinds historians usually use to do their work' Richard Fogarty, American Historical Review'Monumental … Those interested in First World War history and literature will find in Das's narrative a beauty and sensitivity, drawing as it does on stories of compassion in the midst of the shelling. Combined with meticulous research and scholarship, it makes this densely printed 417-page book a compelling read.' Shrabani Basu, H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online'Remarkable, compendious … Das's capacity to read into the finest interstices of lost, buried, and misplaced war archives mean that his book is already being recognized - and justly so - as one of the most important interventions in both fields that we have yet seen.' Elleke Boehmer, Modern Philology'[A] rewarding [account] of one of the empire's most remarkable institutions …' Ian Jack, The Guardian'Santanu Das's book is remarkable for lacking regional loci - its cosmopolitanism and liberalism in choosing multi-lingual and regional sources is one of its strongest features. The book's signal contribution has been its success in reminding readers that legacies of wars reside in the social and cultural, and not always in the political or constitutional hallways of history … Das has written a book of immense significance … It will encourage the next generation of scholars to abandon the crutches of disciplinary certainties … [for] the promise of a dazzling array of new scholarship that knits visual, textual and literary sources together to produce stirring accounts of past events.' Vipul Dutta, Biblio: A Review of Books'The book is a benchmark in placing the unexamined colonial histories at par with the far better understood cultural historiography of the Western participants. His examination of the use of war memory and commemoration in the recent past is outstanding for the questions it raises … The work is breathtaking in its scope and depth and is an invaluable addition to Indian writings on the war.' Rana Chhina, India Today'A uniquely moving and extremely original study, the book not only provides the first cultural and literary history of India and the First World War, but also sets a new standard for interdisciplinary scholarship in the fields of literary and cultural studies … Das reveals a more intimate history of experience, thought, and feeling, wherein we can indeed hear, palpably, what he terms the 'echoes of the sepoy's heart.' Nancy Martin, Textual Practice'Magisterial … more than the sheer staggering variety and bewildering richness of the material assembled by Das is the acuity and nuance he brings to his examination of individual objects, which then enables him to make larger arguments about the way in which the First World War operated in and through the bodies, minds, and hearts, of those who took part in it.' Samantak Das, The Telegraph'An immensely powerful book that will be important for years to come.' Douglas Higbee, Modern Fiction Studies'The culmination of more than a decade of research, it is a brilliant work of history and historical recovery, a fresh and provocative study of the wartime experiences of people from undivided India, and the ways those experiences were represented. Andrew T. Jarboe, First World War Studies'Das's magnificent India, Empire, and First World War Culture: Writings, Images, and Songs brings together a decade of pioneering research on the Indian involvement in the war.' Vedica Kant, The Indian Quarterly'Santanu Das shows how rich are the rewards for those who dig and delve, who look for meaning in tiny fragments of evidence … Drawing on a decade of such fieldwork, Das has made a forensic examination of hundreds of pieces of evidence - memoirs, letters, photographs, oral testimony, songs, pamphlets, poems, novels … this is his answer to the gap in our understanding … a lesson both in the close reading of sources and in how literary and historical studies can enrich each other.' Suzanne Bardgett, History TodayTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. The Restless Home Front; 1. The imperial-nationalist self: anti-discrimination, aspiration, and anxiety; 2. Sonorous fields: recruitment, resistance, and recitative in the Punjab; Part II. Race and Representation: 3. Five shades of brown: the sepoy-body in visual culture; 4. Imperial antibiotic: sepoy and the Raj; Part III. The Sepoy Heart: 5. Touching feeling: letters, poems, prayers, and songs of sepoys in Europe 1914–18; 6. 'Their lives have become ours': occupation, captivity, and lateral contact in Mesopotamia 1914–1918; 7. Transnational lives and peripheral visions; Part IV. Literary and Intellectual Cultures: 8. Literary imaginings; 9. The Indian English war novel: Across the Black Waters; 10. Post-war world and 'the future of mankind': Aurobindo, Iqbal, and Tagore.

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Book SynopsisExploring a wealth of images ranging from woodblock prints to oil paintings, this beautifully illustrated full-color study takes up key elements of the visual culture produced in the People''s Republic of China from its founding in 1949 to the present day. In a challenge to prevailing perceptions, Xiaobing Tang argues that contemporary Chinese visual culture is too complex to be understood in terms of a simple binary of government propaganda and dissident art, and that new ways must be sought to explain as well as appreciate its multiple sources and enduring visions. Drawing on rich artistic, literary, and sociopolitical backgrounds, Tang presents a series of insightful readings of paradigmatic works in contemporary Chinese visual arts and cinema. Lucidly written and organized to address provocative questions, this compelling study underscores the global and historical context of Chinese visual culture and offers a timely new perspective on our understanding of China today.Trade Review'This is a must-read for anyone interested in China's post-socialist and socialist eras and the continuing, lively interaction between the two. In putting visual culture at the centre of contemporary Chinese historical developments, Tang challenges our assumptions about what China is and is not.' Paul A. Clark, University of Auckland'A thought-provoking and outstanding contribution to the field. Xiaobing Tang urges Western viewers and reviewers to set aside constrictive paradigms and consider China's socialist and contemporary culture in its complexity and uniqueness.' Richard King, University of Victoria'This is an indispensable volume for understanding the development of Chinese modernity.' Chang Tsong-Zung, curator and co-founder of the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, co-founder of the Hong Kong chapter of AICA, and guest professor, China Art Academy'In this gorgeously illustrated, richly produced book, Xiaobing Tang introduces visual culture studies to several cultural sectors in the People's Republic of China … Tang's book is a timely and forcefully argued study that points the way for future research of visual culture in China.' Sean Macdonald, Frontiers of Literary Studies in China'… in this very readable history of the development of visual culture in contemporary China, Tang has succeeded in bringing together a number of vastly different topics and artistic styles and developments.' Stefan Landsberger, Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsAcknowledgements; A brief timeline of relevant events; Introduction: toward a short history of visual culture in contemporary China; 1. How was socialist visual culture created? Part I. Revelations of an Art Form: 2. How was socialist visual culture created? Part II. Revelations of a History Painting: 3. What do we see in New China cinema?; 4. What does socialist visual experience mean to contemporary art?; 5. How (not) to watch a Chinese blockbuster; 6. Where to look for art in contemporary China?; Conclusion: seeing China from afar; Glossary; Filmography; Select bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisJames M. Wilce's new textbook introduces students to the study of language as a tool in anthropology. Solidly positioned in linguistic anthropology, it is the first textbook to combine clear explanations of language and linguistic structure with current anthropological theory. It features a range of study aids, including chapter summaries, learning objectives, figures, exercises, key terms and suggestions for further reading, to guide student understanding. The complete glossary includes both anthropological and linguist terminology. An Appendix features material on phonetics and phonetic representation. Accompanying online resources include a test bank with answers, useful links, an instructor's manual, and a sign language case study. Covering an extensive range of topics not found in existing textbooks, including semiotics and the evolution of animal and human communication, this book is an essential resource for introductory courses on language and culture, communication and cultureTrade Review'Culture and Communication is an excellent introduction to the contemporary focus in linguistic anthropology on semiotic approaches to language and other human sign systems. Among the many pedagogical features the exercises are particularly outstanding.' Susan U. Philips, University of Arizona'James Wilce's book is a captivating introduction to linguistic anthropology, which covers an impressive range of theoretical ground. It is written in a precise, clear, and highly personal language that students will appreciate and enjoy.' Olga Solomon, University of Southern California'A superb introduction to contemporary linguistic anthropology - authoritative, wide-ranging, and engagingly written, with abundant, well-designed aids for teaching and learning at the beginning and end of each chapter.' Alan Rumsey, Australian National UniversityTable of ContentsList of figures; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Society, culture, and communication; 2. What is communication?; 3. Semiotics and sign types; 4. The structure of language; 5. Culture, society, communication, and language evolving; 6. Diverse languages and perspectives: communication, expression, and mind; 7. Researching communication and culture as a linguistic anthropologist; 8. Human social semiotics; 9. The communicative enactment and transmission of society and culture; 10. Cultures of performance and the performance of culture; 11. Globalization, media, and emotion talk; 12. Applying linguistic anthropology; Appendix. IPA and other specialized marks; Glossary; References.

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Book SynopsisHow did Zulu Radio in apartheid South Africa, intended to stifle debate, become one of the largest stations in Africa? Gunner maps the fashioning of a modernising Black culture through radio and highlights links between these media figures with writers and political leaders from Harlem to the American South.Trade Review'… Gunner's investigation of the BBC archives as well as deep knowledge of Zulu sources living and passed away is second to none and gives her account of radio and the black modern a personal voice as well as the gravity of history.' Loren Kruger, Research in African LiteraturesTable of ContentsIntroduction: radio, the SABC and the politics of culture; Part I. Sound and 'Migration': 1. K. E. Masinga, Zulu Radio and the politics of 'migrant' aurality; 2. Remembering the past, making the present: the radio worlds of Alexius Buthelezi 1961–1978; Part II. Distance and Intimacy: 3. Exile: Bloke Modisane and the BBC 1959–1987; 4. 'Africa on the rise': the early 1960s, and the radio Voice of Lewis Nkosi; Part III. Drama, Language, and Daily Life: 5. Untidy boundaries, restless identities: Zulu serial drama in the 1970s; 6. Radio drama in the time of violence: Yiz' Uvalo (In Spite of Fear) December 1986–May 1987; 7. 'Ikusasa Lethu' (Our Tomorrow): the 'glorious decade'? Radio drama of the 1990s; 8. Finding a centre; Conclusion: dances of power; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe recent socio-political changes in Nepal have brought assimilationist notions of Nepali nationalism under a tight scrutiny and drawn attention to more plural, inclusive, and diverse notions of Nepaliness. However, both assimilationist and pluralist visions continue to remain normative in their approach, and often posit ethnic and national identity in opposition to each other. Drawing on the everyday practices in the two schools, this book illustrates that social actors in minority language education did not necessarily select between minority identity and national identity, but instead made simultaneous claims to more than one social identity by discursively positioning ''ethnic identity'' as ''national identity''. It builds on the notion of ''simultaneity'' to illustrate that it is through the ''unresolved co-presences'' of apparently contradictory ways that people maintain their multi-layered identities. By arguing for an analytical necessity to adopt relational approach, it aims to complicate the neat compartmentalisation of identities.Trade Review'Questions of language and schooling are central to most theories of nationalism and yet there have relatively few detailed ethnographies of nationalism or sub-nationalism in schools. In the Nepalese context there have been many studies of education and many studies of ethnicity, but until Uma Pradhan spent time in two schools that take pride in their mother-tongue teaching, no one had studied the interaction of ethnicity, language, cultural capital, public perceptions of quality, and pedagogy in actual practice. With this innovative and landmark monograph on multilingualism and schooling, we have, for the first time, a sophisticated and practice-focused ethnographic examination of cultural nationalism and multilingual education in Nepal as they are experienced, (re)produced, and resisted 'at the coal face', i.e. by the children receiving them and by the teachers, activists, and bureaucrats seeking to deliver and/or manage them.' David N. Gellner, University of Oxford'Pradhan's book is a powerfully argued analysis of students', educators', and activists' uses of language to re-situate ethnic identities within discourses of Nepalese nationalism. Simultaneous Identities takes to new levels our understanding of the complex politics and everyday practices underlying the social production of ethnicity and nationalism.' Amy Stambach, University of Wisconsin'This work on multilingual education is challenging both in theories and practices. With the deployment of extensive methodologies such as participant-observation, personal communications with teachers, parents and education officers including case studies of students of two mother-tongue schools of Nepal Bhasa in the city of Kathmandu and Dangaura Tharus in Kapilbastu, the outcomes address identity, language, education and nationalism of non-native speakers of Nepali, the national language. This exhaustive research work is the first of its kind on multilingual education after the constitution of Nepal in 1990 has declared primary schooling in mother-tongue is fundamental right. Hence, it makes a significant contribution to understanding learners from minority language communities are at education disadvantage, the benefits of MLE, and requirements for success and sustainability of MLE programmes.' Nirmal Man Tuladhar, Social Science Baha, Nepal'In this ethnographically-rich and theoretically-sophisticated study, Pradhan explores the politicised and controversial issue of mother-tongue education in Nepal. Through a nuanced analysis of everyday language practices and discourses around language use in two mother-tongue schools, the author sheds light on the complex interplay between education, national identity, and ethnic identity in the fast-changing socio-political context of contemporary Nepal. This is an important and timely book that situates mother-tongue schools as spaces where social authority and power are negotiated.' Mark Turin, University of British Columbia'With its focus on everyday politics of mother tongue education in Nepal, this book is an invaluable and timely contribution to the bourgeoning regional scholarship of educational ethnography in Nepal and to the wider field of educational anthropology. It opens up the realm of language use and exchange inside two minority language schools through rich ethnographic accounts and thereby makes a compelling case for understanding the relationship between education, power and language politics. The book is a must for anyone with an interest in education in Nepal, mother tongue education and linguistic hierarchies, and more broadly the intersection between educational and linguistic anthropology.' Karen Valentin, Aarhus University, Denmark'… Simultaneous Identities is a well-written ethnography that … offers a fascinating read on ethnography and presents a rethinking of multiculturalism in the context of Nepal … it makes in-depth observations based on everyday detail and existing literatures, providing an analysis of nuanced relations among the agents of power from a cultural perspective … as it is written by an indigenous Newar researcher, the book provides an impressive reflection on the researcher's position.' Jingwei Li, Journal of Contemporary AsiaTable of ContentsList of figures and images; List of acronyms; Introduction. Language, education, and the Nepali nation; 1. Language, education, and state-making in Nepal; 2. Constructing an educated person; in mother tongue; 3. Language, public space, and identity; 4. Transforming a language to script; 5. Knowledge-making, language, and education; 6. Quality, equality, and language ideology; 7. Ethnicity, education, and employment; Conclusion. Simultaneous identities.

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Book SynopsisDuring the last decade, indigenous youth from Northeast India have migrated in large numbers to the main cities of metropolitan India to find work and study. This migration is facilitated by new work opportunities in the hospitality sector, mainly as service personnel in luxury hotels, shopping malls, restaurants and airlines. Prolonged armed conflicts, militarization, a stagnant economy, corrupt and ineffective governance structures, and the harsh conditions of subsistence agriculture in their home villages or small towns impel the youth to seek future prospects outside their home region. English language skills, a general cosmopolitan outlook as well as a non-Indian physical appearance have proven to be key assets in securing work within the new hospitality industry. Leaving the Land traces the migratory journeys of these youths and engage with their new lives in cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Wayfinding; 2. Light skin and soft skills; 3. Departures and returns; 4. Interlude; 5. Dreams and desserts; 6. Talking about method; Conclusion; Afterword; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisAs America has become more racially diverse and economic inequality has increased, American politics has also become more clearly divided by race and less clearly divided by class. In this landmark book, Zoltan L. Hajnal draws on sweeping data to assess the political impact of the two most significant demographic trends of last fifty years. Examining federal and local elections over many decades, as well as policy, Hajnal shows that race more than class or any other demographic factor shapes not only how Americans vote but also who wins and who loses when the votes are counted and policies are enacted. America has become a racial democracy, with non-Whites and especially African Americans regularly on the losing side. A close look at trends over time shows that these divisions are worsening, yet also reveals that electing Democrats to office can make democracy more even and ultimately reduce inequality in well-being.Trade Review'This is an authoritative, systematic, and important book that will be an agenda setter for years to come. The arguments are powerful and frequently counter-intuitive.' Paul Frymer, Princeton University, New Jersey'Both within and beyond academe, most acknowledge the centrality of race to American politics. Somehow, however, most of the leading analysts of the American political scene fail to appreciate the ways in which race structures the outcomes of American democracy as well. They go on and on about class, while race (and racism) is relegated to the sidelines. In this much-needed and deft analysis, Hajnal corrects this 'oversight' and provides irrefutable evidence that race-based disparities tell us more about winners and losers in American democracy than do, say, middle-class versus working-class divisions. In these troubled times, Dangerously Divided is essential reading for those who are serious about working toward a more perfect union.' Christopher Sebastian Parker, University of Washington'Dangerously Divided is a powerful and convincing account of the fundamental role that race plays in American politics. At all levels of government, across varied institutional settings, and over time, Hajnal demonstrates that divisions by race eclipse other potential cleavages. Consequently, whites tend to win in elections and in policy making, while people of color lose.' Jessica Trounstine, University of California, Merced'Using a novel research design, Zoltan L. Hajnal convincingly demonstrates that race has replaced class as the main dividing line in American politics, and that immigration has become a major contributor to this divide - triggering a backlash that has increased white defections from the Democratic Party. Hajnal's insights on the political impact of the nation's changing demographics, including whether the current anti-immigrant strategy will eventually backfire, make Dangerously Divided a must-read.' William Julius Wilson, author of The Truly Disadvantaged'A deep dive into … how racial division fuels our politics and shapes our day-to-day lives … [Hajnal] expresses himself so simply and clearly in the body of the book that even a journalist can understand him.' Jim Schutze, The Dallas Observer'The book convincingly demonstrates that race, far more than class, is key to predicting who wins and loses in American politics.' Daniel Laurison, Social ForcesTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Fault Lines: 1. What divides us? Race, class, and political choice; Part II. The Consequences: 2. Who wins office?; 3. Which voters win elections?; 4. Who wins on policy?; Part III. Immigration's Rising Impact on American Democracy: 5. Immigration is reshaping Partisan politics; 6. The immigration backlash in the states; Part IV. Seeking Greater Equality: 7. Democratic Party control and equality in policy representation; 8. Democratic party control and minority well-being; 9. Where will we go from here?

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Book SynopsisThe unsettling language of blood has been invoked throughout the history of Christianity. But until now there has been no truly sustained treatment of how Christians use blood to think with. Eugene F. Rogers Jr. discusses in his much-anticipated new book the sheer, surprising strangeness of Christian blood-talk, exploring the many and varied ways in which it offers a language where Christians cooperate, sacrifice, grow and disagree. He asks too how it is that blood-talk dominates when other explanations would do, and how blood seeps into places where it seems hardly to belong. Reaching beyond academic disputes, to consider how religious debates fuel civil ones, he shows that it is not only theologians or clergy who engage in blood-talk, but also lawmakers, judges, generals, doctors and voters at large. Religious arguments have significant societal consequences, Rogers contends; and for that reason secular citizens must do their best to understand them.Trade Review'This book offers an exhilarating reflection on what it is to think about, with and for the sake of blood; and to so think – as it has long been thought – within the Christian tradition, but not only the Christian. Eugene Rogers' theological reflections are at all times in fruitful dialogue with those of other faiths and of other disciplines, most notably Judaism and anthropology, from which he learns and deepens his thinking. Rogers does not present a systematic reflection on blood. Rather he repeats blood's contradictions through a series of fragments: chapters that address various sites of blood's use, its spilling into social thought, into different cultural domains. Rewarding its readers with ever-deepening insight, the book is a singular and powerful work of theology that will enthral and provoke.' Gerard Loughlin, Durham University'This book is sure to be both popular and important. The author is a distinguished theologian and philosopher. The topic is both fundamental to, yet neglected by, Christian theology: although 'blood' studies are big elsewhere in the academy, such as in anthropology and sociology. There is no other extended study of the Christian symbolics of blood – or certainly not by someone who brings together at a high level theology (Patristic, medieval and modern), social theory, post-modern philosophy and biblical studies. 'Blood' (real and symbolic) is something which, as the author points out, seeps into almost all historical theological topics: death, sacrifice, Eucharist, childbirth and creation. It is also to the fore in many contemporary concerns of the churches: debates over killing animals and eating meat, torture and – controversially – same-sex relations, racism and (somewhat unexpectedly) creationism. A good book on the Christian symbolics of blood will be important to historians, social theorists, social scientists and the like, as well as to theologians and, indeed, church authorities as they struggle with some of the issues above. In sum, this is an original and important book by one of this generation's most innovative theologians.' Janet Soskice, Duke University'A singular and powerful work of theology that will enthral and provoke.' Gerard Loughlin, Durham University'An original and important book by one of this generation's most innovative theologians.' Janet Soskice, Duke University'advanced scholars interested in theology, anthropology, and queer studies will find it insightful and sometimes positively inspiring … Highly recommended.' D. Jacobsen, Choice ConnectTable of ContentsPart I. Why We See Red: 1. Blood marks the bounds of the body: Overtures and refrains; Part II. Blood Seeps in Where It Hardly Seems to Belong: Blood Unnecessary and Inexhaustible: 2. Blood after Isaac: Why God said 'Na'; 3. Blood after Leviticus: Separation and sacrifice; 4. Blood after the Last Supper: Jesus and the gender of blood; Part III. Blood Makes a Language in Which to Conduct Disputes: Family, Truth, and Tribe: 5. Bridegrooms of blood: Same-sex desire and the blood of Christ; 6. Red in tooth and claw: Evolution and the blood of Christ; 7. Blood purity and blood sacrifice: Castilians and Aztecs; Part IV. The Blood of God and at the Heart of Things: Causality Sacramental and Cosmic: 8. How the Eucharist causes salvation; 9. Blood in the Christology of things: Why things became human; Appendix: Review of Gil Anidjar's Blood: A Critique of Christianity.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents new research on new developments and policies in the Native American population in the United States. Topics discussed in this compilation include highways and highway safety on Indian lands; Indian water rights settlements; the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act; the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act; the National Labor Relations Board''s enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act against tribal employers and the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act of 2015; and the Buy Indian Act.

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Book SynopsisThis book has been inspired by Dennis Meadows''s (et al) The Limits to Growth, published 41 years ago. It forewarned the general public about the exhaustion of strategic resources of the planet as known at that time, unless economic and population expansions were halted. This resulted in the world becoming aware of the crisis of civilisation. Measures were taken to reduce the consumption of the strategic resources, including the promotion of recycling resources used. Efforts were made internationally to introduce the practice of climate and environmental protection, to little avail. The present book has a wider scope of analysis and synthesis, and even gloomier conclusions than those found in the two pioneering books. This author has arrived at the following conclusions: The plight of civilisation is doomed by the sun expiring within 4.5 billion years. It is also determined by the exhaustion of the known and the potential resources of the small planet Earth around the year 5,000. The future of civilisation (considered in the time frame imaginable to man) is swayed by its current crisis, which results from the Triangle of Civilization Death (the combination of the bombs of population, ecology and depletion of strategic resources), which will be felt around 2050; The future of civilisation is dependent on its capability of entering the phase of Wise and Universal Civilisation in the years to come. This is conditioned upon the abandonment of the known socio-political and economic systems: capitalism, socialism, communism and their hybrids. These systems are based on the constant growth of population and the economy, which is unsustainable any longer; Democratic Ecologism ought to be the new system, securing a wise and sustainable functioning of civilisation; it would prioritise the ecosystem in the choices made by man and societies. What must be observed, too, is tolerance based on Spirituality 2.0. It is based on the Decalogue of Complementary Values derived from the main religions 1.0, which the world is now practicing. Is it possible to introduce these solutions to practical life? This is up to people becoming wiser. Alas, so far people do not even know what wisdom is since wisdom is not taught at school or college. And without wisdom, no civilisation stands any chance of success in the universe of systemic chaos.

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Book SynopsisThis book took the task of conceptualising Western civilisation in the 21st century. It examines Western Civilisation and its encounters from a viewpoint of the impact of rising Global civilisations in the 21st century. This political and technological success of Western civilisation in the last 500 years triggered a dream of spreading around the globe Democracy and liberal Capitalism. Western society was held together by Christian morality (regardless whether someone was a believer or a non-believer or agnostic). The medicine for all shortcomings faced by Western civilisation in the 21st century is offered by Al Gore in his book "The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change" (2013). He thinks that inventions and technology will save Western civilisation. The author of this book argues that vice versa, the rise of certain technologies are the main reason for the decline of Western civilisation. These kind of issues will be investigated in this book and the message is not optimistic, since Westerners, when are poor are wise, and when are better off are stupid. Hence, without practicing wisdom, Western civilisation cannot be revived.

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Book SynopsisDual inheritance theory (DIT) recognises the fact that for the last 50 millennia cultural evolution has had a marked impact on our anatomy, behaviour and cognition. Unfortunately, by considering cumulative cultural evolution as the natural choice of all cognitively modern humans, DIT implies that technological innovation is the index of progress, and that the ratcheting of innovations becomes the goal of cultural evolution. This is accomplished by developing a certain degree of social complexity in which the biased copying of cultural models becomes a technique of cultural transmission. Small and isolated populations are therefore doomed, and the treadmill model takes effect, in which the lack of demographic strength results in impaired social learning and loss/infidelity in copying. However, the anthropological literature documents small and isolated groups that have -- despite these handicaps -- developed intricate exchange networks that do not necessarily rely on technological innovation and function only in low demographical settings. Not only that the parameters upon which cultural transmission is based in DIT -- prestige, skills, success -- are unknown, but certain levelling mechanisms ensure that these parameters become eliminated and thus, no cultural models can rise to prominence. Interestingly, these societies do not seem to be plagued by cultural loss and, instead of hopelessly running the treadmill and living in poverty, they have developed egalitarian and, to an extent, affluent societies. The cultural evolution of these groups does not rely on accumulation, but rather on reduction. The reductive cultural orientations of such primitive societies are not an ancestral developmental stage, but rather an independent achievement. Populations following a reductive cultural orientation -- known in anthropology as immediate-return hunters-gatherers -- are often described as paedomorphic, due to their markedly neotenous features. On the other hand, populations that follow a cumulative type of cultural evolution are surprisingly rugged phenotypes. In the case of the latter, a cultural leap occurred during the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition, which resulted in the entrenchment of archaic behavioural traits upon which hierarchical societies became established. Conversely, in the case of reductive orientations, a cultural regression seems to have occurred, but only during the early Holocene. The adoption of a cultural primitivism -- immediate-return subsistence -- offered a degree of flexibility that allowed for a neotenic leap. This enabled the reduction of archaic behavioural traits and the emergence of egalitarian societies.

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Book SynopsisWhen the police shoot or choke civilians in supposed fear and dread of the people they are meant to be protecting and as a consequence deny them the full due process of the law, powerful fears and beliefs are in many cases being fatally enacted and are rendering the law impotent. Where do these fears and beliefs come from? How do they become institutionalised to the extent that they are (re)produced by market-driven commercial values? Clennon argues that the commercialisation of the Black experience that comprises much urban popular youth culture exerts a coloniality of power that deeply influences all of our civic institutions via the formation and transmission of historical and marketised societal values. Drawing on Lacan, Benjamin, Freire, Collins, hooks and others, Clennon underpins his observations of his community enterprise research with young people with a theoretical framework that explores the interiorisation process of cultural oppression and liberation. Clennon also examines how the Freirean process of consciousness-raising can be applied to examine popular youth culture in ways that empower its consumers, as well as tracking the genesis of some of its more negative market origins.

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Book SynopsisThis book, originally published in 1856, provides a thorough account of the rise of Canada from a primitive condition to the middle of the 19th century. It is concisely written, and the various events and personages of which it is composed present an attractive and striking picture to the mind of every reader.

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Book SynopsisThe debates concerning global terrorism focus on "radical Islam" and the way it can be "moderated" or pacified by appeals to its peaceful side. These debates include the discussion of the clash of civilisations, tolerance and its limits, and military means to defeat the perpetrators. Such cultural clashes appear in various parts of the globe, including India, Pakistan, and even among sects of the same civilizations. This monograph explores the nature of these cultural clashes and the resurgence of global terror to look at a more fundamental set of issues, including the misguided search for truth, resulting in Western post-modernism and "post-truth", spanning the globe in the guise of multi-culturalism. The analysis of this context leads to questioning the basic composition of civilisations, their compatibility, and radical differences, leading to a dimension of awareness that has not been addressed by scholars studying civilisations. What is at issue is the inevitable "anarchistic terror," which includes most unpredictable acts by "unsuspected" individuals, not only from Islam, but also by those emboldened by a specific mode of awareness. This level "dissolves" the various claims that the fundamental clash is among civilizations and points to two, modern, Western levels of this dissolution: literature and theory. The former calls for the collapse of anything resembling features of the world that are accessible to human awareness. The second level places the world at an arbitrary service for human "needs". The result is made manifest by the claims from anarchistic terrorists that the modern West is "Satanic" and destructive of the created order of all things, which is a totally anarchistic point of view, while the answer from the modern West points to the fundamental anarchism of those who terrorise "Western" ways. The analysis of this context shows that both sides are anarchistic and face an inevitable collision without any possible justification. The collision is designed to unfold into a final domain that requires an "ontological" account of how such a collision in human life is possible, without relying on previously inadequate explanations. The text includes contemporary "turmoil" in global relationships, the various trends toward "autocracy" and "strong man" solutions to our predicaments. Such tendencies appear in the phenomenon of the conjunction of state and religion, so well pronounced in Russia, in Confucian China, the Middle East, the United States, and in European nations. It is to be noted that such solutions do not depend only on personality cults, but above all, on "legitimating" their stories. The point is that such stories are equally anarchistic.Table of ContentsFor more information, please visit our website at:https://novapublishers.com/shop/anarchies-in-collision/

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Book SynopsisThe opening chapter delves into the cultural roots and historical backgrounds of Chinese parents, giving insight into their behaviour, the effects of this behaviour on the teachers, cultural clashes caused in Australia, and the influences of the parent-teacher interactions in the schools, the local community and also the culture of Australia. Recommendations are also made. Following the first chapter, the author of chapter two looks into recent developments in Chinese calligraphy in Australia and its influences in Australian culture. The next chapter discusses culture and effective management practices in the African context. Chapter four examines the uses of film as an analytic tool to describe aspects of popular U.S. culture. It identifies genres and ratings of the most popular films (as defined by inflation adjusted domestic box office sales) since the 1930s. We examine changes in the content and intent of films over time. Chapter four also offers insights into possible alterations or continuity of dominant cultural norms. American society does not embody a culture of inclusion. Multiculturalism and miscegenation were taboo concepts for many in the powerful white elites. The exclusion presented in the closing chapter is something practiced by men of the same ethnic group.

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Book Synopsis"Greece" and "Greek" mean different things to different people. The historian, of course, will inform us that all Western civilisation has Greece for its mother. The author aims to throw some fresh light upon the secret of that people''s greatness. It cannot be done by studying their history only. This book looks at the literature, statues and temples, their coins, vases, and pictures, their laws and governments, their ceremonies and amusements, their philosophy and religion.

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Book SynopsisSyria, The Desert and the Sown covers Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell's travels through Palestine and Syria. The book contains a valuable firsthand account of Syrian life and customs.

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Book SynopsisThis edited volume consists of six chapters that describe the culture, lifestyle, and perspectives of people living all over the world, as well as the design of urban spaces, historical city centres, and tourist destinations. Chapter One offers an ethnography of the social attitudes, small-scale economies, political constructs and technological adaptions of hillside families in south-eastern Haiti. Chapter Two analyses the ways in which senior museum administrators in Italy respond to falling attendance from a branding perspective. Chapter Three presents the challenges encountered while developing design strategies for historical city centres and construction projects over two case studies. Chapter Four discusses narration as a design methodology as well as a means of representation and presents examples of proposed urban design projects for five different cities. Chapter Five describes how the people in Costa Rica perceive edible flowers, if and how they consume them, how they buy them and how much they are acquainted with possible health risks associated with their consumption. Finally, Chapter Six focuses on the need to change governance strategies of tourist destinations due to globalisation and technological development and proposes a methodological framework to responsibly manage stakeholders involved in tourism destinations.Table of ContentsPreface; Making it in Rural Haiti: Lands, Technologies Old and New, and How Folks Get By; Rebranding Italian Museums: The View from Within; Challenges of Designing for Historical City Centers; Narration as a Design Methodology for Urban Design: Scenarios, Strategies and Representation of Urban Space; Insights into the Consumption of Edible Flowers in Costa Rica; Co-Designing a Smart Tourist Destination: An Innovative Governance Method; Index.

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Communication and Sport: Surveying the Field provides students with an understanding of sports media, rhetoric, culture, and organizations through an examination of a wide range of topics. Authors Andrew C. Billings and Michael L. Butterworth address everything from youth to amateur to professional sports through varied lenses, including mythology, community, and identity. A comprehensive focus on communication scholarship gives attention to the ways that sports produce, maintain, or resist cultural attitudes about race, gender, sexuality, class, and politics. The Fourth Edition includes new interviews with prominent figures in the field and new discussions on current events like the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Book SynopsisThis study of eunuchs guides readers as they travel through various lands and periods, familiarizing themselves with the duties and responsibilities, the unspeakable torments and the passions and joys of these individuals. Eunuchs were not simply ""bedchamber attendants"", as the Greek term suggests. Nor were they always slaves. They could just as well be ascetics, priests, magicians, scholars, physicians, military commanders, admirals or senior officials at the courts of both eastern and western rulers. In the Byzantine empire, the only office they were precluded from attaining was that of emperor. The rich and varied forms of religious, social and sexual life associated with eunuchs and castrati embrace a wealth of myths relating to gods and demons, initiation rites, rituals and magic. They touch on the history of law and medicine, various systems of government, and secret societies. And they are presented to us in terms of the cruellest punishments and tortures. On the one hand, they facilitated unique developments in the evolution of vocal music, and on the other, they gave rise to a multiplicity of human behavioural patterns that reflect every aspect of good and evil. Readers should become acquainted with various forms of sexuality, such as androgyny, transvestism, transsexualism and homosexuality, and learn about the historical, religious and social issues associated with their characteristic ""life settings"". Whether out of a sense of shame or because of moral considerations, these phenomena appear only on the margins of the history of customs and mores.

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Book SynopsisA New York Review Books OriginalAn uncompromising contrarian, a passionate polemicist, a man of quick wit and wide learning, an anarchist, a pacifist, and a virtuoso of the slashing phrase, Dwight Macdonald was an indefatigable and indomitable critic of America’s susceptibility to well-meaning cultural fakery: all those estimable, eminent, prizewinning works of art that are said to be good and good for you and are not. He dubbed this phenomenon “Midcult” and he attacked it not only on aesthetic but on political grounds. Midcult rendered people complacent and compliant, secure in their common stupidity but neither happy nor free.This new selection of Macdonald’s finest essays, assembled by John Summers, the editor of The Baffler, reintroduces a remarkable American critic and writer. In the era of smart, sexy, and everything indie, Macdonald remains as pertinent and challenging as ever.

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Book SynopsisIn recent decades, many changes have taken place in Latin America as a result of economic, social and security developments. Increases in inequality and poverty continue to be major problems. As a result of social inequality, there have been increases in crime and violence as well. This book focuses on these recent changes that have taken place in Latin America, as well as the many cultural and linguistic challenges that exist in the bilingual community. The health-care system in the region is also discussed, as well as some of the major health issues that the community is presently facing.

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Book SynopsisThe ''Psychology of Santa'' examines decades of psychological research, as well as studies in sociology, communication, history, and advertising, all of which deal with Christmas. The book examines what research can reveal to us about how psychologists and others view these customs and what they represent to our culture. A number of aspects of Christmas are explored, and this book offers an intriguing interpretation of our lives and customs. Topics covered include how Christmas is celebrated during wars, a history of selected customs and whether families today still engage in them, how different traditions of psychologists view Christmas, Christmas and stress, Christmas and depression and suicide, children''s letters to Santa Claus, and children''s beliefs in Santa and how they change with age.

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Book SynopsisIs culture fixed and immutable, or is it emergent and changing? This is a question that has taken on growing importance in light of the culturally diverse and dynamic workplace realities that have resulted from increasing globalisation. It is also a topic that is in hot debate in international cross-cultural management (ICCM) research, in management and organisation studies in general, and in other disciplines. This book moves beyond the conventional dichotomous thinking of viewing culture either as fixed and immutable or dynamic and "in the making", and aims to develop a conceptualisation of culture that includes both a stable and a changing element. This book is based on empirical research on culture emergence in Sino-Western international cross-cultural management (SW-ICCM) contexts in China. Data have been collected by semi-structured interviews of Chinese and Western expatriates working in SW-ICCM contexts in China. Data analysis has led to the formulation of a grounded theory that views culture as comprising three cognitive components, Values, Expectations, and Ad Hoc Rules, which differ in time-space in their mutual shaping with behaviour, ranging from the enduring/universal, to the intermediate/context-specific, to the temporal/occasion-specific.

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Book SynopsisFor the last two decades, the world has been constantly facing challenges having completely new qualities: the growing tension between West and East, the uncontrolled spread of weapons of mass destruction, and the problems of facing large-scale ecological, demographical, technological, social and attitudinal dilemmas. In recent times a dialogue of civilisations has become a global and particularly pressing issue. As a result of intensive economic, political and cultural intercommunication, the world has become transformed into one indivisible system: present-day processes in one region greatly impact the functioning of the entire system. This new and important book is based on the proceedings of a conference in Tbilisi, Georgia dedicated to Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II, one of the world''s foremost supporters and initiators of such a dialogue.

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Book SynopsisThis yearbook deals with discourse within and across different cultures.

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Book SynopsisTo conceive the entrance of the individual to the culture, Bruner proposes the idea of an education susceptible to adapt a culture to the needs its members and to adapt its members and their manners to teach the needs the culture. According to him, "our actions are guided by values, standards which, far from being "natural", are cultural and "symbolic constructions" (Bruner, in 1999). He conceives the human development as a process of collaboration between child and adult, the adult being envisaged as mediator of the culture. This book discusses the international perspectives, as well as the impacts on the workplace and educational challenges of cultural diversity. Topics include naming and planning to overcome barriers to parent involvement in pre-service teachers'' online discussions; factors influencing students'' perceptions of training in cultural diversity competence; inclusion in higher education; how culturally diverse classrooms respond to instructional technologies; immigrants; moving toward a culture of diversity; culture diversity and identity; infotainment system features set adaptation to target cultures; and using teaching practices that motivate culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) nursing students to learn and succeed in their studies.

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