Ethnic studies / Ethnicity Books

Book SynopsisLate-arriving immigrants during the Great Migration, Finns were, comparatively speaking, a relatively small immigrant group, with about 350,000 immigrants arriving prior to World War II. Nevertheless, because of their geographic concentration in the Upper Midwest in particular, their impact was pronounced. They differed from many other new immigrant groups in a number of ways, including the fact that theirs is not an Indo-European language, and many old-country cultural and social features reflect their geographic location in Europe, at the juncture of East and West. A fresh and up-to-date analysis of Finnish Americans, this insightful volume lays the groundwork for exploring this unique culture through a historical context, followed by an overview of the overall composition and settlement patterns of these newcomers. The authors investigate the vivid ethnic organisations Finns created, as well as the cultural life they sought to preserve and enhance while fitting into their new homeland. Also explored are the complex dimensions of Finnish-American political and religious life, as well as the exodus of many radical leftists to Soviet Karelia in the 1930s. Through the lens of multiculturalism, transnationalism, and whiteness studies, the authors of this volume present a rich portrait of this distinctive group.

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Book SynopsisThe product of long-concealed FBI surveillance documents, Dangerous Friendship chronicles a history of Martin Luther King Jr. that the government kept secret from the public for years. The book reveals the story of Stanley Levison, a well-known figure in the Communist Party–USA, who became one of King’s closest friends and, effectively, his most trusted adviser. Levison, a Jewish attorney and businessman, became King’s pro bono ghostwriter, accountant, fundraiser, and legal adviser. This friendship, however, created many complications for both men.Because of Levison’s former ties to the Communist Party, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover launched an obsessive campaign, wiretapping, tracking, and photographing Levison relentlessly. By association, King was labeled as "a Communist and subversive", prompting then–attorney general Robert F. Kennedy to authorize secret surveillance of the civil rights leader. It was this effort that revealed King’s sexual philandering and furthered a breakdown of trust between King, Robert F. Kennedy, and eventually President John F. Kennedy.With stunning revelations, this book exposes both the general attitude of the U.S. government toward the privacy rights of American citizens during those difficult years as well as the extent to which King, Levison, and many other freedom workers were hounded by people at the very top of the U.S. security establishment.

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Book SynopsisAn account of the community development programs of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa, covering the emergence of the movement’s ideas and practices in the context of the late 1960s and early 1970s, then analysing how activists refined their practices, mobilized resources, and influenced people through their work.The book examines this history primarily through the Black Community Programs organization and its three major projects: the yearbook Black Review, the Zanempilo Community Health Center, and the Njwaxa leatherwork factory. As opposed to better-known studies of antipolitical, macroeconomic initiatives, this book shows that people from the so-called global South led development in innovative ways that promised to increase social and political participation. It particularly explores the power that youth, women, and churches had in leading change in a hostile political environment.With this new perspective on a major liberation movement, Hadfield not only causes us to rethink aspects of African history but also offers lessons from the past for African societies still dealing with developmental challenges similar to those faced during apartheid.

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Book SynopsisFrancis Pegahmagabow (1889–1952), an Ojibwe of the Caribou clan, was born in Shawanaga First Nation, Ontario. Enlisting at the onset of the First World War, he served overseas as a scout and sniper and became Canada’s most decorated Indigenous soldier. After the war, Pegahmagabow settled in Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario, where he married and raised six children. He served his community as both Chief and Councillor and was a founding member of the Brotherhood of Canadian Indians, the first national Indigenous political organization. In 1949 and 1950, he was elected the Supreme Chief of the National Indian Government.Francis Pegahmagabow’s stories describe many parts of his life and are characterized by classic Ojibwe narrative. They reveal aspects of Francis’s Anishinaabe life and worldview. Interceding chapters by Brian McInnes provide valuable cultural, spiritual, linguistic, and historical insights that give a greater context and application for Francis’s words and world. Presented in their original Ojibwe as well as in English translation, the stories also reveal a rich and evocative relationship to the lands and waters of Georgian Bay.In Sounding Thunder, Brian McInnes provides a new perspective on Pegahmagabow and his experience through a unique synthesis of Ojibwe oral history, historical record, and Pegahmagabow family stories.

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Book SynopsisFor too long, the approach to seemingly universal experiences like love, death, and even time in film has been dominated by the Global North. But what if such explorations developed horizontally instead? Drawing from both European and African cultural theorists, including Gilles Deleuze and Wole Soyinka, Vlad Dima invites us to consider what happens to postcolonial African film if we no longer privilege the idea of time. How else might we understand the cinematic image, and how would its meanings change? Meaninglessness: Time, Rhythm, and the Undead in Postcolonial Cinema is a study of meaning and meaninglessness through the figure of the undead, beginning with francophone Africa and extending to postcolonial France. Through the analysis of films like Mati Diop’s Atlantics and Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s Miraculous Weapons, Dima shows how the African cinematic image may produce meaning without any attachment to European time, and how that meaning is connected instead to the philosophy of negritude and to the notion of rhythm. Meaninglessness introduces the concept of the rhythm-sequence as a new way to understand the African moving image.

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Book SynopsisYékú demonstrates how the politics of both conservative and liberal polarization imbricates to shape what can or cannot be said in online commentaries on African literary forms. This book challenges utopian framings of the digital by exploring how algorithms engender a culture of outrage, conflict, and personality-driven battles that distract from aesthetic considerations of literary texts.

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Book SynopsisPercival Everett (b. 1956) writes novels, short stories, poetry, and essays and is one of the most prolific, acclaimed, yet under-examined African American writers working today. Although to date Everett has published eighteen novels, three collections of short fiction, three poetry collections, and one children's book, his work has not garnered the critical attention that it deserves. Perhaps one of the most vexing problems scholars have had in trying to situate Everett's work is that they have found it difficult to place him and his work within a prescribed African American literary tradition. Because he happens to be African American, critics have expectations of so-called authentic African American fiction; however, his work often thwarts these expectations.In Perspectives on Percival Everett, scholars engage all of his creative production. On the one hand, Everett is an African American novelist. On the other hand, he pursues subject matters that seemingly have little to do with African American culture. The operative word here is ""seemingly""; for as these essays demonstrate, Everett's works falls well within as well as outside of what most critics would deem the African American literary tradition. These essays examine issues of identity, authenticity, and semiotics, in addition to postmodernism and African American and American literary traditions--issues essential to understanding his aesthetic and political concerns.

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Book Synopsis“Black women writers and critics are acting on the old adage that one must speak for oneself if one wishes to be heard.” —Claudia Tate, from the introductionLong out of print, Black Women Writers at Work is a vital contribution to Black literature in the 20th century. Through candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alexis De Veaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, and Sherley Anne Williams, the book highlights the practices and critical linkages between the work and lived experiences of Black women writers whose work laid the foundation for many who have come after.Responding to questions about why and for whom they write, and how they perceive their responsibility to their work, to others, and to society, the featured playwrights, poets, novelists, and essayists provide a window into the connections between their lives and their art.Finally available for a new generation, this classic work has an urgent message for readers and writers today.Trade Review“Black Women Writers at Work features conversations with 14 Black writers from across the bounds of literary form. Tate pulls together Black women playwrights, novels, poets, and essayists to compile one of the most textured collections in the 20th century. Writers like Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, and Toni Morrison share space under one cover thanks to Tate’s editorial creativity. Black Women Writers at Work joins works like The Black Woman, Homegirls, and But Some of Us Are Brave as a landmark Black feminist text featuring the words of some of the most notable literary figures in the tradition.” —Baltimore Beat“When this classic collection was published in 1984, the writers Claudia Tate interviewed were engaged in the creative work that produced new Black feminist terrains. Today Black Women Writers at Work serves as a much-needed reminder that the imagination always blazes trails that lead us toward more habitable futures.”—Angela Y. Davis, author of Freedom is a Constant Struggle”This is a gorgeous and essential collection of writings from a group of the most important Black women writers. I have turned to repeatedly over the past thirty years and I'm thrilled that Haymarket has republished it for another generation to treasure.”—Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine”[A] rare, rich source books for writers, readers, teachers, students—all who care about literature and the creation of it... This collection transcends its genre. It becomes a harbinger book, a book of revelation, of haunting challenge, opening on to central concerns not only of writing, but of life, of living, today.” —Tillie Olson, from the Foreword “Tate’s probing, provocative and insightful questions set a new standard for the interview as a genre.”—Valerie Smith, Princeton University

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Book Synopsis For the last five decades, the Dani of the central highlands of West Papua, along with other Papuans, have struggled with the oppressive conditions of Indonesian rule. Formal education holds the promise of escape from stigmatization and violence. Dreams Made Small offers an in-depth, ethnographic look at journeys of education among young Dani men and women, asking us to think differently about education as a trajectory for transformation and belonging, and ultimately revealing how dreams of equality are shaped and reshaped in the face of multiple constraints.Trade Review “Overall, Dreams Made Small is a superb ethnography in which Munro shows the rich textures of the everyday and voices of Papuans, something rarely found in dominant and political-oriented studies of the region. By focusing on Papuans’ experience in Indonesia, Jenny Munro also makes an important contribution to the crossregional studies of diasporic Papuans… Without a doubt, Munro’s book will be an important reading for those who work with issues of education and race, critical race theories, youth, citizenship and Indonesian nationalism.” • The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology (TAPJA) “A richly detailed and comprehensive portrayal of Dani students. Jenny Munro’s monograph is an important book to read for both students of Pacific anthropology and education as well as more generally.” • Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford “Munro's approach makes for a strong study of a people who are struggling in every way and constantly have to live with racial tensions and stigmatization…This is a courageous ethnographic study.” • Volkskunde “One of the pleasing things about this ethnography is that while we are aware of the author’s presence, there is no sense in which she is the star. Her writing style has a clarity that makes confronting the analysis inescapable. This book is a must read for those of us with an interest in Melanesian/Indonesian anthropology and political life. It should also be a starting point for those educators seeking to improve outcomes for people on the margins. Ultimately, as an ethnography, it is a gem.” • American Anthropologist “Cross-referencing Indonesian and international studies on race, sociology, education and development allows this detailed ethnography to be scaffolded by theory but never straightjacketed by it, producing a portrait of grassroots Papuan experiences in the Indonesian archipelago infrequently documented in scholarly studies.” • The Australian Journal of Anthropology “Jenny Munro’s [book] is one of the finest pieces of anthropology about West Papua by a foreign scholar in recent years… Although it is a detailed study of one segment of Papua’s complex society, Munro’s study provides critical insights into Papuan cultural identity, political aspirations.” • Anthropos “Anthropological studies based on recent field research among Papuans are few. However, Munro’s study is not merely to be welcomed because it is rare. Its importance is that it contributes significantly, and clearly, to the analysis of ethnic divisions in Indonesia and efforts by Papuans to deal with these divisions.” • Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde “This book is the honest story of Dani students, which accurately illustrates their steps towards education and fulfilling dreams of improving life quality back at home. It is a great resource for the reader to understand the position of the Papua people in Indonesia.” • Anthropological Notebooks “…a superb ethnography in which Munro shows the rich textures of the everyday and voices of Papuans, something rarely found in dominant and political-oriented studies of the region… Without a doubt, Munro’s book will be an important reading for those who work with issues of education and race, critical race theories, youth, citizenship and Indonesian nationalism.” • The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology “This excellent ethnography of the racialization of education in Indonesia describes and analyzes the prejudices suffered by Papuan Dani students with great sensitivity and empathy, weaving a very careful and intricate image of the life of students.” • Christine Jourdan, Concordia UniversityTable of Contents List of Figures and Maps Acknowledgments Introduction: New Promises, Old Problems Chapter 1. Ethno-Racial and Political Dreams of Education in Wamena Chapter 2. ‘Newcomers’ and ‘Masters of the Land’ in North Sulawesi Chapter 3. Stigma, Fear, and Shame: Dani Encounters with Racial and Political Formations in North Sulawesi Chapter 4. ‘Discipline is Important’: Aspirations and Encounters on Campus Chapter 5. Belonging, Expertise and Conflict in Highlanders’ Social World Abroad Chapter 6. ‘Study First’: Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Survival in the 'City of Free Sex' Chapter 7. Doing Good Things in a Dani Modernity Conclusion: Koteka Questions Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe events related to the 1964 coup and the military dictatorship (1964-85) have become common currency in the recent public debate in Brazil. The issue is especially strategic to the extreme right-wing groups surrounding Jair Bolsonaro, the president elected in 2018. For them, the 1964 coup is cherished and celebrated, marking defeat of the left and the beginning of a political regime oriented towards order and progress. The political project built around Bolsonaro is an attempt to impose a distorted and Manichean view of recent history, both by discourse and attempts of censorship. According to that view, 1964 was not a coup detat, but a revolution that saved Brazilians from communism. In Brazil, history is being manipulated to convince people that the military were good rulers, an image that connects to the present authoritarian (albeit elected) government supported by the Armed Forces. Right-wingers, nostalgic for the 1960s dictatorship, promote initiatives to discredit academic researchers and historians who disagree with their mind set. A Present Past offers a well-founded approach to the history of the military dictatorship. Chapters are dedicated to analysing the most controversial topics of the current debate. The primary aim is to disseminate knowledge about the prevailing dictatorship circumstances, with a firm eye on how the past military regime impacts on the present. The purpose is to prevent peddlers of fake news and the ultra-right negationists from winning over the Brazilian public with their authoritarian versions of history. In sum, this is a book committed to democracy. This commitment does not imply any disrespect for the academy, or for opposing points of view, but at its heart it defends historiography via scientific method to counter authoritarian imposition of a historical narrative that supports dictatorship in any form and its leaders, political and military, remaining in power through coercion.

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Book SynopsisPhilosophers have contemplated the meaning of life, the who & the why, since nascent self-consciousness of the evolving hominid species. Yet practical efforts, i.e., control of life, have always transcended the philosophical: how to dominate what happens to the physical body itself, how to control the environment, and the interaction therefrom. Thus are born rites, rituals & religions. A rite can be a prescribed religious or other solemn ceremony or act it can be a social custom or practice, or even a mundane conventional act. A ritual can be the established form for a ceremony, the order of words used for example; a ritual observance can be either a system of ceremonial acts or actions, or an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set precise manner. Religion generally encompasses a socio-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements. Religion is a set of beliefs, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances (rites and rituals). Control efforts highlighted in this volume range from prehistoric cave paintings, Amerindian ceremonies, Christian denominational (especially Roman Catholic), traditions & Afro-Caribbean syncretic rites, to crossovers, which deal with the more socio-cultural rites of passage like the quinceanera, and/or dance rites & rituals like the Southern Cone tango, African candombe, Cuban habanera and European waltzes and polkas and the corrida, from the public ritual known as tauromaquia. The premise behind this comparative volume is to discover how rites, rituals & religions are addressed in real life in these divergent societies by exploring the visual and literary representations of control. Rites, Rituals and Religions is eighth and final volume in the Hispanic Worlds series

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Book SynopsisIn early 2022, protests rocked Kazakhstan. Initially peaceful demonstrations soon turned violent after brutal government crackdowns, leaving at least 238 dead during Bloody January'. But despite fears that Kazakhstan might split along ethno-linguistic lines, ethnicity played little role in the unrest: deep socio- economic problems and anti-regime grievances pushed protestors onto the streets.More than thirty years since declaring independ- ence, multi-ethnic Kazakhstan is still grappling with its nationhood. While secessionist movements provoked ethnic conflicts, territorial disputes and civil wars across the former USSR, Kazakhstan de- veloped a relatively stable inter-ethnic policy, and predicted RussoKazakh tensions largely failed to materialise. Analysing the multiple narratives, actors and often contradictory feelings of nation- al belonging in post-1991 Kazakhstan, Diana T. Kudaibergen investigates why Kazakhstani na- tion-building is so unusual. Has Kazakh society found a solution to divisive ethno-nationalism? How have ordinary citizens shaped their identities? And how will Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has led to widespread Russian immigration into Kazakhstan, impact inter-ethnic dynamics?Kudaibergen builds on unpublished archival materials and hundreds of interviews to explore the hybrid' nature of nation-building in this complex country. While regime elites promote a top-down civic identity, domestic unrest and pluralistic opposition movements are once again transforming the category Kazakhstani'.

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Book SynopsisLos cuadernos aquí recogidos manifiestan una toma activa de conciencia de la paulatina mejora de las luchas de las comunidades, las actitudes de los gobiernos locales y nacionales, lo cual no impide que, al menor descuido, estos gobiernos recaigan en las viejas conductas retardatarias. El actual auge político-cultural de los pueblos indígenas de Colombia se sustenta esencialmente en una voluntad y una práctica de cambio ampliamente generalizada en las que las comunidades amerindias se convierten en actores, no sólo de su propia transformación, sino de la transformación democrática de la sociedad contemporánea en su conjunto, en la medida en que el indigena asume una voz ciudadana a escala nacional e internacional. Esta efervescencia ha alcanzado, por supuesto, a los wiwa. Este trabajo contribuye a senta las bases pedagógicas y lingüísticas para que la población wiwa se incorpore plenamente, desde la autogestión de una educación basada en su propia lengua y cultura, al espacio de la cultura letrada. ~ The notebooks collected here show an active awareness of the gradual improvement in the struggles of the communities,and the attitudes of local and national governments, which does not prevent these governments, at the slightest turn, from relapsing into the old resisting behaviours. The current political-cultural boom of the indigenous peoples of Colombia is essentially based on a widely generalised will and practice of change in which the Amerindian communities become actors, not only of their own transformation, but of the democratic transformation of the contemporary society as a whole, as long as the indigenous person assumes a citizen voice on a national and international scale. This momentum has naturally reached the Wiwa. This work contributes to laying the pedagogical and linguistic bases so that the Wiwa population can be fully incorporated, by self-managing an education based on their own language and culture, to the space of literate culture.

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Book SynopsisEl trabajo de Antonio Cornejo-Polar, a quien este volumen rinde homenaje, alimentó durante varias décadas la reflexión más seria y articulada que se haya producido en Perú sobre la crítica cultural que se vincula a la raíz misma del campo interpretado, a sus más profundas y conflictivas condiciones de existencia y desarrollo histórico. La obra de Cornejo-Polar se ciñó a la cultura andina en la región peruana. Su acercamiento acotado a la problemática cultural andina pasó a constituir un modelo de interpretación aplicable a múltiples aspectos de la cultura latinoamericana y a distintos momentos de su historia. Su trabajo sobre la problemática indigenista fue una labor incansable llena de fe en el trabajo crítico e interpretativo, generosidad, tolerancia sin concesiones, rigor y fuerza intelectual. Abrió una ruta para que todos entendiéramos mejor el sentido y compromiso de nuestro trabajo y para que nos adentráramos en la interioridad de un continente sorprendente, ignorado, que él contribuyó en gran medida, a presentar en toda su desafiante complejidad. ~ The work of Antonio Cornejo-Polar, to whom this volume pays homage, fueled for several decades the most serious and articulate reflection that has been produced in Peru on cultural criticism that is linked to the very roots of its interpreted field, to its deepest and conflicting conditions of existence and historical development. Cornejo-Polar's work explored Andean culture in the Peruvian region. His focused approach to Andean cultural issues became a model of interpretation applicable to multiple aspects of Latin American culture and to different moments in its history. His work on indigenous issues was tireless, generous, tolerant without concessions, rigorous and full of faith in critical and interpretative work, and intellectual strength. He opened a path for all of us to better understand the meaning and commitment of our work and for us to delve into a surprising unknown continent, which he portrayed in all its challenging complexity.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a series of original, critical meditations on short stories and novels from Central America between 1995 and 2016. During the Cold War, literary art in Central America, as in Latin America in general, was strongly over-determined by the politics of the Cold War, which gave rise to popular struggle and three major armed civil wars in the 1970s and 1980s in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. The period produced intense literary activity with political ideology central, personified by social denunciation in the testimonial novel and revolutionary poetry. Since then, though themes of violence are still at much of its core, Central American fiction has become more complex. We have witnessed a resurgence of literary writing and criticism with a focus squarely on the artistic side of narrative art: writing aware of its own figurative manoeuvres and inventiveness, its philosophical and affective dimensions, and its carefully crafted syntax. This collection of essays by Jeffrey Browitt attempts to trace some of the contours of this new literature and the contemporary subjectivities of its writers through close readings of Guatemalas Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Eduardo Halfon and Denise Phe-Funchal; Nicaraguas Franz Galich and Sergio Ramirez; Belizes David Ruiz Puga; El Salvadors Jacinta Escudos and Claudia Hernandez; and Costa Ricas Carlos Cortes. Key themes are gender, subjectivity and affect as these intersect with the deconstruction of the family, hegemonic masculinity, motherhood, revolutionary romanticism, and the relationship of humans with animals.

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Book SynopsisEl tema de la violencia es connatural a la historia de América Latina y, por lo mismo, resulta inagotable en cualquiera de sus múltiples manifestaciones materiales y simbólicas, desde los orígenes coloniales hasta la actualidad. A nivel continental, la praxis y el discurso de la violencia pueden perseguirse desde la penetración de la depredación colonizadora con que América Latina es inscrita en el desarollo cultural de Occidente hasta llegar a las más recientes y sutiles formas asumidas por la violencia de Estado, pasando por las instancias de imposición de modelos culturales y económicos que el las distintas épocas impactaron radicalmente las culturas criollas y vernáculas. América Latina ha sufrido así, históricamente, las consecuencias de una violencia fundacional, que la condenara a una posición periférica con respecto a sistemas globales cuyos centros han difundido en sus correspondientes áreas de influencia, la ‘racionalidad’ de su propia reproducción cultural, política y económica. De esta manera, la trama social que resultara de la matriz colonialista registró desde el comienzo las huellas imborrables de la violencia que se manifestara tanto a nivel racial como económico, tanto en lo referido a las políticas de género como en lo relacionado con la distribución geocultural del poder, en todos sus niveles. Las ‘dolorosas repúblicas hispanoamericanas’ de que hablara Martí se han debatido desde entonces contra las formas naturalizadas de la violencia de la exclusión y el autoritarismo, la miseria interna y la depredación imperialista, la penetración cultural las intervenciones políticas, siempre amparadas en la retórica legitimadora que las clases dominantes esgrimieran en cada caso para perpetuar su poder. El presente volúmen que compila trabajos que fueran presentados y discutidos en la Segunda Conferencia Internacional de Estudios Culturales Latinoamericanos que se llevara a cabo en la Universidad de Pittsburgh en marzo del año 2000, tiene como foco principal una articulación específica en torno al tema de la violencia contemporánea: la que analiza los cruces y formas específicas en que la violencia se manifiesta teniendo como escenario principal los centros urbanos de América Latina, y las modalidades a partir de las cuales el fenómeno de la violencia es recogido y re-presentado por los medios de comunicación de masas, tanto como por la cultura popular, el arte, la literatura y otras formas de discurso letras y la ‘alta cultura’. ~ The theme of violence is natural to the history of Latin America and, therefore, it is endless in any of its multiple material and symbolic manifestations, from its colonial origins to the present. At a continental level, the praxis and discourse of violence can be traced back to the spread of the colonising voracity that conditioned Latin America within the cultural development of the West, followed by the most recent and subtle forms assumed by state violence, including the instances of imposition of cultural and economic models that, at the different times, radically impacted the Creole and vernacular cultures. Thus, Latin America has historically suffered the consequences of a founding violence which condemned it to a peripheral position in relation to global systems which centres have spread in their corresponding areas of influence, the 'rationality' of their own cultural, political and economic replication. In this way, the social fabric resulting from the colonialist matrix has recorded from the beginning the indelible traces of violence that are displayed both at racial and economic levels, both in terms of gender policies and in terms of the geocultural distribution of power, at all levels. The 'painful Spanish-American republics' of which Martí spoke, have since fought against the normalisation of the violence of exclusion and authoritarianism, the internal misery and imperialistic greed, the cultural colonisation and political actions always condoned by a legitimising rhetoric that the ruling classes wielded in every instance to perpetuate their power. This volume, which compiles papers that were presented and discussed at the Second International Conference on Latin American Cultural Studies to be held at the University of Pittsburgh in March 2000, has as its main focus a specific articulation around the topic of contemporary violence: it analyses the intersections and specific ways in which violence presents itself in the urban centres of Latin America as its main scenario, and the modalities from which the phenomenon of violence is recorded and represented by the mass media, as well as popular culture, art, literature and other forms of literary discourse and 'high culture'.

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Book SynopsisFronteras de la modernidad designa el espacio conceptual e historizador que reuniera en el III Congreso Internacional de Estudios Culturales de la Universidad de Pittsburgh realizado en marzo de 2002, una gran diversidad de investigadores que han llegado a reformular las premisas de los estudios culturales, las humanidades y las ciencies sociales en las últimas décadas. Un rasgo particular, común en esos debates, es la articulación de estrategias de descolonización del pensamiento de la modernidad, realizada sin expulsar ese concepto del horizonte teórico. Las más innovadoras posiciones críticas reclaman hoy la independencia epistemológica de lo que se solía llamar ‘periferia’ latinoamericana, usando las metáforas frontera y margen para desarrollar proyectos teóricos situados más allá —o más acá— de las dicotomías normativas de la modernidad. Pensamiento de búsqueda que se enfrenta a las agudas crisis producidas por la avanzada globalización a través de un constance sondeo crítico de sus herramientas analíticas y hermenéuticas. El congreso realizado en Pittsburgh logró reunir a los especialistas más renombrados y originales que hoy articulan la agenda teórica de los estudios culturales y las ciencias sociales en el ámbito del latinoamericanismo internacional. El foro contó con la participación de Renato Ortiz, Nicolás Casullo, Santiago Castro-Gómez, Oscar Guardiola Rivera, Tulio Halperín-Donghi, Bolívar Echevarria, John Kraniauskas, Francine Masiello, Adriana Rodríguez-Pérsico, Sylvia Molloy, Javier Sanjinés, Román de la Campa, José Manuel Valenzuela, Cynthia Steele, Renato Rosaldo, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Jens Andermann, Carlos Pereda, Enrique Dussel, Ernesto Laclau, Jesús Martín-Barbero, Diana Taylor, Carlos Monsiváis y Michael Taussig. El presente volúmen reúne los aportes de estos investigadores como contribución a los debates actuales, insertando en éstos propuestas provocadoras y profundas llamadas a influir de manera certera en la agenda teórica de las próximas décadas. ~ At the III International Congress of Cultural Studies of the University of Pittsburgh held in March 2002, Fronteras de la modernidad designated the conceptual and historicizing space that brought together a great diversity of researchers who reformulated the premises of cultural studies, humanities and social sciences in recent decades. A particular feature, common in these debates, is the articulation of strategies for the decolonization of thought in the modernidad (modern world), carried out while keeping this concept within the theoretical horizon. The most innovative critical positions today claim the epistemological independence of what used to be called the Latin American 'periphery', using the border and margin metaphors to develop theoretical projects located beyond —or closer to— the normative dichotomies of modernity. This line of inquiry faces the acute crises produced by advanced globalization through a constant critical survey of its analytical and hermeneutical tools. The congress held in Pittsburgh brought together the most renowned and original specialists who articulate the theoretical agenda of cultural studies and social sciences in the field of international Latin Americanism today. The forum included the participation of Renato Ortiz, Nicolás Casullo, Santiago Castro-Gómez, Oscar Guardiola Rivera, Tulio Halperín-Donghi, Bolívar Echevarria, John Kraniauskas, Francine Masiello, Adriana Rodríguez-Pérsico, Sylvia Molloy, Javier Sanjinés, Román de la Campa, José Manuel Valenzuela, Cynthia Steele, Renato Rosaldo, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Jens Andermann, Carlos Pereda, Enrique Dussel, Ernesto Laclau, Jesús Martín-Barbero, Diana Taylor, Carlos Monsiváis and Michael Taussig. This volume brings together the input of these researchers as a contribution to current debates, inserting into them provocative proposals which bound to strongly influence the theoretical agenda of the coming decades.

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Book SynopsisLos estudios literarios/culturales latinoamericanistas en los programas de español y portugués en Estados Unidos los realizan profesores de diferentes generaciones, orígenes nacionales y momento de ingreso al sistema universitario. Proceden de múltiples tradiciones intelectuales y teóricas, los motivan múltiples preocupaciones estéticas y sociales. En Estados Unidos son incitados simultáneamente por las problemáticas locales y las latinoamericanas. ¿Qué balance logran como para apelar al interés de un estudiantado estadounidense crecientemente transnacionalizado, a la vez manteniendo la aspiración de que el conocimiento que produzcan también contribuya a las culturas latinoamericanas? ¿Tienen conciencia de la manera con que las generaciones anteriores enfrentaron estas cuestiones? ¿Qué relación hay con su práctica presente? Esta edición busca no sólo esbozar una memoria histórica sino también potenciar discusiones para animar proyecciones futuras, en un momento de colapso de tantas de las utopías que antes dinamizaron los estudios literarios/culturales latinoamericanistas. ~ Latin American literary/cultural studies in Spanish and Portuguese programs in the United States are conducted by faculty members from different generations, different national origins, and varying times of entering the university system. They come from multiple intellectual and theoretical traditions and are motivated by multiple aesthetic and social concerns. In the United States they are prompted simultaneously by local and Latin American issues. What balance do they strike in order to appeal to the interest of an increasingly transnational US student body, while maintaining the hope that works they produce will also contribute to Latin American cultures? Are they aware of the way previous generations dealt with these issues? And how does it relate to their current practices? This edition seeks not only to outline a historical memory but also to foster discussions that encourage future creation of work at a time when so many of the utopias that previously energised Latin American literary/cultural studies are collapsing.

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Book SynopsisEste estudio no busca enfatizar un “nosotros versus ellos” sino que explora la complejidad de las cuestiones que afectan el estado de las relaciones entre los mexicanos de la frontera norte y su centro, o entre México y los Estados Unidos. No se limita a revelar la existencia de afinidades y divergencias entre los individuos de la frontera, los chicanos, los latinos de EE.UU. y México, sino que busca ejemplificar el grado en que se manifiestan tales diferencias y similitudes en la diáspora mexicana, su literatura y su cultura. ~ This study does not seek to emphasize ‘us versus them’ but rather explore the complexity of the issues that affect the state of relations between Mexicans on the northern border and its center, or between Mexico and the United States. It is not limited to revealing the existence of affinities and divergences between individuals from the border, Chicanos, Latinos from the US and Mexico, but seeks to exemplify the degree to which such differences and similarities are manifested in the Mexican diaspora, its literature and culture.

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Book SynopsisDiese Monografie zeichnet die Einführung und Umsetzung von Judenabzeichen im islamischen Kulturraum und den christlichen Ländern Mitteleuropas nach. Dabei wird insbesondere die Ersteinführung dieser Stigmata unter dem Kalifen al-Mutawakkil (im 9. Jahrhundert) untersucht. Die Beschlüsse des IV. Laterankonzils (1215) und deren Interpretation markieren den Anfang der Judenabzeichen im christlichen Europa. Diese historische Linie findet mit dem Judenstern im Dritten Reich ihren menschenunwürdigsten Höhepunkt. Griff Joseph Goebbels bei der Einführung des Judensterns auf mittelalterliche Vorbilder zurück? Waren den Bischöfen im Mittelalter die islamischen Abzeichen für Juden bekannt? Kann es ein Zufall sein, dass alle drei Stigmata gelb waren?

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Book SynopsisDie Darstellung der Begegnungen der ostsyrischen Christen (Nestorianer) im ehemaligen Perserreich mit dem frühen Islam ist für die heutige Auseinandersetzung von Christentum und Islam von größter Relevanz. Sowohl die Theologie und Gelehrsamkeit der Nestorianer werden in diesem Buch behandelt, als auch ihre erfolgreiche Mission unter den benachbarten arabischen Stämmen. Weiter wird die Entwicklung der ostsyrischen Kirche nach dem Siegeszug der Araber herausgearbeitet. Nachdem diese Bagdad im Jahre 762 zu ihrer Hauptstadt gemacht hatten, nahmen die Kontakte zu, weil die Nestorianer hier die christliche Mehrheit bildeten. Die Rekonstruktion dieser Wechselwirkungen zwischen den gelehrten Nestorianern und den neuen arabischen Herrschern, des Sinns und Zwecks ihrer Religionsgespräche und der Rolle der christlichen Araber könnte gerade heute hilfreich sein, die eigene Tradition und die der Nachbarn in einer neuen Perspektive zu sehen.

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Book SynopsisBorneo, with its tales of White Rajahs and tribes of headhunters, has long excited the Western imagination. Today, however, there is another, 'green', imagination at work. Mention of the island is more likely to evoke images of tropical deforestation and concern about the cruel dispossession and displacement of indigenous peoples who once lived in relative harmony with their environment. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that most books dealing with the nomadic hunter-gatherers of Borneo have principally been pictorial studies. There is indeed a dearth of scholarship regarding these peoples, a situation that this first ever, comprehensive review of nomadic groups in the Borneo rain forest aims to rectify. Presenting a wealth of new research contributed by an inter-national team of scholars, the volume covers all those parts of Borneo where nomads (called Penan, Punan or by various other names) are or were known to exist, and provides a comparative historical-ecological study of these groups. The study is primarily concerned with issues of modernization (including the monetary economy, formalised institutions, centralized power structures, contractual relationships and extraction activities) and development policies. The impact of these policies is analysed with special regard to the natural environment inhabited by these small-scale societies, as well as the use of its resources. The book has no stiff theoretical orientation but informs ongoing debates about changing forms of ethnicity, relations between minorities and the state, minorities' rights and survival, native discourse, the sustainability of tropical forest use, and the neo-romantic environmentalist myth of so-called wise traditional peoples.Table of ContentsForeword (Kirk Endicott) 1. Introduction: Borneo, Hunter-Gatherers, and Change (B. Sellato and P.G. Sercombe) 2. Penan (Rodney Needham) 3. Resourceful Children of the Forest: The Kalimantan Punan through the Twentieth Century (Bernard Sellato) 4. The Emergence of the Ethnic Category Bhuket: Diversity and the Collective Hunter-gatherer Identity in Borneo (Shanthi Thambiah) 5. The Punan from the Tubu' River, East Kalimantan: A Native Voice on Past, Present, and Future Circumstances (K.A. Klimut and Rajindra K. Puri) 6. Stuck at the Bottom: Opportunity Structures and Punan Malinau Identity (Lars Kaskija) 7. Nested Disputes: Building Mediation Procedures for the Punan in West Kalimantan (Mering Ngo) 8. Game, Pets, and Animal Husbandry among Penan and Punan Groups (Stefan Seitz) 9. History and the Punan Vuhang: Response to Economic and Resource Tenure Change (Henry Chan) 10. Continuity and Adaptation among the Penan of Brunei (Peter G. Sercombe) 11. Penan Ethnobotany: Subsistence Strategy and Breadth of Knowledge (Robert A. Voeks) 12. Prior Transcripts, Divergent Paths: Resistance and Acquiescence to Logging in Sarawak, East Malaysia (J. Peter Brosius) References Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisHow can we conceive of kinship and sociality in the rapidly transforming uplands of mainland Southeast Asia? How to write about kinship in a way that neither falls into the trap of taking for granted kinship phenomena nor ignores the body of knowledge from earlier research? This in-depth study uses its rich findings from extensive fieldwork among the Khmu, upland dwellers of northern Laos, to bridge the divide between classical ethnography and modern approaches to kinship studies. Here, the author offers a fresh perspective on kinship by, first of all, stepping backwards and delving into how it is actually lived locally in northern Laos. She highlights that not only the beginning of life but also its ending deserves our attention when considering the relevance of kinship. Indeed, to a considerable extent, living kinship is about death. The context of kinship and sociality among the Khmu is significant here, these being framed by ties of matrilateral cross-cousin marriage and patrilineal descent - concepts on which this study casts new light. Dr Stolz explores this complexity in an absorbing series of intimate and self-reflective accounts. These touch upon a variety a topics, beginning with the language of kinship, then proceeding to examine the house, the changing importance of kinship throughout the life cycle, the key roles that gifting and commensality play, the meaning of work and, finally, to offer glimpses of the intricacies of village sociality and its cosmological dimensions. The underlying approach here is asking how the nature and praxis of kinship bring us closer to understanding what it means to live kinship - not just in upland northern Laos but in other societies as well. This is a significant study, one of long-term significance.

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Book SynopsisHow can we conceive of kinship and sociality in the rapidly transforming uplands of mainland Southeast Asia? How to write about kinship in a way that neither falls into the trap of taking for granted kinship phenomena nor ignores the body of knowledge from earlier research? This in-depth study uses its rich findings from extensive fieldwork among the Khmu, upland dwellers of northern Laos, to bridge the divide between classical ethnography and modern approaches to kinship studies. Here, the author offers a fresh perspective on kinship by, first of all, stepping backwards and delving into how it is actually lived locally in northern Laos. She highlights that not only the beginning of life but also its ending deserves our attention when considering the relevance of kinship. Indeed, to a considerable extent, living kinship is about death. The context of kinship and sociality among the Khmu is significant here, these being framed by ties of matrilateral cross-cousin marriage and patrilineal descent - concepts on which this study casts new light. Dr Stolz explores this complexity in an absorbing series of intimate and self-reflective accounts. These touch upon a variety a topics, beginning with the language of kinship, then proceeding to examine the house, the changing importance of kinship throughout the life cycle, the key roles that gifting and commensality play, the meaning of work and, finally, to offer glimpses of the intricacies of village sociality and its cosmological dimensions. The underlying approach here is asking how the nature and praxis of kinship bring us closer to understanding what it means to live kinship - not just in upland northern Laos but in other societies as well. This is a significant study, one of long-term significance.

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Book SynopsisMuch has been said about how Javanese puppet theatre, Wayang Kulit, richly reflects the Javanese world, and how changes and tensions in performance practice mirror those in culture and society. For decades, television has been as intensely part of the Javanese world as Wayang. This book explores the ways two complex media and modes of being, seeing and fantasising, with their different cultures, coexist and meet, and haunt or invade each other. It is what what a Javanese commentator calls a 'difficult marriage' — intimate on the one hand, deeply alienating on the other, institutionalised yet at the same time mercurial and shifting.This encounter is explored on many levels including performance aesthetics, the technicalities of television production, issues of time, space, light, place, and movement, audience experience of live and televised performances, and the collaboration and struggle between performers and television producers. Central to the book are personal perspectives and experiences, as well as Javanese discussions surrounding the interaction between Wayang and television and their cultures.They are brought into a conversation with reflections on media and technology by writers such as Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Derrida, Paul Virilio, and James Siegel. Wayang's relationship with television is considered in the context of the theatre's intercourse with older and newer media, including electricity, radio, audio- and video-recording, the internet and social media.

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Book SynopsisHow did the Komodo dragon influence Hollywood? What do Wanted posters reveal about the Wild Wild East? Was the hapless explorer a martyr to science or a gaseous windbag? Why were colonial officials secret pill poppers? Did bicycles really promote Women's Lib? Who went looking for love in all the wrong places? What do you do at the Get-Rich-Quick Tree? The answers to these and many other questions are found in the witty, useful, informative, amusing and sometimes amazing stories that make up this collection. Inspired by the wry yet deeply scholarly perspective of Australian philologist Ian Proudfoot, the editors of ""Lost Times"" and ""Untold Tales"" from the Malay World bring together a distinguished group of international scholars who look at calendars and time, royal myths, colonial expeditions, printing, propaganda, theatre, art, Islamic manuscripts, erotic literature, and many other topics from wholly unexpected angles. The book demonstrates the spectacular diversity of scholarship on the Malay World, and shows that offbeat texts can produce fascinating new insights into the past.

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Book SynopsisMeet one of the most influential men in the United States' history of emancipation and Black rights. Chronicling Frederick Douglass's life in an accessible way, this biography engages with history and wrestles with biases, falsehoods, and unknown facts in order to tell Douglass's story as accurately as possible. Taking a comprehensive look at Douglass's life from birth to death, the book delves into Douglass's time as an enslaved African American, his escape, his experiences as a prominent orator and champion of Black rights, his writings and publications, and the influence he had on shaping society of the time. A detailed timeline allows students to quickly reference and recall major points in Douglass's history, and the book is further augmented by the inclusion of primary documents, which include samples of Douglass's own copious works, as well as words written about Douglass by his contemporaries. Readers will walk away with not only a better understanding of American history but an appreciation for Frederick Douglass's impact in his own time and his lasting relevance for all those who continue to fight for a more equal society today.

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Book SynopsisA celebration of the life and works of one of the most influential world literary figures of the twentieth century, this Very Short Introduction traces Jorge Luis Borges's trajectory from his beginnings in Buenos Aires through the Dirty War in Argentina. It gives an engaging overview of his writings and their themes and shows how his career redefined Latin American as well as global literature.

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