Social and cultural anthropology Books

Book SynopsisSchwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives.Trade Review"Brilliant... The case Schwartz makes... is compelling, the implications disturbing... An insightful book." -- Christian Science Monitor "An insightful study that winningly argues its subtitle." -- Philadelphia Inquirer "Schwartz lays out a convincing argument... [He] is a crisp, engaging writer with an excellent sense of pace." -- Austin American-Statesman "Schwartz offers helpful suggestions of how we can manage our world of overwhelming choices." -- St. Petersburg Times "Wonderfully readable." -- Washington Post "Schwartz has plenty of insightful things to say about the perils of everyday life." -- Booklist "With its clever analysis, buttressed by sage New Yorker cartoons, The Paradox of Choice is persuasive." -- BusinessWeek

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Book SynopsisWill Storr is one of our best journalists of ideas The Status Game might be his best yet' James Marriott, Books of the Year, The TimesWhat drives our political and moral beliefs?What shapes our bitterest conflicts and wildest dreams?What makes you,you?Across the world, from Papua New Guinea to Tokyo and Manhattan, humans compete for status. Through games of dominance, virtue and success, it's an obsession that has driven the best and worst of us: the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution as well as spree killers and tyrants at the gates of Europe. But what makes status an all-consuming prize? And how can we wield our desire for it to improve our relationships, win social media battles and be the best in the workplace?A breathtaking rethink of human psychology, The Status Game will change how you see others and how you see yourself.Trade Review‘Will Storr is one of our best journalists of ideas … The Status Game might be his best yet’ James Marriott, Books of the Year, The Times ‘[The Status Game] challenged the way I think about the role of status in my own life and in some ways it made me feel less terrible about some of my unhealthy fixations. If you find yourself needlessly worried about status, it might do the same for you … I can’t stop thinking about it’ Sean Illing, Vox ‘Eloquent, entertaining’ New Statesman ‘Moving … Scholarly … Storr showcases a rare skill – the ability to use technical academic scholarship in solving a real-world problem’ Helen Dale, CapX ‘I haven’t finished reading The Status Game because I’ve only read it once. There's so much in this dazzling book I will be revisiting over and over again’Daniel Finkelstein, author of Everything in Moderation ‘The Status Game could not be more timely and provides a missing piece for understanding where we are, and how to get out of this mess … I can’t recommend it highly enough’Greg Lukianoff, co-author with Jonathan Haidt of The Coddling of the American Mind ‘Thought provoking and enlightening – you’ll be discussing The Status Game everywhere you go’ Sara Pascoe ‘Bursting with insights into the hierarchy-crazed hellscape of a world shaped by social media, this book confirms Will Storr’s own status as a master storyteller’Helen Lewis, author of Difficult Women ‘A radical new theory of human nature … It should – quite appropriately – establish Will Storr as the finest science writer being published today’David Robson, author of The Intelligence Trap

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Book Synopsis‘Fabulous.’ Dan Richards, author of Holloway ‘Terrifically strange and thrilling.’ Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley 'A modern-day bard.' Madeline Miller, author of Circe This is a book of literary activism – an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. In Courting the Wild Twin, acclaimed scholar, mythologist and author of Smoke Hole and Bardskull, Martin Shaw unravels two ancient European fairy tales concerning the mysterious ‘wild twin’ located deep inside all of us. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he challenges us to confront modern life with purpose, courage, and creativity. Martin summons the reader to the ‘ragged edge of the dark wood’ to seek out this estranged, exiled self – the part we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms – and invite it back into our consciousness. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that our wild twin is holding the key. After all, stories are our secret weapons – and they might just save us.Trade Review‘Terrifically strange and thrilling. One for all you storytellers.’—Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley‘This magical book underlines the ability of storytelling to rewrite reality while functioning as a practical—and highly personal—guide to the rewilding of the self.’—David Keenan, author of For the Good Times‘Courting the Wild Twin revels in the fabulous—the alchemy of story, primaeval nouse and narrative. Shaw is proof of William Blake’s adage that “Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not believed.” A thrilling exploration of ancient ambiguity, this book digs deep into the miraculous mulch of myth.’—Dan Richards, author of Outpost‘A book that comprehends the forests of the soul, written with fierce courage and audacious wildness.’—Jay Griffiths, author of Wild‘This remarkable, powerful, provocative and timely book is about the same size as your smartphone. Carry it in your other pocket, and every time you reach for your phone, take this out instead. Give your imagination, your activism, your poetic/mythic self some soul food. That’s what I did, and it delighted me every time.’—Rob Hopkins, author of From What Is to What If‘Martin Shaw turns words into stories and stories into unpredictable excursions in search of the Wild Twin within each and all. He reveals the importance of this often exiled, yet deeply necessary inner otherness, the very part that holds the secret sense of rapport and essential relatedness that entwines human nature with the heart of Mother Nature.’—Michael Meade, author of Awakening the Soul‘Courting the Wild Twin beckons us to step through the doorway that stories create, and reveals a pathway to awakening our relationship with the world around—and with ourselves.’—Dee Dee Chainey, author of A Treasury of British Folklore

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Book SynopsisLaurens van der Post was fascinated and appalled at the fate of this remarkable people. Ostracised by all the changing face of African cultural life they retreated deep into the Kalahari desert. His fascinating attempt to capture their way of life and the secrets of their ancient heritage provide captivating reading and a unique insight into a forgotten way of life.Trade ReviewThe Lost World of the Kalahari (1958) and The Heart of the Hunter (1961)...are loathed by San scholars and serious ethnologists. But they matter. Van der Post gave a face and a story to a discarded people before anyone else thought to do so. * Guardian *A master storyteller, he had the knack of identifying the significant, poetical image * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisDesmond Morris was born in 1928. Educated at Birmingham and Oxford universities, he became the curator of mammals at London Zoo in 1959, a post he held for eight years. In 1967 he published The Naked Ape which was to sell over 10 million copies worldwide. An accomplished artist, television presenter and film maker, Desmond Morris's works have been published in over thirty-six countries.Trade ReviewThe naked ape will be a wiser and better hominid by the time he has thumbed his way through to the end * Observer *An extremely important book...eminently readable and richly illustrated -- Niko Tinbergen, Nobel Prize Winner for PhysiologyThis is the kind of book you pick up idly and put down very reluctantly * Daily Mirror *A clear and careful introduction to an involved subject * The Times *

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Book SynopsisThis beautifully written book explores the Iron Age bog bodies of northern Europe as cultural artefacts, objects of fascination to archaeologists and antiquaries, but also to artists, poets, philosophers and psychologists.

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Book SynopsisThis book consists of eight comparative studies drawn from history, archeology, economics, economic history, geography, and political science. The studies cover a spectrum of approaches; geographically, they include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical Africa, India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands.Trade ReviewA superb collection of eminently teachable essays bound together by a common methodological framework that connects it directly to cutting-edge theoretical and empirical research across the disciplines of anthropology, archeology, history, political science, and sociology. -- John Coatsworth, Columbia UniversityNatural Experiments of History reaches across a wide variety of disciplines, in ways that should be accessible to just about every educated reader. It is tied together not by topic or region but by the idea that we can make useful and insightful comparisons in ways that are not casual or sloppy, but actually contribute to our understanding of human life. -- Jeffry Frieden, Harvard UniversityNatural Experiments of History is a short book packed with huge ideas. Its collected essays advocate how controlled experiments can be applied to the messy realities of human history, politics, culture, economics and the environment. It demonstrates productive interdisciplinary collaborations but also reveals gulfs between different cultures of academia...All of the essays in Natural Experiments of History will trigger debate. -- Jon Christensen * Nature *This ambitious, at times challenging, book aspires to contribute new ways of historical thinking and historical research by drawing attention, on the one hand, to the similarities between science (including social sciences) and history, and on the other, by using social sciences methods, especially statistical analysis, to study history. The editors argue that though the difference between studies of nature and human history is obvious, there are clear overlaps. They can be viewed through studying comparative history or by conducting "natural experiments of history" and analyzing the "perturbations" and their causes (exogenous or endogenous) in the involved cases. The book offers a broad array of case studies to illustrate and explain the argument, ranging from nonliterate to contemporary societies and from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to Brazil, India, and tropical Africa. The comparative methods showcased are quite versatile, from two-way to multiple-way comparisons. All the case studies are interesting and help demonstrate how, via comparative study, one society's, region's, or country's situation is better displayed and explained by juxtaposing it with other, similar ones. A useful read in macro, global history. -- Q. E. Wang * Choice *Natural Experiments of History is a thought-provoking collection of essays that covers an impressive array of topics and would make an excellent text for a course on comparative studies of human history." -- Thomas E. Currie * Cliodynamics *Table of Contents* Prologue: Natural Experiments of History Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson * Controlled Comparison and Polynesian Cultural Evolution Patrick V. Kirch * Exploding Wests: Boom and Bust in Nineteenth-Century Settler Societies James Belich * Politics, Banking, and Economic Development: Evidence from New World Economies Stephen Haber * Intra-Island and Inter-Island Comparisons Jared Diamond * Shackled to the Past: The Causes and Consequences of Africa's Slave Trades Nathan Nunn * Colonial Land Tenure, Electoral Competition, and Public Goods in India Abhijit Banerjee and Lakshmi Iyer * From Ancien Regime to Capitalism: The Spread of the French Revolution as a Natural Experiment Daron Acemoglu, Davide Cantoni, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson * Afterword: Using Comparative Methods in Studies of Human History Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson * Contributors

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Book SynopsisImages from the Region of the Pueblo Indians of North America translates Aby M. Warburg's seminal study of the "serpent ritual" of the Hopi people, which grew out of a trip to the American Southwest undertaken by Warburg in 1895–1896.Trade ReviewThe text casually titled Images from the Region of the Pueblo Indians of North America was originally a lecture intended to prove that its author was sane. Aby Warburg delivered his talk on April 21, 1923, before an audience of inmates, doctors and guests at the Bellevue sanatorium in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. His lecture is fascinating. In it, Warburg recounts his youthful journey to the American West as the story of civilization told in reverse. * New Republic *Table of ContentsPrefatory NoteList of IllustrationsAby M. Warburg, Images from the Region of the Pueblo Indians of North AmericaMichael P. Sternberg, Aby Warburg's Kreuzlingen Lecture: A Reading

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Book SynopsisFour leading thinkers confront the paradoxes and dilemmas attending the supposed stand-off between Islam and liberal democratic values.Trade Review"I can't imagine a set of more rigorous, humane and insightful interlocutors on this vital aspect of the public sphere." -- -Jonathan Boyarin University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill "This conversation among Asad, Brown, Butler, and Mahmood offers an important snapshot of the rich debates on post-secularism and critiques of secularism. These essays provide succinct and accessible discussions of key issues in these debates." -- -Annika Thiem Villanova University "This original and provocative book is an invitation to go beyond political niceties and engage issues of religious difference with candor. Both scholarly and engaging, the book uplifts the level of public debate on the entanglement of religious and secular reasoning in the making of modern publics." -- -Veena Das Johns Hopkins UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Wendy Brown Free Speech, Blasphemy, and Secular Criticism Talal Asad Religious Reason and Secular Affect: An Incommensurable Divide? Saba Mahmood The Sensibility of Critique: Response to Asad and Mahmood Judith Butler Reply to Judith Butler Talal Asad Reply to Judith Butler Saba Mahmood

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Book SynopsisJean Baudrillard's classic text was one of the first to focus on the process and meaning of consumption in contemporary culture. Originally published in 1970, the book makes a vital contribution to current debates on consumption. The book includes Baudrillard's most organized discussion of mass media culture, the meaning of leisure, and anomie in affluent society. A chapter on the body demonstrates Baudrillard's extraordinary prescience for flagging vital subjects in contemporary culture long before others. This English translation begins with a new introductory essay.

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Book SynopsisA bright portrait of modern Africa that pushes back against harmful stereotypes to tell a more comprehensive story.'Warm, funny, biting and essential reading.' Adam Rutherford'An exhilarating journey through the myths, misconceptions and stereotypes of modern Africa. This book is the history lesson that we all need.' Jeffrey Boakye, GuardianYou already know these stereotypes. So often Africa is depicted simplistically as an arid red landscape of famines and safaris, uniquely plagued by poverty and strife.In this funny and insightful book, Dipo Faloyin offers a much-needed corrective. He examines each country's colonial heritage, and explores a wide range of subjects, from chronicling urban life in Lagos and the lively West African rivalry over who makes the best Jollof rice, to the story of democracy in seven dictatorships and the dangers of stereotypes in popular culture.By turns intimate and political, Africa Is Not A Country brings the story of the continent towards reality, celebrating the energy and fabric of its different cultures and communities in a way that has never been done before.'Hilarious, ferocious, generous and convincing. It made me reconsider almost everything I thought I knew about Africa.' Oliver Bullough'This book should be on the curriculum.' Nikki May, author of WahalaTrade ReviewAn exhilarating journey through the myths, misconceptions and stereotypes of modern Africa. This book is the history lesson that we all need, to understand the damage that has been done by legacies of white supremacy affecting African nations and the whole world. -- Jeffrey Boakye * Guardian *Warm, funny, biting and essential reading. -- Adam Rutherford, author of How To Argue With A RacistPowerful and heartfelt... A long-overdue and compelling corrective... Faloyin has written a book inspired by love and hope for a much-abused and maligned continent, whose future, he insists, is filled with promise. * Guardian *For curious minds... a truly revelatory read... a book that will stay with you long after you've finished - and one that opens a new chapter on the way you'll think about Africa. * Mail on Sunday *Impossible not to relish. * New York Times *This book should be on the curriculum. -- Nikki May, author of WahalaA necessary book that deserves its place in the canon as essential reading. -- Sally Hayden * Irish Times *A masterpiece in historical journalism, bristling with insights and perspective widening truths. Anyone seeking enlightenment needs to read this. -- Jeffrey Boakye, author of I Heard What You SaidHilarious, ferocious, generous and convincing. -- Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland and Butler to the WorldIncisive, thought-provoking and, above all, beautifully written - effortlessly blends memoir, political analysis and historical nonfiction to create something genuinely compelling and new -- Zing Tsjeng, author of Forgotten WomenA triumph of a book...charismatic and hugely enjoyable...You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't read this. -- Nels Abbey, author of Think Like a White ManA brilliant, prescient exploration of a richly complex continent. An antidote for our times. -- Irenosen Okojie, author of NudibranchImpeccably researched...brimming with humor and intellect. A necessary read. -- JK Chukwu, author of The UnfortunatesA vital book that offers us new, complex narratives to view African countries and their relationships to Europe and the Global North. Faloyin's stylish, propulsive prose blends history, memoir and opinion, so that reading him has the impression of being at the knee of a great storyteller. -- Jonathan Nunn, editor of Vittles

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Book SynopsisIn 1987, more than a decade before the dawn of queer theory, Ifi Amadiume wrote Male Daughters, Female Husbands, to critical acclaim. This compelling and highly original book frees the subject position of 'husband' from its affiliation with men, and goes on to do the same for other masculine attributes, dislocating sex, gender and sexual orientation. Boldly arguing that the notion of gender, as constructed in Western feminist discourse, did not exist in Africa before the colonial imposition of a dichotomous understanding of sexual difference, Male Daughters, Female Husbands examines the structures in African society that enabled people to achieve power, showing that roles were not rigidly masculinized nor feminized. At a time when gender and queer theory are viewed by some as being stuck in an identity-politics rut, this outstanding study not only warns against the danger of projecting a very specific, Western notion of difference onto other cultures, but calls us to question the very concept of gender itself.Trade ReviewMeticulously researched... An extremely important contribution. * Africa *Ifi Amadiume, a Nigerian sociologist, has stepped out of the academic sidelines to tackle head on the issue of racist social anthropology. * Africa Events *Required reading in a cross-cultural women's studies course... A book well researched, clearly written, with a good bibliography, and efficiently produced one that can be depended upon to provoke lively discussion. * Choice Magazine *Essential reading for anyone interested in fundamental thinking about the issues of gender and sex in pre-colonial societies. * Guardian, Nigeria *Male Daughters and Female Husbands is a brilliant inspiration to open up gender theory to the originality of African philosophies of being, social life and power. Amadiume argues, from detailed evidence, that new potential emerges when we search past "suppressed and fragmented information", to find Africa's own concepts and practices of matricentricity and genderlessness, and the social history of women's movements. * Jane I Guyer, Johns Hopkins University *Male Daughters, Female Husbands is a groundbreaking work in the study of gender in Africa. It presents a subtle, honest and clear portrait of gendered roles that upsets both the usual Western assumptions about how human societies can be organized and several propagandistic treatments of gender in Africa that have been published in the intervening years. This new edition of Amadiume's magnum opus deserves to be widely read. * Professor J. Lorand Matory, Duke University *This is a text that should be read widely and includes women's studies, social sciences and history. It will surely be an important statement in the catalogue of anti-colonialist historiography. * West Africa *Table of ContentsForeword to the Critique Influence Change Edition Preface to the Critique Influence Change Edition Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: The 19th Century 1. Gender and Economy 2. Women, Wealth, Titles and power 3. Gender and Political Organization 4. The Politics of Motherhood: Women and the Ideology-Making Process 5. The Ideology of Gender 6. Ritual and Gender Part II: The Colonial Period 7. Colonialism and the Erosion of Women's Power 8. The Erosion of Women's Power Part III: The Post-Independence Period 9. The Marginalisation of women's Position 10. Wealth, Titles and Motherhood 11. The Female Element in Other Igbo Societies 12. Gender, Class and Female Solidarity 13. Conclusion Appendixes Bibliography Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisWe are becoming less intelligent. This is the shocking yet fascinating message of At Our Wits'' End. The authors take us on a journey through the growing body of evidence that we are significantly less intelligent now than we were a hundred years ago. The research proving this is, at once, profoundly thought-provoking, highly controversial, and it's currently only read by academics. But the authors are passionate that it cannot remain ensconced in the ivory tower any longer. With At Our Wits' End, they present the first ever popular scientific book on this crucially important issue. They prove that intelligence which is strongly genetic was increasing up until the breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution, because we were subject to the rigors of Darwinian Selection, meaning that lots of surviving children was the preserve of the cleverest. But since then, they show, intelligence has gone into rapid decline, because large families are increasingly the preserve of the least intelligent. The book explores how this change has occurred and, crucially, what its consequences will be for the future. Can we find a way of reversing the decline of our IQ? Or will we witness the collapse of civilization and the rise of a new Dark Age?

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Book SynopsisFinancial TimesBook of the YearTelegraphTop 50 Books of the YearGuardianBook of the YearNew StatesmanBook of the YearRoundly debunks racism's core lie that inequality is to do with genetics, rather than political power' Reni Eddo-LodgeWhere did the idea of race come from, and what does it mean? In an age of identity politics, DNA ancestry testing and the rise of the far-right, a belief in biological differences between populations is experiencing a resurgence. The truth is: race is a social construct. Our problem is we find this hard to believe.In Superior, award-winning author Angela Saini investigates the concept of race, from its origins to the present day. Engaging with geneticists, anthropologists, historians and social scientists from across the globe, Superior is a rigorous, much needed examination of the insidious and destructive nature of the belief that race is real, and that some groups of people are superior to others.Trade Review‘In this essential book, Angela Saini deftly shows how science and racism have long been intertwined, why that pernicious history continues to this day, and why “race science” is so deeply flawed. Deeply researched, masterfully written, and sorely needed, Superior is an exceptional work by one of the world's best science writers’ Ed Yong ‘This is an essential book on an urgent topic by one of our most authoritative science writers’ Sathnam Sanghera ‘This is an urgent and important book. It contains a warning: you thought racism might be on its way out of science? … You thought wrong’ Observer ‘As in her previous book Inferior, about gender, Saini skilfully brings together interviews with historians, scientists and the objects of racial science themselves to paint a harrowing picture of the influence of race on science and vice versa’ Sunday Times ‘A very good book: informative and chilling … The history she uncovers is eye-opening and heart-breaking; it’s right to be wary of that history repeating’ The Times ‘The concept of “race” persists, even though it is biologically meaningless. This important book considers why … superb’ Guardian ‘…a brilliant and devastating book’ Telegraph

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Book SynopsisAn inspirational call to arms' DAILY MAILThis book is so sensible, so substantially researched, so briskly written, so clear in its arguments, that one wishes Baroness Cavendish was still whispering into the prime ministerial ear' THE TIMESA thoughtful handbook to help societies age gracefully' FINANCIAL TIMESThis bold, visionary book is a wake-up call to governments. It is a wake-up call to us all' SUNDAY TIMESFrom award-winning journalist, Camilla Cavendish, comes a profound analysis of one of the biggest challenges facing the human population today.The world is undergoing a dramatic demographic shift. By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 65 and over will outnumber children aged five and under. But our systems are lagging woefully behind this new reality. In Extra Time, Camilla Cavendish embarks on a journey to understand how different countries are responding to these unprecedented challenges.Travelling across the world in a carefully researched and deepTrade Review ‘Extra Time should perhaps be called “About Time” because it is a long overdue and brilliant counterpoint to all those pervasive arguments that our ageing societies will be poorer and sadder. Growing old, as individuals and nations, need not mean growing frailer and duller. Camilla Cavendish has written an empowering and important manifesto for how an older society can be a better society.’ ROBERT PESTON ‘In this remarkable and frequently optimistic book Camilla Cavendish sets out what is part warning and part redefinition of what it is to live longer. Her statistics and her observations of how different rich and poor will age are breathtaking. But it is above all her bravery in challenging our very notions of ageing that makes this a must read book for all those struggling to understand the enormity of change that longer life now brings.’ EMILY MAITLIS ‘Extra Time by Camilla Cavendish is an optimistic, uplifting and practical book about the huge potential for humans to live not just longer lives, but more fulfilling lives. An inspiring and essential read.’ ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, FOUNDER & CEO, THRIVE ‘A brilliant analysis of how to live longer better’ SIMON JENKINS ‘As deeply inspirational as it is informative. If you want to know how to live a long, vibrant life, Extra Time is a must read’ DR DAVID SINCLAIR ‘Demographic change is the most neglected shaper of our future. Camilla Cavendish has written the most interesting, perceptive and iconoclastic guide to its many implications. This is a truly important book’ LAWRENCE SUMMERS, President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“The Social Leap is a rollicking tour through humanity’s evolutionary past, and William von Hippel is the consummate tour guide. With equal parts wisdom, humor, authority, and charm, von Hippel shows how our past explains the present and why our well-being rests on an understanding of how our minds evolved.” — Adam Alter, New York Times bestselling author of Drunk Tank Pink and Irresistible “Forget gold toilets and private jets. The key to happiness may just lie in a cheeseburger—or a sandbox. Full of insight into human character, von Hippel’s book provides a stimulating program for measuring success without material yardsticks.” — Kirkus Reviews “The Social Leap is one of the best books I have read in years. Its examination of the evolutionary roots of modern human behavior is both profound and revelatory. Seamlessly weaving captivating stories, rich science, and beautiful prose, von Hippel offers an unparalleled glimpse into the lives of our ancestors and, thereby, into our selves.” — Sonja Lyubomirsky, New York Times bestselling author of The How of Happiness “The Social Leap is a rollicking tour through humanity’s evolutionary past, and William von Hippel is the consummate tour guide. With equal parts wisdom, humor, authority, and charm, von Hippel shows how our past explains the present and why our well-being rests on an understanding of how our minds evolved.” — Roy Baumeister, New York Times bestselling author of Willpower “This book is for everybody. Everybody, that is, who has a shred of curiosity about how we came to become human. von Hippel’s panoramic view prompts us to ask ourselves: what do we wish to do with the miracle that we are now here?” — Mahzarin R. Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

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Book Synopsis“A fascinating, thoughtful, and thoroughly enjoyable exploration of a major dimension of human experience.”— Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works A maverick scientist reveals the inconsistent and often paradoxical ways humans think, feel, and behave toward animals in this engaging, informative, and though-provoking book, now newly revised.Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat is a highly entertaining and illuminating journey through the full spectrum of human-animal relations. Drawing on his groundbreaking research in the field of anthrozoology, Dr. Hal Herzog tries to make sense of our complex relationships with animals and the challenging moral conundrums we face regarding these creatures who share our world—and some, our homes. A blend of anthropology, behavioral economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy, updated to reflect evolving attitudes and the most recent findings, Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat  is a poignant, often challenging, and frequently laugh-out-loud funny trip through a world of animal rights activists, cockfighters, professional dog-show handlers, veterinary students, biomedical researchers, and more. It will forever change the way we think about other living creatures and, ultimately, how we see ourselves.Trade Review“A wonderful book—wildly readable, funny, scientifically sound, and with surprising moments of deep, challenging thoughts. I loved it.” — Robert M. Sapolsky, Neuroscientist, Stanford University, and author of Monkeyluv and A Primate's Memoir “Everybody who is interested in the ethics of our relationship between humans and animals should read this book.” — Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human “Hal Herzog does for our relationships with animals what Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma did for our relationships with food. . . . The book is a joy to read, and no matter what your beliefs are now, it will change how you think.” — Sam Gosling, Professor of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, author of Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You “Reminiscent of Freakonomics. . . . An agreeable guide to popular avenues of inquiry in the field of anthrozoology.” — The New Yorker “Wonderful. . . . An engagingly written book that only seems to be about animals. Herzog’s deepest questions are about men, women and children.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer “A fun read. . . . What buoys this book is Herzog’s voice. He’s an assured, knowledgeable and friendly guide.” — Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers “A fascinating, thoughtful, and thoroughly enjoyable exploration of a major dimension of human experience.” — Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought “An instant classic. . . . Written so accessibly and personally, while simultaneously satisfying the scholar in all of us.” — Arnold Arluke, Anthrozoös “An intelligent and amusing book that invites us to think deeply about how we define-and where we limit-our empathy for animals.” — Publishers Weekly “Herzog argues that moral absolutes are not readily available in a complex world—one that exists in shades of grey, rather than the black and white of animal rights activists and their opponents. . . . Herzog has a clear eye for the essence of a scientific study, but he leavens his narrative with illuminating personal stories and self-deprecating humor.” — Nature “Both educational and enjoyable, a page-turner that I dare say puts Herzog in the same class as Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis. Read this book. You’ll learn some, you’ll laugh some, you’ll love some.” — BookPage “Herzog writes about big ideas with a light touch. . . . Insightful, compassionate and humorous.” — Kirkus Reviews “Fascinating. . . Herzog looks at the wild, tortured paradoxes in our relationship with the weaker, if sometimes more adorable, species.” — Salon “In his quest to make sense of our complex relationships with animals, psychologist Hal Herzog explores the ethics of E.T. and explains why guys with cute dogs get more dates.” — Parade “Professor Hal Herzog writes lucidly and sometimes with a good touch of humor about the ethics of the relationships between humans and animals. . . . No matter which side of the question you find yourself on, this book is illuminating, and dare I say quite entertaining.” — Biloxi Sun Herald “Engaging and pleasantly cerebral. . . . When [Herzog is] talking to people about their views, the book is fascinating.” — Time Out Chicago “Hal Herzog deftly blends anecdote with scientific research to show how almost any moral or ethical position regarding our relationship with animals can lead to absurd consequences. In an utterly appealing narrative, he reveals the quirky…ways we humans try to make sense of these absurdities.” — ARTnews “One of a kind. I don’t know when I’ve read anything more comprehensive about our highly involved, highly contradictory relationships with animals, relationships which we mindlessly, placidly continue no matter how irrational they may be. . . . This page-turning book is quite something—you won’t forget it any time soon.” — Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Deer “Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat is one of a kind. I don’t know when I’ve read anything more comprehensive about our highly involved, highly contradictory relationships with animals, relationships which we mindlessly, placidly continue no matter how irrational they may be. Readers will welcome Herzog’s eye opening discussions, presented with compassion and humor. This page-turning book is quite something—you won’t forget it any time soon.” — Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons from the Natural World

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Book Synopsis''Extraordinary. An intellectual feast as well as a visual one''Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber EyesThe world comes to us in colour. But colour lives as much in our imaginations as it does in our surroundings, as this scintillating book reveals. Each chapter immerses the reader in a single colour, drawing together stories from the histories of art and humanity to illuminate the meanings it has been given over the eras and around the globe. Showing how artists, scientists, writers, philosophers, explorers and inventors have both shaped and been shaped by these wonderfully myriad meanings, James Fox reveals how, through colour, we can better understand their cultures, as well as our own. Each colour offers a fresh perspective on a different epoch, and together they form a vivid, exhilarating history of the world. ''We have projected our hopes, anxieties and obsessions onto colour for thousands of years,'' Fox writes. ''The history of colour, therefore, is also a history of humanity.''Trade ReviewA book to brighten the dullest days -- Rachel Campbell-Johnston * The Times (Books of the Year) *A brilliantly fluent and readable history of colour -- Honor Clerk * Spectator (Books of the Year) *Fairly shimmers with Fox's eye for arresting facts and anecdotes -- Kassia St Clair * Times Literary Supplement *Intelligent, vividly written ... I'm going to buy three copies -- Laura Freeman * The Times *Flits with enthusiasm and lightly worn learning from Bronze Age gold-workers to Turner, Titian to Yves Klein -- Simon Ings * Daily Telegraph (Books of the Year) *Colour becomes a philosophical feast - astrophysics, the origins of civilisation, a palette of moral associations -- Ed Smith * New Statesman (Books of the Year) *A manual to navigate and enjoy the extraordinary design of the world around us -- Anna Galbraith * Mail on Sunday *Leads down some wonderful rabbit holes -- Chris Allnutt * Financial Times *A book that makes you want to paint -- Joad Raymond * BBC History Magazine *

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Book SynopsisA classical historian confronts our crises of time, radically calling into question our relations to the past, present, and future.Trade ReviewSince his classic Mirror of Herodotus, Francois Hartog has emerged as the most significant theorist of history and chronicler of our changing relationship to our own past that France has produced. In this series of meditative chapters, he takes us from the Greeks to the present once more, emphasizing how the theory of history must move from diagnosing the modern gap between expectation and experience to confronting the exigency of historical crisis today. Hartog's reflections are valuable for all humanists. -- Samuel Moyn, Columbia University In a book that should be required reading for anyone interested in history's role in contemporary society, Francois Hartog shows how unexamined assumptions about the past shape our understandings of ourselves and our place in history. -- Lynn Hunt, University of California, Los Angeles Francois Hartog's pioneering work on the concept of 'regimes of historicity' makes this book a must for scholars in both the social sciences and the humanities. A distinguished classical historian, Hartog uses specific, well-chosen examples to explain how understanding regimes of historicity will allow us to better understand the conditions of possibility for producing histories and, more generally, our own relationship to time. -- Robert Morrissey, University of Chicago Francois Hartog is perhaps the most important historian of historiography today... Regimes of Historicity should be required reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future writing of history. American Historical Review Regimes of Historicity should be required reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future writing of history. Time's BooksTable of ContentsPresentism: Stopgap or New State? Introduction: Orders of Time and Regimes of Historicity Orders of Time 1 1. Making History: Sahlins's Islands 2. From Odysseus's Tears to Augustine's Meditations 3. Chateaubriand, Between Old and New Regimes of Historicity Orders of Time 2 4. Memory, History, and the Present 5. Heritage and the Present Our Doubly Indebted Present: The Reign of Presentism Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA theoretical attempt to grapple with the writings of women of color. It is suitable for those who are struggling to understand voices and experiences of those 'we' label 'other'.Trade Review" ... methodologically innovative ... precise and perceptive and conscious ... " Text and Performance Quarterly "Woman, Native, Other is located at the juncture of a number of different fields and disciplines, and it genuinely succeeds in pushing the boundaries of these disciplines further. It is one of the very few theoretical attempts to grapple with the writings of women of color." Chandra Talpade Mohanty "The idea of Trinh T. Minh-ha is as powerful as her films ... formidable ..." Village Voice " ... its very forms invite the reader to participate in the effort to understand how language structures lived possibilities." Artpaper "Highly recommended for anyone struggling to understand voices and experiences of those 'we' label 'other'." Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsThe Story Began Long Ago.....I. Commitment from the Mirror-Writing BoxThe triple bindSilence in timeRites of passageThe GuiltFreedom and the massesFor the people, by the people, and from the peopleVertically imposed language: on clarity, craftsmanship, and She who steals languageA sketched window on the worldThe infinite play of empty mirrorsWriting womanII. The Language of Nativism: Anthropology as a Scientific Conversation of Man with ManThe reign of worn codesThe positivist dream: We, the natives; They, the nativesA Western Science of manA Myth of mythologyWhat "man" and which "man"?Gossip and science: a conversation on what I love according to truthNativist interpretationSee them as they see each otherIII. Difference: "A Special Third World Women Issue"The Policy of "separate development"The Sense of specialnessThe question of roots and authenticityInfinite Layer: I am not i can be you and meThe female identity enclosureThird World?"Woman" and the subtle power of linguistic exclusionSubject-in-the-makingEthnicity or womanhood: whose duality?The Gender controversyIV. Grandma's StoryTruth and fact: story and historyKeepers and transmittersStorytelling in the "civilized" contextA regenerating forceAt once "black" and "white" magicThe woman warrior: she who breaks open the spellA cure and a protection from illness"Tell it the way they tell it""The story must be told. There must not be any lie"NotesSelected BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHaitian scholars and practitioners examine the intersections of Vodou and Haitian societyTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction Patrick Bellegarde-Smith and Claudine Michel1. Vodun and Social Transformation in the African Diasporic Experience: The Concept of Personhood in Haitian Vodun Religion Guérin C. Montilus2. Shadow-Matter Universes in Haitian and Dagara Ontologies: A Comparative Study Réginald O. Crosley3. Broken Mirrors: Mythos, Memories, and National History Patrick Bellegarde-Smith4. Of Worlds Seen and Unseen: The Educational Character of Haitian Vodou Claudine Michel5. Vodun, Music, and Society in Haiti: Affirmation and Identity Gerdès Fleurant6. Vodoun, Peasant Songs, and Political Organizing Rénald Clérismé7. From the Horses' Mouths: Women's Words/Women's Worlds Claudine Michel, Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, and Marlène Racine-Toussaint8. Rainbow over Water: Art, Vodou Aestheticism, and Philosophy Marc A. Christophe9. A Reading of the Marasa Concept in Lilas Desquiron's Les Chemins de Loco-Miroir Florence Bellande-Robertson10. Herbs and Energy: The Holistic Medical System of the Haitian People Max-G. BeauvoirConclusion Patrick Bellegarde-Smith and Claudine MichelAppendix: Table of Haitian LwaBibliographyList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is a rich book, making effective use of all sorts of documents and illustrations. Keen moves easily across Europe in search of the international spirit of chivalry. . . . The pageantry he presents is colorful and his conclusions uplifting.”—David Herlihy, New York Times Book Review““Original [and] beguiling.”—Fiona MacCarthy, Times (London)“An elegantly written, important book.”—Carolly Erickson, Los Angeles Times Book Review

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Book SynopsisSurveys centuries of folklore about vampires. This book offers an explanation for the origins of the vampire legends, from the tale of a sixteenth-century shoemaker from Breslau whose ghost terrorized everyone in the city, to the testimony of a doctor who presided over the exhumation and dissection of a graveyard full of Serbian vampires.Trade Review"A stimulating, authoritative discourse on the relationship between the historical concepts of vampires in folklore and fiction across the ages and throughout the world."—Library Journal"Barber, a specialist in German language and folklore who has a faintly ghoulish sense of humour, has written a splendid book about the undead, illuminated by the findings of morbid anatomy. . . . The main value of this most interesting book is to remind us how far we have come in our ability to explain the world and how this has released us from at least some terrors."—Anthony Daniels, The Spectator "Since this is essentially a scholarly work on human decomposition and historical attitudes to it, it is remarkable how often Paul Barber manages to be funny. . . . His insights, medical and cultural, hold a chastening fascination."—Hugh Barnacle, Independent "A pioneering work on the role of medicine in unraveling the mysteries of the supernatural. Breaking new ground, it belongs among the significant studies of folklore."—Felix J. Oinas, Indiana University

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

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“For anyone researching the subject, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.”—Washington Post“Magisterial . . . Hutton concerns himself with the bad, black version of the craft that has terrified poor souls for centuries. His approach blends a broad geographic sweep with the detailed attention of microhistory.”—Kathryn Hughes, Guardian“[A] panoptic, penetrating book.”—Malcolm Gaskill, London Review of Books“What he has done very valuably, though, is to put what most of us know already into a far wider context, both geographically and historically. It’s up to us then to examine our own notions of witches and witchcraft—no longer threatening, but still perfectly familiar.”—Wall Street Journal“Hutton, a leading authority on paganism and witchcraft, traces the idea of witches far beyond the Salem witch trials to beliefs and attitudes about witches around the world throughout history.”—Los Angeles Times“There are several over-familiar images that we jump to when we think of witches, even today: the hat, the broom, the cauldron. Yet this scholarly, engrossing take on the witch travels across centuries and continents to prove that it is a figure that is both more pervasive and more diverse than we might expect.”—History Revealed“Ronald Hutton is the doyen of British occult studies. Through his scrupulous, but always sympathetic, approach… his latest book offers a convincing account of how an early conspiracy theory, the spurious idea of an organised Satanic religion, came to obsess political and religious authorities, killing in the process so many simple healers and users of folk medicine.”—Ian Irvine, Prospect“The history of witchcraft and its persecution makes for compelling, often terrifying reading. . . what makes [Hutton’s] history unique is it provides a much longer – and broader – perspective. The Witch draws upon previously neglected anthropological and ethnographic findings to set the origins of witchcraft and its subsequent persecution in an ancient and global context.”—Tracy Borman, Literary Review“This is an extremely ambitious, thought-provoking, challenging and inspiring book.”—Dr. Willem de Blecourt, Reviews in History“Ronald Hutton’s The Witch is a true masterpiece which follows several intersecting strands of debate on these subjects to test if a global approach can illuminate the early modern witch hunts”— Gary K. Waite, Journal of Ecclesiastical History"An engrossing journey through the world of witches and witchcraft. Highly recommended for those fascinated by the nature and extent of the notorious European Witch Trials."—Tony Robinson "Eloquent, historically grounded, and global in reach, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the social and political context of witchcraft and the manipulation of supposed supernatural powers."—Timothy Darvill, OBE, author of Prehistoric Britain"Few historical concepts come as imbued with horror and intrigue as that slippery figure of the witch. Ronald Hutton has turned his considerable expertise to this always-current subject, illuminating the late Medieval and early modern idea of witches and witchcraft. Readers looking for a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to the history of witchcraft will devour this book."—Katherine Howe, New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane“The book we have all been waiting for.”—Diane Purkiss, author of The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-century Representations

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Book SynopsisThe first truly global history of work, an upbeat assessment from the age of the hunter-gatherer to the present dayTrade Review“Absolutely fascinating. . . . The breadth of the scholarship is breathtaking, but the prose is clear and sometimes leavened by dashes of dry wit. . . . Lucassen’s own compassion shines through this magisterial book.”—Christina Patterson, The Guardian“Full of colour, surprise and human warmth. . . . Exhausted yet enlightened, any reader reaching the end of Lucassen’s marathon will understand that the problem of work runs far deeper than politics, and that the grail of a fair society will only come nearer if we pay attention to real experiences, and resist the lure of utopias.”—Simon Ings, Daily Telegraph“Readers . . . will find much to enjoy and fascinate on the level of brute historical fact if not on that of overarching theme.”—James Marriott, The Times, “Book of the Week”“This is a huge book, spanning every continent and subjects as wide-ranging as hunter-gatherers, slavery and Zoom workers.”—Emma Jacobs, Financial Times“Whereas traditional histories often present drudges and slaves as anonymous extras in the dramas of luminaries, passive in the face of their unhappy fates, Mr Lucassen affords them attention and agency.”—Economist“Lucassen attempts what properly can be called not just a world history of work, but a human history of work. On this important point, we can hope that Lucassen’s text is in the vanguard of comprehensive histories of any topic.”—Daniel A. Segal, Times Literary Supplement“Jan Lucassen’s fascinating book explores the ways in which humanity organises labour across the world, and how labour relations have evolved over time. . . . Lucassen challenges those across the political spectrum to rethink how we value and define work.”—Caitlin Allen, Reaction“Pleasingly diverse, thoughtfully considering case studies from a range of cultures and the divergent experiences of men and women around the world.”—BBC History Magazine“Lucassen’s diligent empirical study quietly puts grand ideologies and theories of work in their place. . . Work has evolved over time, and Lucassen gives a compelling and comprehensive account of that evolution.”—Lyndsey Stonebridge, New Statesman“Lucassen is a lively writer with an eye for the arresting detail.”—The Week, “Book of the Week”“Brilliant, magisterial multi-millennial tour de force of world history. . . . Filled with fascinating facts and ideas, it’s essential reading for our strange times.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, BBC History Magazine, “Books of the Year”“A work of enormous richness of content and argument. . . . This is a book to be both read closely and systematically and dipped into and consumed in smaller pieces.”—Stephen Davies, Econlib“An encyclopaedic and opinion-packed tour de force ranging over millennia. We may need to work to be useful, to give our lives meaning, to cooperate and for our self-esteem; but some ways of organizing work are so much fairer and more rewarding than others. A brilliant book.”—Danny Dorling, author of Slowdown“If being forced to work feels bad, it is nowhere near as bad as having no worthwhile work to do. Lucassen’s masterly book shows how the human need for fulfilment in shared tasks has confronted technological and social forces that pit us against each other in a struggle to appropriate the material rewards of work and the esteem that comes with it.”—Paul Seabright, author of The Company of Strangers“This magisterial study distils a life’s work to make sense of labour relations over millennia. Lucassen probes the degrees of freedom under which people have created meaning, sought cooperation and demanded fairness in households, plantations, workshops and factories across the globe.”—Eileen Boris, author of Making the Woman Worker“Lucassen brilliantly anchors world history in human agency through work. In every era, he finds the household as the backbone of work—the site of domestic labour and the source of social labour. Throughout, he illustrates the principles of meaning, cooperation and fairness in work. A memorable volume.”—Patrick Manning, author of A History of Humanity

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Book SynopsisINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolutionfrom the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequalityand revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlikeeither free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democ

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Book SynopsisExamines the profound impact of therapeutic discourse on our lives and on our contemporary notions of identity. This book examines a range of sources to show how self-help culture has transformed contemporary emotional life and how therapy complicates individuals' lives even as it claims to dissect their emotional experiences and heal trauma.Trade Review"Eva Illouz is a great scholar, and her book has been hailed by many as an important contribution to the field of therapeutic discourse." Feminist Review "[An] important reference point for understanding the nexus between self and culture... Deserving of a wide readership." Theory & PsychologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Introduction Cultural Sociology and the Therapeutic Therapy as a New Emotional Style Texts and Contexts Cultural Critique and Psychology 2. Freud: ACultural Innovator Psychoanalysis as a Charismatic Enterprise The Social Organization of Freudian Charisma Freud in America The Freudian Cultural Matrix The Romance of Psychology and Popular Culture Conclusion 3. From Homo economicus to Homo communicans Emotional Control in the Sociology of Organizations The Power of Control and the Control of Power Psychologists Enter the Market ANew Emotional Style Emotional Control The Communicative Ethic as the Spirit of the Corporation Emotional, Moral, and Professional Competence Conclusion 4. The Tyranny of Intimacy Intimacy: An Increasingly Cold Haven Beyond Their Will? Psychologists and Marriage What Feminism and Psychology Have in Common Intimacy: ANew Emotional Imagination Communicative Rationality in the Bedroom Toward the Ideology of Pure Emotion The Cooling of Passion Conclusion 5. Triumphant Suffering Why Therapy Triumphed The Therapeutic Narrative of Selfhood Performing the Self through Therapy ANarrative in Action Conclusion 6. ANew Emotional Stratification? The Rise of Emotional Competence Emotional Intelligence and Its Antecedents The Global Therapeutic Habitus and the New Man Intimacy as a Social Good Conclusion 7. Conclusion: Institutional Pragmatism in the Study of Culture Notes Index

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Book SynopsisExplores Vietnam's sex industry as the country ascends the global and regional stage. This book looks at both the sex workers and their clients to show how Vietnamese high finance and benevolent giving are connected to the intimate spheres of the informal economy.Trade Review"The topic of Dealing in Desire is arresting and the book is destined to gain a wide readership. Furthermore, not only is the fieldwork impressive, but the arguments are provocative and well substantiated." -- Erik Harms Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review "A valuable contribution to our understanding of the sex industry ... The praise that Hoang's research has received is well deserved, and Dealing in Desire is a must-read." -- Jack David Eller Anthropology Review Database "This book is ethnographically rich and is an intriguing and gripping read." American Journal of SociologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Dealing in Desire 1. Sex Work in HCMC, 1867--Present 2. The Contemporary Sex Industry 3. New Hierarchies of Global Men 4. Entrepreneurial Mommies 5. Autonomy and Consent in Sex Work 6. Constructing Desirable Bodies 7. Sex Workers' Economic Trajectories Conclusion: Faltering Ascent Appendix: The Empirical Puzzle and the Embodied Cost of Ethnography Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOur intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising our health, our identity, and our individuality. This title celebrates the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations.Trade Review“ Skin offers an accessible and well-referenced overview of many aspects of the biology of human skin. . . . Beauty may only be skin deep, but Jablonski shows us that the skin, be it thin or thick, is the true mirror of the soul.” * Science *“Biology is a historical science. Ask a 'why?' question about biology, as Nina Jablonski keeps doing in her book Skin, and you invite an evolutionary answer. She also tells us everything we might want to know about skin; perhaps more than some people want to know.” * Nature *“Jablonski has an endearing sense of humor that keeps the narrative nimble as it delivers surprisingly dense lessons on anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and sociology. . . . A fascinating read.” * San Francisco Chronicle *“Skin is the largest and most visible organ in the human body. Its biological richness and complexity are exceeded only by the brain and immune system. And now at last it has the book it deserves. . . . [Jablonski’s] fascinating book is as all-encompassing as skin itself. . . . a fascinating, thought-provoking book.” * Financial Times *"Skin is, as Jablonsky ably illustrates, a marvel of engineering: tough, stretchable, impermeable, pliable, a bacterial and UV shield and sensitive to heat, cold, deformation and the slightest of touches. The book explores the social nooks and biological crannies of this complex set of tissues, from color to artificial skin and the role of sweat in our evolutionary history." * New Scientist *“A rich mix of just about everything you would want to know about the necessary and complex covering of your body. Nina Jablonski writes not only as an anthropologist but also as an ethologist, comparative biologist, and psychologist. She weaves a vivid, compelling history, which at times is intertwined with social discourse (skin color and racism) and advice (skin and sun protection).” * New England Journal of Medicine *"This amply illustrated rhapsody to the body's largest and most visible organ showcases skin's versatility, importance in human biology and uniqueness: human skin is hairless and sweaty, has evolved in a spectrum of colors and is a billboard for self-expression. . . . Jablonski nimbly interprets scientific data for a lay audience, and her geeky love for her discipline is often infectious" * Publishers Weekly *“In Skin, her fascinating, nuanced, often exhilarating, and for the most part crisply written new book, Nina Jablonski . . . urges us to consider our skin as we have never, even in our pubertal angst, pored over it before. . . . May you read it with pleasure and by the sweat of your brow.” * American Scholar *STARRED REVIEW: "A marvelous exploration of the organ we ignore until an abnormality prompts us to seek professional help. The chapters skillfully lead from one topic to the next and cover the history and physiology of skin, sweating, color, touch, tattoos and painting, and more. Jablonski's writing is clear; her enthusiasm for the topic, evident.” * Library Journal *“Jablonski engages the reader with her clear, informed style that makes Skin a very readable book.” * American Biology Teacher *"Anthropologist Jablonski delves into the natural history of skin in animals and people and explains its structure and function, its evolution as a nearly hairless body covering in people, and the utility of its pigment melanin. She also examines the role of skin in activities as varied as finding food and bonding socially. Finally, she looks at the prospects for artificial skin." * Science News *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface to the 2013 Edition Introduction 1 Skin Laid Bare 2 History 3 Sweat 4 Skin and Sun 5 Skin's Dark Secret 6 Color 7 Touch 8 Emotions, Sex, and Skin 9 Wear and Tear 10 Statements 11 Future Skin Glossary Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisExamines how the lives of dispossessed men and women are affected by the rise of narco-trafficking along the US - Mexico border. This book explores the everyday reality of the drug trade by living alongside its low-level workers: those living at the edges of the violence generated by the militarization of "the war on drugs."Trade Review"[Provides] nuanced gendered insights into the traditionally masculine narco universe." -- Marilyn Gates New York Journal of Books "[Muehlmann's] gift for narrative provides a powerful analytical lens." -- Derek Gregory Geographical ImaginationsTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Life at the Edges of the War on Drugs 1. Narco-Wives, Beauty Queens, and a Mother's Bribes 2. "When I Wear My Alligator Boots" 3. "A Narco without a Corrido Doesn't Exist" 4. The View from Cruz's Throne 5. Moving the Money When the Bank Accounts Get Full 6. "Now They Wear Tennis Shoes" Conclusion: Puro pa'delante Mexico Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisIllustrates how neoliberalism influences the production, branding, and regulation of local foods and drinks. This book also challenges the strategy of relying on alternative markets to protect food cultures and rural livelihoods.Trade Review"There is not much published about the two iconic Mexican spirits, except for consumer books and tasting guides to different brands. Bowen's perspective is fresh and thought-provoking." -- Fabio Parasecoli The Huffington Post "This is far from a breezy read, and that's exactly the point. In today's spirits landscape, where a new celebrity tequila brand seems to launch each month and mezcal has gone viral, it's rare that we pause to consider the consequences of our adoration ... Offers an exhaustively researched, academic look at the forces that threaten these two great spirits that should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in protecting all that makes them great." Punch "Engaging ... A top gift book for the beverage drinker." -- Dean Tudor Gothic Epicures VinCuisineTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. The Promise of Place 2. From the Fields to Your Glass 3. Whose Rules Rule? Creating and Defining Tequila Quality 4. The Heart of the Agave: Farming in Tequila Country 5. Making Mezcal in the Shadow of the Denomination of Origin 6. Hipsters, Hope, and the Future of Artisanal Mezcal 7. Looking Forward Methodological Appendix Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisSchizophrenia has long puzzled researchers in the fields of psychiatric medicine and anthropology. Why is it that the rates of developing schizophrenia are low in some countries and higher in others? The authors argue that the root causes of schizophrenia are not only biological, but also sociocultural.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Foreword - Kim Hopper Acknowledgments Introduction - T. M. Luhrmann 1. "I'm Schizophrenic!": How Diagnosis Can Change Identity in the United States - T. M. Luhrmann 2. Diagnostic Neutrality in Psychiatric Treatment in North India - Amy June Sousa 3. Vulnerable Transitions in a World of Kin: In the Shadow of Good Wifeliness in North India - Jocelyn Marrow 4. Work and Respect in Chennai - Giulia Mazza 5. Racism and Immigration: An African-Caribbean Woman in London - Johanne Eliacin 6. Voices That Are More Benign: The Experience of Auditory Hallucinations in Chennai - T. M. Luhrmann and R. Padmavati 7. Demonic Voices: One Man's Experience of God, Witches, and Psychosis in Accra, Ghana - Damien Droney 8. Madness Experienced as Faith: Temple Healing in North India - Anubha Sood 9. Faith Interpreted as Madness: Religion, Poverty, and Psychiatry in the Life of a Romanian Woman - Jack R. Friedman 10. The Culture of the Institutional Circuit in the United States - T. M. Luhrmann 11. Return to Baseline: A Woman with Acute-Onset, Non-affective Remitting Psychosis in Thailand - Julia Cassaniti 12. A Fragile Recovery in the United States - Neely A. L. Myers Conclusion - Jocelyn Marrow and T. M. Luhrmann Notes Bibliography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisSchizophrenia has long puzzled researchers in the fields of psychiatric medicine and anthropology. Why is it that the rates of developing schizophrenia are low in some countries and higher in others? The authors argue that the root causes of schizophrenia are not only biological, but also sociocultural.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Foreword - Kim Hopper Acknowledgments Introduction - T. M. Luhrmann 1. "I'm Schizophrenic!": How Diagnosis Can Change Identity in the United States - T. M. Luhrmann 2. Diagnostic Neutrality in Psychiatric Treatment in North India - Amy June Sousa 3. Vulnerable Transitions in a World of Kin: In the Shadow of Good Wifeliness in North India - Jocelyn Marrow 4. Work and Respect in Chennai - Giulia Mazza 5. Racism and Immigration: An African-Caribbean Woman in London - Johanne Eliacin 6. Voices That Are More Benign: The Experience of Auditory Hallucinations in Chennai - T. M. Luhrmann and R. Padmavati 7. Demonic Voices: One Man's Experience of God, Witches, and Psychosis in Accra, Ghana - Damien Droney 8. Madness Experienced as Faith: Temple Healing in North India - Anubha Sood 9. Faith Interpreted as Madness: Religion, Poverty, and Psychiatry in the Life of a Romanian Woman - Jack R. Friedman 10. The Culture of the Institutional Circuit in the United States - T. M. Luhrmann 11. Return to Baseline: A Woman with Acute-Onset, Non-affective Remitting Psychosis in Thailand - Julia Cassaniti 12. A Fragile Recovery in the United States - Neely A. L. Myers Conclusion - Jocelyn Marrow and T. M. Luhrmann Notes Bibliography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Provides a discourse of charity that challenges and disrupts dominant secular and liberal notions of humanitarian aid. The book is recommended not only to anthropology and sociology students and scholars but also to ones of economics, theology, and religious studies.” * KULT Online *"Amira Mittermaier has written a marvelous book. Giving to God will be of considerable value not only to anthropologists of Islam and charitable giving, but also to historians and political scientists who seek to understand the persistence of a longstanding model of Islamic charity in the face of political, economic, and social upheaval." * Reading Religion *"A masterpiece of the anthropology of charity and the ethos of Islamic economics." * Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations *"Mittermaier has created an important study of Muslims negotiating their religious lives in the modern world." * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *Table of ContentsIllustrations Note on Transliteration Acknowledgments Introduction during the revolution 1 • Revolutions Don’t Stop Charity giving 2 • Divine Minimum Wage 3 • Caravan to Paradise receiving 4 • Performances of Poverty 5 • All Thanks Belong to God after the revolution 6 • Tomorrow Is Better Postscript Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn Search of Respect, Philippe Bourgois's now-classic, ethnographic study of social marginalization in inner-city America, won critical acclaim after it was first published in 1995 and in 1997 was awarded the Margaret Mead Award. For the first time, an anthropologist had managed to gain the trust and long-term friendship of street-level drug dealers in one of the roughest ghetto neighborhoods in the United States - East Harlem. This edition adds a prologue describing the major dynamics in America that have altered life on the streets of East Harlem in the six years since the first edition. Bourgois, in a new epilogue, brings up to date the stories of the people - Primo, Caesar, Luis, Tony, Candy - who readers come to know in this remarkable window onto the world of the inner-city drug trade.Trade Review'… rich interview and observational data is used to tell the stories of the residents … It is clear that Bourgois is a very skilled ethnographer and the book is testimony to that.' Sociology'… an impressive book. The beautifully written and well organised ethnography gives an insight into the drug scene culture with its harsh and shocking details of violence. … a masterpiece of ethnographic description …' Medische AnthropologieTable of ContentsPreface to the 2001 second edition; Introduction; 1. Violating apartheid in the United States; 2. A street history of El Barrio; 3. Crackhouse management: addiction, discipline, and dignity; 4. 'Goin' legit': disrespect and resistance at work; 5. School days: learning to be a better criminal; 6. Redrawing the gender line on the street; 7. Families and children in pain; 8. Vulnerable fathers; 9. Conclusion; Epilogue 2001.

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Book SynopsisSarah Hrdy argues that if human babies were to survive in a world of scarce resources, they would need to be cared for, not only by their mothers but also by siblings, aunts, fathers, friendsand, with any luck, grandmothers. Out of this complicated and contingent form of childrearing, says Hrdy, came the human capacity for understanding others.Trade ReviewIn the study of mothering, Sarah Hrdy has no peer. In Mothers and Others, we are treated to Hrdy's infectious writing, taking the reader on a tour of our evolved history as a cooperatively parenting species. The ideas are big, bold, and brain-bending. -- Marc Hauser, author of Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and WrongBoldly conceived and beautifully written, Mothers and Others makes a strong case that we humans are (or should be) cooperative breeders. It is an indispensable contribution to the debate about how and why we came to be the most successful primate of them all. -- Melvin Konner, author of The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human SpiritAs was the case for her earlier classic, Mother Nature, Sarah Hrdy's Mothers and Others is a brilliant work on a profoundly important subject. The leading scientific authority on motherhood has come through again. -- E. O. Wilson"What if I were traveling with a planeload of chimpanzees? Any one of us would be lucky to disembark with all ten fingers and toes still attached...Even among the famously peaceful bonobos...veterinarians sometimes have to be called in following altercations to stitch back on a scrotum or penis," Hrdy writes. What she found is that our unique mothering instinct, quite different from gorillas and chimpanzees, meant that the children most likely to survive were those who could relate to and solicit help from others. We evolved to be wired for empathy for, consideration of, and intuition into how others are feeling. -- Jessa Crispin * Smart Set *To explain the rise of cooperative breeding among our forebears, Hrdy synthesizes an array of new research in anthropology, genetics, infant development, comparative biology. -- Natalie Angier * New York Times *For as long as she's been a sociobiologist, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy has been playfully dismantling traditional notions of motherhood and gender relations...Hrdy is back with another book, Mothers and Others, and another big idea. She argues that human cooperation is rooted not in war making, as sociobiologists have believed, but in baby making and baby-sitting. Hrdy's conception of early human society is far different from the classic sociobiological view of a primeval nuclear family, with dad off hunting big game and mom tending the cave and the kids. Instead, Hrdy paints a picture of a cooperative breeding culture in which parenting duties were spread out across a network of friends and relatives. The effect on our development was profound. -- Julia Wallace * Salon *Hrdy's lucid and comprehensively researched book takes us to the heart of what it means to be human. -- Camilla Power * Times Higher Education *Hrdy's much-awaited new book, is another mind-expanding, paradigm-shifting, rigorously scientific yet eminently readable treatise...Mothers and Others lays the foundation for a new hypothesis about human evolution...Mothers and Others is overflowing with fascinating information and thinking. It's a book you read, pausing regularly to consider the full import of what you just read...Sarah Blaffer Hrdy has added another enormous building block to our thinking about our origins with this new book. Our species is lucky to have her. -- Claudia Casper * Globe and Mail *Provocative. [Hrdy] argues that unlike other apes, Homo sapiens could never have evolved if human mothers had been required to raise their offspring on their own. Human infants are too helpless and too expensive in their demands for care and resources. So human females have to line up helpers--sometimes extending beyond their own kin--to raise their young. That requires both males and females to invest heavily in social skills for bargaining with other members of their groups. Hrdy suggests that females in ancestral hunting and gathering groups may have thrived because they were free to be flexible in this way. Female flexibility was reduced when humans established settlements requiring male coalitions to defend them, probably leading to greater control of females by males...The most refreshing aspect of [this] book is the challenge [it] offers to what we thought we already knew. -- John Odling-Smee * Nature *If Sarah Blaffer Hrdy were a male scientist, I might be tempted to say that her new book Mothers and Others arrives like an intellectual time bomb, or that it throws a grenade into accepted notions of human evolution. But those are aggressive, competitive metaphors, and one of the essential points of Mothers and Others is that aggression and competition have been given far too central a place in the standard accounts of how our species came into being. From Charles Darwin onward, those accounts are mostly the work of men, and Hrdy points out in meticulous detail how partial and biased was their understanding of the remote past...Mothers and Others offers enormous rewards. It is not only revolutionary; it is also wise and humane. -- Mark Abley * Calgary Herald *More than a million years ago, somewhere in Africa, a group of apes began to rear their young differently. Unlike almost all other primates, they were willing to let others share in the care of infants. The reasons for this innovation are lost in the ancient past, but according to well-known anthropologist Hrdy, it was crucial that these mothers had related--and therefore trusted--females nearby and that the helpers provided food as well as care. Out of this "communal care," she argues, grew the human capacity for understanding one another: mothers and others teach us who will care and who will not. Beginning with her opening conceit of apes on an airplane (you wouldn't want to be on this flight) and continuing through her informed insights into the behavior of other species, Hrdy's reasoning is fascinating to follow. -- Michelle Press * Scientific American *One of the boldest thinkers in her field...Hrdy's scope is huge...To build her arguments, she expertly knits together research from a variety of fields--fossil evidence, endocrinology, psychology, history, child development, genetics, comparative primatology and field research among hunter-gatherer societies. Her book is at once entertaining, full of apt, often colorful anecdotes, sometimes culled from her own experiences, and rich with information and case studies...Hrdy is not only synthesizing her own research on female reproductive strategies (initially on langur monkeys in India), but that of hundreds of other researchers to create what amounts to a sweeping new meta-paradigm. -- Michele Pridmore-Brown * Times Literary Supplement *In this compelling and wide-ranging book, Hrdy sets out to explain the mystery of how humans evolved into cooperative apes. The demands of raising our slow-growing and energetically expensive offspring led to cooperative child-rearing, she argues, which was key to our survival. -- Alison Motluk * New Scientist *Using evidence from diverse research fields (including ethnography, archaeology, developmental psychology, primatology, endocrinology, and genetics), Hrdy builds an engaging and compelling argument for an evolutionary history of cooperative offspring care that requires us to rethink entrenched views about how we came to be human...Mothers and Others provides a fascinating, readable account of how our hominin ancestors might have negotiated the obstacles to raising offspring. Hrdy presents a well-argued case for human evolutionary history being characterized by cooperative offspring care, which opens fresh avenues of research into the history of our species. In addition, she prompts readers to consider far-reaching questions, such as whether the nuclear family is the "best" unit in which to raise children and how learned parenting practices might determine the future of human evolution. Her thought-provoking book will interest students, specialists, and general readers alike and should focus attention on the neglected roles of mothers and others within human evolutionary theory. -- Gillian R. Brown * Science *Hrdy presents her hypothesis systematically and painstakingly, chapter by chapter, so that the result is compellingly plausible. -- William McGrew * American Scientist *Understanding the evolution of the human mind has become the holy grail of modern evolutionary anthropology and evolutionary psychology, and those who pursue it feel themselves closing in on something big. Mothers and Others is a heroic contribution to this quest. It is an anthropological T(A)E: a theory of (almost) everything, a genre for which I must confess a weakness. It stands above most other examples of the genre, however, for both its scholarship and its craft. Hrdy draws on a broad literature extending beyond the traditional domains of primatology and anthropology, with particular emphasis on developmental psychology, but breadth of scholarship and lucid vision have long been the trademarks of her writing...Hrdy is at least as gifted as a writer as [Stephen Jay] Gould and at least as clear a thinker...This is a very important book, and a beautiful one. It is a book that will delight a broad lay readership coming to it from disparate perspectives. It will be a wonderful book to assign to undergraduates in a range of courses. But most importantly, it is a challenging and provocative book for academics and scientists interested in human cognition and human evolution. Once again, Hrdy has woven together strands of material from many sources into an elegant tapestry of insight and logic, emblazoned with her vision of who we are, and why. -- Peter Ellison * Evolutionary Psychology *The book is an impressive and sustained argument for why, unlike other apes, humans are cooperative breeders...Hrdy offers some fascinating speculations about the problems whose solution might have facilitated the emergence of cooperative breeding. -- Pierre Jacob * International Cognition and Culture Institute blog *Mothers and Others is an engaging book. It is full of fascinating information from diverse fields, imaginatively harnessed to produce a coherent account of our genetic predispositions as a species. Above all, it challenges the pervasively sexist tradition within evolutionary psychology, which routinely highlights aggression and maternal care at the expense of sociability and shared care. In doing so, the book provides a rich foundation for engagement with the social sciences, exploring the articulation between our genetic predispositions and contemporary human societies. -- Michael Gilding * Australian Book Review *Convincing about the importance of alloparenting, [Hrdy] makes a rich case that draws on wide erudition about many primate species and current arguments about human cooperation. -- B. Weston * Choice *In Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding, Sarah Hrdy argues that what makes humans different from other apes is our need to rear children cooperatively. Elegantly written and, to any parent, compellingly argued. -- Morgan Kelly * Irish Times *Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is one of the most original and influential minds in evolutionary anthropology...It is possible to see Hrdy's most recent book, Mothers and Others, as the third in a trilogy that began with The Woman That Never Evolved. It may be the most important...[It's her] most ambitious contribution. In Mothers and Others, she situates this pivotal mother-infant pair not in an empty expanse of savanna, waiting for a man to arrive with his killed game, but where it actually belongs, in the dense social setting of a hunter-gatherer or, before that, an ape or monkey group. Hrdy argues convincingly that social support was crucial to human success, that compared with other primates, humans are uniquely cooperative, and that it was precisely cooperation in child care that gave rise to this general bent...Hrdy's gracefully written, expert account of human behavior focuses on the positive, and its most important contribution is to give cooperation its rightful place in child care. Through a lifetime of pathbreaking work, she has repeatedly undermined our complacent, solipsistic, masculine notions of what women were meant "by nature" to be. Here as elsewhere she urges caution and compassion toward women whose maternal role must be constantly rethought and readjusted to meet the demands of a changing world. Women have done this successfully for millions of years, and their success will not stop now. But neither Hrdy nor I nor anyone else can know whether the strong human tendency to help mothers care for children can produce the species-wide level of cooperation that we now need to survive. -- Melvin Konner * New York Review of Books *Table of Contents* Apes on a Plane * Why Us and Not Them? * Why It Takes a Village * Novel Developments * Will the Real Pleistocene Family Please Step Forward? * Meet the Alloparents * Babies as Sensory Traps * Grandmothers among Others * Childhood and the Descent of Man * Notes * References * Acknowledgments * Index

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Book SynopsisMarcy Norton tells a new history of the European colonization of the Americas, one that places wildlife and livestock at the center of the story. She reveals that it was, above all, the encounters between European and Native American beliefs about animal life that transformed societies on both sides of the Atlantic.Trade ReviewRelationships—between animals and humans, and between humans and other humans—are at the heart of Marcy Norton’s original and ambitious The Tame and the Wild. -- Alexander Bevilacqua * London Review of Books *[Norton] argues that biology cannot be separated from culture — a stance that allows her to reconsider why animals were treated in a certain way in the past and how they could be treated in the future… A fascinating book. -- Henry Mance * Financial Times *The Tame and the Wild reads like a revelation. Norton’s groundbreaking work compellingly shows how the history of nonhuman animals in the Atlantic world, and their transformation from beings to things, is intrinsically entangled with the history of the early-modern European extractivist and genocidal colonial project in the Americas. At the same time, it luminously recovers and foregrounds early-modern American Indigenous ways of being in the world and knowing it that emphasize the shared nature of human and nonhuman flesh and subjectivity. Her book shows us new ways for writing both our histories and those of our ‘fellow creatures.’ -- Pablo F. Gómez, author of The Experiential Caribbean: Creating Knowledge and Healing in the Early Modern AtlanticMarcy Norton offers an erudite and innovative perspective on the relationships between humankind and animals in the context of the European colonization of Mexico and South America. By analyzing the history of the clash between Indigenous and Western conceptions of hunting, domestication, and coexistence with pets, this book reveals the origins of consumption practices and objectification of the animal world, as well as the struggles to recognize animal rights. -- Guilhem Olivier, National Autonomous University of MexicoNorton revolutionizes our understanding of the world after 1492. Until now theories of ecological imperialism have conceived of animals a lot like diseases: as biological forces undermining colonized societies. She refutes that determinist story by showing animals as subjects in relationships—sometimes tender, sometimes violent, sometimes extractivist—with Indigenous people and Europeans in the Americas. The Tame and the Wild puts animals and human relationships at the center of the history of contact. -- Nancy J. Jacobs, author of Birders of Africa

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