Social and cultural anthropology Books

Book SynopsisExploring indigenous life projects in encounters with extractivism, the present open access volume discusses how current turbulences actualise questions of indigeneity, difference and ontological dynamics in the Andes and Amazonia. While studies of extractivism in South America often focus on wider national and international politics, this contribution instead provides ethnographic explorations of indigenous politics, perspectives and worlds, revealing loss and suffering as well as creative strategies to mediate the extralocal. Seeking to avoid conceptual imperialism or the imposition of exogenous categories, the chapters are grounded in the respective authors’ long-standing field research. The authors examine the reactions (from resistance to accommodation), consequences (from anticipation to rubble) and materials (from fossil fuel to water) diversely related to extractivism in rural and urban settings. How can Amerindian strategies to preserve localised communities in extractivist contexts contribute to ways of thinking otherwise?Trade Review“The volume … is one of the latest works within the growing body of literature on extractivism and indigeneity in the region. Clearly written and yet rich in always surprising ethnographic material, this volume is essential reading for scholars and students interested in both Amerindian anthropology and political ecology in general.” (Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 93 (2), 2020)Table of Contents1. Introduction Part 1. Flows, Wealth and Access2. Controlling Abandoned Oil Installations: Ruination and Ownership in Northern Peruvian Amazon3. Extractive Pluralities: The Making of Life-worlds where Oil Wealth and Informal Gold Mining Intersect in Venezuelan Amazonia4. In the Spirit of Oil: Unintended Flows and Leaky Lives in Northeastern Ecuador5. Translating Wealth in a Globalised Extractivist Economy: Contrabandistas and Accumulation by DiversionCecilie Vindal ØdegaardPart 2. Extractivism, Land, Ownerships6. Water as Value and Being: Extractivist MegaProjects and Ownership in Peru7. Indigenous Land Ownership in an Extractivist Context: Conflicting Compositions of the Environment in Cañaris (Peruvian Andes)8. Carbon and Biodiversity Conservation as Resource Extraction: Enacting REDD+ Across Cultures of Ownership in AmazoniaPart 3. Indigeneity, Activism and the Politics of Nature9. Symbols of Resistance: Translating Nature, Indigeneity, and Place in Mining Activism10. Performing Indigeneity in Bolivia: The Struggle over the TIPNIS

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how natural landscapes are linked to positive mental wellbeing. While natural landscapes have long been represented and portrayed as transformative, the link to mental wellbeing is an area that researchers are still aiming to comprehend. Accompanying five groups of people to rural Scotland, the author considers individual, external and group motivations for journeying from urban environments, examining in what ways these excursions are personally and socially transformative. Far more than traversing mere physical boundaries, this book illustrates the new challenges, experiences, territories and cultures provided by these excursions, firmly anchored in the Scottish countryside. In doing so, the author questions the extent to which people’s own narratives link to the perception that the outdoors are positively transformative – and what indeed does have the power to influence transformation. Grounded in extensive qualitative research, this contemplative and ethnographic book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of the outdoors and its connection to wellbeing. Table of ContentsINTRODUCTIONEngaging in autobiographical reflexivity to begin with, the introduction will set up a familiar scenario of nature disconnection and the inevitable draw to spending time within nature. However, this introduction will introduce new and un-covered themes. These themes are due to my time spent within the field aiming to understand real experiences of leaving urban environments in pursuit of natural spaces and the positive transformation they are believed to offer. The most significant difference is real life participation, being within and understanding from individuals perspectives. This book will offer full qualitative accounts. The introduction will establish some of the pre-conceived ideas regarding nature and physiological benefits however will push towards the intangible experience of nature connection and argue that the only way to comprehend this is to truly understand from individual perspectives. The introduction will also tackle the contested term ‘nature.’CHAPTER ONE: A phenomenonChapter one will introduce the diversity amongst my case studies in terms of agenda, back ground and perceptions. It will also introduce the individuals with whom I worked and in doing so will situate nature within this research context. This chapter will also outline much of the interdisciplinary research in nature and wellbeing to date and highlight this research’s contributions to the field(s). This will focus on the nature experience: sociality, place and the self, ethnographic research in groups in nature, transdisciplinary ways of looking and detailing my belief that these encounters can draw similarities with performance. Within this chapter I will also discuss narratives, abstraction and personal narrative and how these have significant impact upon experience of these shared encounters.CHAPTER TWO: Mind and bodyChapter two will question how one might approach experiences that are both physical and psychological and why a transdisciplinary strategy was necessary. It will discuss my serendipitous ethnography, responsive and flexible methods as well as my Goethian ethic in observation. It will also detail why such an ethic was necessary. This chapter will outline key moments within fieldwork and how opportunity became a methodology. It will outline my being with groups and the responsive, flexible methods in context. Ultimately, this chapter will tackle journey and participation, ambiguity and development.CHAPTER THREE: BelongingThis chapter will speak of new cultural interactions, friendship, new social interactions, feeling secure, empathy, social facilitation, belonging and self-identification. The key theme within this chapter is the motivation of individuals to self-verify, to reach an ideal sense of self and to become a part of the group in the landscape. This chapter will introduce notions of liminality and the self before being fully explored in chapter four.CHAPTER FOUR: The Liminal Loop.Chapter four begins with unearthing liminality within this context, drawing from the work of Victor Turner and van Gennep. Importantly this work re-creates these terms in a metaphorical context relating to the self, the group dynamic and the perception of the landscape. First the liminoid context is explored before moving on to ideas surrounding the framing of activity, communitas, new physical and mental experiences, group dynamics and group theory. Key to this chapter is my theory that there are three sites of liminality within these rural nature experiences. This chapter also considers anti-structure and reflection, affordance and abstraction, opportunities in the landscape, changing perceptions of afforded opportunities, building context and experience, new contexts and personal narratives and the dynamics of experience.CHAPTER FIVE: Anthropocentrism and the transforming selfChapter Five is dedicated to understandings of non-human intention. It will discuss the effect of the group on perception of the non-human. The belief of some individuals in the reciprocity of the interactions between human and non will be explored by looking at personification and anthropomorphism, language and metaphor. This chapter considers nature as social and becoming effective social agents amongst the material rural landscape. I will finally discuss the inevitability of centrism. Chapter Five also the opposing end of the spectrum - looking at understandings of the agency of only the self and group, efficacy, sociality and belonging, self-development, deprivation and challenge (getting back to basics) as well as how, within some groups, excursions are designed. This chapter will also ask whether the landscape is even relevant to notions of wellbeing within such social encounters.CHAPTER SIX: Being a good personThis final chapter details how people engaging in the natural landscape compete for the moral high-ground in relation to interactions within the outdoors. This is discussed in relation to how people perceive positive transformation. This chapter poses the question - if all case studies aim for the bettering of human experience, are agendas so drastically different? Finally this chapter comes some way in pinning down the intangible ‘something’ that all individuals seemed to be looking for within their engagement with these groups and landscapes. This chapter will end with a section named Returning to the Earth: A final performance – This section is dedicated to the death of an individual within fieldwork and to her final self-verification as someone who aligns herself with the natural landscape. Here we will look at identity symbols and performing identity, bringing the text full circle.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology, an original theoretical and methodological approach that seeks to complement the mainstream psychological science – based on universal principles, processes and constructs – with scientific methods to study the idiosyncratic features and behaviors typical of specific cultural groups. It proposes a historic-bio-psycho-socio-cultural theoretical model to describe research findings of social, psychological, collective and individual phenomena. Psychology is at a crossroads of years of research with stress on internal validity and little attention to contextual and cultural variables. It becomes fundamental to continue on the internal validity track but at the same time incorporate external validity issues. The growth of indigenous movements and data allows for a profound evaluation of the extents to which apparent universal phenomena are truly universal, and to what extent they are idiosyncratic manifestations of the cultures where the mainstream research is conducted. Mexican ethnopsychologists have been following this path for decades, since the pioneer work of Rogelio Díaz-Guerrero, but until now little has been published in English about this innovative theoretical approach. Ethnopsychology – Pieces from the Mexican Research Gallery fills this gap by presenting the international community an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology and thus providing a useful tool to behavioral, social and health scientists interested in understanding how culture shapes both collective and individual behaviors. Table of ContentsChapter 1: Culture, eco-systems and behavior.- Chapter 2: Ethnopsychology: inserting socio-cultural components into a bio-psychological discipline.- Chapter 3: Self-construal and identity.- Chapter 4: Gender and masculinity- femininity.- Chapter 5: Personality.- Chapter 6: Close Relationships.- Chapter 7: Family.- Chapter 8: Past, present and future of Mexican Ethnopsychology.

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Book SynopsisThis book unpacks how the ethical is embodied through an examination of the lived experiences of female Muslim volunteers in Belgium. Kayikci draws on a wealth of interview material that sheds light on the ethical turn in the anthropology of Islam, exploring how volunteering enables the space and time for Muslim women to commit to both orthodox religious and civic social values. As volunteering and interacting (caring) with the society requires careful deliberation of their society and their position as Muslims, and as women in that society, this research unpacks how multiple belongings of Muslim women in Belgium are negotiated, balanced, and influenced. This analysis reveals how the everyday is informed by different epistemological traditions; both the liberal and the Islamic, and how these traditions make the life-worlds of the women. Islamic Ethics and Female Volunteering will be of interest to academics across religious studies, anthropology, sociology, gender studies and community studies, especially scholars working in the areas of ethics, migration, Muslims in Europe, volunteering and activism. Table of ContentsIntroduction.- 1. Getting Acquainted with the Volunteers.- 2. Caring is a Part of Believing and Why the Ethical is Relational.- 3. Reviving A Forgotten Tradition, Infaq.- 4. The Authority in Sisterhood.- 5. When Volunteering Touches the Experience of Time.- 6. The Adab of Da'wa.- 7. Transparency, Visibility and the Mahram.- 8. Conclusion: Further Thoughts on Volunteering.- Epilogue.- Glossary.

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Book SynopsisA Social History of Sheffield Boxing combines urban ethnography and anthropology, sociological theory and place and life histories to explore the global phenomenon of boxing. Raising many issues pertinent to the social sciences, such as contestations around state regulation of violence, commerce and broadcasting, pedagogy and elite sport and how sport is delivered and narrated to the masses, the book studies the history of boxing in Sheffield and the sport’s impact on the cultural, political and economic development of the city since the 18th century. Interweaving urban anthropology with sports studies and historical research the text expertly examines a variety of published sources, ranging from academic papers to biographies and from newspaper reports to case studies and contemporary interviews. In Volume I, Bell and Armstrong construct a vivid history of boxing and probe its cultural acceptance in the late 1800s, examining how its rise was inextricably intertwined with the industrial and social development of Sheffield. Although Sheffield was not a national player in prize-fighting’s early days, throughout the mid-1800s, many parochial scores and wagers were settled by the use of fists. By the end of the century, boxing with gloves had become the norm, and Sheffield had a valid claim to be the chief provincial focus of this new passion—largely due to the exploits of George Corfield, Sheffield’s first boxer of national repute. Corfield’s deeds were later surpassed by three British champions: Gus Platts, Johnny Cuthbert and Henry Hall. Concluding with the dual themes of the decline of boxing in Sheffield and the city's changing social profile from the 1950s onwards, the volume ends with a meditation on the arrival of new migrants to the city and the processes that aided or frustrated their integration into UK life and sport.Trade Review“The authors Bell and Armstrong … use a wide range of sources of information to track the development of boxing in the city. It is the depth of research that makes this book so compelling and informative, using historical written evidence from newspapers, Government publications, a number of important images and even notes from court proceedings. … This book is a must for those interested in the history of sport, the sociology of sport and even the business of sport.” (Nick Wilde, Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, Vol. 11 (1), May, 2021)Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction: Rings Of Steel Chapter 2: A Champion In Town Chapter 3: The Attraction Of ‘Fisti-Cuffs’ Chapter 4: The Gloves Are On Chapter 5: Sheffield’s First Contender Chapter 6: Prejudice, War And Poverty Chapter 7: Hitting Hard Chapter 8: Make Do And Mend Chapter 9: Punch-Drunk Humanity

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Book SynopsisThis open access book examines the significance of gay neighborhoods (or ‘gayborhoods’) from critical periods of formation during the gay liberation and freedom movements of the 1960s and 1970s, to proven durability through the HIV/AIDS pandemic during the 1980s and 1990s, to a mature plateau since 2000. The book provides a framework for contemplating the future form and function of gay neighborhoods. Social and cultural shifts within gay neighborhoods are used as a framework for understanding the decades-long struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and equality.Resulting from gentrification, weakening social stigma, and enhanced rights for LGBTQ+ people, gay neighborhoods have recently become “less gay,” following a 50-year period of resilience. Meanwhile, other neighborhoods are becoming “more gay,” due to changing preferences of LGBTQ+ individuals and a propensity for LGBTQ+ families to form community in areas away from established gayborhoods. The current ‘plateau’ in the evolution of gay neighborhoods is characterized by generational differences—between Baby Boom pioneers and Millennials who favour broad inclusivity—signaling various possible trajectories for the future ‘afterlife’ of these important LGBTQ+ urban spaces.The complicating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic provides a point of comparison for lessons learned from gay neighborhoods and the LGBTQ+ community that bravely endured the onset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.This book will be of interest to students and scholars in various disciplines—including sociology, social work, anthropology, gender and sexuality, LGTBQ+ and queer studies, as well as urban geography, architecture, and city planning—and to policymakers and advocates concerned with LGBTQ+ rights and social justice.Trade Review“This book will likely find appeal … among social scientists, planners, and architects seeking insights into the shifting character of post-pandemic urban living in the twenty-first century. … considering the disparaging and supercilious comments from a few ostensibly cisgender colleagues … encountered by the editors in the early stages of The Life and Afterlife, Professors Bitterman and Hess are to be commended for their commitment to producing an informative and courageous study.” (Dennis E. Gale, Journal of Planning Education and Research, September 13, 2022)“The book is scholastic … and serve as impetuses for future research. … The Life and Afterlife of Gay Neighborhoods provides methodologies and concept grounds for this approach and is an invaluable resource for planners, sociologists and designers to both confront and integrate notions of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice into education, research, scholarship and practice.” (Michael A. Richards, Town Planning Review, Vol. 94 (1), January, 2023)“The volume is a stimulating and enjoyable anthology, which is on the whole well written and richly illustrated. Notably, it remains low on jargon and thus accessible to audiences beyond academia or the professional realm. … The Life and Afterlife of Gay Neighborhoods will find-and reward-multiple audiences, a process aided by its democratizing open-access availability.” (Manish Chalana, Journal of the American Planning Association, June 9, 2022)Table of ContentsPart I: Introduction.- Who are the people in your gayborhood? Understanding population change and cultural shifts in LGBTQ+ neighborhoods.- Part II: Context and composition.- Breaking down segregation: Shifting geographies of male same-sex households within desegregating cities.- A queer reading of the United States census.- Why gayborhoods matter: The street empirics of urban sexualities.- Part III: Identity and evolution.- The rainbow connection: A time-series study of rainbow flag display across nine Toronto neighborhoods.- Wearing pink in Fairytown: The heterosexualization of the Spanish town neighborhood and carnival parade in Baton rouge.- A tale of three villages: Contested discourses of place-making in Central Philadelphia.- Are “Gay” and “Queer-friendly" neighbourhoods healthy? Assessing how areas with high densities of same-sex couples impact the mental health of sexual minority and majority young adults.

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Book SynopsisRitual Studies have achieved prominence since the 1980s, when interest in ritual as an object of inquiry was established, bridging over a number of humanities and social science disciplines. Both connected with religious studies and independent of it; overlapping with social and cultural anthropology, but also with history; related to science and health practices and ranging across the life course to education, Ritual Studies has come to encompass studies of change and dynamism in social life. Rituals are determinate in form, but not static. They enunciate distinctive social values within specific contexts that frame them; and they relate to the wider concerns and issues of their practitioners.Due to this broad and wide-ranging scope, it is often difficult to find a single resource on Ritual Studies, and even more so to find one which moves beyond the beginnings of anthropological theorizing to grapple with the present-day contexts of ritual. Bringing together recent ethnographies of ritual practice and ritualization from across the globe, this Handbook provides case study of ritual in the light of Emotion and Cognition, Identity, Religious Power, Performance and Literature, Ecology and Ecological Disaster, Media, and other topics. While each chapter provides a deep ethnography of a specific society, ritual, or ritualized practice, each also engages with current theoretical and substantive approaches to the relevant topic. The scholars collected here provide original synoptic and indicative pieces as guideposts and pathways through the complex, varied and cross-disciplinary, and vast landscape of scholarship that constitutes Ritual Studies today and points to developments in the future. Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis topical book shows that racism by skin color is much more embedded and prevalent in the modern world than racism by race. In the aftermath of globalization, humanity has experienced unprecedented levels of interaction. This book presents evidence to show that in the 21st century which is dependent on ever-expanding communication technologies, and new forms of visual media actually exacerbate historical mores of colorism in the lives of humanity, i.e.: African, Asian, Latinx, Native and European descent. ​The book discusses the historical roots and current values of idealization of light skin, skin bleaching practices, stereotypes of skin color developed through migration and cultural assimilation, and health and educational consequences of colorism. Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2. Globalization.- chapter 3. Color Consciousness: African Descent.- Chapter 4. Color Consciousness: Asian Descent.- Chapter 5. Color Consciousness: Latino Descent.- Chapter 6. Color Consciousness: Native Descent.- Chapter 7. Color Consciousness: Women.- Chapter 8. Color Consciousness: Gay/Lesbian.- Chapter 9. Color Consciousness: Immigrants.- Chapter 10. Color Consciousness: The Bleaching Syndrome.- Chapter 11. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisUnlike food publications that have been more organized along regional or disciplinary lines, this edited volume is distinctive in that it brings together anthropologists, archaeologists, area study specialists, linguists and food policy administrators to explore the following questions: What kinds of changes in food and foodways are happening? What triggers change and how are the changes impacting identity politics? In terms of scope and organization, this book offers a vast historical extent ranging from the 5th mill BCE to the present day. In addition, it presents case studies from across the world, including Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and America. Finally, this collection of essays presents diverse perspectives and differing methodologies. It is an accessible introduction to the study of food, social change and identity.Table of ContentsChapter 1:Introduction: Food, Social Change and Identity by Cynthia Chou and Susanne KernerChapter 2: Ingesting the Contemporary: Food and Angst by Mandy ThomasChapter 3: Fish, Identity and Social Change by Richard WilkChapter 4: The Social Life of Food by Tamara BrayChapter 5: Prejudice, Assimilation and Profit: The Peculiar History of Italian Cookery in the United States by Anthony BucciniChapter 6: Narratives on an Independent Cuisine: Catalan Food as Identity in the Contemporary Independence Movement by Venetia JohannesChapter 7: The Danish Meal Partnership: A Shortcut to a Healthier Diet by Claus Egeris Chapter 8: Food and Identity in the 5th mill BCE by Susanne KernerChapter 9: In Search of Authenticity: Roti John and the Banana Pancake Trail by Cynthia Chou and Martin Platt

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Book SynopsisThis open access book offers a multidisciplinary dialogue on relational anthropology in contemporary economics. A particular view of the human being is often assumed in economic models, but seldom acknowledged let alone explicated. Addressing this neglected area of research in economic studies, altogether the contributors touch upon the importance and potential of virtues, the notions of freedom and self-love, the potential of simulation models, the dialectics of love, and questions of methodology in constructing a relational anthropology for contemporary economics. The overall result is a highly informative and constructive dialogue, establishing inter alia a research agenda for future collaborative and multidisciplinary study.Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the metaphors used in public and media communication to ask how language shapes our moral reasoning about the global coronavirus crisis. The author offers insights into the metaphors, metonyms, allegories and symbols of the global crisis and examines how they have contributed to policy formation and communication. Combining metaphor theory with moral foundations theory, he places metaphors in their historical contexts, and then critically questions why certain tropes might be used in particular situations to persuade and convince an audience. The book takes an integrated approach, involving ideas from cognitive linguistics, history, social psychology and literature to produce a multi-layered and thematically rich interpretation of the language of the pandemic and its social and political consequences. It will be relevant to readers with a background in these areas, as well as anyone with a general interest in the language used to make sense of this global event.Trade Review“This book has many strengths and is an important and valuable contribution to cognitive linguistics and political communication fields, which obviously benefits from contemporary relevance to the ongoing crisis. Metaphors of Coronavirus is well worth reading by anyone – academic or lay person – with an interest in understanding the linguistic and communicative dynamics of the Coronavirus pandemic. … The takeaway message of this book is, for me, that metaphor is simply a linguistic tool and is not inherently dishonest.” (Emily Faux, Journal of Language and Politics, Vol. 21 (6), 2022)Table of Contents1. The Moral Frames and Coronavirus2. Metaphors of the Pandemic: War3. Metaphors of the Pandemic: Fire and Force of Nature4. The Pandemic as Zombie Apocalypse5. Epidemiology: Science, and Metaphor6. Disease, Confinement & Language7. ‘Bubbles’, ‘Cocoons’. The ‘Protective Ring’ and the ‘Petri Dish’: The Containment Frame and the Pandemic8. Metonyms of the Pandemic9. Magic, Miracle Cures and Metaphoric Thought in the Anti-Vaccine Movement10. Honesty and Dishonesty in Pandemic Language

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a comprehensive depiction of the causes and consequences of the Rohingya crisis, based on detailed ethnographic narratives provided by hundreds of Rohingya people who crossed the border following the Clearance Operation in 2017. The author critically engages with the identity politics on both sides of the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, and the categorisation of the Rohingya as the people of ‘no-man’s land’ amidst the socio-political and ethno-nationalist dynamics of colonial and postcolonial transition in the region. He then interrogates the role of the international community and aid industry, before providing in-depth policy recommendations based on his own experience working with Rohingya refugees. The book will be of interest to students, scholars, policymakers and NGOs in the fields of migration studies, anthropology, political science and international relations.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction: The Voices of Rohingya: Contexts & Idea-Settings.- Chapter 2: Research on Rohingya Refugees:MethodologicalChallenges & Textual Inadequacy .- Chapter 3: Research on Rohingya Refugees: Methodological Challenges & TextualInadequacy .- Chapter4:The State, Vulnerability, and Uncertainty: The Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.- Chapter 5: The State, Vulnerability, and Uncertainty:TheRohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.- Chapter 6: The State, Vulnerability, and Uncertainty: The Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.Chapter 7: Intensity of Brutality: Dealing as if the Rohingyas are ‘Subhuman’.- Chapter 8: The Rohingya in Transition: Atrocious Past, CriticalPresent and Uncertain Future.

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Book SynopsisChapter 1 - Introduction. Economists and social change.- Chapter 2 - In the service of the Soviet state. - Chapter 3 - Academic-bureaucratic nexus. - Chapter 4 - Economists and Politics. - Chapter 5 - Economists in Government. - Chapter 6 - Economists in Transition. Chapter 7 - Economic knowledge and authoritarian state.

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Book SynopsisNach der Phänomenologie von Einbildungskraft (2010) legt John Sallis eine Logik der Imagination vor. Sallis stellt sich in die Tradition Hegels, Husserls und Heideggers, wenn er versucht, den Anspruch der Logik über den Bereich der Sprache zu erweitern. Wenn wir in der Einbildungskraft aber auch Widersprüche erfahren, muss eine Logik der Imagination auch diesen gerecht werden. Nicht nur die Logik des Traums, auch die Tiefe des Erinnerns und die Uneinholbarkeit unserer Geburt erfassen wir nur in den Widersprüchen der Einbildungskraft. Mit dem Entwurf einer phänomenologischen Kosmologie erweitert Sallis die Logik der Imagination bis in die Unendlichkeit des Weltalls.

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the development of exorcism in Catholic Christianity from the fourth century to the present day, and seeks to explain why exorcism is still so much in demand. This is the first work in English to trace the development of the liturgy, practice and authorisation of exorcisms in Latin Christianity. The rite of exorcism, and the claim by Roman Catholic priests to be able to drive demons from the possessed, remains an enduring source of popular fascination, but the origins and history of this controversial rite have been little explored. Arguing that belief in the need for exorcism typically re-emerges at periods of crisis for the church, Francis Young explores the shifting boundaries between authorised exorcisms and unauthorised magic throughout Christian history, from Augustine of Hippo to Pope Francis. This book offers the historical background to – and suggests reasons for – the current resurgence of exorcism in the global Catholic Church.Trade Review“A history of exorcism in Catholic Christianity is a valuable contribution to Catholic theological and liturgical history. Because it includes relatively few exorcism narratives, it has less to contribute to the social history of religion. Also, the narratives that do appear do little to capture the drama of these exorcisms, which were theatrical productions in every sense of the word.” (Brian P. Levack, Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Vol. 70 (1), January, 2019)Table of Contents1. Introduction. - 2. Exorcism in the Early Christian West, 300–900. - 3. Exorcism in Crisis: The Middle Ages, 900–1500. - 4. Exorcism in Counter-Reformation Europe. - 5. Catholic Exorcism beyond Catholic Europe. - 6. Exorcism in the Age of Reason. - 7. Exorcism in an Age of Doubt: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. - 8. The Return of Exorcism

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Book SynopsisThis edited volume considers the U.S.-Mexico soccer rivalry, which occurs against a complex geo-political, social, and economic backdrop. Multidisciplinary contributions explore how a long and complicated history between these countries has produced a unique rivalry—one in which loyalties split friends and family; fan turnout in many regions of the U.S. favors Mexico; and games are imbued with both national pride and politics. The themes of nationhood, geography, citizenship, acculturation, identity, globalization, narrative and mythology reverberate throughout this book, especially with regard to how they shape place, identity, and culture.Table of ContentsSection 1: Nation and Citizenship1. The Border War for Young Mexican American Soccer Players: How Family and National Identity Play Out on the Field 2. Women’s Soccer in Mexico: A Unique Spin on the Rivalry with the United States3. Place, Nation and the U.S.-Mexico Soccer Rivalry: Dual Citizens, Home Stadiums, and Hosting the Gold CupSection 2: Media and Representation4. A Resistance to Rivalry: The U.S.-Mexico Soccer Matchup Through the Eyes of Mexican Sports Journalists, 1934-20135. Gendered Nations: Media Representations of the Men’s and Women’s U.S.-Mexico Soccer Rivalry5. Mexico “on Top:” Queering Masculinity in Contemporary Mexican Soccer ChroniclesSection 3: Mythology and Symbols7. Place, Memory, and Myth in Dos-A-Cero8. An (Im)penetrable Fortress: The Mythology of Estadio Azteca in the U.S.-Mexico Men’s National Team Soccer Rivalry9. Picturing a Rivalry: Nationhood, Soccer, and Contemporary ArtSection 4: Fans and Fandom10. Food-ball: Tailgates that Enculturate before U.S.-Mexico Fútbol Matches11. Global Fútbol, the Masked Fan and Flat Screen Arenas: Mexican Soccer Communities in the United States and the Genesis of the Tricolor Brand in Global Landscapes, 1970-201212. Bicultural Stress, Soccer and Rivalry: How Mexican-Americans Experience the Soccer Competition Between Their Two Countries

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Book SynopsisFrancis La Flesche (1857–1932) lived between two worlds: as an Umoⁿhoⁿ (Omaha), he fought for their rights, and as a scholar he researched his own culture. He is regarded as the first indigenous ethnologist of North America and stands representatively for the many indigenous protagonists without whom ethnological collections would never have come into being. We are no longer familiar with most of these individuals, since the focus until today has been on European and North American collectors. Francis La Flesche is an exception: his work provides insights into indigenous agency and their resistance to racism and colonialism as well as their active participation in the trade with objects. The book presents La Flesche’s records of the objects, the collection of which he contributed to what is today the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in 1894—an impressive testimony to his successful efforts to preserve the culture of the Omaha for future generations.

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Book SynopsisOn the Pulse of the Museum as Institution of the FutureFor quite some time now, ethnographic museums in Europe have been compelled to legitimate themselves. Their exhibition-making has become a topic of discussion, as has the contentious history of their collections, which have come about through colonial appropriation. Clearly, this cannot continue. That the situation can be different is something that Clémentine Deliss explores in her current publication. She offers an intriguing mix of autobiographically-informed novel and conceptual thesis on contemporary art and anthropology. Reflections on her own work while she was Director of Frankfurt’s Weltkulturen Museum (Museum of World Cultures) are interwoven with the explorations of influential filmmakers, artists and writers. She introduces the Metabolic Museum as an interventionist laboratory for remediating ethnographic collections for future generations. CLÉMENTINE DELISS has achieved international renown as a curator, cultural historian and publisher of artist’s books. In her role as Director of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, as a curator, and as a professor and researcher at eminent institutes and academies, she focuses on transdisciplinary and transcultural exchanges. She is Associate Curator of KW Berlin and Guest Professor at the Academy of Arts, Hamburg.

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Book SynopsisIn-Between: Exploring Small Cracks of Everyday Life is an anthology comprising contributions from a group of social scientists all preoccupied with the possibilities and potentials of working ethnographically. The chapters of the book investigates a range of small everyday life ‘cracks’ – a notion covering unnoticed, withdrawn and overlooked phenomena alike, and which designate the metaphorical interstices and in-betweens that influence and affect most aspects of everyday experience, the comprehensive field also subject to ethnographic inquiry. The chapters in the anthology are all based on original fieldwork and explore different cracks occurring in-between humans as well as in-between humans and non-human entities.A distinct element of the book as a whole is that it comprises experiments in terms of both ethnographic writing approaches as well as with the construction of analytical objects. The argument consistently going through the separate chapters, as well as through the volume in entirety, is that the many wondrous, mysterious, odd and puzzling phenomena encountered in everyday life are not necessarily grasped best by the application of strictly rational and rigorous academic approaches. To the contrary, and as the authors all demonstrate in their own manner, social science can also seek to fathom these sides of human existence with analytical explorations that are both sensitive, bold and infused with responsive and creative intensity.

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Book SynopsisThis book documents the practice-led research of painting as a peripatetic art practice through travel and transient life in Australia, India, and Pakistan. Crossing disciplines of Art, Applied Anthropology, and Cultural Geography, painting is explored as a way of negotiating the uncertainties inherent in cross-cultural journeys, and the possibility of connecting with others in their lifeworlds. The ways of navigating and of making that support creativity in the field are identified, as are the multifarious conditions of the field in view of how these shaped painting, and ultimately, the consciousness of the artist through possibilities for empathy, advocacy, and activism. The book includes many images that illustrate the form which painting took in the field and the techniques employed to create these. Interactive links in the eBook edition enable the reader to view documentary films about subjects with whom the artist worked, and that illustrate the field and conditions of making. Throughout the book the reader may also engage with virtual tours of the Australindopak Archive as the art work generated by this research.Table of ContentsPrologue.- Pakistan and Australia: The First Scroll: Canberra and Other Ideas.- Australia and India: The Second Scroll: Australind.- India, Pakistan and Australia: The Third Scroll: IndoPak.

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Book SynopsisLandes, a medievalist and historian of apocalyptic movements, takes us through the first years of the third millennium (2000-2003), documenting how a radical inability of Westerners to understand the medieval mentality that drove Global Jihad prompted a series of disastrous misinterpretations and misguided reactions that have shaped our so-far unhappy century. These misinterpretations in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2005, contributed fundamentally to the ever-worsening moral and empirical disorientations of our information elites (journalists, academics, pundits). So while journalists reported Palestinian war propaganda as news (lethal journalism), they were also reporting Jihadi war propaganda as news (own-goal war journalism). These radical disorientations have created our current dilemma of pervasive information distrust, deep splits within the voting public in most democracies, the politicization of science, and the inability of Western elites to defend their civilization, and instead, to stand down before an invasion.Trade Review“With its crisp, penetrating prose, its mastery of original and devastatingly insightful terminology (some of which is presented above), with moments of humor sprinkled in despite its very dark and depressing topic, this book is essential reading for anyone concerned for the Jews, Israel, and the future of Western Civilization.”— Andrew Pessin, The Tel Aviv Review of Books“(...) Landes’s new work makes a distinctive and valuable contribution to the large body of existing literature on antisemitism and the global jihad. This is especially evident when he… brings his excellent skills of close reading, textual analysis, and attention to detail to bear on the material. At its core, this is a compelling critique of the various journalists and public figures —especially in France, Britain, and the United States—who managed to be consistently wrong about the facts and their causes.”— Jeffrey Herf, Quillette“From the moment Yasser Arafat launched his long-planned second intifada against Israel in 2000, the most brazen lies about both Jews and Israel were relentlessly told and widely believed. … Richard Landes’s new work … fearlessly, carefully, relentlessly and brilliantly documents this history. … This book is an important history lesson…”— Phyllis Chesler, Jewish News Syndicate“Early in this deeply researched and absorbing work, Prof. Richard Landes… argues, if he has assessed and analyzed the issues correctly, global opinion has been consistently misled by the media about the truth of the Arab-Israel dispute, that this lethal journalism has fostered a continuous rise in antisemitism in the West, and that blinkered and largely unaware, the civilized world is facing an insidious enemy intent on its destruction. … [T]o the question he poses in his title – Can ‘The Whole World’ Be Wrong? – his closely reasoned, gripping and revelatory work returns a clear answer. Yes.”— Neville Teller, The Jerusalem Post“Landes dwells upon the al-Durah hoax in his new and magnificent book Can the Whole World be Wrong?: Lethal Journalism, Antisemitism and Global Jihad. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand today’s lunacies. ”— Melanie Phillips, Jewish News Syndicate“Dr. Landes sees the global jihad’s hatred of Israel as a victor over Muslims and a non-Muslim sovereign state in the middle east as fundamental if generally unacknowledged. His portrayal of the global jihad as hateful, dangerous, and detached from reality is convincing. This is a scholarly and passionate tome.”— Shmuel Ben-Gad, AJL News & Reviews“Relatively few members of Western elites have had the courage to speak up openly on behalf of Western civilisation. Richard Landes is one of these intrepid few. … This brief review… has certainly not done justice to the full richness and complexity of Landes’ thoughts. No 700-word review, after all, could possibly capture the full richness and complexity of a 500-page book. Suffice it to say here that… his findings and conclusions are eminently level-headed. Furthermore, whilst his book concentrates heavily on Jewish and Israeli themes, it can certainly be read with profit by anyone concerned about the direction in which Western societies are rapidly moving.”— David Rodman, Israel Affairs“Few observers of present-day antisemitism have been as tenacious and tough-minded as Richard Landes in identifying the ideas and people responsible for the upsurge of Jew-hatred in recent years. Placing this hostility within the broader context of illiberal thinking and militant anti-democratic movements, Landes plunges readers into the midst of a high-stakes intellectual and political battle. Written by a knowledgeable, sharply judgmental, and deeply committed combatant in today’s ideological debates about Jews and Israel, this book will rouse strong feelings as well as offer bold and provocative insights into matters of great historical and contemporary consequence.”– Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Professor of English and Jewish Studies and Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies, Indiana University“If you stay awake pondering the insanity of woke culture, particularly in its virulent form of Israel derangement syndrome, Can ‘The Whole World’ Be Wrong? is likely to give you even more reasons to despair. Opening with a warning “If I’m Right, We’re in Deep Trouble,” Professor Richard Landes provides readers with a guided tour of twenty-first-century obsessions, from ‘liberal cognitive egocentrics’ to demopaths armed with post-colonial kryptonite. At each stop, the meticulously documented book systematically exposes the facades of the intersectional self-righteousness and pseudo-morality of NGO propagandists and narrative journalists.”– Gerald M. Steinberg, Professor of Political Studies, Bar Ilan University, and founder, NGO MonitorTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsWarning to the Reader: If I’m Right, We’re in Deep TroubleIntroduction: Reflections of a Heretical MedievalistPart One—Selective History of the Disastrous Early Aughts (2000-2003)1. Al Durah: Spreading a Jihadi Blood Libel (2000)2. 9-11: Taking the World by Storm (2001)3. Jenin: Cheering on the Jihadi Suicide Terror (2002)4. Danoongate: The Muslim Street Extends Dar al Islam (2005-6)Part Two: Key Players5. The Premodern Mindset―Zero-Sum Honor6. Caliphators: A Fifteenth-Century Millennial Movement7. Liberal Cognitive Egocentrics and Their Demopathic Kryptonite8. The Global Progressive Left (GPL) in the Twenty-First Century9. Compliant, Lethal, Own-Goal War Journalism: The Bane of the West in the Twenty-First Century10. Anti-Zionist Jews: The Pathologies of Self-CriticismPart Three: Are We Really Going to Let This Happen (Again)?11. 2000: The Launch of Global Jihad12. Y2KMind: Oxymoronic Progressives13. Preemptive Dhimmitude: Unwitting Submission14. Woke Jihad: Contact Apocalyptic Highs15. To Sound Minds: On Our Watch?Glossary for Understanding Caliphator Cogwar in the Twenty-First CenturyEndnotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIndigenous healing is a paradox in the liberal settler colony, where an intervention fostering well-being might simultaneously aim to eliminate distinct Indigenous societies. This book aims to explain and complicate the prominence of Indigenous healing in Canadian public discourse in recent decades through theoretically-informed historical and ethnographic analysis disentangling the multiple meanings, practices, and social and political implications of healing. The book centres late twentieth-century Indigenous social histories in Treaty #3 territory and cities in northern and southern Ontario to show how practices of re-memberingmobilizing traditional ways of being and knowing towards social repair and rejuvenation of the collectiveare in part enabled by tactical engagements with the settler state which fuel the emergence of an Indigenized biopolitics from below. Analysis of the possibilities, tensions, and risks inherent to Indigenous biopolitical tactics is inflected by attentiveness to the longstanding role of liberalism in settler colonial social dismemberment of Indigenous peoples. Informed by Indigenous feminist scholarship's focus on relationality, care, and the everyday, as well as the intimate workings of settler colonialism, this book is intended to contribute to ongoing critical conversations about reconciliation and resurgence politics, and problematize their presumed opposition.

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Book SynopsisThis ethnography follows Bhutanese refugees who fled Bhutan, resided in camps in Nepal, and finally settled in the vastly different culture of Australia. Along the way, they learn the ways that humanitarian compassion is used to oppress, contain, and erode human rights. They also learn, however, that this charitable framework has small cracks that allow for action. The Bhutanese find ways to move between the contradictory expectations of refugee-ness as they strive to become citizens. Their experiences illustrate the complex strands of power that intertwine to limit the scope of people who “deserve compassion.” Neikirk also describes how responses to refugee crises have shifted from facilitating the movement of people to enforcing their containment. Readers in refugee studies, anthropology, and development studies will be interested in this rich transnational study.Trade Review“Neikirk’s ethnography documents the ways that key life moments are shaped by expectations put upon the Bhutanese as they wear the mantle of “'refugee.'” Susan Banki, University of Sydney“In this ethnographic study of Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal and Australia, Alice Neikirk makes an important empirical contribution to refugee and forced migration studies. She also contextualizes refugees’ experiences within humanitarian practices and pressures to conform to being an 'ideal' refugee." Christina Clark-Kazak, University of OttawaTable of Contents[Draft] Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: On the Fringe of Empires Chapter 3: Learning to Be Humanitarian Subjects Chapter 4: Behind the Performance Chapter 5: On the Threshold of Australia Chapter 6: Domestic Humanitarianism Chapter 7: Sanitizing Otherness, Becoming Australian Conclusion: Humanitarian Gestures References

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Book SynopsisThe study of the museum visitor has undergone radical transformation. Each author here has asked unfamiliar questions and responded with fresh answers. Some of these questions involve the visitor's identity, what she brings to her museum experience. Can we gain entry into this experience? Does more technology really increase access to the objects themselves? Others probe the very nature of museum going and exhibition making, demanding that we reexamine the traditional exhibition to reposition the visitor and her meaning-making at the centre. The volume provokes imaginative research and encourages new conclusions.

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Book SynopsisThis book deals with the values of medicinal plants and associated knowledge(s) in the field of bioprospecting in post-apartheid South Africa. Bioprospecting, the use of genetic or biological resources for commercial purposes, is a profit-oriented enterprise facing new challenges with the rise of human rights and biodiversity politics. This new situation has led to claims for political leverage made by indigenous communities, as well as to claims for national and local cultural identity and heritage. The picture presented here contributes to the widely discussed yet so far unresolved question of how to appropriately share benefits, and how to protect indigenous knowledge in this field.Trade Review"The reading of the book is [...] a journey through a country that is still a mystery to many Western Europeans and is associated with murder and manslaughter rather than with the natural capital this country possesses." Thomas Feltes, https://polizei-newsletter.de, 239 (2020), translated from German

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Book SynopsisMisunderstandings are often perceived as something to be avoided yet delineate an integrative part of everyday work. This book addresses the role that misunderstandings play in collaborative work and, above all, their effects on the organisational result. As exemplified by project collaboration across three offices of a multinational corporation in India, Frauke Mörike explores how misunderstandings shape the organisational system and why they prove not only necessary but even productive for organisational functioning. In doing so, she offers new ways to think about collaboration and establishes `misunderstanding' as a key factor of insight for the field of organisational research.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a major contribution to the sociology and anthropology of identity and to debates about identity in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe. Using extensive archival material alongside ethnographic fieldwork, the book explores being Danish, the meanings and practices which produced and reproduced Danishness in an ordinary Danish town during the 1990s. Among the many issues explored are attitudes to the European Union, the symbolism of the royal house and the flag, the States contribution to personal identity, the place of Christianity in Danishness, and the impact on Danes of the recent arrival of mainly Islamic immigrants. Bringing the story up to date with a discussion of the national political shift to the right since the late 1990s, the book concludes with a critical examination of the future of Danishness. Since 1992 and the Danish rejection of the EUs Maastricht Treaty, through the affair of the Mohammed cartoons in 2005, Denmark, although only a small country, has occupied a disproportionately visible place in European and global politics. The only detailed ethnographic study of the full spectrum of modern Danish identity, this book will find a wide market in anthropology, sociology, political science, international relations and European studies. This second edition brings the book further up to date with a discussion of recent developments, including the 2011 Danish general elections which saw a political shift back to the left. The author furthermore reflects on the responses and reviews that that the publication of the first edition fostered.

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Book SynopsisHow was the Jewish tradition reinvented in Russian-Jewish literature after a long period of assimilation, the Holocaust, and decades of Communism? The process of reinventing the tradition began in the counter-culture of Jewish dissidents, in the midst of the late-Soviet underground of the 1960-1970s, and it continues to the present day. In this period, Jewish literature addresses the reader of the ‘post-human’ epoch, when the knowledge about traditional Jewry and Judaism is received not from the family members or the collective environment, but rather from books, paintings, museums and popular culture.Klavdia Smola explores how contemporary Russian-Jewish literature turns to the traditions of Jewish writing, from biblical Judaism to early-Soviet (anti-)Zionist novels, and how it ‘re-writes’ Haskalah satire, Hassidic Midrash or Yiddish travelogues.Trade Review“The reader, thanks to the author’s deep dive into the literary works she brings forward to make her case, will come away from this book with a recognition and appreciation of the work of a number of well-regarded (although not widely known) authors, whether resident in Russia, Israel, the US or elsewhere, concerned with Jewish identity as shaped and perceived through Soviet and Russian experience. … Reinventing Tradition is a distinguished contribution to the understanding of this revitalization and rediscovery, looking to make the search by Soviet and Russian Jewish authors more widely known and a source of insight and wisdom to be brought near.”— Mindy C. Reiser, AJL News & Reviews“It is well known that a driving force for the formation of underground cultures in former republics of the USSR was the national revival. In her excellent monograph, Klavdia Smola, a prominent scholar of the Soviet nonconformism, focuses on underground literature born by Jewish national revival—a decentralized process that engaged Jews from all republics and regions of the Soviet Union. She meticulously reconstructs a cultural dimension of the political movement for Jewish immigration from the USSR and through the analysis of Russophone Jewish underground literature, traces the development of its main myths and discourses, from their emergence in the 1960s prose of exodus to their ironic deconstructions in postmodernist writings of the 1980s-90s and essentialization in neo-Zionist narratives in the 2000s. This book will be invaluable not only for students of Jewish cultural history but also in courses on national revival in the late Soviet Union and on Russophone literature as a growing new field of studies. Klavdia Smola’s book is pioneering in all these directions.”— Mark Lipovetsky, Columbia University“Klavdia Smola’s superbly researched and deeply illuminating book is a must have for anyone interested in the pathways of Jewish creativity in Russian during the late Soviet and post-Soviet epochs. Especially noteworthy are Smola’s intricate readings of the little known writers who were part of the underground scene in the Soviet Union and later immigrated to Israel. With its breadth of the material covered and innovative theoretical approaches, Smola’s volume makes an invaluable contribution to the study of Russian Jewish literature and culture.”— Marat Grinberg, Professor of Russian and Humanities, Reed College, Author of The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf: Jewish Culture and Identity between the Lines“The course of Russian-Jewish literature never did run smooth: not when most Russian-speaking Jews were forced by the Tsars to live within the Pale of Settlement; not under Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev et al.; not after the collapse of the Soviet Empire—how much less so with the successive waves of mass Jewish emigration to Israel, Germany, and North America. Only an expert cartographer like Klavdia Smola, therefore, could see what no one else has seen: that it was through prose fiction and storytelling that three generations of Russian-Jewish writers have constructed their own ‘bridge of longing’ across the historical abyss. As this densely argued book demonstrates, the story doesn’t end with those who experienced corporate Jewish life first-hand. Rather, through all the tricks of the literary trade and by drawing creatively from a century of modern Yiddish writing, they succeeded in fashioning a complex new identity and a new Jewish mythology.”— David G. Roskies, Emeritus Professor of Yiddish Literature and Culture, the Jewish Theological SeminaryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Tradition and Innovation in Judaism—Text and CommentarySemantics of the Posthuman Era: The (Re)Invention of Jewishness Semiotic Context Cultural-Historical Context Poetics of (Anti-)Imperial (Anti-)Assimilation Research Approaches Research Trends and Research Deficits State of the Art Perspective and Boundaries of the StudyAbove the Ground Refocusing Jewish StudiesLiterary History, Poetics, and Cultural StudiesText Selection: Time and Geography Russian Jewish Literature as a Bicultural Phenomenon Jewish Dissent of the Late Soviet Era: Underground, Exodus, Literature Soviet Jews: Collective Images and MythsJews as Translators: Literary MimicryPolitical Context and Literary Reflections of Jewish Counter-Culture: An Overview Emigration, Literary Institutions, and Readers Prose of Exodus “The Excitement of Memory”: Efrem Baukh’s Jacob’s LadderThe Martyrdom of Refusal: David Shrayer-Petrov’s Herbert and NelliMysticism of the Exodus: Eli Liuksemburg“The Third Temple” The Tenth HungerEducation of the New Jew: David Markish’s PreambleLate Soviet Exodus Novels: Poetics and MessageBipolar Models: The Zionist and the Socialist-Realist NovelAxes of Nonconformist Jewish Literature Iuz Aleshkovskii: “Carousel” Grigorii Vol′dman: Sheremetyevo Feliks Kandel′: The Gates of Our Exodus and Semen Lipkin: Pictures and VoicesIakov Tsigel′man: The Funeral of Moishe DorferIuliia Shmukler: “This Last Day”Negated Dichotomies: The Failed Utopia of Aliyah Efraim Sevela’s Zionist Counter-Narratives Iakov Tsigel′man’s Novel-Palimpsest Time and Space Structures in Nonconformist Jewish Literature Reinvention of Yiddish Storytelling Jewish Narrative and Semiotics of YiddishShlemiels and Rogues: Efraim Sevela’s The Legends of Invalidnaia Street An Old Jewess in a Monologue with the Reader: Filipp Isaak Berman’s “Sarra and the Little Rooster”Conclusion: Yiddish as a QuoteAftermath and Impact of Jewish Counter-Culture Neo-Zionist Essentialist Narratives Jewish Revival Russian Jewish Literature after Communism (Post)Memorial Literature: Palimpsests, Residuals, Reinvention (Post)Memorial Jewish WritingMemory as Obsession and Fragment: Izrail′ Metter’s “Family Tree” (Post)Memorial Topographies: Grigorii Kanovich’s “Dream about the Disappeared Jerusalem” Jewish Deconstruction of the Empire Archaic Language of the Dictatorship: Mikhail Iudson’s Dystopia The Ladder onto the Closet Postcolonial Mimic Man: Aleksandr Melikhov’s The Confession of a JewOleg Iur′ev’s Hybrid Poetics: Peninsula ZhidiatinIakov Tsigel′man’s Postmodern Midrash: Shebsl the MusicianConclusion Bibliography Literary WorksResearch Literature Index of Names

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Book SynopsisThe Dream of Social Justice and Bad Moral Luck examines the intertwined lives of five women and three men, Russian Jews in the first half of the twentieth century, as their belief in social transformation unraveled. The book looks at why these eight people bought into the dream, and what they did when things went bad. Under what circumstances did they bow to political pressures antithetical to the ideas they professed, and under what circumstances did they resist, even heroically? Political cowardice is a constant theme, but so is moral resistance that had no point beyond an individual’s conscience.Trade Review“If you were arrested and interrogated by the NKVD in Lubyanka, how would you act? In telling not only the WHAT but also exploring the crucial WHY, award-winning author Alice Stone Nakhimovsky brings posthumous justice and dignity to the martyrs of socialism. In eight dramatic story-biographies, she fixes on truth in the face of humanity’s most painful cruelties.”— Brian (Yossi) Horowitz, Sizeler Family Chair Professor, Tulane University“The Dream of Social Justice and Bad Moral Luck provides parallel stories of eight men and women—all of them Jews—who lived and died under catastrophic historical circumstances, the 1917 revolution, World War II, the Holocaust, and several waves of Stalin’s terror, forced to make difficult moral choices. The results were out of their control.A historical study, carefully researched, this book will fascinate diverse readers who wonder how people lived and acted in ‘dark times.’ Superbly written, enhanced by the author’s gentle irony, it speaks to those who negotiate the political and cultural landscape we inhabit today.”— Irina Paperno, author of Stories of the Soviet Experience: Memoirs, Diaries, Dreams“This book by Alice Nakhimovsky makes a superb new addition to the growing library of studies of Soviet Jewry, which is not surprising, considering Nakhimovsky's status as one of the founders of the field of Russian-Jewish literary studies. The stories Nakhimovsky tells—from the poet Leyb Kvitko to the writer Vasily Grossman—illuminate the hopes and tragedies of the lives of Soviet Jewish intellectuals under Stalin, enriching immensely the readers' understanding of this complex and pivotal epoch.”— Marat Grinberg, Professor of Russian and Humanities, Reed College “Alice Nakhimovsky's new book writes new history of Soviet Jewish culture by focusing on individuals who both created it and fell victims to Soviet policies towards it. Focusing on eight people, three men and five women, including writers Vassily Grossman and Leyb Kvitko, scientist Lina Shtern, translator Lilianna Lungina and others, the book offers insights on career trajectories, difficult choices and dilemmas of these talented individuals. By avoiding the old-fashioned lenses of suppression or totalitarian ideologies, or imposing measures of identity, the book is an excellent example of what happens to a historical writing when people are placed front and center, rather than as illustrations to broader phenomenon. Nakhimovsky’s study is deeply researched, extraordinarily insightful, and beautifully written. I cannot recommend it highly enough!”— Anna Shternshis, Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish Studies, University of TorontoTable of ContentsA Note on TranscriptionPrefaceIntroduction: The Soviet-Jewish Historical Calendar and Moral Decision-Making, 1890 to 19531. OriginsDoba-Mera Medvedeva: A Working Girl Seeks a FutureLeyb Kvitko: Shtetl, Poetry, ViolenceSolomon Lozovsky: Blacksmith, Autodidact, Orator2. Communist Romance and Border Crossings, 1917 through the 1930s: Part ILeyb Kvitko: TransformationsSolomon Lozovsky: Fighter, Compromiser, Fiction WriterLina Shtern: A Career in Science and a Fateful ChoiceDoba-Mera Medvedeva: Two Borders, Poor Choices3. Communist Romance and Border Crossings, 1917 through the 1930s: Part INadezhda and Alexander Ulanovsky: Anarchism to EspionageMary Leder: Santa Monica, Birobidzhan, MoscowLilianna Lungina: A German Child, a French Child, a Soviet Adolescent4. Negotiating the Late 1930s: Terror and CareerKvitko: Prosperity and CompromiseMary Leder: Close EncountersNadezhda Ulanovskaya: Communications and Failed CommunicationsVasily Grossman: Jews vs Bolsheviks, and Jewish Bolsheviks5. War: 1941–1945Kvitko: Despair and FaithShtern: IconoclasmLeder: Evacuation and TraumaMedvedeva: Evacuation without Privilege, Grief beyond ResentmentGrossman: A Personal Quest6. Jews, Scientists, and the Trial of the Jewish Antifascist Committee, 1944–1952Kvitko: “I don’t value my life. I want to leave here with a pure heart”Lozovsky: “I can’t look Academician Shtern in the eyes”Shtern: “I always tell the truth”Grossman: Scientists and Old Bolsheviks7. Jews, Doctors, and AliensNadezhda Ulanovskaya: Foreign ConnectionsMary Leder: EndgameLilianna Lungina: Reality and RumorVasily Grossman: A Novel and a Letter8. What Happened NextBibliography

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Book SynopsisAn anthropological analysis of Sarajevo and its cultural complexities that examines contemporary issues of social divisiveness, pluralism, and intergroup dynamics in the context of national identity and state formation.Trade Review"Markowitz dispels widely held myths that Sarajevo has become a purely Muslim city. . . . The author's many insights into Sarajevo and its kaleidoscope of inhabitants are welcome and valuable."Slavic Review"A warm and well-written portrait of Sarajevo during its first post-war decade."--Journal of the Royal Anthropological institute"Markowitz has succeeded in combining a solid work of scholarship with a personal take on her subject which she explores in a very thorough and balanced way. This is a rich contribution to the scholarship on the issue of identify in present-day Bosnia & Hercegovina and deserves a wide audience, appealing to both the academic and general reader."--Europe-Asia Studies"A stunningly fresh and invigorating analysis. Markowitz's inspired approach offers multiple possibilities for envisioning the city and for recasting Bosnian identity."--Michael Herzfeld, author of Evicted from Eternity: The Restructuring of Modern Rome"Recommended."--ChoiceTable of ContentsList of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Pronunciation Guide Introductions 1.Meeting and Greeting the City; 2. Practices of Place: Living in and Enlivening Sarajevo Bosniacs, Croats, and Serbs: The Constituent Nations of Bosnia-Herzegovina 3. National Legibility: Lines of History, Surges of Ethnicity; 4. Census and Sensibility: Confirming the Constitution Ostali: The Other People(s) of Bosnia-Herzegovina 5. Where Have All the Yugoslavs, Slovenes, and Gypsies Gone?; 6. Sarajevo's Jews: One Community among the Others; 7. Insisting on Bosnia-Herzegovina: Bosnian Hybridity Conclusion 8. After Yugoslavia, after War, after All: Sarajevo's Cultural Legacies Glossary; Notes; References; Index

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Book SynopsisDemonstrates the existence of a coherent pre-Islamic Arabian myth that was subsequently incorporated into Islamic poetic tradition. This book dissects the Arab-Islamic myth built around Muhammad's unearthing of a "golden bough" from the grave of the last survivor of an ancient Arab people.Trade ReviewUntil now Arabian myth has been ignored at the same time that other ancient Near Eastern myths have been studied at length. Stetkevych (Univ. of Chicago) succeeds brilliantly in reconstructing the myth of the destruction of the Thamud, an ancient people of north Arabia. His key to this myth is a canonical story of the discovery by the prophet Muhammad of a golden bough at the very site where the Thamud are thought to have been destroyed by a scourge from God. Through careful philological, historical, and literary analysis he sets the story of this golden bough in an ever-widening context of myth and legend, reaching back to Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid. James Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890, 1915) is examined and reevaluated in the light of the other golden bough myths. Stetkevych's argument for the existence of an autochthonous Arabian myth is entirely convincing, and this book will add a new dimension to the study of Near Eastern and Mediterranean myth and legend. Highly recommended for collections in folklore and mythology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and Islam.W. L. Hanaway, emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, 1997apr CHOICE.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Reclaiming Arabian Myth1. The Textual Puzzle2. The Thamudic Backdrop to the Puzzle3. The First Answer to the Puzzle: The Raid on Tabuk4. The Totem and the Taboo5. Poeticizing the Thamud6. Demythologizing the Thamud7. The Scream8. The Arabian Golden Bough and Kindred Branches: Frazer, Vergil, Homer, and GilgameshConclusion

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Book SynopsisIn China, the weather has changed. Decades of reform have been shadowed by a changing meteorological normal: seasonal dust storms and spectacular episodes of air pollution have reworked physical and political relations between land and air in China and downwind. Continent in Dust offers an anthropology of strange weather, focusing on intersections among statecraft, landscape, atmosphere, and society. Traveling from state engineering programs that attempt to choreograph the movement of mobile dunes in the interior, to newly reconfigured bodies and airspaces in Beijing, and beyond, this book explores contemporary China as a weather system in the making: what would it mean to understand the rise of China literally, as the country itself rises into the air? Trade Review"Continent in Dust is a timely and critical intervention in the roles and relationships of China and Asia in weather-world-systems. . . . It is a welcome contribution to a growing conversation about how material, ecological and meteorological phenomena are mutually implicated with practices, knowledges and experiences of sovereignty, ethics, and sociality." * International Journal of Asian Studies *"Continent in Dust is a literary adventure." * Anthropology and Humanism *"Continent in Dust is an ambitious and intriguing book. A delightful read which should be widely utilized in teaching and discussions on contemporary China and planetary health and change." * The China Quarterly *"More than anything, Continent in Dust is an essential intervention into recent writings about the arts of living amid planetary uncertainty, precarity and ruin. Reading this book is like seeing the blue sky emerge from a dust storm’s haze. Jerry Zee shows us how to reorient our senses and conceptual toolkits to see onto other possible worlds." * Inner Asia *"The book reframes how we think and write about practical action and responses in the face of climate emergency." * Publics Books *"A groundbreaking book on the management of dust storm and air quality in China. . . . Zee’s book is an enduring meditation on the consequences of China’s modernisation." * China Perspectives *Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Apparatus A. Nightwind Introduction: Earthly Interphases Part I Wind-Sand Apparatus B. The Wind Tunnel 1. Machine Sky Apparatus C. A Sheet of Loose Sand 2. Groundwork Apparatus D. Five Thousand Years 3. Holding Patterns Part II Fine Particulate Matter 4. Particulate Exposures Apparatus E. Wildfires 5. City of Chambers Part III Continent in Dust Apparatus F. A Sinocene 6. Downwinds Apparatus G. Monsters Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisWhy do citizens of states with strict surveillance care so little about their digital privacy? Why do Brazilians eschew geo-tagging on social media? What drives young Indians to friend “foreign” strangers on Facebook and give “missed calls” to people? Payal Arora answers these questions and many more about the internet’s next billion users.Trade ReviewArora shows that many of the world’s poor don’t seek out the Internet as a tool to become more productive, but as a welcome outlet for economically ‘unproductive’ play…That the Internet fails as a magical cure-all for historical circumstance may be unwelcome news to techno-utopians and overzealous development practitioners, but there is hope in its capacity to augment and expand human leisure beyond the realm of material advancement. -- Evan Malmgren * The Nation *A must-read for any individual seeking to promote economic growth and development in the digital age. Arora’s deeply rooted research exposes digital stereotypes as well as the perils and opportunities that exist at the interplay of culture, technology, regulation, commerce, and the next generation of digital users. -- Justin van Fleet, Director of the International Commission on Financing Global Education OpportunityWhether you are a government agency seeking to bring public goods and services to underprivileged citizens, a multinational corporation entering emerging markets, or an NGO implementing aid, The Next Billion Users is essential, data-driven reading that will guide your digital and real-world strategies. -- Shaun Wiggins, President and CEO of SoteryxThe Next Billion Users is mandatory reading for anyone interested in understanding the future of technology or designing applications that are truly valuable for the majority of the people on the planet. -- Ronaldo Lemos, Director of the Institute for Technology & Society of Rio de JaneiroThis book is a feat—insightful, poignant, riveting. Through detailed case studies and interviews, Payal Arora rewrites the story of our relationship to digital technology from a truly global perspective. Her conclusions are as surprising as they are revealing about the future of social media, gaming, mobile phones, and online commerce and education. -- Marwan Kraidy, author of The Naked Blogger of CairoThis powerful book explores actual online lives in China, India and Brazil and asks why many of us in the West are surprised and sometimes offended by the fact that the impoverished are just as committed as we are to the search for ‘moments of pleasure and joy.’ * Times Higher Education *Superb…Uncomfortable, myth-busting, and compelling, The Next Billion Users challenges our collective superiority complexes and questions the way we see technology in the connected world. -- Nick Smith * Engineering and Technology *A ‘must-read’ for anyone interested in digital uses around the world…A priceless study, tremendously documented. -- Irenaeus Regnauld * Digital Society Forum *The conventional storyline around the transformative effect of technology on people’s lives often doesn’t ring true…Any leader whose company sees the global poor as a key market will find its reality-based view of the intended customers bracing and useful. -- Theodore Kinni * Strategy + Business *Convincingly points out that the promises of technology itself bridging educational divides have not come true…Arora's core message is that the youth in developing countries are like their peers everywhere…Their basic motivations, however, do not differ from those of other people. The limitations they face in daily life reappear in the digital sphere. -- Hans Dembowski * D+C *Payal’s findings show that the global poor use online media not just to study, find jobs, and obtain health information, but also seek pleasure, visibility, leisure, and entertainment. In the process, they negotiate issues of privacy, interaction and social tradition. -- Madanmohan Rao * YourStory *Extremely enlightening in regard to preconceived Western notions of the Global South and the impact of new technologies on the poor. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the ASIS&T Best Information Science Book Award, Association for Information Science and Technology""Finalist for the Rachel Carson Prize, Society for Social Studies of Science""[Dunbar-Hester's] conclusions are refreshingly universal and her insights will be valuable to many people seeking to make their industries more diverse and inclusive." * Lady Science *"Dunbar-Hester notes that diverse hacking efforts in open technology communities have made some progress toward creating more inclusive environments. But these efforts remain limited in their approach and conflate technological participation with the social power that is an outgrowth of it. Framing diversity in open technology communities as a problem of representation is convenient and does produce some morally good outcomes."---Jenna P. Carpenter, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine"an innovative and valuable work ... Dunbar-Hester’s qualitative exploration can serve as a rich foundation for further investigation into the dynamics of intersectional communities, justice work, and technology studies."---Rowan McMullen Cheng, Information, Communication, & Society

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Book SynopsisNew edition of this core text for all students of social anthropology. Additions include cultural property rights and commercialisation of identity.Trade Review'As a introduction to the study of ethnicity, [this] book will do excellently' -- Ethnologia Scandinavica'This is a delightful book. The volume is well structured and written in clear and accessible language; it will not be at all surprising if it becomes a major teaching aid and textbook in the field' -- Ephraim Nimni, School of Political Science, University of New South Wales'An excellent book when it first came out, Ethnicity and Nationalism is an even richer, more subtle book in this new edition' -- Nations and NationalismTable of ContentsSeries preface Preface to the third edition Preface to the second edition Preface to the first edition 1. What is ethnicity? 2. Ethnic classification: Us and Them 3. The social organisation of cultural distinctiveness 4. Ethnic identification and ideology 5. Ethnicity in history 6. Nationalism 7. Minorities and the state 8. Identity politics, culture and rights 9. The non-ethnic Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBased on over ten years experience working in the industry, this is an expose of the gambling businessTrade Review'Cassidy takes readers behind the scenes of the commercial gambling industry to reveal how it reinvents itself in the face of shifting technology, economic prospects, and regulative logics. From machine-packed betting shops on London's high streets, to raffles at countryside churches, she offers a first-hand view of the dynamic -and sometimes vicious - interactions between the hunt for profit and punters' lives' -- Natasha D. Schull, author of 'Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas''Cassidy's book offers new insights into the gambling industry and its social order, perceived norms and lived values. At a time when gambling is struggling to maintain its reputation as a leisure pursuit, the stories in this book should be a wake up call to those who deny there is any need for reform' -- Anna van der Gaag, Chair of the Advisory Board for Safer GamblingTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Gambling’s New Deal 2. Raffles: Gambling for Good 3. The Birth of the Betting Shop 4. The Rise of the Machines 5. The Responsible Gambling Myth 6. The Bookmaker’s Lament 7. Online in Gibraltar 8. The Regulation Game Conclusions Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisStories of smuggling as acts of resistance and decolonisationTrade Review'This conceptually vivid book refreshes our vision. We can see how vulnerable people combine, innovate, and revise what they do to make geography from below. There, at the margins, is life in rehearsal' -- Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of 'Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation''At last, an urgent and brilliant collection of histories 'from below', about the people and goods transgressing the borders of global capitalism. The world economy will never look quite the same’ -- Marcus Rediker, co-author of 'The Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic''Tells amazing stories from the ground of how people negotiate with borders, state, local officials and carry on lives in the midst of everyday border violence. There is no morality play here. Migration, clandestine existence and illegal activities like smuggling - these are not acts to be found in some independent criminal universe. These are part of society's subterranean life' -- Ranabir Samaddar, Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies at the Mahanirban Calcutta Research GroupTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements About the Cover Image Introduction: To See Like a Smuggler - Mahmoud Keshavarz and Shahram Khosravi 1. Smuggling as a Collective Enterprise: Ethiopian/Wollo Migration to Saudi Arabia - Tekalign Ayalew Mengiste 2. Aurelian Dreams: Gold Smuggling and Mobilities across Colonial and Contemporary Asia - Nichola Khan 3. The Border Merchant - Aliyeh Ataei 4. Smugglers and the State Effect at the Mexico-Guatemala Border - Rebecca B. Galemba 5. Kolbari: Workers Not Smugglers - Amin Parsa 6. From the Smuggling of Goods to the Smuggling of Drugs in La Guajira, Colombia - Javier Guerrero-C 7. Contesting Common Sense: Smuggling across the India-Bangladesh Border - Debdatta Chowdhury 8 The Bus Economy: A 90-day Gateway across Zimbabwe-South Africa - Kennedy Chikerema 9. Illicit Design Sensibilities: The Material and Infrastructural Potentialities of Drug Smuggling - Craig Martin 10. A Partial Offering: In and Out of Smuggling - Simon Harvey Afterword: Seeing Freedom - Nandita Sharma Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThe geography and nature of the country is discussed and elucidated with maps and drawings.Trade ReviewThis beautifully produced book..with its very useful glossary of 203 pages, a detailed and yet clear-cut grammar and the texts, each with an extra word-list, should be an ideal introduction to modern Icelandic. NeophilologusTable of ContentsContents: Preface Preface to the Second Edition How To Use This Book Topical Index Bibliography Abbreviations Contents List of Illustrations Grammar and Texts Contents of Grammar Grammar Texts I Texts II Glossary

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Book SynopsisWhen Blue Bird and her grandmother leave their family's camp to gather beans for the long, threatening winter, they inadvertently avoid the horrible fate that befalls the rest of the family. Luckily, the two women are adopted by a nearby Dakota community and are eventually integrated into their kinship circles.Trade Review“Exquisite evocation, in novelistic form, of the life of a female Dakota (Sioux) in the mid-nineteenth century, before whites settled the plains. . . . An unself-conscious and never precious or quaint pairing of scholarship and fiction.”—Kirkus“[Deloria’s] novel is a distinguished work of literature at the same time that it is an important exercise in historical reconstruction, based on her wide and deep study of Dakota texts.”—World Literature Today“Waterlily is by one who knows the culture from within, and in its instruction about Dakota ethnography the book strikes me . . . as wonderfully fine. Day to day life of the traditional Dakota is rendered in sympathetic detail.”—Arnold Krupat, The Nation"Deloria tells universal truths cast in an authentic framework of early nineteenth-century Plains Indian society. . . . The feminine point of view is genius."—Journal of the West“No one is better qualified than Deloria to draw together a series of Sioux female characters such as the ones central to this novel. . . . Deloria was bilingual as well as bicultural. Through her work we see the value of the insider’s perspective as a bridge of understanding for those outside the culture.”—Ines Talamantez, Los Angeles TimesTable of ContentsIntroductionPublisher's PrefaceWaterlilyBiographical Sketch of the AuthorAfterwordIndex

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