Social and cultural anthropology Books
Edinburgh University Press Transnational Culture in the Iranian Armenian
Book SynopsisStudies the ways that diasporic Iranian Armenian authors and artists negotiate their identities as minoritized population within a liminal space that includes religious, ethnic, national, racial, cultural, gender, and sexual factors.
£18.99
Picador USA Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media
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£12.35
Duke University Press Militarization
Book SynopsisMilitarization: A Reader offers a range of critical perspectives on the dynamics of militarization as a social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental phenomenon. It portrays militarism as the condition in which military values and frameworks come to dominate state structures and public culture both in foreign relations and in the domestic sphere. Featuring short, readable essays by anthropologists, historians, political scientists, cultural theorists, and media commentators, the Readerprobes militarism's ideologies, including those that valorize warriors, armed conflict, and weaponry. Outlining contemporary militarization processes at work around the world, the Reader offers a wide-ranging examination of a phenomenon that touches the lives of billions of people. In collaboration with Catherine Besteman, Andrew Bickford, Catherine Lutz, Katherine T. McCaffrey, Austin Miller, David H. Price, David VineTrade Review“This wonderfully innovative, distinctive, and timely book has the additional value of taking an anthropological approach to militarism. Its editors have been among the key actors in crafting sharp and valuable critiques of the creeping militarization of their disciplines, particularly as practiced by U.S.-based scholars. This volume offers some of the most cogent explorations of the many-layered workings of militarism.” -- Cynthia Enloe, author of * Globalization and Militarism *“Militarism's reach extends far beyond the weapons and armed police and soldiers prowling our streets and deployed around the world, as its rhetoric normalizes violence and war. This deeply intersectional collection insists on the vantage point of militarism's victims, historically and today, while exposing those who profit from it. This volume provides an astonishingly comprehensive introduction to the globalized systems threatening not only individuals, but whole nations, peoples, and cultures, all captured by a profoundly militarized United States.” -- Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, author of * Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror *“At just over 400 pages, including a very useful twenty-seven-page bibliography, [Militarization] reflects an enormous and dedicated effort. . . . The book offers us a path to think past our disciplinary fetishization of the lone wordsmith in knowledge production.” -- Keith Brown * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *“The editors bring a compelling and timely ethic of demilitarization to our discipline. . . . The volume’s strength is its comprehensive coverage and intersectional, multidisciplinary approach to militarization and its impacts.” -- Leah Zani * Anthropological Quarterly *Table of ContentsEditors' Note xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction / Roberto J. González and Hugh Gusterson 1 Section I. Militarization and Political Economy Introduction / Catherine Lutz 27 1.1. The U.S. Imperial Triangle and Military Spending / John Bellamy Foster, Hannah Holleman, and Robert W. McChesney 29 1.2. Farewell Address to the Nation, January 17, 1961 / Dwight D. Eisenhower 36 1.3. The Militarization of Sports and the Redefinition of Patriotism / William Astore 38 1.4. Violence, Just in Time: War and Work in Contemporary West Africa / Daniel Hoffman 42 1.5. Women, Economy, War / Carolyn Nordstrom 51 Section II. Military Labor 2.1. Soldiering as Work: The All-Volunteer Force in the United States / Beth Bailey 59 2.2. Sexing the Globe / Sealing Cheng 62 2.3. Military Monks / Michael Jerryson 67 2.4. Child Soldiers after War / Brandon Kohrt and Robert Koenig 71 2.5. Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire / Paul H. Kratoska 73 2.6. Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry / P. W. Singer 76 Section III. Gender and Militarism Introduction / Katherine T. McCaffery 83 3.1. Gender in Transition: Common Sense, Women, and War / Kimberly Theidon 85 3.2. The Compassionate Warrior: Wartime Sacrifice / Jean Bethke Elshtain 91 3.3. Creating Citizens, Making Men: The Military and Masculinity in Bolivia / Lesley Gill 95 3.4. One of the Guys: Military Women and the Argentine Army / Máximo Badaró 101 Section IV. The Emotional Life of Militarism Introduction / Catherine Lutz 109 4.1. Militarization and the Madness of Everyday Life / Nancy Scheper-Hughes 111 4.2. Fear as a Way of Life / Linda Green 118 4.3. Evil, the Self, and Survival / Robert Jay Lifton (Interviewed by Harry Kreisler) 127 4.4. Target Audience: The Emotional Impact of U.S. Governmental Films on Nuclear Testing / Joseph Masco 130 Section V. Rhetorics of Militarism Introduction / Andrew Bickford 141 5.1. The Militarization of Cherry Blossoms / Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney 143 5.2. The "Old West" in the Middle East: U.S. Military Metaphors in Real and Imagined Indian Country / Stephen W. Silliman 148 5.3. Ideology, Culture, and the Cold War / Naoko Shidusawa 154 5.4. The Military Normal: Feeling at Home with Counterinsurgency in the United States / Catherine Lutz 157 5.5. Nuclear Orientalism / Hugh Gusterson 163 Section VI. Militarization, Place, and Territory Introduction / Roberto J. González 167 6.1. Making War at Home / Catherine Lutz 168 6.2. Spillover: The U.S. Military's Sociospatial Impact / Mark L. Gillen 175 6.3. Nuclear Landscapes: The Marshall Islands and Its Radioactive Legacy / Barbara Rose Johnston 181 6.4. The War on Terror, Dismantling, and the Construction of Place: An Ethnographic Perspective from Palestine / Julie Peteet 186 6.5. The Border Wall Is a Metaphor / Jason de León (Interviewed by Micheline Aharońian Marcom) 192 Section VII. Militarized Humanitarianism Introduction / Catherine Besteman 197 7.1. Laboratory of Intervention: The Humanitarian Governance of the Postcommunist Balkan Territories / Mariella Pandolfi 199 7.2. Armed for Humanity / Michael Barnett 203 7.3. The Passions of Protection: Sovereign Authority and Humanitarian War / Anne Orford 208 7.4. Responsibility to Protect or Right to Punish? / Mahmood Mamdani 212 7.5. Utopias of Power: From Human Security to the Presponsibility to Protect / Chowra Makaremi 218 Section VIII. Militarism and the Media Introduction / Hugh Gusterson 223 8.1. Pentagon Pundits / David Barstow (Interview by Amy Goodman) 224 8.2. Operation Hollywood / David L. Robb (Interviewed by Jeff Fleischer) 230 8.3. Discipline and Publish / Mark Pedelty 234 8.4. The Enola Gay on Display / John Whittier Treat 239 8.5. War Porn: Hollywood and War, from World War II to American Sniper / Peter van Buren 243 Section IX. Militarizing Knowledge Introduction / David H. Price 249 9.1. Boundary Displacement: The State, the Foundations, and International and Area Studies during and after the Cold War / Bruce Cumings 251 9.2. The Career of Cold War Psychology / Ellen Herman 254 9.3. Scientific Colonialism / Johan Galtung 259 9.4. Research ni Foreign Areas / Ralph L. Beals 265 9.5. Rethinking the Promise of Critical Education / Henry A. Giroux (Interviewed by Chronis Polychroniou) 270 Section X. Militarization and the Body Introduction / Roberto J. González 275 10.1. Nuclear War, the Gulf War, and the Disappearing Body / Hugh Gusterson 276 10.2. The Structure of War: The Juxtaposition of Injuried Bodies and Unanchored Issues / Elaine Scarry 283 10.3. The Enhanced Warfighter / Kenneth Ford and Clark Glymour 291 10.4. Suffering Child: An Embodiment of War and Its Aftermath in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua / James Quesada 296 Section XI. Militarism and Technology Introduction / Hugh Gusterson 303 11.1. Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543–1879 / Noel Perrin 305 11.2. Life Underground: Building the American Bunker Society / Joseph Masco 307 11.3. Militarizing Space / David H. Price 316 11.4. Embodiment and Affect in a Digital Age: Understanding Mental Illness among Military Drone Personnel / Alex Edney-Browne 319 11.5. Land Mines and Cluster Bombs: "Weapons of Mass Destruction in Slow Motion" / H. Patricia Hynes 324 11.6. Pledge of Non-Participation / Lisbeth Gronlund and David Wright 328 11.7. The Scientists' Call to Ban Autonomous Lethal Robots / International Committee for Robot Arms Control 329 Section XII. Alternatives to Militarization Introduction / David Vine 333 12.1. War Is Only an Invention—Not a Biological Necessity / Margaret Mead 336 12.2. Reflections on the Possibility of a Nonkilling Society and a Nonkilling Anthropology / Leslie E. Sponsel 339 12.3. U.S. Bases, Empire, and Global Response / Catherine Lutz 344 12.4. Down Here / Julian Aguon 347 12.5. War, Culture, and Counterinsurgency / Roberto J. González, Hugh Gusterson, and David H. Price 349 12.6. Hope in the Dark: Untold Stories, Wild Possibilities / Rebecca Solnit 350 References 355 Contributors 383 Index 389 Credits 403
£27.90
Taylor & Francis The Decline of Established Christianity in the Western World
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£41.99
Princeton University Press Very Important People
Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of Amazon's Best Books of 2020 in Business and Leadership""Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, Consumers and Consumption Section of the American Sociological Association""Fascinating."---Helen Rosner, New Yorker"The most colourful investigation into nightlife and gender politics since Gloria Steinem went incognito as a Playboy Bunny in 1963."---Mark Smith, The Times"Riveting. . . . The results of her investigation are astonishing. Mears has amassed pages of enthralling, richly human testimony. . . . The anecdotes are hugely entertaining, in a throw-up-in-your-mouth way. . . . Mears’s thesis—that nightclubs aren’t exceptions to ‘real life,’ but a distilled, brutal caricature of it—gathers strength as the details accumulate. . . . Elegantly written and genuinely page-turning, with revelations about life that go far beyond nightclubs."---Iona McLaren, Daily Telegraph"Mears is a very good reporter. . . . A fascinating read."---Lynn Barber, The Spectator"Riveting. . . . Mears is an excellent storyteller, resulting in a book that’s well-informed and critical but also animated and engaging." * Tatler *"Very Important People was written before the coronavirus pandemic, but Covid-19 makes it more relevant. Lockdown has widened inequality as poorer households lose jobs and rely on their savings. Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer, leading to pent up demand for parties, girls and bottle trains among those who have already missed a season of it."---Ollie Williams, Forbes"Very Important People depicts a complex world of exchange and exploitation, and warrants praise for doing so without passing predictable moral judgement. More than offering a mere window into the exotic lives of others, Ashley Mears emphasizes themes that should resonate with us all: the labour of marginalized others that lurks behind so much status-seeking consumption, the risks of conflating work with fun and friendship, and the sad fact that 'girl power' remains as oxymoronic as ever."---Alice Bloch, Times Literary Supplement"Enlightening. . . . A fascinating glimpse into life behind the velvet rope."---Matthew Partridge, Money Week"Compelling, vivid and curiously poignant. . . . Very Important People succeeds in exposing the intriguing and often distressing realities of a culture whose values seem both alien and unpleasantly persistent."---Lisa Hilton, The Critic"Mears takes her readers inside the exclusive global nightclub and party circuit, from New York City to Miami and Saint-Tropez, in order to reveal a world constituted by spectacular displays of wealth."---Laurie Taylor, BBC Radio 4, Thinking Allowed"Throughout the seven chapters of the book, Mears dissects the economy of “ models and bottles ” (p. 17), or the formula by which we designate those parties in which the super rich display their power by attending models and making flaunting their wealth by wasting money and buying many bottles at exorbitant prices.”"---Giulia Mensitieri, La Vie Des Idees
£22.50
Princeton University Press Representing God
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A fascinating, well-researched, cogently argued study. . . . A valuable contribution to understanding how people navigate their lives amid rapidly changing religious and legal contexts."---Candy Gunther Brown, Journal of Religion
£25.20
Cornerstone The Challenge for Africa
Book SynopsisWangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1940. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which, through networks of rural women, has planted over 30 million trees across Kenya since 1977. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya's Parliament in the first free elections in a generation, and served as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 in recognition of her campaigns for democracy and environmental reform during the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi. She died in 2011.Trade ReviewI hope the world will support her vision of hope -- Nelson MandelaFrom one of Africa's most positive and far-sighted thinkers comes a wonderful book combining an elegant critique of Africa's troubled past with a rallying cry for how Africans can use culture, nature and self-belief to reverse their continent's decline. The Challenge for Africa is a milestone in African writing that both educates and inspires -- Tim ButcherPenetrating. . . a 21st century manifesto for Africans, drawing on her own experience as a worldly Kenyan, street-fighting activists, member of parliament and, from 2003-2006, government minister. Her analysis is thorough. She reaches into African history, culture, psychology, contemporary politics and fragile ecosystems * Financial Times *Like a Nelson Mandela or a Mahatma Gandhi, Maathai stands way above most mortals * The Guardian *Wangari Maathai is a prophet for our time -- Alexandra Fuller
£10.44
Johns Hopkins University Press Western Attitudes toward Death
Book SynopsisAriA]s traces Western man's attitudes toward mortality from the early medieval conception of death as the familiar collective destiny of the human race to the modern tendency, so pronounced in industrial societies, to hide death as if it were an embarrassing family secret. -- NewsweekTrade ReviewAries traces Western man's attitudes toward mortality from the early medieval conception of death as the familiar collective destiny of the human race to the modern tendency, so pronounced in industrial societies, to hide death as if it were an embarrassing family secret. Newsweek An astounding story, told with the incisiveness and mastery characteristic of Aries's work. -- Robert Darnton New York Review of Books 1974Table of ContentsPrefaceChapter 1. Tamed DeathChapter 2. One's Own DeathChapter 3. Thy DeathChapter 4. Forbidden DeathIndex
£20.42
University of Texas Press Fugitive Anthropology
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£25.64
Information Age Publishing Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino / American
Book SynopsisFilipino Americans have a long and rich history with and within the United States, and they are currently the second largest Asian group in the country. However, very little is known about how their historical and contemporary relationship with America may shape their psychological experiences. The most insidious psychological consequence of their historical and contemporary experiences is colonial mentality or internalised oppression. Some common manifestations of this phenomenon are described below: Skin-whitening products are used often by Filipinos in the Philippines to make their skins lighter. Skin whitening clinics and businesses are popular in the Philippines as well. The ""beautiful"" people such as actors and other celebrities endorse these skin-whitening procedures. Children are told to stay away from the sun so they do not get ""too dark."" Many Filipinos also regard anything ""imported"" to be more special than anything ""local"" or made in the Philippines. In the United States, many Filipino Americans make fun of ""fresh-off-the-boats"" (FOBs) or those who speak English with Filipino accents. Many Filipino Americans try to dilute their ""Filipino-ness"" by saying that they are mixed with some other races. Also, many Filipino Americans regard Filipinos in the Philippines, and pretty much everything about the Philippines, to be of ""lower class"" and those of the ""third world."" The historical and contemporary reasons for why Filipino -/ Americans display these attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours - often referred to as colonial mentality - are explored in Brown Skin, White Minds. This book is a peer-reviewed publication that integrates knowledge from multiple scholarly and scientific disciplines to identify the past and current catalysts for such self-denigrating attitudes and behaviours. It takes the reader from indigenous Tao culture, Spanish and American colonialism, colonial mentality or internalized oppression along with its implications on Kapwa, identity, and mental health, to decolonization in the clinical, community, and research settings.This book is intended for the entire community - teachers, researchers, students, and service providers interested in or who are working with Filipinos and Filipino Americans, or those who are interested in the psychological consequences of colonialism and oppression. This book may serve as a tool for remembering the past and as a tool for awakening to address the present.
£29.66
UCL Press Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban
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£999.99
UCL Press Fake Gods and False History: Being Indian in a
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£999.99
Zone Books Contemporary States of Emergency: The Politics of
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£20.90
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2014 John Collier Jr. Award. Winner of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize. Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century cross-cuts the ranks of important books on social history, consumerism, contemporary culture, the meaning of material culture, domestic architecture, and household ethnoarchaeology. It is a distant cousin of Material World and Hungry Planet in content and style, but represents a blend of rigorous science and photography that these books can claim. Using archaeological approaches to human material culture, this volume offers unprecedented access to the middle-class American home through the kaleidoscopic lens of no-limits photography and many kinds of never-before acquired data about how people actually live their lives at home. Based on a rigorous, nine-year project at UCLA, this book has appeal not only to scientists but also to all people who share intense curiosity about what goes on at home in their neighborhoods. Many who read the book will see their own lives mirrored in these pages and can reflect on how other people cope with their mountains of possessions and other daily challenges. Readers abroad will be equally fascinated by the contrasts between their own kinds of materialism and the typical American experience. The book will interest a range of designers, builders, and architects as well as scholars and students who research various facets of U.S. and global consumerism, cultural history, and economic history.Trade Review"This book documents major findings of a brilliantly conceived and executed piece of social science research that speaks to a very wide and diverse audience. Its findings are significant, credible, and provocative. In my opinion, it is one of the most significant social-science projects undertaken in the United States, demonstrating the power of anthropological and archaeological approaches to researching human behavior, whether in a traditional tribal society or in an industrial megalopolis. The discussions are filled with interesting insights that could only have come from a first-hand study of household material culture. The flow of everyday life in relation to places defined by objects provides a refreshing and unique perspective on human behavior. Readers will be drawn in by the lively, well-written, and accessible prose. The images are spectacular because theres nothing else like themin quality, quantity, and especially their unique view of modern family life and household possessions. [This book is] of great significance, not only to the social sciences but also to ongoing policy discussions about what is happening in America." Michael Brian Schiffer, University of Arizona "This is a remarkable, good-natured, and absorbing product of a long-term collaborative research project by a team of UCLA senior scholars and their students from anthropology and archaeology, with the aid of a master photographer, of the everyday lived-in spaces of a select number of households in southern California. They observe closely the mise-en-scene of everyday life in these households--the clutter of "things," the omnipresence of food, the coping with real estate developers' ideas of what a bathroom and a bedroom should be, the accommodation of the increasing presence of digital devices, and much more. A lot of this will be familiar to US readers, even if they did not know it before picking up this book. Indeed, the authors achieve magnificently what anthropology in its ethnographic sensibility is best at doing: making the familiar appear strange by looking closely at it. It engenders a shock of the familiar by directing readers' attention to what they would hardly notice otherwise. Rather than terror, fear, alarm, or pity, it produces amusement, curiosity, and most of all, hope. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." G. E. Marcus, University of California, Irvine -- review form CHOICE magazine
£999.99
Strandberg Publishing Connectedness: an incomplete encyclopedia of
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£32.00
HarperCollins India A Kashmiri Century: Portrait of a Society in Flux
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£10.44
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd thegiftofadaughterencounterswithvictimsofdowry
Book SynopsisIndia. Sexual politics. Dowry killings in India and their victims.
£11.52
Oxford University Press Karachi The Land Issue
Book SynopsisKarachi is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It is Pakistan''s only port and the major contributor to the country''s economy. In addition, it is also a diverse city with its population politically divided along ethnic lines. These three factors make the urban land and that on the citys fringe a highly contested commodity: federal, provincial, and local land-owning agencies, corporate sector interests, formal and informal developers, international capital, and military cantonments compete for control and for extracting maximum value from it. The victims of this battle for turf and profits are the city''s social and physical environment and its low and lower middle-income groups. This book deals with the history, evolution, and present day realities around who owns land, its legal and illegal acquisition, land-use conversions and development, the actors involved and their relationship with each other and with the public at large, the often violent conflicts that take place
£20.99
Oxford University Press, USA The Essential Writings of BR Ambedkar
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION: ESSENTIAL WRITINGS; LIFE SKETCH; THE WORKS OF AMBEDKAR; RELEVANCE OF AMBEDKAR TODAY; REMINISCENCE: ON THE WAY TO GOREGAON; CONCEPTS: RELIGION AND DHAMMA; DEMOCRACY; FRANCHISE; REPRESENTATION; REPRESENTATION OF MINORITIES; UNTOUCHABILITY; CASTE AND CLASS; METHODOLOGY: ON PROVINCIAL FINANCE; ON UNTOUCHABLES; IDEOLOGY: RANADE, GANDHI AND JINNAH; CASTE, CLASS AND DEMOCRACY; GANDHISM; BUDDHA OR KARL MARX; RELIGION: KRISHNA AND HIS GITA; THE BUDDHA AND HIS PREDECESSORS; DOES THE BUDDHA HAVE A SOCIAL MESSAGE?; CONVERSION ( AWAY FROM THE HINDUS ); CASTE: CASTES IN INDIA: THEIR ORIGIN. MECHANISM AND DEVELOPMENT; ANNIHILATION OF CASTE; REPLY TO THE MAHATMA; UNTOUCHABILITY:OUTSIDE THE FOLD; FROM MILLIONS TO FRACTIONS; THE UNTOUCHABLES AND THE PAX BRITANNICA; AN ANTI-UNTOUCHABILITY AGENDA; POLITICAL SAFEGUARDS FOR DEPRESSED CLASSES; IDENTITY: WHO ARE THE SUDRAS? ORIGIN OF UNTOUCHABILITY; ECONOMICS: THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE SCOPE OF PROVINCIAL FINANCE; THE SILVER STANDARD A; ND THE; EVILS OF ITS INSTABILITY; NATIONALISM:IS THERE A CASE FOR PAKISTAN? ( A NATIONALITY CALLING FOR A HOME ); CONSTITUTIONALSIM AND LAW: BASIC FEATURES OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION; THE HINDU CODE BILL; FURTHER READING; SOURCES OF SELECTION; CHRONOLOGY; GLOSSARY; INDEX
£22.35
OUP India Dancing to the State The Ethnic Compulsions of
Book SynopsisSmall indigenous communities in northeast India struggle with survival and marginalization amid ethnic diversity. State-sponsored events raise concerns about agency vs. marginalization. State policies and borders affect ethnic assertion. Tangsa community study in Assam shows power dynamics and marginality consequences.Table of ContentsList of Figures and Photographs; List of Tables; List of Maps; Acknowledgement; List of Abbreviation; 1: Setting the Scene; 2: Introduction to the Tirap Area; 3: Getting Acquainted with the Tangsa; 4: Kharangkong: The Last Bastion of the Old World; 5: Malugaon: Striking a Fine Balance; 6: Phulbari: Christianity as a Way of Life; 7: The Tangsa in Arunachal: Life Beyond the Fence; 8: Closing the Circle: Festivals and Ethnic Identity; Appendix; Glossary; Bibliography; Index; About the Author
£17.10
University of Illinois Press MadefromBone Trickster Myths Music and History
Book Synopsis Jonathan D. Hill is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University and the author of Keepers of the Sacred Chants: The Poetics of Ritual Power in an Amazonian Society.
£63.75
Indiana University Press Black France Colonialism Immigration and
Book SynopsisChallenging the identity politics that sets immigrants against the mainstream, this book explores how black expressive culture has reformulated as global culture in the multicultural and multinational spaces of France. It brings forward questions such as: why France is a privileged site of civilization, who is a French, and who is an immigrant.Trade Review. . . a wide—ranging exploration of the literature of the black experience of France. . . . Particularly valuable is [Thomas's] examination of francophone African literature . . . Any library supporting programs in Francophone or African studies will want this scholarly but accessible book. . . . Recommended. * Choice *[This] book offers a welcome reminder of the breadth and depth of French cultural intersections. 51.1 April 2008 * African Studies Review *Thomas' approach opens up new intersections for a broader understanding of contemporary cultural studies of francophone Africa, as distinct from most studies of Anglophone Africa that are most frequently grounded in history and anthropology to the exclusion of lived experience as a literary adventure. Vol. 33.1-2 (Winter-Spring 2008) -- Peter J. Bloom * University of California (Santa Barbara) *Table of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsNote on Translations1. Introduction: Black France in Transcolonial Contexts2. Francocentrism and the Acquisition of Cultural Capital3. Textual Ownership and the Global Mediation of Blackness4. Rhetorical Mediations of Slavery5. Afro-Parisianism and African Feminisms6. Fashion Matters: La sape and Vestimentary Codes in Transnational Contexts and Urban Diasporas7. African Youth in the Global EconomyConclusionNotesBibliography Index
£21.59
Indiana University Press Serbian Dreambook National Imaginary in the Time
Book SynopsisPublic discourse and everyday life during the last days of YugoslaviaTrade ReviewAnthropologist Živković takes readers a long way toward a long overdue, fair-minded, and full analysis of the Serbian imaginary. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Serbian Dreambook is a must-read for all—graduate students and scholars in social sciences, even political scientists and journalists—interested in European identities, particularly southeastern European identities: how they are created, perpetuated, and sustained. It also contributes to the further understanding of present-day political realities in Serbia. * AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST *[E]ssential for anyone interested in Serbian and Yugoslav history and Balkan studies more generally. * SLAVIC REVIEW *[The author] analyzes the ways in which intellectuals contributed to and directly supported the nationalistic discourse of Milosevic's Serbia, relying on the Kosovo narrative of victimhood and exceptionalism. * WORLD LITERATURE TODAY *Živković proves to be an engaging, but also well-informed, guide to ways in which certain key aspects of Serbian history, geography and culture are not only produced but also endlessly debated and assigned new meanings. Primarily addressed to readers in social and cultural anthropology, the book will also be of use to historians: the theory is sophisticated, but worn relatively lightly, with attempts to engage the lay reader. Quite lengthy endnotes provide necessary context and explanation for the uninitiated, as do a dozen or so suggestive illustrations. * English Historical Review *[A] fascinating addition to Indiana University Press's series on 'New Anthropologies of Europe,' as well as a contribution to the broader academic literature related to the decline of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Unlike most studies of this period, which focus on the larger ethnonationalist, political, and historical processes that divided Yugoslavia under the leadership of Slobodan Milošević, Živković draws attention to the private narratives that Serbian civilians used to make sense of their shifting roles and social realities in the new Serbia. In doing so, Živković reveals a complex matrix of ethnonationalist mythologies that were revised and reinvented by Serbian civilians in their efforts to come to terms with the lived experiences of political upheaval, war, and mass atrocities. 40.1 2013 * ORAL HISTORY REVIEW *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Belgrade2 Serbia's Position in European Geo-Political Imaginings3 Highlanders and Lowlanders4 Tender-hearted Criminals and the Reverse Pygmalion5 Serbian Jeremiads: Too Much Character, Too Little Kultur6 Glorious Pasts and Imagined Continuities: The Most Ancient People7 Narrative Cycles: From Kosovo to Jadovno8 "The Wish to be a Jew," or the Power of the Jewish Trope9 Garbled Genres: Conspiracy Theories, Everyday Life and the Poetics of Opacity10 Mille vs. Transition: a super informant in the slushy swamp of Serbian politicsConclusion: Chrono-tropes and AwakeningsNotesBibliographyFilmographyIndex
£19.79
Indiana University Press Twins in African and Diaspora Cultures Double
Book SynopsisThe two-sided traditions of multiple births in AfricaTrade ReviewThe book's sixteen excellent essays are not so much about the lives of actual human twins, a subject that is only briefly discussed in a few chapters, but rather about African ideas concerning twins as they relate to broader conceptions of the cosmos, the social order, and humans' place within it. * African Arts *Philip Peek is to be congratulated on marshalling such a diverse range of papers on the topic of twins in ritual practice, belief and the arts. . . . He succeeds entirely in including sufficiently diverse approaches to the topic to annoy and satisfy everyone in equal measure. The broad range of views and wide ethnographic coverage of twins in sub-Saharan and diaspora communities encompassed here makes this an indispensable work for researchers, lecturers and students alike. * Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford *[T]his book will prove useful to general readers and academics alike, especially those who are interested in religion, cosmology, cultural transfers, sociology, history, and anthropology. * African Studies Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Introduction: Beginning to Rethink Twins / Philip M. PeekPart 1. Roots 2. Twins and Double Beings among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali / Pascal James Imperato and Gavin H. Imperato 3. Twins and Intertwinement: Reflections on Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Northwestern Namibia / Steven Van WolputtePart 2. Doubles and Dualities 4. Sustaining the Oneness in their Twoness: Poetics of Twin Figures (Ère Ìbejì) among the Yoruba / Babatunde Lawal 5. "Son Dos los Jimagüas" ("The Twins Are Two"): Worship of the Sacred Twins in Lucumí Religious Culture / Ysamur Flores-Pena 6. Twins, Couples, and Doubles and the Negotiation of Spirit-Human Identities among the Win / Susan Cooksey 7. Double Portraits: Images of Twinness in West African Studio Photography / C. Angelo MicheliPart 3. The Centrality of Liminality 8. Forever Liminal: Twins among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeastern Nigeria / Walter E. A. Van Beek 9. Snake, Bush, and Metaphor: Twinship among Ubangians / Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers 10. Fiction and Forbidden Sexual Fantasy in the Culture of Temne Twins / Frederick John Lamp 11. Embodied Dilemma: Tabwa Twinship in Thought and Performance / Allen F. Roberts 12. Children of the Moon: Twins in Luba Art and Ontology / Mary Nooter RobertsPart 4. Transformations 13. Two Equals Three: Twins and the Trickster in Haitian Vodou / Marilyn Houlberg 14. Divine Children: The Ibejis and the Erês in Brazilian Candomblé / Stefania Capone 15. The Ambiguous Ordinariness of Yoruba Twins / Elisha P. Renne 16. Twins, Albinos, and Vanishing Prisoners: A Mozambican Theory of Political Power / Paulo GranjoList of ContributorsIndex
£19.79
Indiana University Press Muslim Families in Global Senegal
Book SynopsisDiscusses social and moral values in the global Senegalese communityTrade Review"While the author's focus is on the transformation in the role of women both within the family network and in the marketplace, the book allows readers to better understand the impact of globalism on the citizens of Senegal.... Recommended." —Choice"Muslim Families in Global Senegal is certainly a must-read for scholars wishing to understand the daily and ritual exchanges through which West African Muslims cope with times of hardship and uncertainty.... [I]n addition to greatly facilitating the work of comparison for experts of other groups or areas in the region, the narrative fluidity and painstaking effort to contextualise and illuminate the minutiae of social life make this a suitable aid in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching." —Journal of Religion in Africa"A first-rate ethnography of Muslim women in Dakar.... provides not only a wealth of detail but extremely fine-grained analysis of women's exchange networks, both in the domains of commerce but especially in ritual contexts." —Robert Launay, Northwestern University"Muslim Families in Global Senegal is an engaging account of the struggles, at once moral and material, which Senegalese families face to ensure social reproduction in the current context of fiscal instability and religious reforms. It contributes a nuanced understanding of gendered economies in a Muslim society and is highly suitable for classroom adoption due to its relatively short length and the clarity of its presentation. Beth Buggenhagen brings to this ethnography a sustained history of research in Senegal as well as a keen understanding of the Murid diaspora and its role in the Senegalese economy." —Journal of African History"This book offers a powerful entry point into a world of meaning and practice that lies far beyond standard reports from the developing world that focuses on poverty, education, or the status of women." —IJAHS"A lively, insightful, and important study of exchange practices between Senegal and a circuit of global trade. The innovative focus is on the meanings, not the social and economic functions, of exchange." —Karen Tranberg Hansen, Northwestern University"Since the early 1990s, Beth Buggenhagan has been working with an extended Wolof Muslim family in urban Senegal, following the trajectories, travels and tribulations of various members... What makes the book a unique and innovative contribution... is the way it addresses the broad theme of continuity and change..." —AfricaTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsNames and RelationshipsPrologue: Welcome to Khar Yalla1. Global Senegal2. Homes and Their Histories3. The Promise of Paradise4. A Tale of Two Sisters5. A Lamb Slaughtered6. Home Economics7. Only TroubleEpilogueGlossary of Arabic and Wolof TermsNotesReferencesIndex
£18.99
Indiana University Press Rice Talks Food and Community in a Vietnamese
Book SynopsisDetails the culinary life of a Vietnamese townTrade ReviewFor students, researchers, or everyday readers looking to explore the area of nutritional anthropology, Avieli provides a wonderfully written ethnographic narrative that is as engaging as it is appetizing. * Allegra *Rice Talks brings a unique perspective to the study of foodways. The rich ethnography of the culinary sphere of Hoi An fills an important gap in the study of Vietnamese culture, and the theoretical framework adds a new dimension to the study of foodways. . . . For anyone interested in doing a comparative study of the culinary sphere, Rice Talks is a highly valuable addition to anthropological studies on food. * Sojourn *Rice Talks deserves a readership beyond its obvious geographical constituency. This book makes a thought-provoking intervention in anthropology's long-running engagement with the culinary sphere, and anyone interested in identity, community, and contemporary foodways will find stimulating arguments to debate here. * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *[T]his is a carefully detailed study, which is easily accessible because it is largely jargon free. For those teaching a course on foodways, it would be highly suitable because it illustrates a particular approach well and offers a view on a cuisine that has not been extensively explored in the existing literature. * Social and Cultural Geography *Written in a clearly accessible style, this book will be greatly welcomed by food researchers, teachers of undergraduate anthropology classes, and general readers, who will then understandably want to search out a good Vietnamese restaurant in their neighborhood. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Deciphering the Hoianese Meal 2. The Social Dynamics of the Home Meal 3. Local Specialties–Local Identity 4. Feasting with the Dead and the Living 5. Wedding Feasts: From Culinary Scenarios to Gastro-anomie 6. Food and Identity in Hoianese Community Festivals 7. Rice-cakes and Candied Oranges: Culinary Symbolism in the Big Vietnamese Festivals Conclusion: Food and Culture Interconnections Epilogue: Doing Fieldwork in Hoi An Glossary NotesReferencesIndex
£17.99
John Wiley & Sons Body Politics and the Fictional Double
Book SynopsisDebra Walker King is Associate Professor of English at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Author of Deep Talk: Reading African American Literary Names, her articles and reviews have appeared in Names: the Journal of the American Name Society; Philosophy and Rhetoric; and African American Review. She also contributed essays to the Oxford Companion to African American Literature and Recovered Writers/Recovered Texts, edited by Dolan Hubbard.
£28.05
John Wiley & Sons Corsican Fragments
Book SynopsisMatei Candea is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Durham University. He is editor of The Social after Gabriel Tarde: Debates and Assessments.
£45.90
Indiana University Press Returns to the Field Multitemporal Research and
Book SynopsisDocuments how re-visiting fieldwork sites shapes anthropologists' interpretationsTrade ReviewOverall, this is a great collection of essays that hang together well and — for once! — address the common theme that the edited volume is ostensibly about. At the same time, each is strong enough that it could be read separately. If you are interested in the topic or the contributors, it is definitely worth picking up. * savageminds.org *This is an important book because we need a disciplinary conversation about our myths. . . . [I]s more always better? Are there limits to the value of returns to the field? What are the costs and who will bear them? Returns to the Field has done us the valuable service of allowing this conversation to begin. * Social Anthropology *[V]aluable insights can be gained by returning to the field—whether physically or intellectually—to reflect upon the inevitable shifts in the researcher's intellectual transformation, disciplinary trends, and even popular understandings of key events and narratives that have been documented. Summer/Fall 2014 * Oral History Review *Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction \ Signe Howell and Aud TallePart 1. Change and Continuity in Long-term Perspective 1. Forty-five Years with the Kayapo \ Terence Turner 2. "Soon we will be spending all our time at funerals": Yolngu Mortuary Rituals in an Epoch of Constant Change \ Frances Morphy and Howard Morphy 3. Returns to the Maasai: Long-term Fieldwork and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge \ Aud Talle 4. Contingency, Collaboration, and the Unimagined over Thirty-five Years of Ethnography \ David Holmberg 5. Nostalgia and Neocolonialism \ Peter MetcalfPart 2. Expansion in Time, Expansion in Space 6. Cumulative Understandings: Experiences from the Study of Two Southeast Asian Societies \ Signe Howell 7. Repeated Returns and Special Friends: From Mythic Encounter to Shared History \ Piers Vitebsky 8. Compressed Globalization and Expanding Desires in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands \ Edvard Hviding 9. Widening the Net: Returns to the Field and Regional Understanding \ Alan BarnardAfterword: Reflecting on Returns to the Field \ Bruce KnauftList of ContributorsIndex
£49.30
MIT Press Ltd Energies in the Arts The MIT Press
Book SynopsisInvestigating the concepts and material realities of energy coursing through the arts: a foundational text.This book investigates energies—in the plural, the energies embedded and embodied in everything under the sun— as they are expressed in the arts. With contributions from scholars and critics from the visual arts, art history, anthropology, music, literature, and the history of science, it offers the first multidisciplinary investigation of the concepts and material realities of energy coursing through the arts. Just as Douglas Kahn's earlier books helped introduce sound as a category for study in the arts, this new volume will be a foundational volume for future explorers in a largely uncharted domain. The modern concept of energy is only two hundred years old—an abstraction grounded in extraction—but this book takes a more expansive view. It opens with a clap: the sonic energies in a ceremony of the indigenous Goolarabooloo people of Austr
£42.75
Open University Press SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Book Synopsis* What does 'social structure' mean?* What are the principal ways in which societies are 'organized' or 'structured'?* How can structural ideas be used in sociological analysis?Despite the importance of the concept of social structure, sociologists have not agreed on how to define it and discussions have been plagued by confusion. In this concise and enlightening text, Jose Lopez and John Scott argue that analysing the conceptual frameworks in which different concepts of social structure are embedded can help to clarify their meanings and reshape debates. They show that competing conceptions of social structure can be seen as capturing significant and different aspects of the reality of social organization. Social Structure is organized around a discussion of 'institutional structure', 'relational structure' and 'embodied structure'. It argues that these conceptions of social structure can be fruitfully combined in order to provide a richer and more powerful overview, iTable of ContentsPreface and acknowledgementsWhat is social structure?Conceptualizing social structureInstitutional structureRelational structureLevels of structureEmbodied structureBibliographyIndex.
£25.64
Open University Press Grief Mourning And Death Ritual
Book Synopsis"a must for any specialist and advanced practitioner's bookshelf." Journal of Interpersonal CareThis book focuses on what happens after a death has taken place. Drawing on social theory and anthropology, contributors examine responses to death as they occur within the unique set of cultural, social and historical circumstances which characterizes post-war society. The book does not just document and make sense of contemporary practices but also critically reviews the ways grief, mourning and death ritual have been approached by academics and practitioners in the field. It does this by combining substantial reviews with shorter illustrative examples of grief, mourning and death ritual as they are manifest in specific settings and with defined groups. These illustrative examples include personal and institutional responses to death at different points in the life cycle, and responses to different sorts of death - the death of children and death in disasters for exampTable of ContentsSeries editor's prefaceIntroductionTheories of griefa critical reviewIs grief an illness? Issues of theory in relation to cultural diversity and the grieving processFour siblings' perspectives on parent deatha family focus'Naturalizing' death among older adults in residential careJust an old fashioned love song or a harlequin romance? Some experiences of widowhood Discourse into practicethe production of bereavement careThe skills we need. Bereavement counselling and governmentality in England'You have to get inside the person' or making grief privateimage and metaphor in the therapeutic re-construction of bereavementSupporting bereaved children at schoolThe child death helplineA place for my child. The evolution of a candle serviceChanging death ritualsFuneral ritual, past and presentForget me notmemorialisation in cemeteries and crematoriaThe cemeterythe evidence of continuing bondsHindu death and mourning ritualsthe impact of geographical mobilityGrieving in publicPost-disaster ritualsConclusionsReferencesIndex.
£29.44
Open University Press Changing Play Play media and commercial culture
Book SynopsisThis book explores changes in the nature of the relationship between play, media and commercial culture through a comparison of play in the 1950s/60s and the present day, examining the continuities and discontinuities in play over time. There are many aspects of play which remain the same today as they were sixty years ago, which relate to the purposes of play, the way in which children weave in material from a range of sources in their play, including media, and how they play with each other. Differences in play between now and the mid-twentieth century are due to the very different social and cultural worlds children now inhabit, in which technology is central to many play activities. Challenging deficit notions of play in contemporary society and providing evidence to contest the recurrent myth of the disappearance of play, the book: Provides an historical account of changes in the relationship between play, media and commercial culture over the past sixty years OffersTable of ContentsIntroductionEarly studies of children's play and the legacy of Iona and Peter OpieForms of playMedia, technologies and play The material cultures of childhoodPlay in the institutions of homes and schoolsSpace and playGender, sexuality and playConclusionReferences
£29.44
Cambridge University Press Culture Biology and Anthropological Demography
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£28.12
Aark House Publishing Family Matters
Book Synopsis
£69.59
McGill-Queen's University Press Recognizing Religion in a Secular Society
Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to describe our society as secular? And what role might religion play in its evolution? Are religious considerations a necessary part of coherent speech about human dignity or human rights? Are religious communities properly accounted for in our talk of a 'social contract'? This title intends to probes these questions.Trade Review'"This is a splendid collection of essays. Although the subject has been well worked over in recent years, the contributors have many new and interesting things to say. The opening essay by Prince El Hassan bin Talal, on Islamic understandings of the relationship of religion and government, is fascinating and extremely timely. This is a bold and original collection." Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton UniversityTable of ContentsContributors include Iain T. Benson, executive director, Centre for Cultural Renewal; Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, University of Chicago; H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr, professor of philosophy, Rice University and professor emeritus, Baylor College of Medicine; Douglas Farrow; William Galston, professor, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland; The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, PC, chief justice of Canada; David Novak, J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies and professor of philosophy, University of Toronto; Margaret Somerville, Samuel Gale Professor of Law and Professor, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University; and Prince El Hassan bin Talal, chairman of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
£77.25
Stanford University Press Faces of Aging
Book SynopsisThe chapters in this volume put a human face on aging issues, and consider multiple dimensions of the aging experience with a focus on Japan.Trade Review"Yoshiko Matsumoto has brought together a highly diverse group of scholars to put a human face on issues of aging by attending to individual experiences that are frequently hidden behind statistics and stereotypes. Although her volume focuses on lives of the elderly in Japan, its myriad insights are relevant to all who are energized by an interdisciplinary approach to the particularities of aging." -- Heidi E. Hamilton, Professor and Chair, Department of Linguistics"Japan today is at a demographic crossroads unprecedented in history. It has the longest life expectancy and it is the most rapidly aging society in the world today. This timely and innovative volume is an important intellectual contribution to this critical issue facing many postindustrial nations. It creatively brings together multidisciplinary contributors from the humanities and the social sciences to medicine and caregiving, to shed light on new ways of growing old in Japan." -- Akiko Hashimoto"An outstanding addition to the literature on an increasingly visible and growing segment of the Japanese population that enriches our understanding of the aging process as it is lived by real people, rather than as it is conceptualized by policy makers." -- Janet S. Shibamoto-Smith, Professor of Anthropology, University of California * Davis *
£79.20
Stanford University Press Being and WellBeing
Book SynopsisThis book tells the stories of the workers, the young people who will be future workers, and retired people who feel capitalism in their very bodies, as they work to define what it means to be healthy in America.Trade Review"Carefully written, using data mined from a range of ethnographic projects spanning a period of 15 years, this thought-provoking monograph posits that Silicon Valley is very much a 'bellwether' for a host of emergent cultural forces related to work . . . Detailed and enjoyable to read, this monograph is a fine demonstration of the anthropologist's ability to challenge static social science categories . . . English-Lueck's text strips away economistic myopia and highlights with aplomb the human consequences of living and working in the Bay area and beyond." -- Kye Parkin * Anthropology of Work Review *"A fascinating and timely exploration of the interweaving of work, health, and aging in Silicon Valley at the turn of the 21st century. English-Lueck approaches the anthropology of work from the typically neglected but critical perspective of the bodies of workers. The book is informed and insightful." -- Diane Schiano * Silicon Valley User Experience Researcher *"Clearly written with compelling stories, English-Lueck's anthropological study has much to tell historians of technology . . . This book is especially timely when the issue of national health insurance is so much at the fore. By showing how corporations' organization of production affects workers' health decisions, it highlights the inadequacies and costs of our current system" -- Janet Ore * Technology and Culture *"This outstanding book dissects the social fabric of Silicon Valley, a slice of the California coast marked by high technology and social, ethnic, and cultural diversity . . . Personal narratives vividly recount how age cohorts—from adolescents to the adult workforce and beyond—define and deal with health, work, and careers . . . Highly recommended." -- E. Wellin * CHOICE *"A remarkable book. Personal narratives bring vividly to life the generational differences in perspectives toward work and health, as well as illuminate the diversity and complexity of the shared environment in which these lives are led. Being and Well-Being raises important questions regarding the changing nature of work, of healthcare, of personal agency, of social networks, of cultural pluralism and of social justice, to name only a few." -- Lisa Faithorn, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist and organizational development practitioner * researcher for NASA *
£19.99
Stanford University Press Aspiring to Home
Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to belong? How are twenty-first-century diasporic subjects fashioning identities and communities that bind them together? Aspiring to Home examines these questions with a focus on immigrants from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Advancing a theory of locality to explain the means through which immigrants of varying regional, religious, and linguistic backgrounds experience what it means to belong, Bakirathi Mani shows how ethnicity is produced through the relationship between domestic racial formations and global movements of class and capital. Aspiring to Home focuses on popular cultural works created by first- and second-generation South Asians from 19992009, including those by author Jhumpa Lahiri and filmmaker Mira Nair, as well as public events such as the Miss India U.S.A. pageant and the Broadway musical Bombay Dreams. Analyzing these diverse productions through an interdisciplinary framework, Mani weaves literary readings with etTrade Review"It is essential reading for scholars interested in diaspora, immigrant community formation, transnational migration, Asian American studies, and applications of post-colonial theory. . . . I highly recommend the entire book for graduate seminars focusing on migration and diaspora." -- Ishan Ashutosh * International Migration Review *"Working with a truly innovative archive, Mani compellingly argues that merely 'adding on' South Asians to the litany of ethnic and national-origin identifications that circulate under 'Asian America' is thoroughly inadequate to pursuing the study of racialization in ways that take seriously the intimacy and depth of the relationship between the local and the global.—Kandice Chuh, CUNY/The Graduate Center"An elegantly written and trenchantly argued book." -- Martin F. Manalansan IV, University of Illinois * Urbana-Champaign *"An important contribution to the burgeoning field of South Asian American studies, Bakirathi Mani's Aspiring to Home easily traverses a range of cultural practices, moving seamlessly between genres (literature, film, performance) and methodologies (textual analysis, ethnography). Mani compelling transforms our understanding of seemingly transparent assimilationist narratives produced by South Asian Americans in the US. These contradictions, for Mani, point to the ways in which middle class South Asian Americans both collude with and renegotiate dominant notions of belonging in multiple national spaces. Thus Mani argues that we must reconceptualize Asian American studies beyond a familiar mapping of US colonialism in East and South East Asia, and the Pacific Islands, but simultaneously through US and British imperial interests in South Asia." -- Gayatri Gopinath * New York University *
£87.00
Beacon Press Some of My Friends Are The Daunting Challenges
Book SynopsisExamines why it’s difficult to form friendships with people of different races, how we can make those connections, and how they will encourage more meaningful conversations about race.Surveys have shown that the majority of people believe cross-racial friendships are essential for improving race relations. However, further polling reveals that most Americans tend to gravitate toward friendships within their own race. Psychologist Deborah L. Plummer examines how factors such as leisure, politics, humor, faith, social media, and education influence the nature and intensity of cross-racial friendships.Inspiring and engaging, Plummer draws from focus groups, statistics, and surveys to provide insight into the fears and discomforts associated with cross-racial friendships. Through personal narratives and social analyses of friendship patterns, this book gives an insightful look at how cross-racial friendships work and fail within American society. Plummer encour
£13.49
New York University Press Asian American Religions
Book SynopsisRedraws old definitions of what it means to be religious and Asian American.Trade ReviewProvides the most comprehensive coverage of Asian Americans' religious practices, cutting across different ethnic groups, religions, topics, and generations. It should be an essential reader for anyone interested in Asian Americans' religious practices. -- Pyong Gap Min,co-editor of Religions in Asian America: Building Faith CommunitiesThis anthology represents the cutting-edge research on Asian American religions from a social science standpoint. * The Journal of Asian Studies *This volume is an important contribution to a much needed recognition of the role of religion in American social and cultural life. * Multicultural Review *Asian American Religion makes an important sociological contribution to our understanding of the nature of the interplay between religious diversity and American culture. * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *
£66.50
New York University Press Shes Mad Real
Book SynopsisChallenges the believe that West Indian American girls are but assert agency in defining race through strategic consumption of popular cultureTrade Review"She's Mad Realcontributes to the ongoing conversation about transnational black migration and diasporic identities. By focusing on teenagers, however, LaBennett attempts to fill a gap in this field, which has usually neglected this group to focus on adult subjects. For this reason, LaBennett's is a commendable work, especially suited for undergraduate and graduate students interested in understanding why the study of popular culture is an excellent opportunity to look at broader social-political phenomena." -- Andreea Micu * Journal of Popular Culture *"She's Mad Realprovides a panorama of theory, deep description, and praxis to understand these black teenage girls. LaBennett is writing against the grain, as urban black female adolescents are typecast by their race, age, gender, and presumed class position. Furthermore, as urban black teen girls, it is assumed that they are 'at risk' for becoming underage mothers with low educational aspirations and with little thought of how to becomes wage earners. LaBennett breaks that mold and brings other variables into the mix." -- A. Lynn Bolles * American Anthropologist *"LaBennett offers a pivotal critique as she takes issue with national (US) and global imagery of black teenage girls...She's Mad Realreminds readers to appreciate that ethnicity, gender, class and inter-generational differences, along with the contexts in which they are set in motion, are critical to understanding the experiences and subjectivity of American and immigrant black youth." -- Aisha Khan * Anthropological Quarterly *"LaBennett is deeply attuned to her subjects. Together, researcher and research subjects explore the wide world around them: hip-hop culture, opportunities for mobility, sexual life, issues of risk, relationships with momits all here! LaBennett develops incisive new interpretations of such concepts as & play-labor and & authenticity. Shes Mad Real both joins a rich ethnographic literature and expands it in revealing politically conscious and hip ways. A fantastic text for in-class use." -- Howard Winant,University of California, Santa Barbara""LaBennett rightfully inserts the experiences West Indian female youth into a transnationalism literature that has privilege the experiences of adult migrants, and which has generally focused on tensions between African Americans and West Indians, rather than acknowledging the complexity of this relationship. The author compellingly advocates for a youth-centered approach to transnationalism, inter-ethnic relations, and multiple conceptions of Blackness that goes beyond the context of the school; in particular, she showcases the consumption practices, fluid work-leisure lives, and critical approach to popular culture she noticed among the young Black women who occupy center stage in the ethnography. These are among the most significant and welcomed contributions of the volume." " -- Ana Ramos-Zayas * Critique of Anthropology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1 Consuming Identities: Toward a Youth Culture-Centered Approach to West Indian Transnationalism 2 "Our Museum": Mapping Race, Gender, and West Indian Transnationalism 3 Dual Citizenship in the Hip-Hop Nation: Gender and Authenticity in Black Youth Culture 4 "I Think They're Looking for a Skinny Chick!": Girls and Boys Consuming Racialized Beauty 5 Conclusion: Placing Gendered and Generational Notions of West Indian Success Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
£21.24
Duke University Press Coming through the Fire
Book SynopsisAddresses the important issue of our time with insights forged by a lifetime of confronting racial oppression in America. This book explores the nature of biracial relationships, the issue of transracial adoption, violence particularly black-on-black violence the endangered black male, racism as power, and the relationship between Blacks and Jews.Trade Review“The first consciousness of race comes early. It is not something you learn in the same way you learn about stinging caterpillars or poison ivy. You do not have to learn it from some overt experience. It is a pervasive awareness, an insidious thing that seeps into the soil of consciousness, sending its toxic tendrils deep into the walls of the mind. It is like a mold, a blight. If you scrape it away here, you find it mockingly virulent there. Once the concept of race takes root in the mind, it is there to stay. You cannot run away from it because it is inside you. . . . In the South, where I was raised, the pervasive awareness of race was helped along by a series of ‘lessons’ learned in the process of growing up. These lessons were sometimes impromptu, and often impersonal, but they were never unplanned or unintended. They were always there in the arsenal of race and place waiting for the most effective moment for inculcation.”—From Coming through the FireTable of ContentsI. Notes on Race 1 II. The Fire in Alabama 11 III. Mind and Countermind: Race and Place in Context 39 IV. Polyps of Prejudice 69 V. Search for identity: The Whatness of Who 91 VI. Human Values and Inhuman Systems 113 VII. Into the Multiculture 135
£29.25
Duke University Press Peasants on Plantations
Book SynopsisAfter the 1854 abolition of slavery in Peru, a new generation of plantation owners turned to a system of peasant tenantry to maintain cotton production through the use of cheap labour. Tis book offers an account of the monumental struggle between planters and peasants that was fundamental in shaping the agrarian history of Peru.Trade Review“The importance of [Peloso’s] book derives from its careful assessment of a neglected case study and the broader implications of the findings. . . . Professionals in agrarian, Latin American, and Third World studies will be interested in this well-done case study; at the same time, the detailed description of how labor and management interacted in a plantation setting should attract a more general reading audience. The narrative is fascinating and readable.” - Michael A. Morris, Perspectives on Political Science“Peloso illuminates the lives, strategies, and ultimate significance of cotton workers in a clear, original manner that will benefit scholars of modern Peru and of the export economy in Latin America. This well-crafted book succeeds in bringing the overlooked workers of cotton plantations onto the historical stage.” - Charles F. Walker, American Historical Review“[A] detailed historical analysis of the social and economic world of Peruvian cotton plantations from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1930s. . . . [A] diversified and vivid picture of plantation life. . . . Peloso offers an important contribution to modern Peruvian history that will also receive attention among historians working on agrarian history in other parts of Latin America.” - Thomas Krüggeler, The Historian“[A] sustained, empirically grounded account of far-reaching socioeconomic transformations in Peru’s south coastal Pisco valley between the mid-19th century and the first half of the 20th century. . . . [A] significant addition to the burgeoning literature on Latin American postcolonial plantations. Peloso offers challenging reading for all who are interested in the anthropology of agrarian societies and the social dynamics of agricultural capitalism.” - Bartholomew Dean, American Ethnologist“[A] compelling, empirically grounded analysis of the evolution of plantation labour arrangements. . . . [A] significant addition to the scholarship on plantation society in turn-of-the-century Latin America. Peloso succeeds admirably in deconstructing stereotypical images of plantations, and in showing the central contribution of subaltern groups to the emergence of modern Peru.” - David Nugent, Latin American Studies“[S]ignificantly deepens our understanding of both rural labor forms and the role played by peasants in the formation of Peruvian rural society and culture. . . . Peasants on Plantations makes valuable contributions to the literature concerning rural labor relations, the social order that evolved on the coastal cotton plantations of Peru, and the Latin American peasantry in general. . . . [This] balanced and fascinating social history ultimately stands out simply because of the clear understanding it provides of peasant initiative and resilience in the often harsh world of the commercial cotton plantation.” - Erick D. Langer, Hispanic American Historical Review“[A] compelling, empirically grounded analysis of the evolution of plantation labour arrangements. . . . [A] significant addition to the scholarship on plantation society in turn-of-the-century Latin America. Peloso succeeds admirably in deconstructing stereotypical images of plantations, and in showing the central contribution of subaltern groups to the emergence of modern Peru.” -- David Nugent * Latin American Studies *“[A] detailed historical analysis of the social and economic world of Peruvian cotton plantations from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1930s. . . . [A] diversified and vivid picture of plantation life. . . . Peloso offers an important contribution to modern Peruvian history that will also receive attention among historians working on agrarian history in other parts of Latin America.” -- Thomas Krüggeler * The Historian *“[A] sustained, empirically grounded account of far-reaching socioeconomic transformations in Peru’s south coastal Pisco valley between the mid-19th century and the first half of the 20th century. . . . [A] significant addition to the burgeoning literature on Latin American postcolonial plantations. Peloso offers challenging reading for all who are interested in the anthropology of agrarian societies and the social dynamics of agricultural capitalism.” -- Bartholomew Dean * American Ethnologist *“[S]ignificantly deepens our understanding of both rural labor forms and the role played by peasants in the formation of Peruvian rural society and culture. . . . Peasants on Plantations makes valuable contributions to the literature concerning rural labor relations, the social order that evolved on the coastal cotton plantations of Peru, and the Latin American peasantry in general. . . . [This] balanced and fascinating social history ultimately stands out simply because of the clear understanding it provides of peasant initiative and resilience in the often harsh world of the commercial cotton plantation.” -- Erick D. Langer * Hispanic American Historical Review *“Peloso illuminates the lives, strategies, and ultimate significance of cotton workers in a clear, original manner that will benefit scholars of modern Peru and of the export economy in Latin America. This well-crafted book succeeds in bringing the overlooked workers of cotton plantations onto the historical stage.” -- Charles F. Walker * American Historical Review *“The importance of [Peloso’s] book derives from its careful assessment of a neglected case study and the broader implications of the findings. . . . Professionals in agrarian, Latin American, and Third World studies will be interested in this well-done case study; at the same time, the detailed description of how labor and management interacted in a plantation setting should attract a more general reading audience. The narrative is fascinating and readable.” -- Michael A. Morris * Perspectives on Political Science *
£63.75
Workman Publishing Native American Medicinal Plants An
Book SynopsisDescribes the medicinal use of more than 2700 plants by 218 Native American tribes. This title is suitable for students and professionals in the fields of anthropology, botany, and naturopathy and those interested in ethnobotany and natural healing.Trade ReviewA beautiful tome I can in my leisure over the years turn to in order to expand my knowledge of the plants that cross my path. To be able to add to my knowledge of plants how they might have been used for thousands and thousands of years ... adds dignity and depth to the plant, to the culture that lived here before I, and to my own learning. This reference book is highly recommended! -- Kathryn Hall Plant Whatever Brings You Joy 20090705 This engaging read covers 82 categories of medicinal uses [and] is an easy-to-use reference perfect for the home library. Houston Lifestyles and Homes 20091201
£23.75
University of Alberta Press Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up
Book SynopsisOne little question propels both author and reader on a genre-bending quest to find the elusive essence of a Canadian province built on sturdy stereotypes of oil-spoiled, beef-eating, bible-thumping rednecks devoid of class or culture. Through essay, interview, colourful observation, and whatever other exposé it takes to amplify the hyperbolic absurdity of seeking a simple answer to an incendiary question, Geo Takach spotlights the cultural complexity of this perplexing province. Readers will be delightfully edified after a dizzying romp around Wild Rose Country with Geo and a cast of citizens and celebs (alive and dead).Trade Review"Geo has written an extraordinary masterpiece where the words literally leap off of the pages, giving you a 360° perspective and more of Alberta!" -Lori-Ann Muenzer, Olympic cycling gold medalist, speaker and author"Geo Takach, as crafty a wordsmith as you're likely to find, has a droll sense of humour married to a sharp-eyed ability to assemble anecdotes from all over creation to make a point. The point he makes in his meticulously researched Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? is that we are a fascinating people with more secrets and subtext than even those of us who live here might imagine. In assembling this irreverent, quasi-academic tome, Takach seems to have talked to everybody and read everything. The result is an almost mesmerizing exposition of Canada's most misunderstood province. And a good read to boot." -Fil Fraser, cultural Renaissance man"It hits the nail on the head about what people think Alberta is, and hits you on the head with what the Real Alberta is. It's funny, but it makes you think." -Bronco Buddy (Bud Edgar), Canada's first non-rodeo cowboy clown"While Takach certainly fills his books with enough statistics and interviews with politicians, artists and pundits, Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? is not purely a scholarly tome. There's a refreshing playfulness to it..." Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald, January 12, 2011 [Full article at http://tinyurl.com/4msdtkc]"The Quebec born author, who moved to Alberta as a teen, has long been fascinated with the mythologies unique to Wild Rose Country. In a quest both serious and silly, with Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? he makes observations, mines documents, and interviews both public figures (Preston Manning, Martha Kostuch) and private folk of all persuasions. The author makes no pretense to scholarly methodology and defies genres in presenting his findings to readers. But don't be fooled by the occasional interview with a dead princess or dinosaur-the book is well-researched and often thoughtful.... To appreciate this book, you need only an interest in the province-and a taste for bad puns." Fabiola Carletti, This Magazine, January-February 2011 [Full review at http://tinyurl.com/468zwvt]"If nothing else, Alberta is a province mired in contradiction. Some would argue that the province is filled with conservative rednecks, yet there is political tradition steeped in liberal ideology. Citizens champion an individualistic frontier spirit, but strong and fruitful community bonds thrive.... Now is the time for some honest reflection on the paradox that is Wild Rose Country, argues Takach, to root out self-perceptions born of stereotypes and get to the heart of the real Alberta experience. It seems that, for all of the attention Alberta has been getting of late, we may be the least understood province..." Geoff McMaster, Folio, January 14, 2011"Takach displays Bob Edward's caustic wit, self-confident take-no-prisoners tone, and does not abide fools gladly.... [He] envisions himself in mock epic and anti-heroic terms.... [N]ow it is your turn to enjoy, and sto be entertained, instructed, and enthralled by him." Anne Burke, Prairie Journal, January 2011"A poignant, timely and hilarious examination of a complex subject, Takach manages to dissect our assumptions about Alberta with the erudite skill of a scholar, the engaging voice of a raconteur, and the punny aliteration of a poet. A must read for everyone from the PhD in Canadian History to any curious visitor." Yvonne (Amazon.com)"After five years of exhaustive research, author and filmmaker Geo Takach has completed one of his most daunting projects to date: defining what the true character of Alberta really is. The Grant MacEwan University professional writing instructor launched his book Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? on Jan. 11 in hopes of dispelling some of the stereotypes that pin down Albertans as right-wing, reactionary and oil-thirsty people.. [Takach] interviewed a number of musicians, politicians, scientists, poets, writers and average citizens in order to properly depict the people who dwell in the province.. Takach said interviewing people like Grant MacEwan, along with Corb Lund, Ralph Klein, Preston Manning and many others made the [book] a worthwhile venture. He said he wrote the book so readers could embrace Alberta's true character while also evaluating what changes Albertans can make for their province." Jesse Snyder, Intercamp, January 20, 2011 [Full article at http://intercamp.ca/2011/01/20/defining-albertas-character/#more-3611]"Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? is a serious exploration wrapped in a humorist's essay. You can judge the book by its cover if you want but there's a lot more going on inside.... Tomfoolery aside, there's a lot of grade-A meat for discussion, not the least of which is the dichotomy of how we are perceived and who we actually are. It should make its way into social studies classrooms for some healthy debate around a broad base of topics." St. Albert Gazette, January 8, 2011 (http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/20110108/SAG0307/301089990)"In a new book entitled Will the Real Alberta Please Stand up?, Edmonton writer and filmmaker Geo Takach tries to sort out the many paradoxes of the place and get down to the truth. With humour and lots of jibes about his home province, Takach targets several myths about Alberta and Albertans that he says are perpetuated by the media and which many Albertans feel they must live up to.... While there's usually some truth to stereotypes, writes Takach, these myths have become like a movie set which frames the view of people both inside and outside the province. And while the myths may be compelling, they don't reveal the real story.... Alberta seems ready to tackle her sagging stereotypes, writes Takach, and create a more authentic and up-to-date version of herself." Gillian Steward, Toronto Star, February 15, 2011"[Alberta is] a big province, burdened with as many stereotypes as Texas, to which it is often compared. The stereotypes of Alberta are not exactly flattering. We're rednecks, arch-conservatives, a cultural backwater, rapists of the earth.... 'Alberta is full of tensions and contradictions. I think you'll find the very best and the very worst of humanity in Alberta. It's a province of hopeless hyperbole and excesses.'... Although the book is frequently light in tone, Takach says he had a serious intent.... 'I believe Alberta is at a critical crossroads now - socially, culturally, politically and environmentally. It's in a state of flux, and discussion about who we are and where we want to go with the enormous (oil) bonanza - and the enormous responsibility that goes with it - is crucial. We should have this discussion now, because the impact of the decisions our leaders make today will spill well beyond our borders and well beyond the present generation.'" Maurice Tougas, SEE Magazine, March 10, 2011 [Full article at: http://www.seemagazine.com/article/news/news-main/realalberta/]"Takach is an amusing and inventive writer, and his passionate engagement with all things Albertan blows like a welcome chinook over the dull and uninviting terrain too often encountered in such texts. At the same time, there's no dearth of solid research and fascinating information in these pages.... But it is neither the form nor the ideas that make this book so refreshing; it is the tone. While Takach openly admits his mission is to attack the various stereotypes perpetrated about Alberta, his writing never veers far from its sunny, lighthearted quality - a quality that gains much from the abundance of personal interviews woven into the text.... As an entertaining antidote to the stereotyping of our province, Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? succeeds so admirably that its author should not only stand up himself but he should also take a modest, un-Albertan (or is that Albertan?) bow." Tim Bowling, New Trail, Spring 2011 [Full article at http://www.newtrail.ualberta.ca/en/Spring2011/Reviews/ReviewsCurrent/Book.as px]Will the Real Alberta... "Energetic, eclectic, funny and unusually well researched." Exporting Alberta Award Jury, 2011"In a relaxed easy style of writing, the author takes us through the history of the rovince, reveals its maverick roots, and wonders what has happend to us in recent years. When asking popel to five a simple word describing Alberta today, the range was impressive. There were the usual choices of beautiful, resilient, optimistic, and lucky. But we also are indefinable." Alberta History, Spring 2011"Geo Takach discusses the existence of the Canadian redneck, who has much more in common with their American cousins than what many people think of when they think of an Albertan.... Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? is an intriguing breakdown of culture wars in Canada." Library Bookwatch, June 2011Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Canada has rednecks. "Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up?" discusses the clash of culture that resides in the Canadian province of Alberta. Geo Takach discusses the existence of the Canadian redneck, who have much more in common with their American cousins than what many people think of when they think of an Albertan. Analyzing these individuals and their place in Albertan society, their stance in politics, and the constant clash with those around them, "Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up?" is an intriguing break down of culture wars in Canada. The Midwest Book Review"...we are also indebted to Geo Takach's book, Will The Real Alberta Please Stand Up? What we have been striving to do here is exactly what Mr. Takach has already done." The Groove Collective, "Apocalypse Prairie: The Book of Daniel," Azimuth Theatre, May 2012 [from the acknowledgements section of the theatre program]"Takach counters the monolithic view of Alberta's history and people as 'oil-baron bible cowboys,' by weaving a narrative more diverse than the geographical topography of Alberta.... Takach's text asserts that, until now, the treatment of Alberta identity has not been as thorough as it could be, and investigating a topic through questions rather than statements reveals the unstable, dynamic nature of identity. The questions raised in Takach's book will certainly spark dialogue and discussion.... Seasoned with wit, and peppered with good humour, Takach's book Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? offers alternatives to the out moded frontier mythology that hinders both the nation and the province itself from viewing Alberta as a thriving contemporary landscape capable of accomplishing even greater things." Carolyn Krahn, The Goose, Winter 2012"In addition to six thoughtful chapters, the book contains extensive supplementary material, including handsome illustrations, a thorough bibliography, and an index. Displaying detailed knowledge of both the good and the bad of Alberta and a critical eye on its image in the world today, Takach leaves little room for criticism.... This book has much to offer cultural geographers in terms of research approach and presentation. It is an exceptional synthesis of an array of facts, concepts, questions, and interviews, critically analyzed and drawn into a provocative overarching framework. Demonstrating the value of an informative and entertaining narrative, the author cleverly weaves humor throughout the text captions and descriptions, rendering explanations memorable.... Cultural geographers may find value in Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? as a text in applied research methods, as essential reading for studies in Canada, and as an example of high-caliber research." Sarah Wandersee, Journal of Cultural Geography 29.1 (2012). [Full review at http://bit.ly/1drnMIy]
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