Social and cultural anthropology Books

8126 products


  • Kuxlejal Politics

    University of Texas Press Kuxlejal Politics

    Book SynopsisOver the past two decades, Zapatista indigenous community members have asserted their autonomy and self-determination by using everyday practices as part of their struggle for lekil kuxlejal, a dignified collective life connected to a specific territory. This in-depth ethnography summarizes Mariana Mora’s more than ten years of extended research and solidarity work in Chiapas, with Tseltal and Tojolabal community members helping to design and evaluate her fieldwork. The result of that collaboration—a work of activist anthropology—reveals how Zapatista kuxlejal (or life) politics unsettle key racialized effects of the Mexican neoliberal state.Through detailed narratives, thick descriptions, and testimonies, Kuxlejal Politics focuses on central spheres of Zapatista indigenous autonomy, particularly governing practices, agrarian reform, women’s collective work, and the implementation of justice, as well as health and education projectTrade ReviewRemarkable…Mora does not limit her analysis to examine Zapatista indigenous autonomy from a de-colonial framework, but also decolonizes her own research methods...Kuxlejal Politics contributes to expand the discussion on the various autonomous projects underway in Latin America and to challenge the research methodology of the anthropology in contact with indigenous peoples. * European Review of Latin American and Carribean Studies *A brilliant ethnography of a movement from below that simply refused to accept the prevailing ideological, social, and political structures of oppression. * Latin American Perspectives *[An] innovative book…decolonial approaches are needed to reframe research and knowledge production in geography; such a reframing should be attentive to multiple and diverse ontologies and epistemologies…Kuxlejal Politics is exemplary of how the work of reframing might be done. More than that, it is a vision of a life politics that gives me hope. * Journal of Latin American Geography *Mora’s project is a model of collaborative research with the communities she did research in....Mora does not romanticise the Zapatista movement; rather, she allows her research subjects to step out of the background of data collection. In this way, her conceptualisation helps us to understand the historical roots and current practices of Zapatista communities by placing them centre stage. * ALMA Reviews *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction One. A Brief Overview of the First Years of the Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (1996–2003) Two. The Production of Knowledge on the Terrain of Autonomy: Research as a Topic of Political Debate Three. Social Memories of Struggle and Racialized (E)states Four. Zapatista Agrarian Reform within the Racialized Fields of Chiapas Five. Women’s Collectives and the Politicized (Re)production of Social Life Six. Mandar Obedeciendo; or, Pedagogy and the Art of Governing Conclusion: Zapatismo as the Struggle to Live within the Lekil Kuxlejal Tradition of Autonomy Notes Bibliography Index

    £23.39

  • Filmmaking for Fieldwork: A Practical Handbook

    Manchester University Press Filmmaking for Fieldwork: A Practical Handbook

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisDesigned for researchers seeking new ways to explore their field and media professionals aiming to extend their practice, this filmmaking handbook shows you how to plug in to issues at the intersection of documentary cinema and ethnography. Exploring the unique potential for filmmaking to describe lifeworlds and the role of video editing in generating new ideas about human experience, it offers practical and theoretical advice for those making their first films.Based on over twenty years of teaching and industry experience, Filmmaking for fieldwork aims to inspire the development of core skills in camera use, sound recording and editing that can be applied to sensory, observational, participatory, reflexive and immersive modes of storytelling. Written for a multi-disciplinary audience, this book covers all stages necessary to produce a documentary film, from conception through to preparation, production, editing and distribution.Trade Review'Through Lawrence's articulate and comprehensive presentation, Filmmaking for Fieldwork is a sophisticated handbook that underscores the purpose, power, and techniques of ethnographic film - a timely and important contribution to visual anthropology and documentary film.'Paul Stoller, author of Adventures in Blogging: Public Anthropology and Popular Media'Ethnographic documentary is long overdue for a contemporary guide to the field that takes into account the changes since the 1997 publication of Cross-Cultural Filmmaking by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilise Barbash. This thoughtful and beautifully produced book provides a comprehensive overview that is both philosophical and practical, addressing questions that range from ethics and collaboration to shooting in field settings to digital technology, to foundational questions about the value of such work. The author is a talented and accomplished anthropologist and filmmaker, who even provides the ten commandments (for observational film!) to inspire ethnographic filmmakers - whether aspiring or accomplished - to reach the promised land of field-based documentary work, from pre-production to distribution.'Faye Ginsburg, David B. Kriser Professor of Anthropology, Director, Graduate Program in Culture & Media -- .Table of ContentsSection 1: Why make a documentary film? TechniqueApproachEthicsSection 2: Preparation Writing a film proposal Selecting equipmentEstablishing controlLightingSection 3: Recording Fieldwork relationshipsImage SoundOperating in key situations ArchiveSection 4: Editing Preparation for an editDesigning your filmBeginning an edit Rough cutting to find a story Technique and styleFeedbackTitles and credits Fine cuttingEditing and mixing soundMasteringSection 5: Distribution Sharing your work Writing about your workFilm festivals and screening events Publication Afterword: The journey continuesIndex

    1 in stock

    £23.84

  • The Kingdom of Women

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Kingdom of Women

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn a mist-shrouded valley on China''s invisible border with Tibet is a place known as the Kingdom of Women, where a small tribe called the Mosuo lives in a cluster of villages that have changed little in centuries. In a mist-shrouded valley on China''s invisible border with Tibet is a place known as the Kingdom of Women, where a small tribe called the Mosuo lives in a cluster of villages that have changed little in centuries. This is one of the last matrilineal societies on earth, where power lies in the hands of women. All decisions and rights related to money, property, land and the children born to them rest with the Mosuo women, who live completely independently of husbands, fathers and brothers, with the grandmother as the head of each family. A unique practice is also enshrined in Mosuo tradition--that of walking marriage, where women choose their own lovers from men within the tribe but are beholden to none.Trade ReviewA fascinating portrait of one of the world’s last matriarchal societies, a land without fathers or husbands, without marriage or divorce, written by an international corporate lawyer who ditched her hectic life to embrace this Shangri-La inside deepest China. -- Jan Wong, author of 'Beijing Confidential'A crisp account by a high-powered Singaporean lawyer of how she renounced her former life of fifteen-hour working days in a male-dominated corporate world to find her feminist soul in the last matriarchal ethnic group remaining in China. Full of insights and touching descriptions, this is one of the most accessible and concrete descriptions of the Mosuo, a group more analysed than understood, putting the humanity of this tribe at the forefront of their identity. -- Kerry Brown, author of 'CEO China and The New Emperors'A most engaging account of life among the matrilineal and matriarchal Mosuo tribe in China’s Yunnan province, but also a lament to a way of life now threatened by modernity and tourism. Full of detail and telling insights into gender roles, it will appeal to armchair travellers as well as to anthropologists and sociologists. -- Jonathan Fryer, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of LondonA refreshing and authentic portrait of a hidden society in patriarchal China. A must read for anyone studying women and alternative societies. -- HsiaoHung Pai, author of 'Scattered Sand'Table of ContentsList of Plates Acknowledgements Preface Prelude Map: Kingdom of Women 1. Arriving in the Kingdom of Women 2. Building a Mosuo Home 3. Going Native 4. Getting to Know the Mosuos 5. Becoming the Godmother 6. Hunting and Eating in Bygone Times 7. How the Mosuo Women Rock 8. The Men Rock Too 9. A Marriage That Is Not a Marriage 10. The Matrilineal Ties That Bind 11. The Birth-Death Room 12. On the Knife-Edge of Extinction Glossary

    1 in stock

    £14.99

  • The Samurai Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Guide

    Tuttle Publishing The Samurai Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Guide

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA captivating and comprehensive guide to Japan's elite class of warriors—revised and updated with over 70 color photographs!The Samurai played a leading role in Japanese society for centuries, and this is the first encyclopedia to showcase the fascinating history and culture of these enigmatic warriors. With a new foreword by Samurai scholar and martial arts expert Alexander Bennet and over 70 new color photographs, this newly designed edition offers the most comprehensive and enticing collection of Samurai information available today.This book contains 171 highly detailed alphabetical entries and essays on a broad variety of intriguing topics, including the following: Samurai weapons and armor, including the fearsome katana sword Famous Samurai including Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's greatest swordsman; Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate; and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a uni?er of Japan and notorious persecutor of Christians in the 16th century The Battle of Sekigahara, the largest battle ever to take place in Japan, and the Boshin War, which led to the fall of the shogunate and restoration of imperial power The Bushido code—the legendary Samurai code of chivalry and honor The new foreword by renowned Samurai historian Alexander Bennett provides expert insights into the lives and philosophy of the Samurai. Also included are many informative sidebars, suggestions for further reading, a selection of primary sources, and over 125 illustrations.Trade Review"Vaporis has accomplished what no scholar has before: a thorough, reliable encyclopedia of samurai culture and history useful for students, scholars, and casual readers alike. A classic that won't be surpassed anytime soon." --Professor Michael Wert, Marquette University"The Samurai played a leading role in Japanese society for centuries, and this is the first encyclopedia to showcase the fascinating history and culture of these enigmatic warriors." --University of Maryland newsletter"Vaporis has assembled an enormous amount of information---much of it heretofore unavailable in English--and presented it in an engaging and accessible format… I recommend it enthusiastically."--Karl Friday (Saitama University) review in Monumenta Nipponica

    1 in stock

    £16.99

  • The Tame and the Wild

    Harvard University Press The Tame and the Wild

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

    £28.76

  • The Village Effect: Why Face-to-face Contact

    Atlantic Books The Village Effect: Why Face-to-face Contact

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisMarrying the findings of the new field of social neuroscience together with gripping human stories, award-winning author and psychologist Susan Pinker explores the impact of face-to-face contact from cradle to grave, from city to Sardinian mountain village, from classroom to workplace, from love to marriage to divorce. Her results are enlightening and enlivening, and they challenge our assumptions. Most of us have left the literal village behind, and don't want to give up our new technologies to go back there. But, as Pinker writes so compellingly, we need close social bonds and uninterrupted face-time with our friends and families in order to thrive - even to survive. Creating our own 'village effect' can make us happier. It can also save our lives.Trade ReviewA terrific book . . . Pinker makes a hardheaded case for a softhearted virtue. Read this book. Then talk about it - in person! - with a friend. * Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human *Susan Pinker's delightful book shows why face-to-face interaction at home, school, and work makes us healthier, smarter, and more successful. * Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit *The benefits of the digital age have been oversold. Or to put it another way: there is plenty of life left in face-to-face, human interaction. That is the message emerging from this entertaining book by Susan Pinker, a Canadian psychologist. Citing a wealth of research and reinforced with her own arguments, Pinker suggests we should make an effort - at work and in our private lives - to promote greater levels of personal intimacy. * Financial Times *Drawing on scores of psychological and sociological studies, Pinker suggests that living as our ancestors did, steeped in face-to-face contact and physical proximity, is the key to health, while loneliness is less an exalted existential state than a public health risk. * Boston Globe *

    3 in stock

    £13.49

  • On Longing

    Duke University Press On Longing

    Book SynopsisMiniature books, eighteenth-century novels, Tom Thumb weddings, tall tales, and objects of tourism and nostalgia: this diverse group of cultural forms is the subject of On Longing, a fascinating analysis of the ways in which everyday objects are narrated to animate or realize certain versions of the world. Originally published in 1984 (Johns Hopkins University Press), and now available in paperback for the first time, this highly original book draws on insights from semiotics and from psychoanalytic, feminist, and Marxist criticism. Addressing the relations of language to experience, the body to scale, and narratives to objects, Susan Stewart looks at the 'miniature' as a metaphor for interiority and at the 'gigantic' as an exaggeration of aspects of the exterior. In the final part of her essay Stewart examines the ways in which the 'souvenir' and the 'collection' are objects mediating experience in time and space.Trade Review"Stewart's work provides an oasis in contemporary criticism, a place where theory and poetry, systematic reflection and the essayistic plunge into particular cases, come together in a refreshing synthesis."—W. J. T. Mitchell"The historical richness, psychological insight and sociological subtlety of the analyses Stewart develops in On Longing are exemplary for cultural studies."—Barbara Herrnstein Smith

    £18.89

  • Where Are We Heading

    Yale University Press Where Are We Heading

    1 in stock

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

    1 in stock

    £21.38

  • The Five Roles of a Master Herder: A

    New World Library The Five Roles of a Master Herder: A

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £15.29

  • In Search of Respect Selling Crack in El Barrio

    Cambridge University Press In Search of Respect Selling Crack in El Barrio

    2 in stock

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

    2 in stock

    £24.99

  • All Year Round: A Calendar of Celebrations

    Hawthorn Press All Year Round: A Calendar of Celebrations

    Book SynopsisAll Year Round is brimming with things to make, activities, stories, poems and songs to share with your family. It is full of well-illustrated ideas for fun and celebration: from Candlemas to Christmas and Midsummer''s day to the Winter solstice.Observing the round of festivals is an enjoyable way to bring rhythm into children''s lives and provide a series of meaningful landmarks to look forward to. Each festival has a special character of its own: participation can deepen our understanding and love of nature and bring a gift to the whole family. All Year Round invites you to start celebrating now!

    £15.29

  • Blueprint

    Little, Brown & Company Blueprint

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisDrawing on advances in social science, evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience and network science, Blueprint shows how and why evolution has placed us on a humane path -- and how we are united by our common humanity. For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions - our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations - we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society. In Blueprint, Nicholas A. Christakis introduces the compelling idea that our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviors, but also the ways in which we make societies, ones that are surprisingly similar worldwide. With many vivid examples -- including diverse historical and contemporary cultures, communities formed in the wake of shipwrecks, commune dwellers seeking utopia, online groups thrown together by design or involving artificially intelligent bots and even the tender and complex social arrangements of elephants and dolphins that so resemble our own - Christakis shows that, despite a human history replete with violence, we cannot escape our social blueprint for goodness. In a world of increasing political and economic polarisation, it''s tempting to ignore the positive role of our evolutionary past. But by exploring the ancient roots of goodness in civilisation, Blueprint shows that our genes have shaped societies for our welfare and that, in a feedback loop stretching back many thousands of years, societies have shaped and are still shaping, our genes today.

    1 in stock

    £8.54

  • History of the Caucasus: Volume 1: At the

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC History of the Caucasus: Volume 1: At the

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis“Magnificent [and] wondrous.” The Spectator "Rich and illuminating." Literary Review "Phenomenally accurate." History Today "Stunning." The Morning Star "Sweeping." The New European "A wonderful book." Current World Archaeology "In a class of its own." The Caspian Post A landscape of high mountains and narrow valleys stretching from the Black to the Caspian Seas, the Caucasus region has been home to human populations for nearly 2 million years. In this richly illustrated 2-volume series, historian and explorer Christoph Baumer tells the story of the region’s history through to the present day. It is a story of encounters between many different peoples, from Scythians, Turkic and Mongol peoples of the East to Greeks and Romans from the West, from Indo-European tribes from the West as well as the East, and to Arabs and Iranians from the South. It is a story of rival claims by Empires and nations and of how the region has become home to more than 50 languages that can be heard within its borders to this very day. This first volume charts the period from the emergence of the earliest human populations in the region – the first known human populations outside Africa - to the Seljuk conquests of 1050CE. Along the way the book charts the development of Neolithic, Iron and Bronze Age cultures, the first recognizable Caucasian state and the arrival of a succession of the great transnational Empires, from the Greeks, the Romans and the Armenian to competing Christian and Muslim conquerors. The History of the Caucasus: Volume 1 also includes more than 200 full colour images and maps bringing the changing cultures of these lands vividly to life.Trade ReviewBaumer sets out the wonders of the past, sometimes doing so valley by valley… This is a real treat: a rare book whose images do justice to the text and vice versa. I cannot recommend it highly enough. -- Peter Frankopan * The Spectator *This grand and encyclopedic volume will surely become the standard work on this beguiling and important region. -- Bijan Omrani * Literary Review *The Caucasus has long attracted mountain climbers, bird watchers and lovers and medieval architecture: its appeal, thanks to Baumer’s book, will reach a wider audience, from tourists to academics who want to study languages of a region that Arabs called ‘the Mountain of Tongues’. The first volume takes us from the dawn of history to the 11th century. It is a miracle of both concentration and clarity. -- Donald Rayfield * History Today *The largely unknown and historically neglected Caucasus emerges as a land of never-ending fascination… This is writing on a vast his­torical scale… Filled with awe-inspiring photography, clear and relevant maps, useful timelines and pic­tures of hundreds of artefacts. -- Steve Andrew * The Morning Star *Sweeping [and] beautifully illustrated. * The New European *To perform a historical survey of such a long time span, from prehistory to the collapse of the Soviet Union, of a region containing several dozen nations and intersecting with so many of the great world empires would seem to be a foolhardy undertaking… [Baumer] pulls this off through dogged erudition and enthusiasm for his subject. * Asian Review of Books *This huge sweep of history is handled deftly and intelligently through Baumer’s vivid and lucid prose and the accompaniment of magnificent photographs, many taken by the author, which amply illustrate the archaeological discoveries through the ages, from ruined fortifications to wondrous works of art… A wonderful book full of great scholarship. -- John Hare * Current World Archaeology *“Lavishly illustrated with the author’s colour photos taken on various visits to the region over the past decade, the heavy gloss paper gives the feel of a coffee table book. However, the content is that of a rich, old-school history text, fact-heavy and chronologically ordered with a suitably bewildering cast of kings and battles… Baumer’s work [is] in a class of its own.” -- Mark Elliot * The Caspian Post *While the book would be worth having for the images alone, the text provides a mostly reliable overview of the vast sweep of human history in the Caucasus and adjacent regions from the earliest signs of hominin habitation more than 1,7 million years ago up to the 13th century. * Iran and the Caucasus *Impressively informative, profusely illustrated, exceptionally well organized and presented, History of the Caucasus: At the Crossroads of Empires by historian Christoph Baumer is an extraordinary work of regional history that will have enormous appeal for the non- specialist general reader and the academician alike—making this an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and university library Asian history collections in general, and supplemental curriculum studies reading lists in particular. * Midwest Book Review *Baumer's book is a milestone in the long, complex and hitherto obscure history of the Caucasus: he deals adroitly and convincingly with questions of palaeontology, archaeology, myth, legend as well as the historical records to be retrieved from Armenian, Georgian, Latin and Greek sources. He shows due scepticism about national legends and etymological claims. Baumer writes with admirable clarity. His book is magnificently illustrated, and all the reader can want is for volume 2, covering the next thousand years, to appear as soon as possible. * Professor Donald Rayfield, Emeritus Professor of Russian, Queen Mary University of London, UK *A fascinating book with glorious photography. * Irish Tech News *Table of ContentsI At the edge of Europe and Asia - An Introduction 1. A Time of Conflict 2. A Special Geography 3. Peoples and Languages 4. Objectives and Sources II The Formation of the Landscape and Early Humans of the Palaeolithic 1. The Origin of the Caucasus Mountains and the History of the Adjacent Seas - Black Sea and Caspian Sea Excursus: Did the Flood take place near the Black Sea? 2. Homo Georgicus: First Early Humans Outside Africa 3. Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens in the North and South Caucasus III Prehistoric Cultures: From the Neolithic to the Iron Age 1. The Southern Caucasus 1.1 The Shulaveri-Shomu-Aratashen culture 1.2 The Chalcolithic cultures of Sioni and Leila Tepe 1.3 The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Kura-Araxes Culture 1.4 The Kurgan Cultures of the Middle Bronze Age Excursus: The invention of wheel and cart 1.5 Late Bronze Age and Iron Age 1.6 Early Tribal Organizations, War Alliances and Confederations 1.7 The Colchis in Prehistoric Times 2. The Northern Caucasus 2.1 Chalcolithic Settlements and Early, Flat Tumuli 2.2 The Early Bronze Age Cultures of Maikop 2.3 The Middle and Late Bronze Age Dolmen Culture 2.4 The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Pri-Elbrus Culture IV. A First Caucasian state, Greek Empires and Northern Equestrian Peoples 1. Urartu/Biainili: The First Caucasian State 1.1 The Creation of Biainili 1.2 Biainili Struggles with Assyria for Supremacy in the Middle East 1.3 Rise of Assyria and Weakening of Biainili 1.4 Biainili's Decline 2. Equestrian Peoples from the North and Greek Trading Colonies 2.1 The Cimmerians 2.2 Immigrant Scythians and Autochthonous Maiotes 2.3 Greek Emporia in the North-western Caucasus 2.4 Sarmatians, Alans and the Hun Invasion V. The South Caucasus under Achaemenid Sovereignty, Armenian Kingdoms and Pontos 1 The Achaemenid Sovereignty 2 The Hellenization of the Colchis 3. Early Kingdoms of Armenia 3.1 Armenian Dynasties of the Orontides/Yervanduni and Early Artaxiad 3.2 Tigranes the Great, Pontos and the Mithridaic Wars Excursus: The eight deities of the Armenian pantheon 3.3 Late Artaxiad: Armenia between Rome and Parthia 3.4 Roman Patronage of Pontos VI Roman-Parthian Condominiums in the South Caucasus 1. Comments on Early Historiography in the Southern Caucasus 2. The Kingdom of Kartli (Iberia) and Lazica 2.1 Legendary Ancestors and the Parnavazids 2.2 Iberia in the Orbit of Rome 3. Caucasian Albania in pre-Islamic Time 4. Armenia 4.1 Armenia as a Roman-Parthian Condominium 4.2 Armenia between Sasanid and Roman Sovereignty VII The Introduction of Christianity as a State Ideology and the Political Division of the South Caucasus 1. Legends of Apostolic Missionary Work 2. Armenia and the Tradition of Gregori the Enlightener 2.1 Syrian-Mesopotamian and Greek-Cappadocian Impulses 2.2 King Trdat IV and Gregori the Illuminator 2.3 Characteristics of Early Armenian Christianity 2.4 A power struggle between King and Catholics and the division of Armenia Excursus: Mesrop Mashtots and the invention of the Armenian script 3. Kartli: From King Mirian III to the Abolition of the Monarchy 3.1 The Legend of St. Nino and the Christianization of Kartli 3.2 Kartli Under Persian Sovereignty 4 The Conversion of Albania and the Apostolic Church of Caucasian Albania 5 Lazica and a First Christianization of the North Caucasian Alans 5.1 The Lazican Wars 5.2 The Christianization of Lazica, Alania and Svanetia and the veneration of military saints 6. The Persian Hegemony in Armenia, Georgia and Albani 7. The Alienation Between the Caucasian Church Hierarchies VIII Between Caliphate, Byzantium and Khazars 1. Southern Caucasian Principalities under Islamic Rule until the Battle of Bagravand in 772 2. The Rise of the Bagratid dynasties 2.1 The Emergence of the Armenian Kingdom Excursus: Paulikians and Tondrakians 2.2 The Formation of the Georgian Kingdom of Sakartvelo 3. The Empire of the Khazars in the Northern Caucasus 4. The Kingdom of Alanya in the North-western Caucasus 5. Muslim Dynasties of Albania and the Invasion of the Seljuks 5.1 The Sayids 5.2 The Sallarids 5.3 The Rawwadids 5.4 The Shaddadids 5.5 The Yazidids and Hashimids 6. The Kingdoms of Armenia, Byzantium and the Seljuk Conquest 6.1 The Armenian Kingdoms 6.2 The Byzantine Annexation of Armenia 6.3 The Seljuks Conquer Armenia 6.4 Ani under the Rule of the Shaddadids IX. Outlook Appendices I. Population statistics by country II Ancient established languages of the Caucasus by language families III Chronology of the most important Caucasian dynasties Notes Bibliography List of Maps Photo credits Acknowledgements Index Concepts People Places

    2 in stock

    £27.00

  • Eating in Theory

    Duke University Press Eating in Theory

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisAs we taste, chew, swallow, digest, and excrete, our foods transform us, while our eating, in its turn, affects the wider earthly environment. In Eating in Theory Annemarie Mol takes inspiration from these transformative entanglements to rethink what it is to be human. Drawing on fieldwork at food conferences, research labs, health care facilities, restaurants, and her own kitchen table, Mol reassesses the work of authors such as Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hans Jonas, and Emmanuel Levinas. They celebrated the allegedly unique capability of humans to rise above their immediate bodily needs. Mol, by contrast, appreciates that as humans we share our fleshy substance with other living beings, whom we cultivate, cut into pieces, transport, prepare, and incorporate—and to whom we leave our excesses. This has far-reaching philosophical consequences. Taking human eating seriously suggests a reappraisal of being as transformative, knowing as entangling, doing as disperseTrade Review“Its writing limpid, its organization elegant, its argument scintillating, this book is inspirational. And radical. Annemarie Mol effectively unseats the mindset that cannot see past people as thinking and embodied beings. While her address is to questions as they are posed in philosophy, this book will find huge sympathy among those dealing with anthropological materials of all kinds and stages a striking provocation for the general reader who asks whether scholarship can tell us anything new.” -- Marilyn Strathern, author of * Relations: An Anthropological Account *“In characteristically crisp and inviting prose, Annemarie Mol thinks through eating—its social acts, sensory experiences, and metabolic processes—to re-metabolize the wisdoms so many of us have absorbed about knowing and relating, being and doing, subjectivity and agency. Eating in Theory offers a nourishingly pluralistic vision of humans permeable to their surroundings, interdependent rather than autonomous, and hungry for further thinking. It’s a book to savor.” -- Heather Paxson, Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"Eating in Theory is a tasty and satisfying treat for anyone interested in human-nature relationships, refreshing theoretical perspectives, food studies, ethnography and more." -- Ola Plonska * LSE Review of Books *"[I]n detailing much of her critical reflection on a certain valued practice of thinking over those of eating, Mol eloquently brings into the limelight the vitality of abandoning grand theories aimed at explaining all human beings, and especially those not situated in their own theorization." -- Elin Linder * Anthropology Book Forum *"A remarkable book. . . . By dispensing with the ontological need for knowledge to be universal, Eating in Theory lives up to its title and truly theorizes eating as an act of meaning and meaning making. . . . Mol’s analysis unfolds fluidly and clearly. . . . Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals." -- M. A. Lange * Choice *"I know of no health researcher who so compellingly takes health out of individual bodies and situates it in the collective ecology that bodies depend on. . . . No writings seem more relevant to the crises of the present moment." -- Arthur W. Frank * Journal of Medical Humanities *"[A] terrific little book. . . . . Anthropologists and sociologists with an interest in Food Studies can easily make strong use of Eating in Theory, as well as of course philosophers of many disciplines preoccupied with the question of what we can wrap our collective Western mouth—rather than our head—around the most pernicious theoretical effects of the Anthropocene." -- Megan Volpert * Popmatters *"I find this book a valuable philosophical and theoretical contribution to our understanding of eating and food. I find it especially useful because Annemarie Mol demonstrates, through her scrutiny of such philosophical categories as Being, Knowing, Doing, and Relating, the multiple entanglements between people, between humans and nonhumans, that highlight the complexities of eating. As she successfully demonstrates, this traditionally banalized act can be productive for thinking about what it means to be human at a time when multiple empirical realities challenge universal philosophical understandings." -- Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Eating in Theory proves to be not only brief and approachable, but exciting and thought-provoking for foodways scholars. Reminiscent of Sarah Pink’s work on sensory ethnography, Mol introduces the reader to exciting new approaches in studying food and eating. Through thoughtful fieldwork passages and engaging analysis, Mol teaches us to view the world through eating, relating it to larger issues of overconsumption and ecological sustainability." -- Ema Noëlla Kibirkstis * Digest *"This book unravels the particular and ever-present model of the human derived from Western epistemologies while demonstrating its perniciousness by experimenting with alternatives. . . . Mol's voice is precise, challenging, and insightful. . . . Mol's ideas inspire a way of laboring in the world, of which the academia is part." -- Jessica Hardin * Anthropological Quarterly *"Eating in Theory brings Mol’s sophisticated approach to materiality and its enactment to bear on the prosaic topic of eating. This fascinating yet complex topic is much enriched by her approach and clarity. . . . Mol’s choice of the familiar yet always fascinating topic of eating has allowed her to create a very helpful primer and companion for a posthuman understanding of being, knowing, thinking, and relating. Naturally it is of interest to anyone interested in the topic of food and eating but should also be read widely across the humanities and social sciences for its contributions to thinking around ecological sustainability and philosophy." -- Hannah Drayson * Leonardo *Table of Contents1. Empirical Philosophy 2. Being 3. Knowing 4. Doing 5. Relating 6. Intellectual Ingredients Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

    3 in stock

    £18.99

  • Secular Translations

    Columbia University Press Secular Translations

    Book SynopsisIn Secular Translations, anthropologist Talal Asad reflects on his lifelong engagement with secularism and its contradictions. He draws out the ambiguities in our concepts of the religious and the secular through a rich consideration of translatability and untranslatability.Trade ReviewWell worth reading...an excellent instance of the value of anthropological concepts for the study of religion and the social importance of theology. -- Timothy Jenkins, Cambridge University * Modern Theology *Asad remains essential reading. * Muslim World Book Review *This is an immensely rich text, undoubtedly Asad’s tour de force. * Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Secular Equality and Religious Language2. Translation and the Sensible Body3. Masks, Security, and the Language of NumbersEpilogueNotesIndex

    £20.90

  • A Natural History of Human Morality

    Harvard University Press A Natural History of Human Morality

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is an extremely worthwhile addition to the literature on the evolution of morality. It is well written and strikes an excellent balance between easy accessibility and nuanced and novel ideas. This book will appeal to students and researchers from a range of disciplines. -- Richard Joyce, author of The Evolution of MoralityThis is an important synthesis of the ideas Tomasello has been developing over a number of years, extended with an offer of a philosophically relevant genealogy of morality. Readers will learn much from this informed review of the extensive literature on the evolution of morality—a substantial part of which consists of the major contributions Tomasello and his colleagues have made. -- Philip Kitcher, author of The Ethical ProjectIf you’re after a definitive guide to explain how humans became an ultra-cooperative and, eventually, moral species, this must be it. Evolutionary anthropologist Michael Tomasello has followed his last book, A Natural History of Human Thinking, with another hard hitter. * New Scientist *Tomasello is convincing, above all, because he has run many of the relevant studies (on chimps, bonobos and children) himself. He concludes by emphasizing the powerful influence of broad cultural groups on modern humans…Tomasello also makes an endearing guide, appearing happily amazed that morality exists at all. -- Michael Bond * New Scientist *

    15 in stock

    £17.95

  • Imacoqwa`s Arrow – On the Biunity of the Sun and

    HAU Society Of Ethnographic Theory Imacoqwa`s Arrow – On the Biunity of the Sun and

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA pathbreaking study of Yagwoia cosmological concepts. In Imacoqwa’s Arrow, Jadran Mimica draws on decades of field research to bring us a rich ethnographic account of myth and meaning in the lifeworlds of the Yagwoia of Papua New Guinea. He focuses especially on the relations of the sun and the moon in Yagwoia understandings of the universe and their own place within it. This is classic terrain in Melanesian ethnography, but Mimica does much more than add to the archive of anthropological accounts of the significance of the sun and the moon for peoples of this part of the world. With extraordinary rigor and reflexivity, he grounds his understanding of Yagwoia concepts in psychoanalytic and phenomenological methods that afford a radically new and revealing translation of these seminal themes in Melanesian mythology and its poetics. This is a major contribution to the hermeneutics of ethnographic translation and theorization.

    1 in stock

    £24.33

  • The Promise of Multispecies Justice

    Duke University Press The Promise of Multispecies Justice

    Book SynopsisComing from the worlds of cultural anthropology, geography, philosophy, science fiction, poetry, and fine art, the contributors to this volume consider the possibility for multispecies justice and speculate on the forms it would take.Trade Review"[A] vibrant edited volume. . . . The case studies offer much for higher-level scholars in anthropology, human geography, environmental studies, human-animal studies, and applied philosophy. . . . Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals." -- S. M. Weiss * Choice *"The chapters of essays, poetry, art, and framing in this volume are powerful and generative, including for anyone interested in social justice, multispecies studies, and the human and non-human injustices that characterize much of the contemporary world." (translated from Spanish) -- Maron E. Greenleaf * Estudios Publicos *"In blurring conventional justices—climate, environmental, social—we are guided by analytics that intersect race, gender, class, and species. The authors remind us that naming justices and injustices provides stories of both incremental hope and lasting nightmare in the reorganization of epistemological, ontological, and political promise. Each volume expands Western continental philosophy and political theory related to rights and capabilities, ever resistant to human mastery and institutional capture." -- Kellen Copeland * American Ethnologist *"The Promise of Multispecies Justice provides novel and thought-provoking perspectives concerning the experience of injustice and justice. It is a compulsory read for scholars in many fields, from the diverse fields of human, social, and life sciences. It is relevant and valuable for anyone interested in how to transit towards a fairer society." -- Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen * Anthropology Book Forum *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Who Benefits from Multispecies Justice? / Eben Kirksey and Sophie Chao 1 Glossary. Species of Justice / Sophie Chao and Eben Kirksey 23 Blessing. Thanksgiving in the Plantationocene / Craig Santos Perez 29 1. Spectral Justice / Radhika Govindrajan 33 2. Rights of the Amazon in Cosmopolitical Worlds / Kristina Lyons 53 3. “We Are Not Pests” / Alyssa Paredes 77 4. Prison Gardens and Growing Abolition / Elizabeth Lara 103 5. Justice at the Ends of the Worlds / Michael Marder 125 6. from the micronesian kingfisher / Craig Santos Perez 139 7. Rodent Trapping and the Just Possible / Jia Hui Lee 157 8. Inscribing the Interspecies Gap / M. L. Clark 179 9. Nuclear Waste and Relational Accountability in Indian Country / Noriko Ishiyama and Kim Tallbear 185 10. Multispecies Mediations in a Post-Extractive Zone / Zsuzsanna Ihar 205 Closing. Th S xth M ss Ext nci n / Craig Santos Perez 227 Afterword. Fugitive Jurisdictions / Karin Bolender, Sophie Chao, and Eben Kirksey 229 Bibliography 239 Contributors 273 Index 277

    £18.89

  • Magic  A Theory from the South

    HAU Magic A Theory from the South

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis9780990505099.

    1 in stock

    £36.40

  • Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological

    The University of Chicago Press Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological

    1 in stock

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

    1 in stock

    £24.70

  • Eat Thy Neighbour

    The History Press Ltd Eat Thy Neighbour

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisCannibalism is unquestionably one of the oldest and deepest-seated taboos. Even in an age when almost nothing is sacred, religious, moral and social prohibitions surround the topic. But even as our minds recoil at the mention of actual acts of cannibalism there is some dark fascination with the subject. Appalling crimes of humans eating other humans are blown into major news stories and gory movies: both Hitchcock''s Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were based on the crimes of Ed Gein, who is profiled, along with others, in this book. In Eat Thy Neighbour the authors put the subject of cannibalism into its social and historical perspective.

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • Cornell University Press Images from the Region of the Pueblo Indians of

    Out of stock

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

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Design for the Real World

    Academy Chicago Publishers Design for the Real World

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTranslated into twenty-three languages, Design for the Real World is one of the world's most widely read books on design. In this edition, Victor Papanek examines the attempts by designers to combat the tawdry, the unsafe, the frivolous, the useless product, once again providing a blueprint for sensible, responsible design.Trade ReviewThoroughly provocative." — Time"The book is wonderfully alive, and full of examples to instruct, amuse or horrify. The enthusiasm and verbal exuberance of Papanek as he rips away the pretensions, hypocrisises and vices of the real world are always stimulating." — Arthur Conway, New Scientist

    15 in stock

    £21.21

  • Duress

    Duke University Press Duress

    Book SynopsisHow do colonial histories matter to the urgencies and conditions of our current world? How have those histories so often been rendered as leftovers, as 'legacies' of a dead past rather than as active and violating forces in the world today? With precision and clarity, Ann Laura Stoler argues that recognizing 'colonial presence' may have as much to do with how the connections between colonial histories and the present are expected to look as it does with how they are expected to be. In Duress, Stoler considers what methodological renovations might serve to write histories that yield neither to smooth continuities nor to abrupt epochal breaks. Capturing the uneven, recursive qualities of the visions and practices that imperial formations have animated, Stoler works through a set of conceptual and concrete reconsiderations that locate the political effects and practices that imperial projects produce: occluded histories, gradated sovereignties, affective security regimes, 'newTrade Review"Duress: Imperial Durabilities In Our Times is a timely book. It can be read as both a work of postcolonial analysis and a methodological guide to conceptual history. Ann Laura Stoler’s willingness to wrestle uneasy mercurial modern terminologies into valuable approaches to the histories of imperial formations is refreshing and exemplary." -- Ed Jones * LSE Review of Books *"Stoler adds different insights and contexts to much material that is not new. Perhaps one test of the value of this is that it is difficult to read Duress without applying its insights both to the ways we engage in ethnographic enterprises and to current situations. Stoler provides the reader with much to consider and underscores the urgency of doing so." -- James Phillips * American Ethnologist *"Stoler’s book is both timely and innovative. . . . [Duress] takes us on a journey that looks at the genealogy of imperial violence, its traces in the present and its continuous re-shaping of contemporary societies on the one hand, and on the other, how new stories emerge and counterdiscourse shapes imperial violence." -- Olivette Otele * Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History *"Innovative and thoughtful. . . . Stoler has for a long time now moved between different concepts, disciplines, and subdisciplines with an agility that is inspiring. . . . A pressing and timely book that will be of interest to all concerned with questions on liberation and entrapment." -- Shirin Saeidi * Journal of International and Global Studies *"Stoler casts her net wide and deep and convincingly shows that colonialism is more complex, and more present, than most histories acknowledge." -- Aviva Chomsky * American Historical Review *"A tour de force. Stoler’s encyclopedic knowledge of the literature is impressive and the book might be used as a reference for those hoping to move the needle in postcolonial studies—to advance the agenda of the subfield . . . Stoler has ably demonstrated that Foucault’s work is relevant to locales beyond France. And yet, I am left to ask whether, in a sense, Stoler might simply stand alone, without Foucault, now more than ever as her own theoretical proficiencies are brought to bear on our colonial present." -- Anne-Maria Makhulu * Anthropological Quarterly *Table of ContentsPreface ix Appreciations xi Part I. Concept Work: Fragilities and Filiations 1. Critical Incisions: On Concept Work and Colonial Recursions 3 2. Raw Cuts: Palestine, Israel, and (Post)Colonial Studies 37 3. A Deadly Embrace: Of Colony and Camp 68 4. Colonial Aphasia: Disabled histories and Race in France 122 Part II. Recursions in a Colonial Mode 5. On Degrees of Imperial Sovereignty 173 6. Reason Aside: Enlightenment Projects and Empire's Security Regimes 205 7. Racial Regimes of Truth 237 Part III. "The Rot Remains" 8. Racist Visions and the Common Sense of France's "Extreme" Right 269 9. Bodily Exposures: Beyond Sex? 305 10. Imperial Debris and Ruination 336 Bibliography 381 Index 419

    £22.49

  • Very Important People

    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

    £12.99

  • Sage Publications Ltd The Consumer Society

    Out of stock

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

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Native American DNA

    University of Minnesota Press Native American DNA

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"Native American DNA is a book of far wider scope than its title, establishing the author as a leading authority on the topic. The politics of tribal DNA is but the starting point of a complex analysis that encompasses the whole framework in which DNA is appropriated in the study of human populations. Molecular geneticists, science studies researchers, legal scholars—and of course Native Americans—will find their horizons considerably broadened and newly engaged."—Troy Duster, New York University"Native American DNA is a gracefully written, powerfully argued, and urgently needed examination of indigenous identity and politics after the genomic turn. This is pathbreaking work."—Alondra Nelson, Columbia University"Provocative and incisive. . . Native American DNA is undoubtedly a key text."—Medical Anthropology Quarterly"TallBear’s description of the science of DNA testing is remarkably clear, and her skepticism about its claims is well founded."—Journal of American History"Essential reading for researchers in all fields of Indigenous studies."—American Indian QuarterlyTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: An Indigenous, Feminist Approach to DNA Politics1. Racial Science, Blood, and DNA 2. The DNA Dot-com: Selling Ancestry3. Genetic Genealogy Online4. The Genographic Project: The Business of Research and RepresentationConclusion: Indigenous and Genetic Governance and KnowledgeNotesIndex

    3 in stock

    £19.79

  • Cold War Anthropology

    Duke University Press Cold War Anthropology

    Book SynopsisDavid H. Price uses information from CIA, FBI, and military records to map the connections between academia and the strategic use of anthropological research to further the goals of the U.S. military and outline the major influence the American security state has had on the field of anthropology.Trade Review"Others have written on the entanglement of the social sciences with the military-intelligence complex, but none as energetically, from as many angles, or with as sensitive an eye for connections and overarching themes. ... Just as [Price] insists that HTS matters less than the underlying trends it represents, he cares less about the dramas of individual anthropologists in Cold War Anthropology and more about the subtle, systemic changes throughout the field—changes that threatened to make the discipline itself a security-state collaborator, sucking in individual researchers without their full knowledge." -- Peter C. Baker * The Nation *"In the course of twelve years Price has written three books which have helped redefine anthropology’s understanding of itself. And now, with Cold War Anthropology, Price brings his massive, precedent-make (and -busting) history of anthropology and American power to a close. It’s a defining moment in the history of anthropology, and deserves wide attention. . . . We have much to learn from our discipline’s recent past, and thanks to David Price we have the opportunity to see our field as it really was, warts and all. The stories in this book, and the issues that it raises, need to be discussed by the discipline as a whole." -- Alex Golub * Somatosphere *"Readers will benefit from Price’s careful attention to the impact of funding streams on scholarly decision-making, his dedication to amassing hard-to-locate source material, and his cogent moral compass." -- Margaret Flood * History of Anthropology Newsletter *"Cold War Anthropology restarts a conversation that should have never stopped. Anthropologists unaware of their discipline’s history will nodoubt find its lists of CIA and military projects eye-opening. Veterans of campaigns to rid the discipline of ties to the military and intelligence agencies will appreciate its recounting of battles lost and won within the AAA. Historians of science, too, have much to learn from the book’s methodology, especially its use of FOIA applications and tracings of blown CIA fronts." -- Audra Wolfe * Anthropological Quarterly *"Cold War Anthropology forces the reader to confront in blunt detail the ways in which ethnographic work exists in tandem with political-economic forces, especially the agendas of funding bodies and special interests. It is a book I encourage anthropologists everywhere to read, but, more importantly, to discuss its implications with colleagues and students." -- Joseph Anderson * LSE Review of Books *"With regard to US anthropology, perhaps no other scholar has done more to unsettle the by now defunct representation of the anthropologist as hero than David H. Price." -- Sindre Bangstad * Anthropology of This Century *"Price names names in abundance, carefully weighing researchers' awareness, or not, of hidden agendas; few records exist about unfunded research disfavored by state agencies. Illuminating shadows and obscured influences, Price brings realpolitik into anthropology’s history. . . . Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries." -- A. B. Kehoe * Choice *"Price’s work has been marked by extensive use of governmental archives, including many sources declassified through the Freedom of Information Act. Simply bringing this information to light should be reckoned as a major achievement....Price has written, if not a fully sufficient book (who has?), then a profoundly necessary one that challenges what American anthropology has been and what it remains." -- Robert Oppenheim * Journal of American History *"Cold War Anthropology is an exceptionally valuable book, based on impressive scholarship. It deserves the thoughtful attention of anthropologists interested in where their discipline has been and where it may be headed." -- Robert A. Rubinstein * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Historians of anthropology will welcome this volume, but it is relevant for every anthropologist working today. . . . We have much to learn from our discipline’s recent past, and thanks to David Price we have the opportunity to see our field as it really was, warts and all. The stories in this book, and the issues that it raises, need to be discussed by the discipline as a whole." -- Alex Golub * Savage Minds *"Price critically analyzes the rapid growth of American anthropology during the Cold War ... [and] masterfully contextualizes these tranformative years in anthropology." -- Roberto J. González * Anthropos *"The publication of David Price’s Cold War Anthropology concludes a trilogy of volumes that, taken together, constitute one of the most important and unprecedented contributions to the intellectual and political history of American anthropology." -- Mark Goodale * American Anthropologist *"Price has gone to extensive lengths using the FOIA to secure previously secret documents that complement his comprehensive survey of open source material and the secondary literature. No stone is left unturned, no shallow defense of complicity left unchallenged." -- John Krige * Diplomatic History *"This is a work of superb and relevant scholarship that deserves to be read and heeded by every undergraduate student let alone scholars across the anthropological discipline. It is a moral call to examine the nature and value of knowledge and of conducting independent research rather than following the pathways opened up by the imperial state." -- Inderjeet Parmar * Social History *"David Price is convincing; his arguments are nuanced and reveal the breadth and degree of US anthropology’s involvement in CIA and Pentagon efforts." -- Julie McBrien * American Ethnologist *Table of ContentsPreface xi Acknowledgments xxv Abbreviations xxix Part I. Cold War Political-Economic Disciplinary Formations 1. Political Economy and History of American Cold War Intelligence 3 2. World War II's Long Shadow 31 3. Rebooting Professional Anthropology in the Postwar World 54 4. After the Shooting War: Centers, Committees, Seminars, and Other Cold War Projects 81 5. Anthropologists and State: Aid, Debt, and Other Cold War Weapons of the Strong 109 Intermezzo 137 Part II. Anthropologists' Articulations with the National Security State 6. Cold War Anthropologists at the CIA: Careers Confirmed and Suspected 143 7. How CIA Funding Fronts Shaped Anthropological Research 165 8. Unwitting CIA Anthropologist Collaborators: MK-Ultra, Human Ecology, and Buying a Piece of Anthropology 195 9. Cold War Fieldwork within the Intelligence Universe 221 10. Cold War Anthropological Counterinsurgency Dreams 248 11. The AAA Confronts Military and Intelligence Uses of Disciplinary Knowledge 276 12. Anthropologically Informed Counterinsurgency in Southeast Asia 301 13. Anthropologists for Radical Political Action and Revolution within the AAA 323 14. Untangling Open Secrets, Hidden Histories, Outrage Denied, and Recurrent Dual Use Themes 349 Notes 371 Bibliography 397 Index 433

    £23.39

  • The Anthropology of Childhood

    Cambridge University Press The Anthropology of Childhood

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisBased on over 100 years of findings from anthropological scholarship, this book paints a nuanced and credible picture of childhood in different cultures, past and present. Now in its third edition, it has been updated with a number of new topics, and includes over 350 new sources.Trade Review'This is a wonderful book spanning the full range of experiences encountered by children across cultures and through time during this most critical of all human life phases. It provides a beautifully illustrated treasure trove of examples and insights amassed over Lancy's lifetime spent studying how children have been celebrated, tended, and educated – as well as, sometimes, also exploited.' Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature and Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding'The Anthropology of Childhood has been the pinnacle resource for students and scholars seeking to understand childhood and adolescence crossculturally since the first edition was published in 2008. Drawing from over 100 years of research in anthropology, Dr. Lancy masterfully illustrates the meaning and nuanced experiences of childhood and youth across the globe. This third edition dives even deeper into classic research and guides us through the most recent and trailblazing research available.' Dr. Hillary Fouts, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, Western Oregon University'A fascinating insight into the true nature of childhood – a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand children and the role culture plays in shaping us all.' Melissa Hogenboom, author of The Motherhood Complex'This new edition of Lancy's landmark book is again an endless source of information and inspiration. The updated and extended collection of anthropological evidence about children, childhood, and families is definitely the must-read for students of children's socialization and learning.' Professor Emeritus Heidi Keller, Osnabrück University'Drawing on developmental psychology, anthropology, biology, and sociology, David Lancy reveals a wholistic view of childhood, enriched with deep ethnographic insight into the diverse ways children grow up. Lancy's work elevates the study of childhood by bringing the role of children in society into meaningful light.' Karen L. Kramer, Professor of Anthropology, University of Utah'In this deeply enriched and utterly compelling new edition, David Lancy continues to break ethnocentric and widespread assumptions about child socialization, learning, and parenting, making vital contributions to the anthropology of childhood and youth. While so recently published, this book has already become a classic in childhood studies and beyond.' Dr. Camilla Morelli, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, The University of BristolTable of ContentsPreface; 1. Where do children come from?; 2. The value of children; 3. To make a child; 4. It takes a village; 5. Making sense; 6. Of marbles and morals; 7. The chore curriculum; 8. Living in limbo; 9. Taming the autonomous learner; 10. Elastic childhood; References; Author index; Topic index; Society index.

    1 in stock

    £30.99

  • Architecture of Migration

    Duke University Press Architecture of Migration

    Book SynopsisEnvironments associated with migration are often seen as provisional, lacking both history and architecture. As Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi demonstrates in Architecture of Migration, a refugee camp’s aesthetic and material landscapes—even if born out of emergency—reveal histories, futures, politics, and rhetorics. She identifies forces of colonial and humanitarian settlement, tracing spatial and racial politics in the Dadaab refugee camps established in 1991 on the Kenya-Somalia border—at once a dense setting that manifests decades of architectural, planning, and design initiatives and a much older constructed environment that reflects its own ways of knowing. She moves beyond ahistorical representations of camps and their inhabitants by constructing a material and visual archive of Dadaab, finding long migratory traditions in the architecture, spatial practices, landscapes, and iconography of refugees and humanitarians. Countering conceptualizations of refugeTrade Review“This beautifully written and brilliantly original work elucidates a seemingly irresolvable tension, central to the condition of migrants, between the transience of the refugee category and how refugees’ lives are anchored in hard infrastructures and histories. By tracing the entanglement of aesthetics and politics in the Dadaab refugee camp, Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi ties migration to encampment in a visceral and material way.” -- Miriam Ticktin, author of * Casualties of Care: Immigration and the Politics of Humanitarianism in France *“Architecture of Migration deftly deconstructs humanitarian discourses in architecture, planning, and global crisis management. Its compelling ethnographic research with camp residents and aid workers shares lived experiences within these built-to-be-temporary camps of tents and tarps that have become permanent sprawling urban settlements. Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi’s insightful histories share spatial narratives of lives caught in the wake of colonialism and political, economic, and environmental upheaval. Siddiqi produces an unparalleled study of how neoliberal policies strategically and violently underdevelop spaces for the world’s most vulnerable people.” -- Mabel O. Wilson, Professor of Architecture and Professor of Black Studies, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsAbbreviations xiii Author’s Note xv Introduction. Architecture and History in a Refugee Camp 1 1. From Partitions 51 2. Land, Emergency, and Sedentarization in East Africa 99 3. Shelter and Domesticity 141 4. An Archive of Humanitarian Settlement 181 5. Design as Infrastructure 249 Afterword. “Poetry Is a Weapon That We Use in Both War and Peace” 305 Acknowledgments 321 Notes 329 Primary Sources 363 References 371 Index 397

    £22.49

  • Unsustainable

    New York University Press Unsustainable

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA behind-the-scenes look at how corporate and financial actors enforce a business-friendly approach to global sustainabilityIn recent years, companies have felt the pressure to be transparent about their environmental impact. Large documents containing summaries of yearly emissions rates, carbon output, and utilized resources are shared on companies' social media pages, websites, and employee briefings in a bid for public confidence in corporate responsibility.And yet, Matthew Archer argues, these metrics are often just hollow symbols. Unsustainable contends with the world of big banks and multinational corporations, where sustainability begins and ends with measuring and reporting. Drawing on five years of research among sustainability professionals in the US and Europe, Unsustainable shows how this depoliticizing tendency to frame sustainability as a technical issue enhances and obscures corporate power while doing little, if anything, to address tTrade ReviewDeftly shows how expanding quantification practices around corporate sustainability are serving to perpetuate rather than seriously challenge the role of corporations in causing climate change. -- Marina Welker, Cornell UniversityEngagingly written and featuring an impressive breadth of research, Unsustainable offers a critical ethnography of corporate sustainability practices, challenging businesses (and the rest of us) to reckon with what we mean by `sustainability’ and how we think we can measure and manage it. -- Andrew Orta, Author of Making Global MBAs: The Culture of Business and the Business of Culture.Blows open the disguises of sustainability discourse and corporate sustainability metrics, taking readers on an important journey to demonstrate the ways that politics of sustainability matters. In a world of climate crises, the marketization of sustainability and the outsized influence of corporations in everyday life, ecosystems, and the planet itself, Unsustainable is a necessary book and a tool to help confront systems that perpetuate the problems. -- Farhana Sultana, Syracuse University

    1 in stock

    £21.59

  • Subcontractors of Guilt: Holocaust Memory and

    Stanford University Press Subcontractors of Guilt: Holocaust Memory and

    Book SynopsisAt the turn of the millennium, Middle Eastern and Muslim Germans had rather unexpectedly become central to the country's Holocaust memory culture—not as welcome participants, but as targets for re-education and reform. Since then, Turkish- and Arab-Germans have been considered as the prime obstacles to German national reconciliation with its Nazi past, a status shared to a lesser degree by Germans from the formerly socialist East Germany. It is for this reason that the German government, German NGOs, and Muslim minority groups have begun to design Holocaust education and anti-Semitism prevention programs specifically tailored for Muslim immigrants and refugees, so that they, too, can learn the lessons of the Holocaust and embrace Germany's most important postwar democratic political values. Based on ethnographic research conducted over a decade, Subcontractors of Guilt explores when, how, and why Muslim Germans have moved to the center of Holocaust memory discussions. Esra Özyürek argues that German society "subcontracts" guilt of the Holocaust to new minority immigrant arrivals, with the false promise of this process leading to inclusion into the German social contract and equality with other members of postwar German society. By focusing on the recently formed but already sizable sector of Muslim-only anti-Semitism and Holocaust education programs, this book explores the paradoxes of postwar German national identity.Trade Review"Esra Özyürek has written a path-breaking and much needed book on the multifaceted, constitutive ways by which Turkish- and Arab-background migrants shaped German Holocaust memory and how it shaped their identity in return. Based on ethnographic research, this is a fundamental contribution that rewrites our understanding of the development of Holocaust memory in Germany"—Alon Confino, author of A World Without Jews"German Holocaust memory culture is often held up as a model for other nations to imitate. But, as Esra Özyürek shows in this provocative and ethnographically rich book, the story is much more complicated. Subcontractors of Guilt is a fascinating study of belonging and exclusion in post-Holocaust Germany and a must-read for all who are interested in contemporary Europe."—Michael Rothberg, author of Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization"Subcontractors of Guilt is an essential intervention into contemporary German debates around migration, Muslim minorities, anti-Semitism, and Holocaust memory. By centering the perspectives of young German Muslims, Özyürek's insightful study offers an important corrective to narratives that too often fail to do so."—Fatima El-Tayeb, Yale University"This powerful, well-informed book would make a fine addition to any academic library. Recommended."—S. Anderson, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: German Holocaust Memory and the Redemptive Path toward Democracy 1. Rebelling against the Father, Democratizing the Family 2. Export-Import Theory of Muslim Antisemitism in Germany 3. Wrong Emotions / Wrong Empathy for the Holocaust 4. Subcontracting Guilt, Policing Victimhood 5. Visiting Auschwitz as Pilgrimage and as Shock Therapy Conclusion: Can Muslims Flip the Script of the German Memory Theater?

    £23.39

  • Primate Change: How the world we made is remaking

    Octopus Publishing Group Primate Change: How the world we made is remaking

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis'A work of remarkable scope' - GuardianFT Best science books of 2018Primate Change has been adapted into a radio series for the BBC WORLD SERVICE.*This is the road from climate change to primate change.PRIMATE CHANGE is a wide-ranging, polemical look at how and why the human body has changed since humankind first got up on two feet. Spanning the entirety of human history - from primate to transhuman - Vybarr Cregan-Reid's book investigates where we came from, who we are today and how modern technology will change us beyond recognition.In the last two hundred years, humans have made such a tremendous impact on the world that our geological epoch is about to be declared the 'Anthropocene', or the Age of Man. But while we have been busy changing the shape of the world we inhabit, the ways of living that we have been building have, as if under the cover of darkness, been transforming our bodies and altering the expression of our DNA, too.Primate Change beautifully unscrambles the complex architecture of our modern human bodies, built over millions of years and only starting to give up on us now.'Our bodies are in a shock. Modern living is as bracing to the human body as jumping through a hole in the ice. Our bodies do not know what century they were born into and they are defending and deforming themselves in response.'Trade ReviewNature and nurture commingle to fascinating effect. - NatureA work of remarkable scope. - GuardianAbsorbing. - Telegraph IndiaAn excellent evaluation of our bodily shortcomings. - Financial Times

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • The End of the Megamachine: A Brief History of a

    Collective Ink The End of the Megamachine: A Brief History of a

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe End of the Megamachine provides a uniquely comprehensive picture of the roots of the destructive forces that are threatening the future of humankind today. Spanning 5000 years of history, the book shows how the three tyrannies of militarized states, capital accumulation and ideological power have been steering both ecosystems and societies to the brink of collapse. With the growing instability of the Megamachine in the 21st century, new dangers open up as well as new possibilities for systemic change, to which everyone can contribute. "The topic could not be more important. A very valuable and surely timely contribution." Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology/University of ArizonaTrade Review"A must read for everyone rising against the system that is destroying life on earth and our future.” Vandana Shiva, World Future Council

    1 in stock

    £17.99

  • Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Affluence Without Abundance: What We Can Learn

    Book Synopsis_______________ ‘Insightful ... Avoiding both modern conceits and romantic fantasies, Suzman chronicles how economics and politics have finally conquered some of the last outposts of hunter-gatherers, and how much humankind can still learn from the disappearing way of life of the most marginalized communities on earth.' - Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus 'Fascinating' - Sunday Times 'Elegant and absorbing' - Financial Times 'Profoundly moving' - Irish Times _______________ From acclaimed anthropologist James Suzman, a portrait of the 'original affluent society' – the Bushmen of southern Africa – and what their way of life can teach us today. What can we learn from the Bushmen? If the success of a civilisation is measured by its endurance over time, then the Bushmen of the Kalahari are by far the most successful in human history. Anthropologist James Suzman spent twenty-five years in Southern Africa documenting their way of life and encounters with modern society, gathering invaluable lessons about work, wealth, happiness, equality and time. 'To know what it is like to live as people lived for most of human history, you would have to find one of the places where traditional hunting-and-gathering practices are still alive…Fortunately for us, the anthropologist James Suzman did exactly that…The news here is that the lives of most of our progenitors were better than we think. We’re flattering ourselves by believing that their existence was so grim and that our modern, civilized one is, by comparison, so great.' - John Lancaster, The New YorkerTrade ReviewAn insightful and well-written book, describing the hard transition of foraging communities in Namibia from relative affluence during the Stone Age to contemporary poverty and misery. Avoiding both modern conceits and romantic fantasies, Suzman chronicles how economics and politics have finally conquered some of the last outposts of hunter-gatherers, and how much humankind can still learn from the disappearing way of life of the most marginalized communities on earth. * Yuval Noah Harari, author of SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMAN KIND and HOMO DEUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOMORROW *To know what it is like to live as people lived for most of human history, you would have to find one of the places where traditional hunting-and-gathering practices are still alive…Fortunately for us, the anthropologist James Suzman did exactly that…The news here is that the lives of most of our progenitors were better than we think. We’re flattering ourselves by believing that their existence was so grim and that our modern, civilized one is, by comparison, so great. * John Lancaster, The New Yorker *Suzman’s descriptive prose and affection for his subjects generate the reader’s genuine empathy…This fascinating glimpse into a disappearing way of life leads Suzman to reflect on our world today: a world where wealth and possessions are valued above all other pursuits. Suzman’s account of the lives of Bushmen, past and present, offers plenty of fuel for thought. * Rachel Newcomb, The Washington Post *Mr Suzman deftly weaves his experiences and observations with lessons on human evolution, the history of human migration and the fate of African communities since the arrival of Europeans. The overarching aim of the book is more ambitious still: to challenge the reader’s ideas about both hunter-gatherer life and human nature. * The Economist *[Suzman creates] a feeling for the landscape, the difficulties encountered by the Bushmen, and the pleasures of their simple, if rapidly changing, way of life... In all, this is a delightful book, full of perceptiveness and understanding. * Science *[A] fascinating book. . . Part-ethnography, part-memoir, this is a poignant account of a culture on the brink of extinction. * Sunday Times *Suzman’s talent for evoking the region’s vast and haunting landscapes, his elegiac account of a passing covenant with nature, and his warm and compassionate character sketches of individual Ju’/hoansi, make this a fascinating and at times profoundly moving work of literary non-fiction. * The Irish Times *[T]hrough neglect, abuse and misunderstanding, an ancient way of life is being finally extinguished… Yet, Suzman argues, even now the Bushmen have much to teach us about a social order that, in many ways, offered a freer, fairer existence and a non-invasive adaption to ecology. * Ben Collyer, New Scientist *This book has truth on every page and is filled with important insights that range from hunting and tracking to how we think about time, money, value or success. * Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of THE HARMLESS PEOPLE and THE OLD WAY *This beautiful book--part memoir, part ethnography--offers a window into the lives of one of the most enduring of human cultures . . . If you have ever wondered how it might be to measure wealth not by material possessions but by the strength of social relations between people, read this book. * Wade Davis, author of THE WAYFINDERS and INTO THE SILENCE *[A] beautiful, heartfelt paean. AFFLUENCE WITHOUT ABUNDANCE is learned without being condescending, tender yet unsentimental. It is both a celebration of an ancient way of life and a lament for all that has been lost in our own headlong pursuit of the material. * Peter Godwin, author of MUKIWA and WHEN A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN *A spirited ethnography of the ancestral peoples of the Kalahari . . . A welcome contribution to a once-vibrant anthropological literature without many recent entries. * Kirkus Reviews *In his thoughtful, in-depth look, [Suzman] focuses on the Ju/’hoansi people, whom he has been working with for more than two decades… A fascinating examination of a society drastically changed by forced modernity. * Booklist *

    £10.44

  • Minds Make Societies

    Yale University Press Minds Make Societies

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review“[Boyer’s] incisive investigation of 'six problems in search of a new science'. . . integrates an impressive range of research and attendant insights. An elegant voice in a clamorous field.”—Nature“Boyer does construct an increasingly textured narrative throughout Minds Make Societies” — Sarah Lane Ritchie, Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences“Provides a precious introduction to the main discoveries generated by cognitive and evolutionary approaches to anthropology in the last few decades.”—Olivier Morin, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute“The most important work on a science of human culture in years.”—Leda Cosmides, University of California, Santa Barbara“Pascal Boyer has written a wide-ranging, clear, and convincing book. It is an essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand the workings of our social world.”—Hugo Mercier, co-author of The Enigma of Reason“Pascal Boyer’s elegant and insightful essays on human nature and human society show the power of combining anthropology, evolutionary theory, and cognitive psychology. I particularly like his balance and even-handedness in evaluating various contending social theories.”—Herbert Gintis, author of Individuality and Entanglement: The Moral and Material Bases of Social Life“Read Pascal Boyer’s cool and captivating new book Minds Make Societies. It will change forever your understanding of society and culture.”—Dan Sperber, co-author of The Enigma of Reason“Minds Make Societies is must-reading for those who are interested in what a new generation of scientists is discovering.”—John Tooby, Co-Director, Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara

    1 in stock

    £14.99

  • The Fabled Coast Legends  traditions from around

    Cornerstone The Fabled Coast Legends traditions from around

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisWas there ever such a beast as the monstrous Kraken? Did a Welsh prince discover America, centuries before Columbus? What happened to the missing crew of the Mary Celeste? This title deals with these questions.Trade ReviewThis is a brilliant scholarly, yet readable work by two of the country's leading folklorists; it should appeal to anyone interested in the legends of the British Isles. * Good Book Guide *a work that entertains and intrigues from the first page to the last; not to be flicked through, but to be steadily digested and enjoyed. * Evergreen Magazine *

    1 in stock

    £15.29

  • St Petersburg Three Centuries of Murderous Desire

    Cornerstone St Petersburg Three Centuries of Murderous Desire

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis''This extraordinary book brings to life an astonishing place. Beautiful prose renders brutality vivid'' The Times - BOOK OF THE WEEK From Peter the Great to Putin, this is the unforgettable story of St Petersburg one of the most magical, menacing and influential cities in the world. St Petersburg has always felt like an impossible metropolis, risen from the freezing mists and flooded marshland of the River Neva on the western edge of Russia. It was a new capital in an old country. Established in 1703 by the sheer will of its charismatic founder, the homicidal megalomaniac Peter-the-Great, its dazzling yet unhinged reputation was quickly fashioned by the sadistic dominion of its early rulers.This city, in its successive incarnations St Petersburg; Petrograd; Leningrad and, once again, St Petersburg has always been a place of perpetual contradiction. It was a window on to Europe and the Enlightenment, but so much of the glory of Russia Trade Review'This extraordinary book brings to life an astonishing place. Beautiful prose renders brutality vivid.' -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times - BOOK OF THE WEEK *So fluent, so textured is Jonathan Miles’s ease with prose and argument that his vivid dissection of 300 years of St Petersburg’s history should be devoured in captive sittings... Investigating the artistic life of St Petersburg, he also explores the melodrama and blood on the streets and the effects of continuing political disarray and corruption on ordinary people. This is a storyteller entranced with his subject, who makes its brilliant portrayal look deliriously easy. -- Susan Sheahan * Guardian *[A] lively and entertaining biography... full of sparkling storytelling and well drawn characters... a delight. -- Victor Sebestyen * The Sunday Times *Jonathan Miles’s cinematic telling of the 300-year history of ... St Petersburg shows how the drama, the absurdity, the splendour and the squalor of the imperial capital all found their way into Russia’s finest s, operas and paintings... Miles peels back the layers of myth in which the city is swaddled, while never losing sight of its haunting grace. -- Daniel Beer * Observer *Recently there has been a plethora of new books on Russian history in all its guises, … so why more? Jonathan Miles’ narrative is a lot of more, … His history has a substantial foundation, but what makes it special is the sheer inescapable momentum of Miles’s prose, powered by the captivating intensity of his attachment to his subject. This is a story told by a writer enthralled – and disillusioned, as he sees no redemption in sight... A dazzling history of a dazzling city. -- Marina Vaizey * The Arts Desk *

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • Sennett R Respect

    Penguin Books Ltd Sennett R Respect

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisRichard Sennett''s Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Equality is a provocative and timely examination of the forces that erode respect in modern society. ''Unlike food, respect costs nothing. Why, then, should it be in short supply?'' Respect can be attained by gaining success, by developing talents, through financial independence and by helping others. But, Sennett argues, many who are not able to achieve the demands of today''s meritocracy lose the esteem that should be given to them. From his childhood in a poor Chicago housing project to the contrasting methods of care practised by a nun and a social worker, from the harmonious interaction of musicians to the welfare system, Sennett explores the ways in which mutual respect can forge bonds across the divide of inequality. ''One of the boldest social thinkers of his generation ... [Sennett] has a genius for revealing the roots of our discontents''  Boyd Tonkin, Independent ''Dazzling ... an elegant mix of interview, anecdote and wide research''  Jenny Turner, Guardian ''This is the voice of a prophet''  Scott McLemee, Washington Post ''Wise and humane ... Sennett has set his sights on that most daring of missions: to make the world a better place''  Alain de Botton, Daily Telegraph ''Wholly engrossing ... [Sennett] explores ways of preserving an equality of respect''  Alan Ryan, New York Review of Books Richard Sennett''s previous works include The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, Respect, Flesh and Stone and The Craftsman. He taught for many years at the New York Institute of the Humanities and is now a Professor at the London School of Economics.

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • Rite Out of Place

    Oxford University Press Inc Rite Out of Place

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisWe have been led to believe that rituals are well-behaved and predictable, but they sometimes behave in unpredictable ways, especially when they emerge in unexpected places. However much rites may seem to be at home in churches, temples, mosques, and synagogues, they are not captives of sacred spaces. Rituals appear on television, stare back at the lens in family photographs, slip into university classrooms, haunt the wilds, and attend movies. Rite Out of Place makes provocative discoveries by scouting out some of the unexpected places where ritualizing takes root. Most ritual studies scholarship still focuses on central religious rites. For this reason, Grimes argues, dominant theories, like the data they consider, remain stubbornly conservative. This book issues a challenge to these theories and to popular conceptions of ritual. Grimes writes in an accessible, engaging style, using a broad, interdisciplinary approach. This collection of seminal essays by one of the founders of the diTrade Review"This wide-ranging volume by Ronald Grimes, a distinguished interpreter of ritual, includes eleven artful and provocative reflections on rites performed outside specifically religious spaces-in popular culture, academic settings, and the natural landscape. Rite Out of Place will be useful for all those who want to think more deeply, and creatively, about the meaning and function of performance."--Thomas A. Tweed, author of Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion

    1 in stock

    £29.99

  • Good News for Common Goods Multicultural

    Oxford University Press Inc Good News for Common Goods Multicultural

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewMarkofski has written an ambitious and wide-ranging book mapping new terrain in the study of American evangelicalism and marking future directions for that broad religious movement so critical to American and global society. The book's compelling argument will matter for the future of evangelical Christianity, for the future of democracy, and for how we understand 'public religion' generally. We need this book for meeting the current historical moment. * Richard L. Wood, Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico, author of A Shared Future: Faith-based Organizing for Racial Equity (with Brad Fulton) *Markofski's ethnography on multicultural evangelicalism is much needed, deeply nuanced, and highly accessible. A must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of race, politics, and evangelicals in America. * John Inazu, Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion, Washington University in St. Louis *This maybe the most important book in years on US evangelical Christianity, both for scholars concerned about anti-democratic trends and for students personally committed to evangelical religion. Morebroadly,this book will shape future conversations regarding public religion in the United States and globally, particularly the role religion can play in the defense and deepening of democracy. * Social Forces *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Collaboration for Common Goods: Evangelicals and Others Seeking Justice and Power Together Chapter 1: Good News? Common Goods? Multicultural Evangelicalism? Ethical Democracy? Chapter 2: Engaging Race and Inequality Chapter 3: Engaging Poverty and Inequality Chapter 4: Engaging Politics, Culture, and Religious Difference Chapter 5: Reflexive Evangelicalism: Learning from Experience and Scripture Chapter 6: Ethical Democracy and Four Modes of Social Reflexivity Conclusion: Multicultural Evangelicalism and Democracy in America Appendix: Multisite Ethnography and the Exceptional Case Method References

    1 in stock

    £23.27

  • The Disunited States

    OUP India The Disunited States

    1 in stock

    1 in stock

    £21.84

  • Atlas or the Anxious Gay Science

    The University of Chicago Press Atlas or the Anxious Gay Science

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisA look at Aby Warburg and his great work Mnemosyne Atlas.

    2 in stock

    £37.05

  • Django Generations  Hearing Ethnorace Citizenship

    The University of Chicago Press Django Generations Hearing Ethnorace Citizenship

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review“Django Generations offers a profound analysis of how Manouche Romanies navigate French denials of race and racism through what Siv B. Lie calls ‘ambivalent essentialism’—the set of incompatible qualities ascribed by and to this ethnicized and racialized group whose most famous ancestor is the guitarist Django Reinhardt. Drawing on deep ethnographic and historical research, Lie brilliantly develops a semiotic framework that both explicates the development and negotiation of local identities in jazz manouche and their connection to much broader processes of managing marginalization and the exigencies of capitalism.”” -- Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music, Harvard University“A necessary addition for ethnomusicologists and scholars of Romani music, Django Generations is aptly named because it gives voice to groups of Romani musicians who are forging contemporary identities in modern contexts while acknowledging past histories and cultural roots.” -- Adriana Helbig, University of Pittsburgh“In this book, Siv B. Lie explores the paradoxes of jazz manouche’s history and its relationship to the Manouche community without taking sides in the complex debates between musicians, institutions, and the industry. Django Generations is a work of considerable intellectual sophistication.” -- Andy Fry, King’s College LondonTable of ContentsNotes on Terminology List of Figures Introduction Chapter One: Making Jazz Manouche Chapter Two: Cultural Activism’s Living Legacies Chapter Three: Generic Ontologies and the Stakes of Refusal Chapter Four: The Sound of Feeling Chapter Five: Heritage Stories Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix 1: Glossary Appendix 2: List of Formal Interviews Notes References Index

    1 in stock

    £25.65

  • Dangerous Fun The Social Lives of Big Wave

    The University of Chicago Press Dangerous Fun The Social Lives of Big Wave

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"Its theoretical merits in the ritual interactionist paradigm . . . make the book a must read for any sociologist interested in explaining the seductions of risk taking and the fun in danger—in leisure worlds, individual pleasures, and social life." * Symbolic Interaction *“Deftly explains big wave surfing’s embodied practices, interpersonal relationships, and status hierarchies. The end result is a highly persuasive treatise on the role of emotions, risk-taking, and social collaboration in the pursuit of fun—an essential (if academically undervalued) aspect of human existence. And, beyond his serious engagement with sociological theory. . . . [T]he text is equally filled with humor and beauty. . . . Corte’s analysis represents a significant step in better understanding the complexities of what fun is and how people can find it in myriad ways.” * Social Forces *“Ugo Corte presents an outstanding ethnographic account of big wave surfing. Not only because of the quality of the research but also because of the literary quality of the whole piece. The book achieves an excellent balance between scholar discussion and adventure chronicle that would appeal both to academics and surf aficionados. . . . I would consider Corte’s book as one of the best ethnographic studies of sport so far." * Sociología del Deporte *"Ugo Corte has done impressive fieldwork, including interviews, trying out big wave surfing himself, and hanging out with big wave surfers on the Hawaiian Islands, to capture the ‘memory of a community’ . . . Corte has written a well-researched and fascinating book that will be important to small-group research in cultural sociology." * Cultural Sociology *"Fascinating. . . [and] helpful for scholars looking for social scientific methods to study ritualized and group-based athletes whose practices are deeply entangled with the natural world. Corte’s Dangerous Fun is a valuable addition to the sociological understanding of such social phenomena." * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture *"Dangerous Fun is bound to be recognized as an essential contribution to the ethnography of risk and the sociology of emotions. Part-memoir, part-history, and part-theory, Corte brilliantly describes why men and women in the Hawaiian surfing world are willing to put themselves in jeopardy in search of a high that is simultaneously personal and communal. Not since Matthew Desmond’s On the Fireline have we had such a powerful account of the intersection of pleasure and danger. One need not have straddled a surfboard to appreciate that a commitment to sociality allows for the profound attraction of controlled peril." -- Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University“Dangerous Fun is a landmark in the sociology of sport, showing how fear is converted into excitement and fun. Big wave surfing is a team sport: waiting for the wave far off-shore, calling alarms of dangerous waves, circulating narratives of near-death disasters that are the turning point to dropping out or becoming a big-wave surfer. One has to seek out high danger in the presence of a like-minded group to get hooked on this kind of emotional/ physiological transformation. Corte’s book is a fundamental theory of risk-taking of all kinds, even addiction.” -- Randall Collins, author of Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory"The North Shore of O‘ahu is the Vatican of surfing: small in area but densely packed with lore, power, secrets, and great waves. Ugo Corte goes straight to the heart of one of its abiding mysteries–the subculture within the subculture–the exceptional people who ride very big waves. He illuminates surfers’ mentality, diversity, self-expression, social bonds and rituals with dramatic narrative and extensive interviews all in an analytic framework." -- William Finnegan, author of Barbarian Days"Corte’s important book will have crossover appeal not only between academic fields like sociology and psychology, but between academics and non-academics, especially surfers who are intellectually curious. This is because Dangerous Fun is an engaging participant-observation ethnography written in a style that fits in with the best of the classic ethnographic works in the field of sociology. The reader is immediately drawn into the book because the characters are so interesting and because Corte does a great job explaining the feeling of the thrill found in big wave surfing." * Contemporary Sociology *Table of ContentsPrologue: From Northern Europe to the North Shore of Oahu Introduction 1 From Land to Water 2 Beyond the Boil 3 Fun and Community 4 Failing to Succeed, Failing to Become 5 Reciprocal Influence 6 From Adventure to Entertainment and toward Sport 7 One Last Ride Epilogue: Gone but Here, yet Barely in Sight Acknowledgments Notes References Index

    1 in stock

    £72.20

  • A Day in the Hole

    University of Chicago Press A Day in the Hole

    £19.95

  • Eating Like a Mennonite  Food and Community

    McGill-Queen's University Press Eating Like a Mennonite Food and Community

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMarlene Epp demonstrates that the meaning of Mennonite food lies within the multiple identities of the eater. Spanning the globe, from the nineteenth century to present day, Eating Like a Mennonite concludes that Mennonite food identities develop from adoptions, adaptations, and attitudes in diverse times and places.Trade Review“While food studies is an increasingly popular field of research, there remains a continued tendency to neglect domestic food production. Eating Like a Mennonite makes a major contribution by examining these intimate and quotidian acts of nourishment. Moreover, it is a delight to read, and made me hungry for the foods of my childhood.” Janis Thiessen, University of Winnipeg“Written in lively prose, Eating Like a Mennonite provides specific angles of entry into the broader topic of Mennonite self-identity and culture in a global context. Marlene Epp takes care to explore the foodways of Mennonites in such different regions of the world as Eastern Europe, India, China, Paraguay, Pennsylvania and Waterloo, Ontario. With each example, she traces foods prepared and packed for the journey, and how they come to represent comfort amidst discomfort, and familiarity in unfamiliar circumstances.” Nathalie Cooke, McGill University

    1 in stock

    £75.00

  • Bad Dog

    University of Washington Press Bad Dog

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"This is an astonishing book... The insights and implications ofcontemporary social theory, especially queer theory, are accessible, resonant, and concrete throughout the events andexperiences the author describes." * Choice *

    15 in stock

    £29.66

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