Social and cultural anthropology Books

Book SynopsisThere was a time when humanity looked in the mirror and saw something precious, worth protecting and fighting for--indeed, worth liberating. But now we are beset on all sides by propaganda promoting a radically different viewpoint. According to this idea, human beings are a cancer upon the Earth, a species whose aspirations and appetites are endangering the natural order. This is the core of antihumanism. Merchants of Despair traces the pedigree of this ideology and exposes its deadly consequences in startling and horrifying detail. The book names the chief prophets and promoters of antihumanism over the last two centuries, from Thomas Malthus through Paul Ehrlich and Al Gore. It exposes the worst crimes perpetrated by the antihumanist movement, including eugenics campaigns in the United States and genocidal anti-development and population-control programs around the world. Combining riveting tales from history with powerful policy arguments, Merchants of Despair provides scientific refutations to antihumanism's major pseudo-scientific claims, including its modern tirades against nuclear power, pesticides, population growth, biotech foods, resource depletion, industrial development, and, most recently, fear-mongering about global warming. Merchants of Despair exposes this dangerous agenda and makes the definitive scientific and moral case against it.

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Book SynopsisSince the dawn of time, magic is the node around which all human activities and culture revolve. As magic entered the development of science, art, philosophy, religion, myth, and psychology, it still retained its essence: that we have a dynamic connection with all other forms of life.Exploring the source magic that flows beneath the surface of culture and occulture throughout the ages, Carl Abrahamsson offers a “magical-anthropological” journey from ancient Norse shamanism to the modern magick of occultists like Genesis P-Orridge. He looks at how human beings relate to and are naturally attracted to magic. He examines in depth the consequences of magical practice and how the attraction to magic can be corrupted by both religious organizations and occult societies. He shows how the positive effects of magic are instinctively grasped by children, who view the world as magical.The author looks at magic and occulture as they relate to psychedelics, Witchcraft, shamanism, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY), the panic rituals of the Master Musicians of Joujouka in Morocco, psychological individuation processes, literary “magical realism,” and the cut-up technique of Beat icons like William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. He explores the similarities in psychology between poet Ezra Pound and magician Austin Osman Spare. He looks at the Scandinavian Fenris Wolf as a mythic force and how personal pilgrimages can greatly enrich our lives. He also examines the philosophy of German author Ernst Jünger, the magical techniques of British filmmaker Derek Jarman, and the quintessential importance of accepting our own mortality.Trade Review“Source Magic heralds what legions of countercultural readers have known (and sometimes jealously guarded) for years: Carl Abrahamsson is not only among today’s leading occult writers and artists but is, in fact, one of this generation’s most vital public intellectuals. From The Prisoner to Ezra Pound, no single descriptor captures how Carl has pried apart the floorboards of postmodernity—and done so as few are able: with laser-like precision, joie de vivre, and the literary power of an exploding sun. Carl is our magical Moses hoisting a fiery serpent in the cultural wilderness. I will be returning to Source Magic for a lifetime.” * Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award–winning author of Occult America and Uncertain Places *“Carl Abrahamsson is a rare voice of lucidity in the complex world of magic. He explains the most profound and esoteric knowledge in a way that just keeps the pages turning and the ideas flowing. Reading Abrahamsson is like starting a fire deep within the imagination that continues to warm the spirit long after reading.” * Kendell Geers, South African artist *“Carl’s work always brings you to the edge of reality, asking you to peer through the veil and question if said reality even exists. In Source Magic, Carl stretches this further, inviting one to view life as a study in magic, in causal effect, in shapeshifting. By embracing life as a vessel for occulture and magico-anthropology and using this as his framework for his studies and explorations, Carl guides a new generation of thinkers into a future that asks what if and gets even more strange, surreal, beautiful, and mystical than one can dream. This book will change what you thought you knew about the possibilities of life and spirituality.” * Gabriela Herstik, author of Inner Witch: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Craft and Sacred Sex: The Mag *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Foreword by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold Preface: Come Join the Garden Party! 1 Occulture and Beyond 2 We’re on the Road to Somewhere 3 Panic Pilgrimage4 Into a Time and Space of Wordship 5 Temporarily Eternal: Some Thoughts on the Psychic Anarcho-Sartorialism of Genesis P-Orridge6 Tripping the Dark Light Fantastic: Some Notes on Derek Jarman and His Influence 7 Mondo Transcripto!8 The Prisoner Will Set You Free 9 “Our Life Could at Least Be Doubled” 10 Embracing Magical Realism 11 Literchoor, Kulchur, and a Damned Fine Friendship: On the Symbiosis of Ezra Pound and James Laughlin 12 Spare Me a Pound: An Initial Look at the Sui Genericism of Austin and Ezra 13 Some Thoughts on a Recent Paradigm Shift 14 The Magic of Individuation 15 Lux Per Nox: The Fenris Wolf as Libidinal Liberator 16 The Imaginary Is a Real Thing 17 Memento Mori Forever 18 The Quantum Quilt of Inspiration: An Interview with Carl Abrahamsson Notes Bibliography Books by Carl Abrahamsson Index

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Book SynopsisThe everyday practices, policy ideas, and ideological and political battles that have shaped Egyptian education, from the era of nation-building in the twentieth century to the age of digital disruption in the twenty-firstFrom the 1952 revolution onward, a main purpose of formal education in Egypt was to socialize children and youth into adopting certain attitudes and behaviors conducive to the regimes in power. Control by the state over education was never entirely hegemonic. National education came increasingly under pressure due to a combination of the growing privatization of the education sector, the growth of political Islam, and rapidly changing digital technologies.Educating Egypt traces the everyday practices, policy ideas, and ideological and political and economic contests over education from the era of nation-building in the twentieth century to the age of global change and digital disruption in the twenty-first. Its overarching theme is that schooling and education, broadly defined, have consistently mirrored larger debates about what constitutes the model citizen and the educated person. Drawing on three decades of ethnographic research inside Egyptian schools and among Egyptian youth, Linda Herrera asks what happens when education actors harbor fundamentally different ideas about the purpose, provision, and meaning of education. Her research shows that, far from serving as a unifying social force, education is in reality an ongoing battleground of interests, ideas, and visions of the good society.Trade Review"A collection of studies conducted over the last 30 years by the preeminent American scholar of education in Egypt, this book paints an evocative portrait of the educational philosophies, institutions, and practices that have so poorly equipped Egyptian young people for the world they encounter as adults."—Foreign Affairs“[A] gem of a book in the expanding literature on the sociology of education and civic values in Egypt and the MENA region.”—Contemporary Sociology"[E]ngages some of the most difficult issues facing Egyptian students, parents, teachers, and state officials as this critical sector struggles under the accumulated weight of failed policies promoted by both Egyptian officials and international development 'experts.'”—Laurie A. Brand, Political Science Quarterly"[A] valuable and timely contribution to the small but expanding literature that views education as a way to understand societal structures and imaginaries and how they change."—Die Welt des Islams"A seminal work of original, informative, insightful, and thought-provoking scholarship. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Educating Egypt will be of particular interest to students of modern Egyptian political, educational, and cultural history."—Midwest Book Review"What makes this book important is the breadth and depth of the research. Combining ethnography and oral history with critical analysis of educational policies, laws, textbooks, and school curricula, Herrera offers a detailed, comprehensive study of educational policy in modern Egypt."—Khaled Fahmy, University of Cambridge"This book steers a skillful route through the complexity of education in Egypt, but it does more than that. It deals with the complexity of Egyptian society in general, against the background of mass poverty, high levels of unemployment, the digital divide, the country's geopolitical location, and long standing mores with respect to gender and other social relations. These all impinge on the education of Egyptian children, youth, and especially girls as Educating Egypt's thick ethnographic descriptions show. I cannot think of any better 'foreigner' than Linda Herrera, who lived and studied in Egypt, to carry out the task of researching all of the above. This volume proves me right."—Peter Mayo, University of MaltaTable of ContentsList of Figures and TablesAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Educating Egypt: From Nation Building to Digital DisruptionPart 1: Schooling the Nation: Inside a Girls’ Preparatory School1: An Ethnographer’s Orientation2: Schooling Citizens3: Educating Girls4: Teachers of The Nation5: Grade FeverPart 2: Political Islam and Education6: The Islamist Wave and Education Markets7: Experiments in Counter-Nationalism8: DownveilingPart 3: Youth in a Changing Global Order9: Education, Empire, and Global Citizenship10: Young Egyptians’ Quest for Jobs and Justice11: Youth and Citizenship in the Digital Age: A View from Egypt12: It’s Time to Talk about Youth in the Middle East as “The Precariat’Part 4: Conclusions and Future Directions13: Is the School as We Know it on its Way to Extinction?NotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisFor radical twentieth-century feminists, it was a rallying cry for bodily autonomy and political power. For influencers and lifestyle brands, it’s buying fancy nutrition and body products at a premium. And it has now infiltrated nearly every food, leisure, and pop-culture space as a multi-billion-dollar industry.What is it? To quote a million memes: it’s called self-care.In Decolonize Self-Care Alyson K. Spurgas and Zoë C. Meleo-Erwin deliver a comprehensive sociological analysis and scathing critique of the catchphrase’s capitalist, racist undertones. To decolonize self-care, they argue, requires a full reckoning with the exclusionary, appropriative nature of most of the wellness industry, but this education is only the first step in the process. We must commit to new models of care and well-being that allow for health, pleasure, and community—for everyone.Trade ReviewIt often feels like there is nothing new to say about the contradictory politics of self-care. Behold Decolonize Self-Care. It brings a new diagnosis and critique to the crowded intersection of the self-care hot takes while making recommendations on both the theoretical and structural level. It is replete with insight on what perspective and practice is needed to survive the capitalist and racist day. It is smart, urgent, and often laugh out loud funny.—Sarah Sharma, Associate Professor and Director of the ICCIT at the University of Toronto and author of In the Meantime: Temporality and Cultural Politics Decolonize Self-Care not only details how far self care has traveled from its starting point as a Black feminist survival tactic, but how deeply and pervasively it has been transformed into highly monetized and self-serving logics. Throughout this hard-hitting book, they unfurl all the ways the poison of #SelfCare has been threaded into a wide array of seemingly disparate markets and movements. When Spurgas and Meleo-Erwin apply their incisive critique across the products and services we often consume as feel-good and healthy, their facades crumble, revealing much darker and more dangerous motives and outcomes. But they also provide a salve, urging readers to take on the task of more deference and less defensiveness, more collective action and less credit-card driven indulgence, that is, their prescription is more care, less self.—Laura Mauldin, Associate Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Connecticut Decolonize Self-Care is a brisk and bracing dive into the colonial roots of contemporary wellness culture. Spurgas and Meleo-Erwin examine how the self-care industry continues primarily to benefit wealthy, white, western women in the global North, even as its proponents claim to have embraced new, inclusive, and social justice-oriented models of wellbeing. The authors make accessible complex concepts such as feminism, neoliberalism, and white supremacy in their analyses of how problematic notions of 'self-care' manifest in the examples of sexual enhancement, self-optimization, and diet.—Colleen Derkatch, author of Why Wellness SellsTable of ContentsEditor’s PrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: How to Have Amazing Sex (and Become Your Best Self in the Process): Harness Your Receptive Femininity and Practice Mindfulness!Chapter 2: Marketing Self-Care: From FemTech and Biohacking to Painmoons and Extreme TravelChapter 3: You Can Nourish Your Family and Climb the Ladder of Success! The White Neoliberal Feminism and Hip Domesticity of Food-Based Health MovementsChapter 4: More Care, Less Self ? How to (Hopefully) Move Beyond Complaint, Critique, and ColonialityReferences

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Book SynopsisFor those interested in continuing the struggle for decolonization, the word “multiculturalism” can seem like a sad joke. After all, institutionalized multiculturalism today is a muck of buzzwords, branding strategies, and virtue signaling that has nothing to do with real struggles against racism and colonialism. But Decolonize Multiculturalism unearths a buried history. The book focuses on the student and youth movements of the 1960s and 1970s, inspired by global movements for decolonization and anti-racism, which aimed to fundamentally transform their society, as well as the fierce repression of these movements by the state, corporations, and university administrations. Part of the response has been sheer violence—campus policing, for example, only began in the ’70s, paving the way for the militarized campuses of today—with institutionalized multiculturalism acting like the velvet glove around the iron fist of state violence. And yet today’s multiculturalism also contains residues of the original radical demands of the student and youth movements that it aims to repress: to open up the university, to wrench it from its settler colonial, white supremacist, and patriarchal capitalist origins, and to transform it into a place of radical democratic possibility.Trade Review“This book boldly calls for a multiculturalism that is deep and committed rather than one that is superficial and institutionally driven. Alessandrini shows how we can produce a radical multiculturalism if we build from the ongoing legacies of decolonization. May we all heed its rallying cry.”—Roderick A. Ferguson, author of We Demand: The University and Student Protests “Written with wit and imagination . . . it also provides us with a timely reminder as to how the study of multiculturalism can resist the platitudes of pundits who pontificate about political correctness, critical race theory, wokeism, or some other moral panic.”—Daniel McNeil, author of Thinking While Black: Translating the Politics and Popular Culture of a Rebel GenerationDecolonize Multiculturalism seeks to steal the project of multiculturalism from the clutches of opportunistic elites aboard “armed lifeboats” and put it back into the hands of young rebels—past, present, and future—for the sake of destroying the world to build it anew. In prose, so playful and fun, that makes decolonization irresistible, Tony Alessandrini weaves together a history of the present to chart out a future worth fighting for.—Noura Erakat, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice, Rutgers University

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Book SynopsisNigel Barley travels to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia to live among the Torajan people, known for their spectacular buildings and elaborate ancestor cults. At last he is following his own advice to students, to do their anthropological fieldwork `somewhere where the inhabitants are beautiful, friendly, where you would like the food and there are nice flowers. With his customary wit and delight in the telling detail, he takes the reader deep into this complex but adaptable society. The mutual warmth of his friendships allows Barley to reverse the habitual patterns of anthropology. He becomes host to four Torajan carvers in London, invited to build a traditional rice barn at the Museum of Mankind. The observer becomes the observed, and it is Barley s turn to explain the absurd complexities of an English city to his bemused but tolerant guests in a magnificent, self critical finale. Not a Hazardous Sport provides a magnificent end to a trilogy of anthropological journeys that began with The Innocent Anthropologist and A Plague of Caterpillars (both published by Eland). A postscript, penned thirty years after these adventures had been concluded, confirms the rich arc of this storyline of role reversals.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a new and comprehensive framework for the analysis of representations of culture, society and the world in textbooks for foreign and second language learning. The framework is transferable to other kinds of learning materials and to other subjects. The framework distinguishes between five approaches: national studies, citizenship education studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies and transnational studies. In a series of concrete analyses, the book illustrates how one can describe and uncover representations of the world in textbooks for English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto. Each analysis is accompanied by suggestions of possible supplements and changes. The book points to the need for language learning materials to deal seriously with knowledge about the world, including its diversities and problems.Trade ReviewThe cultural dimensions of language learning are important and complex. Teachers and researchers will therefore welcome this accessible introduction to culture for language learning. Risager breaks through the seemingly impenetrable divide between theory and practice by analyzing textbooks through multiple theoretical perspectives on culture. * Carol A. Chapelle, Iowa State University, USA *This important research-based book is unique in that it addresses the issue of representation in materials for the teaching of a range of modern foreign languages – English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto. Written by a well-established author, the book deftly combines theoretically informed analysis with practical suggestions for language teaching professionals and materials writers and producers. * John Gray, UCL Institute of Education, UK *This intensely scholarly work provides an exhaustive study of textbooks used in Danish schools in six languages. It focuses on discourses of culture and potentials for intercultural learning. It will be core reading for researchers in textbook analysis and the problematised concepts of nation and its relationship with language and culture. * Adrian Holliday, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK *[Representations of the World in Language Textbooks] is an excellent book. Ambitious in scope and detail, it is a must read for anyone interested in the analysis of language teaching materials. Risager manages to inform us about the textbooks that she focuses on, but more importantly, she has managed to develop a multidisciplinary framework that is applicable to any language textbook in any context. And that is no small feat. -- David Block, University Pompeu Fabra, Spain * Pragmatics and Society 10:4 *Table of ContentsPreface Chapter 1. Representations of the World Chapter 2. Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World Chapter 3. National Studies Chapter 4. Citizenship Education Studies Chapter 5. Cultural Studies Chapter 6. Postcolonial Studies Chapter 7. Transnational Studies Conclusion Appendix 1: Textbooks Selected Appendix 2: Survey Corpus Appendix 3: List of Photos from Textbooks References Author Index Subject Index

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Book SynopsisThose who leave their homelands, either under duress or by design, will see them in a different light than those who have stayed put. Michael Jackson argues that the perspective of the expatriate may be compared with what ethnographers call ‘stranger value’. In moving between detachment and deep immersion, this bifocal perspective implicates a bicultural one, which is why Jackson has recourse to Māori traditional knowledge, not in order to impose a Eurocentric interpretation on them, but to show how cross-cultural conversations and interactions can promote new forms of sociality and coexistence. Trade ReviewIt is said that inside each person is the universe. Jackson’s book is a stunning illustration of this. Narrating the self and the places integral to his own making, he reaches out and grasps a shared humanity that strives to comprehend a poetics of fit in the world'. — Amanda Kearney, Professor of Anthropology and Indigenous Studies at Flinders University and author of Violence in Place, Environmental and Cultural WoundingThe catchment of Michael Jackson’s meditation upon home, identity and ‘the mysterious elsewhere’ is wide—in terms of both place and time—yet his attention is always precise and finely tuned to patterns of thinking and living. Quandaries of Belonging is a paean to evolving consciousness and a rejection of the notion of ‘firstness or the idea that foundations are necessarily more real than anything we built on them’. He is a student of conversation, interaction and growth, of the life-as-lived, rendered with an often novelistic or poetic elan. — Gregory O’Brien, author of 'Always song in the water' (Auckland University Press, 2019)In Quandaries of Belonging Michael Jackson brings an astute blend of anecdote, characterisation, history, philosophy and reminiscence to bear upon two great questions of our time: where is our home and how shall we know it? Jackson’s thought is elegant and persuasive; but never prescriptive. This is a book all New Zealanders, and everyone else too, should read. — Martin Edmond author of 'Luca Antara' and 'The Expatriates'“Michael Jackson's experience of living abroad yet longing for home invites New Zealanders, not just expatriates, to consider the ways we are all at home in the world. Current tensions and bi-cultural issues within Aotearoa New Zealand are discussed with urgency, yet Jackson thinks globally and writes with poignant empathy.” — Jennifer Shennan, Author of 'The Māori Action Song - waiata-ā-ringa, waiata kõri - nõ whea tēnei āhua hou?Table of ContentsPreface; 1. Taranaki; 2. Neither Here nor There; 3. Being Out of Place; 4. The Pare Revisited; 5. Talking with Te Pakaka; 6. The Road to Karuna Falls; 7. The Social Life of Stories; 8. A Landscape with Too Few Lovers; 9. Distance Looks Our Way; 10. At Home in the World; 11. Fires of No Return; 12. Critique of Colonial Reason; Coda; Acknowledgments, Epigraphs, and Sources; Index.

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Book SynopsisThere have been claims that meaninglessness has become epidemic in the contemporary world. One perceived consequence of this is that people increasingly turn against both society and the political establishment with little concern for the content (or lack of content) that might follow. Most often, encounters with meaninglessness and nothingness are seen as troubling. "Meaning" is generally seen as being a cornerstone of the human condition, as that which we strive towards. This was famously explored by Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning in which he showed how even in the direst of situations individuals will often seek to find a purpose in life. But what, then, is at stake when groups of people negate this position? What exactly goes on inside this apparent turn towards nothing, in the engagement with meaninglessness? And what happens if we take the meaningless seriously as an empirical fact?

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Book Synopsis100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.'Here is a simple reason why Sapiens has risen explosively to the ranks of an international bestseller. It tackles the biggest questions of history and of the modern world, and it is written in unforgettably vivid language. You will love it!' - Jared DiamondTrade ReviewI would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species * Bill Gates *Interesting and provocative… It gives you a sense of how briefly we’ve been on this Earth * Barack Obama *Jaw-dropping from the first word to the last… It may be the best book I’ve ever read * Chris Evans *Tackles the biggest questions of history and the modern world… Written in unforgettably vivid language * Jared Diamond *Startling... It changes the way you look at the world * Simon Mayo *

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Book SynopsisA spellbinding new book by the much-acclaimed writer, a journey to South Africa in search of the lost people called the /Xam - a haunting book about the brutality of colonial frontiers and the fate of those they dispossess.In spring 2020, Julia Blackburn travelled to the Karoo region of South Africa to see for herself the ancestral lands that had once belonged to an indigenous group called the /Xam.Throughout the nineteenth century the /Xam were persecuted and denied the right to live in their own territories. In the 1870s, facing cultural extinction, several /Xam individuals agreed to teach their intricate language to a German philologist and his indomitable English sister-in-law. The result was the Bleek-Lloyd Archive: 60,000 notebook pages in which their dreams, memories and beliefs, alongside the traumas of their more recent history, were meticulously recorded word for word. It is an extraordinary document which gives voice to a way of living in the world which we have all but lost. 'All things were once people', the /Xam said.Blackburn's journey to the Karoo was cut short by the outbreak of the global pandemic, but she had gathered enough from reading the archive, seeing the /Xam lands and from talking to anyone and everyone she met along the way, to be able to write this haunting and powerful book, while living her own precarious lockdown life. Dreaming the Karoo is a spellbinding new masterpiece by one of our greatest and most original non-fiction writers.'An astounding, disarming book, full of grief and beauty' Olivia Laing'Blackburn's wise, wonderfully idiosyncratic books are poetic, informed by a...genius for serendipity' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, New StatesmanTrade ReviewAn astounding, disarming book, full of grief and beauty. It's a requiem for a lost world, but also a powerful dream of an alternative to our own age of extinction. -- Olivia Laing, author of EVERYBODYTravelling to the landscapes of the Karoo, yet remaining tied to a corner of the English countryside, Blackburn explores the ruthlessness of colonial frontiers... Here is a work of astonishing breadth, clarity and power. Again and again, as I read, I gasped at the intense relevance and importance, as well as the beauty of this book. -- Hugh Brody, author of THE OTHER SIDE OF EDENA miraculous act of retrieval and restitution. -- William Atkins, author of EXILESA fascinating, poetic response to our contemporary age. -- Joanna Kavenna * Literary Review *[Blackburn's] wise, wonderfully idiosyncratic books are poetic, informed by a drily downbeat humour and a genius for serendipity... Blackburn doesn't give us answers. Instead she works a miracle. In this book dead people talk in a dead language, describing a culture and way of life which is also dead, and yet, thanks to...Blackburn's tactful, beautifully-framed extrapolations, those dead come before us and speak. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * New Statesman *Parallels [with the present] bring complexity and immediacy to the book... Blackburn powerfully evokes the Karoo... Her observations of her fellow travellers are insightful. -- Barnaby Phillips * Times Literary Supplement *[Blackburn's] writing of history and memory - both personal and public - is so deft as to seem effortless. This elliptical and bewitching book is a delight. * Spectator *Dreaming the Karoo is at once a mesmerising meandering into the near-extinct language and sensibility of the /Xam, and a diary of that intangible sense of loss and loneliness that so many of us felt during lockdown. * Tablet *It is such a wonderful book. It made me stretch my hand to my lover. It made me want to show my children the footprints, scars and stones under our feet. It made me want to sit down to look at the sea... It made me deeply grateful that I am alive. * Max Porter (Praise for Time Song) *Both Wordsworthian and Woolfian ... This book is a wonder. * Adam Nicolson (Praise for Time Song) *

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Book Synopsis “Demossier’s engrossing analysis of Burgundy—the wine, the place, the brand—should be imbibed (pun intended!) on many levels—and slowly, for best appreciation.”—foodanthro.com Drawing on more than twenty years of fieldwork, this book explores the professional, social, and cultural world of Burgundy wines, the role of terroir (the environmental factors that affect a crop's character), and its transnational deployment in China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. It demystifies the terroir ideology by providing a unique long-term ethnographic analysis of what lies behind the concept. While the Burgundian model of terroir has gone global by acquiring UNESCO world heritage status, its very legitimacy is now being challenged amongst the vineyards where it first took root. From the introduction: Superficially then, Burgundy might appear to be simply acquiring recognition for its unchanging landscape, tradition and culture. Yet, for all the power of its rich local identity, folklore and culture which is broadcast to the world, there hides underneath the comforting blanket of this seamless place, untouched by change or conflict, a far more complex reality. Burgundy’s listing as a World Heritage landscape emphasises its international reputation as a traditional and historical site of wine production and opens a new chapter in the production and marketing of its quality, differentiation and authenticity. It is also about readjusting Burgundy and the grands crus in response to a changing global market and the shifting kaleidoscope of world wine values.Trade Review “One of the ethnography’s strengths lies in the theoretical frameworks that are used to delve further into the construction of a good that circulates globally and whose value is closely associated with a heritage site. Another is the author’s long-term engagement with the region: this insider status offers a unique perspective on groups of people who are not easy to access… I would recommend this book for both graduate and undergraduate teaching. The chapters stand well on their own and the volume as a whole offers an excellent example of long-term ethnographic research.” • JRAI “Demossier’s engrossing analysis of Burgundy—the wine, the place, the brand—should be imbibed (pun intended!) on many levels—and slowly, for best appreciation… This excellent book is appropriate for upper division, graduate students and professionals in a number of fields—anthropology, sociology, wine studies, marketing and business and women’s studies.” • foodanthro.com “Overall, the book delivers on its promise to excavate the layers of meaning that have contributed to defining and redefining a region, its product, and its land.” • H-France Review “Demossier’s book offers a candid glimpse into a fascinating world in which one should not always believe what one hears or sees…a careful reading of [her] work sheds light on more than just the narrow world that it purports to study.” • Journal of Wine Economics “Apart from those interested in the academic aspects of food and wine, this book would be beneficial to non-academics looking to learn more about the complexities of the wine world. Overall, through her rich account and transnational approach including over two decades of fieldwork, Demossier’s landmark work Burgundy further legitimizes wine as a topic of academic interest and is sure to captivate oenophiles and food scholars alike.” • Graduate Association of Food Studies “Burgundy speaks to a variety of issues beyond winemaking and will be of interest to many scholars working in other fields. Through her innovative approach to ‘global anthropology,’ Demossier contributes to broader debates within food studies, globalization/global capitalism, and geographies of heritage and would be appreciated by an interdisciplinary audience as much as by fellow anthropologists.” • Europe Now “…a work that is a compelling narrative of a scholar deeply absorbed in her subject—one written with grace and balance, at once academically rigorous yet effortlessly readable… In conclusion, this book has the potential to become a very important point of reference on issues well beyond winemaking and to capture a wide audience of educated readers and wine lovers, not to mention intrigued academics.” • The World of Fine Wine “[This study] is clearly structured and written in the strongly personal voice of a scholar deeply immersed in her subject, which she has been researching for more than two decades. The book has the potential to become an important point of reference for future research on a range of issues beyond wine-making.” • Ullrich Kockel, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh “A rare gem: well-conceived, beautifully written, carefully illustrated, loaded with original insights—this book has the potential to capture a wide audience of educated readers and wine lovers (not to mention intrigued academics)… What takes this book far beyond what is currently on the market is the author’s genuinely transnational approach.” • Kolleen M. Guy, University of Texas, San Antonio “The most revealing study to date of the social construction of the concept of terroir… A landmark work on the politics of identity in the present age of food and drinks globalization.” • Julie McIntyre, University of Newcastle, AustraliaTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1. Wine Landscapes and Place-Making Chapter 2. Wine Growers and Worlds of Wine Chapter 3. The Taste of Place Chapter 4. Winescape Chapter 5. Beyond Terroir Chapter 6. Translating Terroir, Burgundy in Asia Chapter 7. Creating Terroir, Burgundy in New Zealand Chapter 8. From Terroirs to the Climats de Bourgogne Conclusion Glossary of Key Terms Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis Inside the hidden lives of the global “1%”, this book examines the networks, social practices, marriages, and machinations of Pakistan’s elite. Benefitting from rare access and keen analytical insight, Rosita Armytage’s rich study reveals the daily, even mundane, ways in which elites contribute to and shape the inequality that characterizes the modern world. Operating in a rapidly developing economic environment, the experience of Pakistan’s wealthiest and most powerful members contradicts widely held assumptions that economic growth is leading to increasingly impersonalized and globally standardized economic and political structures.Trade Review “This is a fascinating ethnography of the ‘micro-politics of elite lives’…a depressing but important read and a necessary corrective to every study of Pakistan that concludes with an aspirational list of policy reforms.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI) “In a true scholarly form, Armytage deploys ethnographies like a blacksmith slams his hammer: to shape and define, solidify and congeal, and meaningfully weld together disparate narrative elements of otherwise banal and ordinary character. She deserves our thanks for that, and much more.” • Jamhoor “…an extremely valuable contribution to the anthropology of Pakistan and has much to offer to scholars of Pakistan in various academic fields.” • Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale “a rich, highly engaging and very insightful biography of Pakistan’s business and industrial elite… This book can be a landmark to understand the classes and structures of Pakistan’s society. It offers insights about power and the numerous multipurpose ways it is accumulated and applied every day in the top 1% in Pakistan… a meticulously crafted and nuanced [study], enlivened by her extensive ethnographic content, expertly employed to demonstrate broader results.” • Pakistan Institute of Development Economics “Through remarkable access, rich descriptions, and incisive analyses, the author deepens our understanding of the reproduction of elites and inequalities. She provides important insights into the spaces and relationships through which capital is accumulated, channeled, and secured by elites, all the while taking seriously the question of gender, ‘race,’ nation, and sexuality as it relates to class formation. Her book provides a rich resource for future research to explore old and new forms of elite integration and division…In an increasingly interdependent and unequal world, books like this enable us to better understand the consequences of elite formations for all of our lives.” • FOCAAL “Rosita Armytage has compiled a fascinating ethnography of elite businessmen and their families in Pakistan…[Her] work is a carefully constructed and nuanced picture of elites in Pakistan, enlivened by her rich ethnographic content which is used skilfully to illustrate wider findings… a nuanced and thoroughly contextualised piece of research.” • Bloomsbury Pakistan “A rich, very insightful and highly engaging biography of Pakistan’s business and industrial elite.” • Nafisa Shah, Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. “An entertaining, surprising, and lively account of the secret life of the global elite in their particular parochial Pakistani setting. Scholars of Pakistan, of economic and political anthropology, and of development, will all surely look forward to this book with eager anticipation.” • Caroline Schuster, Australian National UniversityTable of Contents Acknowledgements Note on Anonymity Introduction: Making Money in an Unequal and Unstable World Chapter 1. Middle Class Woman in an Elite Man’s World Chapter 2. Creating and Protecting an Elite Class Chapter 3. Old Money, New Money Chapter 4. Making an Elite Family Chapter 5. The Elite Network Chapter 6. The Culture of Exemptions Conclusion: What Pakistan’s Elite Reveals About Global Capitalism References Index

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Book Synopsis Telling the story of the author's time living with a Kazakh family in a small village in western Mongolia, this book contextualizes the family’s personal stories within the broader history of the region. It looks at the position of the Kazakh over time in relation to Tsarist Russian, Soviet, Chinese and Mongolian rule and influence. These are stories of migration across generations, bride kidnappings and marriage, domestic violence and alcoholism, adoption and family, and how people have coped in the face of political and economic crisis, poverty and loss, and, perhaps most enduringly, how love and family persist through all of this.Trade Review “What starts as an account of cultural encounters unfolds as a highly informative, entertaining, self-reflexive narrative told with a great measure of empathy and humanism that demonstrates the ultimate unity of humanity.” • Ildikó Bellér-Hann, University of Copenhagen “I very much enjoyed reading this book. It is both insightful and touching to follow the story of one extended family over the years, and well into the past. In my view, this adds a significant piece of knowledge and reflection on a very little-known part of the world, to which the author had a unique access.” • Peter Finke, University of ZurichTable of Contents List of Illustrations Notes on Transliteration Family Tree Map of Central and Inner Asia Today Introduction Part I: First Introductions Chapter 1. Beginnings Chapter 2. Relations Chapter 3. Ölgii Town Chapter 4. Drive to Soghakh Chapter 5. First Days with the Family Chapter 6. Two Horsemen Chapter 7. Nighttime and Morning Rituals Part II: Transitions Chapter 8. The Young Accountant Chapter 9. The Letter Chapter 10. The First House in the First Street Chapter 11. Thinking about the Past Chapter 12. The Age of the Market Chapter 13. Thick as Cream Chapter 14. Saving Graces Part III: Decisions Chapter 15. Living Arrangements Chapter 16. The People Who Move Chapter 17. The Winter Slaughter Chapter 18. Silver Flower Chapter 19. French Extraordinaires Chapter 20. Daughters-in-Law Chapter 21. The Young Uncle Part IV: Into the Past Chapter 22. The Shaman’s Son Chapter 23. The Closure of the Steppe Chapter 24. The Mongols of the West Chapter 25. New Year’s Eve Chapter 26. Kazakhs and Western Mongols Chapter 27. Night-time Walk Chapter 28. Cossack Warriors and Settler Pioneers Chapter 29. A People Frozen in Time Chapter 30. Four Brothers Part V: New Futures Chapter 31. Across the Border Chapter 32. A Scar Necklace Chapter 33. A New Homeland Chapter 34. Family Ties Chapter 35. Kazakh Rebel Fighters of the Altai Chapter 36. One Hundred Percent Kazakh Chapter 37. The Red Terror Chapter 38. Kurban Ait Chapter 39. Mongolia’s Rich Cradle Part VI: Broken Ties Chapter 40. Stuck Chapter 41.The Strong-Willed Girl Chapter 42. Dimpled Bakhytbek Chapter 43. A Short Break Chapter 44. Broken Crown Chapter 45. The Visitor Chapter 46. Journey to Kazakhstan Part VII: New Worlds, Old Ties Chapter 47. Two Worlds Chapter 48. Brave New World Chapter 49. A First Wedding Chapter 50. Elnara’s Journey Chapter 51. An Autumn Wedding Conclusion: A Magpie’s Tale Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis Drawing on an ethnography of Sherbro coastal communities in Sierra Leone, this book analyses the politics and practice of identity through the lens of the reciprocal relations that exist between socio-ethnic groups. Anaïs Ménard examines the implications of the social arrangement that binds landlords and strangers in a frontier region, the Freetown Peninsula, characterized by high degrees of individual mobility and social interactions. She showcases the processes by which Sherbro identity emerged as a flexible category of practice, allowing individuals the possibility to claim multiple origins and perform ethnic crossovers while remaining Sherbro.Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1. Anatomy of a Rurban Space Chapter 2. Narratives of Colonial Encounters Chapter 3. Framing Reciprocity: From Settlers to Strangers Chapter 4. Discourses of the ‘Civilized Man’ Chapter 5. The Tactics of Concealment and Disclosure Chapter 6. The Social Dynamics of Double Membership Chapter 7. Initiation as Ethnic Transformation Chapter 8. Lands, Livelihoods and Politics Conclusion References Index

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Book Synopsis A major contribution to the history of European anthropology, this book highlights the Porto School of Anthropology and analyses the work of its main mentor, Mendes Correia (1888-1960). It goes beyond a Portuguese focus to present a wider comparative analysis in which the colonial empire, knowledge of origins, ethnic identity and cultural practices all receive special attention. The analysis takes into account the fact that nationalism, as associated with an ethno-racial paradigm, decisively influenced discourse and scientific and political practices.Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Acronyms and Abbreviations List of Archives and Libraries Introduction Chapter 1. Biography of Mendes Correia (1888-1960) Chapter 2. The Institutionalization of Anthropology in Portugal: The Case of the Porto School of Anthropology Chapter 3. A Diversity of Topics Attached to the Study of Humanity Chapter 4. Practical Uses of Anthropology Chapter 5. Mendes Correia’s Political Legacy Conclusion. The Legacy of Mendes Correia and of the Porto School of Anthropology Appendix 1: Volumes of Miscellaneous from the Porto School of Anthropology Appendix 2: Foreign Authors in the Miscellaneous of the Porto School of Anthropology References Index

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Book Synopsis Marginal in status a decade ago, cash transfer programs have become the preferred channel for delivering emergency aid or tackling poverty in low- and middle-income countries. While these programs have had positive effects, they are typical of top-down development interventions in that they impose on local contexts standardized norms and procedures regarding conditionality, targeting, and delivery. This book sheds light on the crucial importance of these contexts and the many unpredicted consequences of cash transfer programs worldwide - detailing how the latter are used by actors to pursue their own strategies, and how external norms are reinterpreted, circumvented, and contested by local populations.Trade Review “The book is recommendable for anyone interested in the recent proliferation of a seemingly globalised social policy, that, however, is here shown to have very different faces, logics and effects in different localities across the global South.” • Critical Social Policy “This is a very interesting study of targeted cash transfers mainly from an anthropological perspective. While, as the authors point out, there is an abundant literature on such transfers (particularly in terms of ‘grey’ literature) most of this is heavily econometric and top-down rather than providing a more bottom-up perspective.…an innovative study which deserves a wide readership both amongst academics and policy makers working in the field.” • European Journal of Social Security “Read this book for a thoughtful analysis of how models travel if you are interested in institutional diffusion and the globalisation of social policy…[It shows that] Anthropology can make a contribution to understanding the politics of aid and social policy.” • Anthrodendum “This book has much to say to scholars, students and practitioners of development. It addresses a particular development model which is widely disseminated around the globe, neither aiming to endorse nor critique it in principle, but to examine how it actually works, or fails to work, in specific locations.” • Lindsay DuBois, Dalhousie University “This book – the first collection of its kind – will make an important contribution to the literature on cash transfer programs. Many of the chapters are written by practitioners with in-depth knowledge of the communities they write about, which brings an on-the-ground perspective that is often missing from the literature.” • Linda Abarbanell, San Diego State UniversityTable of Contents List of Figures and Tables Cash Transfers and the Revenge of Contexts: An Introduction Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan and Emmanuelle Piccoli Chapter 1. Miracle Mechanisms, Travelling Models, and the Revenge of the Contexts: 
Cash Transfer Programmes; A Textbook Case Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan Chapter 2. Realizing Cash Transfer Programs through Collective Obligations: An Ethnography of Co-responsibility in Mexico Alejandro Agudo Sanchíz Chapter 3. Types of Permanence: Conditional Cash, Economic Difference, and Gender Practice in Northeastern Brazil Gregory Duff Morton Chapter 4. Queuing in the Sun: The Salience of Implementation Practices in Recipients’ Experience of a Conditional Cash Transfer Maria Elisa Balen Chapter 5. Conditional Cash Transfer Program Implementation and Effects in Peruvian Indigenous Contexts Norma Correa Aste, Terry Roopnaraine and Amy Margolies Chapter 6. Making Good Mothers: Conditions, Coercion, and Local Reactions in the Juntos Program in Peru Emmanuelle Piccoli and Bronwen Gillespie Chapter 7. Expectations beyond Development: Towards a Prospective Chronology of Cash Transfers from Mexico to Argentina Andrés Dapuez and Sabrina Gavigan Chapter 8. Conditional Cash Transfer and Gender, Class, and Ethnic Domination: The Case of Bolivia Nora Nagels Chapter 9. Behind the Official Story: The Unintended Effects of Social Transfer Programmes in Conflict-Affected Contexts Fiona Samuels and Nicola Jones Chapter 10. Are Cash Transfers Rocking or Wrecking the World of Social Workers in Egypt? Hania Sholkamy Chapter 11. Juggling between Social Obligations and Personal Benefit in Western Côte d’Ivoire: How Do Ex-combatants Spend their Cash Allowance? Magali Chelpi-den Hamer Chapter 12. Cash Transfers in Rural Niger: Social Targeting as a Conflict of Norms Jean Pierre Olivier de Sardan and Oumarou Hamani Index

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Book SynopsisAt a new age festival in Byron Bay, Australia, German journalist Anke Richter is finding her spiritual awakening when she meets a woman – a survivor of the Centrepoint cult – who will change the course of her life and career. Over the next ten years, Anke pursued a labyrinthine investigation into how and why cults attract, entrap and destroy otherwise ordinary people, asking what the line is between tribe and cult, participant and perpetrator, seduction and sexual abuse. From the emotional and criminal carnage of Centrepoint in Auckland, New Zealand, to an anti-cult conference in Manchester, the infamous Osho’s ashram in India, the tantric Agama Yoga school in remote Thailand and culminating in a visit to Gloriavale on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Anke uncovers a disturbing pattern of violence and suffering. Cult Trip is a powerful exploration of what really goes on inside the groups we call cults, and how to reckon with their aftermath.Trade Review‘Bringing together information from around the globe, Anke Richter pinpoints the internal struggles of those coming out of cults, and the debilitating harm that lingers afterwards’ -- Rachel Bernstein, cult specialist and educator‘Wild stuff. Anke Richter is one of my favourite writers, blurring the line between participant and reporter’ -- David Farrier, journalist behind Dark Tourist and Tickled‘Thorough and compassionate . . . Cult Trip is a brittle, sensitive book’ -- Steve Braunias'What a book and what a writer! Cult Trip is an incredibly immersive, intense and necessary reading experience put together with doggedness and skill. The stories are heart-rending, told with bravery and care.' * Noelle McCarthy, author of Grand *A ‘powerful must read’ * Style *‘Cult Trip is incredibly painful and powerful - an eye opener, a tour de force and a call for justice. Those voices of survivors can’t be silenced. Thanks to Anke Richter’s courage and compassion, they will be heard.’ * Janja Lalich, author of Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships *

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Book SynopsisWe-Topia is the true and shocking story of how ego conquered the world. From happier, healthier, and more spiritually evolved nomadic ancestors to a selfish globalized world that exploits, divides, and petrifies today, We-Topia explores how a powerless society has always been part of the plan. And it’s worked. Across the millennia, society gradually devalued human consciousness while social systems such as slavery, money, and religion turned people into resources. Now, like a James Bond villain, this purposeful manipulation mesmerizes us to be consumers and tells us that higher spiritual evolution is a delusion. How did this happen? How do we change? What is life’s purpose and meaning? We-Topia answers these questions with some good news - there’s a way out of this mess and there always has been. As our ancestors knew, liberty from ego is possible when society values real human needs, and We-Topia provides the concepts for you to begin. It is a spiritual odyssey from me to we - the ultimate inside-out rebellion against 13,000 years of conditioning.

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Book Synopsis The global trend of declining fertility rates and an increasingly ageing population has serious implications for individuals and institutions alike. Childless men are mostly excluded from ageing, social science and reproduction scholarship and almost completely absent from most national statistics. This unique book examines the lived experiences of a hidden and disenfranchised population: men who wanted to be fathers. It explores the complex intersections that influence childlessness over the life course.Trade Review “a groundbreaking book shining the light on men and their experiences, how men may feel when they don’t end up having children for one reason or another e.g. not meeting the right person, infertility.” • Guild of Health Writers “This book provides gerontologists with much needed insights into the lived experiences of male childlessness from a life course perspective embedded in critical theoretical approaches on normative life course expectations, ageing and gender, as well as family and social relations… Robin Hadley’s work is both critical and reflexive. He locates his theoretical work within feminist scholarship and acknowledges his position within the field of research by examining his own biography and social position and what that means when conducting interviews with men who describe themselves as involuntarily childless…The methods chapter can be added to reading lists for postgraduate students and the pen portraits of each of the interviewees are a rare and valuable source for learning about qualitative research and reflexivity.” • Aging and Society “The book has some features that make it interesting to readers from both a professional and a wider audience. First, it is very well referenced and equipped with details related to methodology of the study… It is well written, often in a personalised language, with accounts of the author’s experiences related both to the process of data collection and analysis and to the dissemination of results. The Epilogue particularly warrants attention, as it brings reflections not only on myths around men and masculinities, but also on childlessness in later life and COVID-19 –reflections that additionally illustrate the effects of not becoming a father.” • Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology “A highly personal book yet also an academic one with all the critical rigour that entails and makes this a compelling book. It’s a must read for illuminating men’s experiences of involuntary childlessness for one reason or another…This is a rich thought provoking emotional yet highly academic book – and with its clear structure and excellent index a huge resource to be drawn on.” • Medical Journalists Association “I think this is an excellent piece of scholarship that covers an often unspoken topic in a sensitive, novel and comprehensive way. In this sense, it contributes important new knowledge to an area by considering it from a different viewpoint – most notably moving beyond a simple biomedical view or an experiential view of younger men and infertility.” • Steve Robertson, University of Sheffield “This is an important piece of work that addresses areas of masculinity, sexuality, life and an exploration of lived lives through research that have previously been underrepresented in the academic and public press.” • Josephine Tetley, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityTable of Contents List of Illustrations Foreword Graham Handley Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Contexts of Childlessness Chapter 2. Ageing and Male Involuntary Childlessness Chapter 3. Methodology, Method and Analysis Chapter 4. Pathways to Involuntary Childlessness Chapter 5. Negotiating Fatherhood Chapter 6. Relationships and Social Networks Chapter 7. Ageing without Children Conclusion Epilogue Appendix 1: Pen Portraits, in Interview Order, and Interviewer Reflections Appendix 2: Interview Schedule - First Interview Guide Appendix 3: Interview Schedule - Second Interview Guide Glossary References Index

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisSex scholarship has a long history in anthropology, from the studies of voyeuristic Victorian gentlemen ethnographers, to more recent analyses of gay sex, transsexualism, and the newly visible forms of contemporary sexuality in the West. The Anthropology of Sex draws on the comparative field research of anthropologists to examine the relationship between sex as identity, practice and experience. Sexual cultures vary enormously and, while often the topic of tabloid titillation, they are more rarely subjected to strict cultural analysis. The Anthropology of Sex is the first work to critically synthesise over a century of comparative expertise, knowledge and understanding of diverse sexual forms. - Explores sexuality from diversity to perversity and asks how diverse sexual practices are linked. - Probes the cultural and comparative context of contemporary sexual practice and belief. - Examines the shaping of sex by global and globalizing forces. The Anthropology of Sex will be key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in anthropology and related disciplines.Trade Review"This excellent book brings together cutting edge theory with a wide range of ethnographic evidence. It is a fascinating account of sexuality and all its many facets, raising issues of power, pleasure, taboo and more. An intriguing and engrossing read. - Heather Montgomery, Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies, The Open University This volume not only brings sex - finally - into the centre of a discipline concerned with the different ways that people deal with the basics of human life, it is also a perfect combination of cross-cultural comparison and fieldwork examples at its best. - Dieter Haller, Chair for Social Anthropology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum"Table of ContentsPreface1. Sexual Advances2. Beautiful Bodies 3. Dancing Desires 4. Erotic Economies 5. Foreign Affairs 6. Forbidden Frontiers 7. Sex Crimes 8. Intimate Cultures References Index

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Book SynopsisIn his provocative but critically acclaimed theory about the origin of introspectable mentality, Julian Jaynes argued that until the late second millennium people possessed a different psychology: a "two-chambered" (bicameral) neurocultural arrangement in which a commanding "god" guided, admonished, and ordered about a listening mortal via voices, visions, and visitations. Out of the cauldron of civilizational collapse and chaos, an adaptive self-reflexive consciousness emerged better suited to the pressures of larger, more complex sociopolitical systems.Though often described as boldly iconoclastic and far ahead of its time, Jaynes''s thinking actually resonates with a second or other psychological tradition that explores the cultural-historical evolution of psyche. Brian J. McVeigh, a student of Jaynes, points out the blind spots of mainstream, establishment psychology by providing empirical support for Jaynes''s ideas on sociohistorical shifts in cognition. He argues that from around 3500 to 1000 BCE the archaeological and historical record reveals features of hallucinatory super-religiosity in every known civilization. As social pressures eroded the god-centered authority of bicamerality, an upgraded psychology of interiorized self-awareness arose during the Late Bronze Age Collapse. A key explanatory component of Jaynes's theorizing was how metaphors constructed a mental landscape populated with I's and me's that replaced a declining worldview dominated by gods, ancestors, and spirits. McVeigh statistically substantiates how linguo-conceptual changes reflected psychohistorical developments; because supernatural entities functioned in place of our inner selves, vocabularies for psychological terms were strikingly limited in ancient languages. McVeigh also demonstrates the surprising ubiquity of hearing voices in modern times, contending that hallucinations are bicameral vestiges and that mental imagerya controllable, semi-hallucinatory experienceis the successor to the divine hallucinations that once held societies together.This thought-provoking work will appeal to anyone interested in the transformative power of metaphors, the development of mental lexicons, and the adaptive role of hallucinations.

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Book SynopsisIn this illuminating tour of humanity, Joy Hendry and Simon Underdown reveal the origins of our species, and the fabric of human society, through the discipline of anthropology. Via fascinating case studies and discoveries, they unravel our understanding of human behaviours and beliefs, including how witchcraft has been used to justify misfortune, and debunk old-fashioned ideas about “race” based upon the latest genetic research. They even share what our bathroom tells us about our concept of the body – and ourselves. From our evolutionary ancestors, through our rites of passage, to our responses to globalization, Hendry and Underdown provide the essential first step to understanding the world as an anthropologist would – in all its diversity and commonality.Trade Review-- A wonderfully accessible introduction, with a clear focus on the needs of students first coming to the field. Dr Faye Healey-Clough Anthropology lecturer, Gloucestershire College, UK

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Book SynopsisThe essential reference on Japanese customs and etiquette told from the inside. Japan?s image in the world, and self-image, is tied up in a tumultuous history, from turbulent medieval ages, to the stable Tokugawa era, to catastrophic world war, to global economic powerhouse, and to a period of stagnation leading into the shattering earthquake of 2011. As the New York Times reported on the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor disaster: ?Maybe we can learn something from Japan. . . . The selflessness, stoicism and discipline in Japan these days are epitomized by those workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.? This book, told from the inside by a distinguished Japanese ambassador, explains the value set and culture that underpins modern Japan. As the Western model of capitalism appears to struggle with civil disorder and crime, there is much to be learned from the cultural systems of these steadfast islanders.

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Book SynopsisA beautiful celebratory tribute to the powers of one of our most undervalued skills — an ideal gift for the avid reader. ‘What you are doing right now is, cosmically speaking, against the odds.’ As young children, we are taught to read, but soon go on to forget just how miraculous a process it is, this turning of scratches and dots into understanding, unease and inspiration. Perhaps we need to stop and remember, stop and learn again how to read better. Damon Young shows us how to do exactly this, walking alongside some of the greatest readers who light a path for us — Borges, Plato, Woolf. Young reads passionately, selectively, surprisingly — from superhero noir to speculative realism, from Heidegger to Heinlein — and shows his reader how cultivating their inner critic can expand their own lives as well as the lives of those on the pages of the books they love.Trade Review'For Damon Young, writers are like secret agents gone rogue, grabbing us by the lapels and inviting us into a realm of delicious ambiguity. The Art of Reading is an intimately conspiratorial book — erudite, surprising, and persuasive.’ -- Henry Hitchings, author of Browse: the world in bookshops'Reading about reading feels like it should be confusing, but Damon Young makes it both intriguing and insightful.’ -- Dean Burnett, author of The Idiot Brain‘The Art of Reading is perhaps [Young’s] best yet. It’s difficult to write about an unseen phenomenon, and yet he does so engagingly, compulsively, from the first page.’ -- John Birmingham, author of Zero Day Code and The Golden Minute‘An erudite and engaging enquiry into the transformative power of reading.’ -- Melissa Harrison, author of Rain‘Damon Young’s The Art of Reading is a brilliant, wide-ranging exploration of the nature and value of reading, a serious philosopher’s serious game with literature. Witty and graceful it does what it sets out to do, to turn black text into an illuminated theatre of mind, heart and consciousness as it passes through the teasing virtues and vices of its main headings. By taking a few key texts and introducing them to each other Young expands into the vast universe of his and our remembered and potential reading.’ -- George Szirtes‘A compelling riff on the best kind of reading - with unfettered curiosity and courage.’ -- Hilary McPhee, author, editor and publisher‘[A]n ethics of attention towards the written word … [A]n eminently readable, rousing and hugely intelligent account.’ -- Geordie Williamson * The Australian *‘[A] philosopher of fierce intellect and erudition, but also playful and eclectic in his tastes.’ -- Jane Sullivan * The Sydney Morning Herald *‘The Art of Reading is not just another bibliomemoir; it is also a manifesto of sorts … [Young’s] ambitious goal is to re-enchant an activity which, “cosmically speaking”, is very much “against the odds”.’ * The Irish Times *‘Attempts something like an ethical guide to literary life.’ * TLS *‘[A]n excellent argument for why reading is desirable for its own sake.’ * Bookseller+Publisher *‘Damon Young has written a neat little book … One of the key aims of The Art of Reading is to sharpen our interest in reading, and to train us to read more intelligently.’ * The Mail on Sunday *‘Its short length belies a book heavy with insight, creativity, and wit. To Young’s credit, he treats all types of reading, from scholarly meditation to frivolous binge reading, with seriousness and respect … This literary study is serious but also witty and fun — a tough balance to strike, but Young nails it.’ STARRED REVIEW * Publishers Weekly *‘Young offers a useful, erudite, and often arresting survey of philosophical thought featuring both renowned figures in the discipline (Plato, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Schopenhauer) and those less well known, as well as penetrating takes on novelists Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges, Henry James, and others … While Young's latest may be the essence of bookish preoccupation, it is a worthy challenge to read bravely, to regard deeply, and to weigh ideas with discernment and generosity.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘Bibliophiles will relish Damon Young’s The Art of Reading, a hypnotic, erudite and riveting analysis of why we lose and find ourselves in the pages of books … A rare joy, a company of pages to cherish for a long time.’ * Bookanista *‘[S]ometimes even I find myself in a bit of a slump and forget how wonderful it is that type on a page can conjure up vivid worlds. In The Art of Reading, Young shows us how to cultivate our inner critic and read better, while celebrating reading and readers.’ -- Sarah Shaffi * Stylist *‘Damon Young’s purpose in this elegant volume is to demonstrate just what an extraordinary thing it is to be a reader — and how much power we have to be even better at it … [his] approach is omnivorous and inspiring.’ -- Sarah Ditum * In the Moment *‘A beautifully written and thoughtfully constructed ode to the inner worlds opened up by the page, and the role of reading in the discovery and development of the self. The Art of Reading is just what I needed to remind me I am neither alone — nor irrational — in my bibliophilia.‘ -- Tara Moss‘Young extols the virtues gifted to us by a well-stocked bookcase.’ * Australian Women’s Weekly *‘[N]uanced, articulate … the book illuminates the many prejudices and habits that a reader can have — and how fluid they are.’ * The Big Issue *‘The erudite, sometimes playful Australian philosopher and columnist is the most avid of readers.’ * The Post and Courier *

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Book SynopsisThis collection brings together leading anthropologists, historians, philosophers, and artificial-intelligence researchers to discuss the sciences and mathematics used in various Eastern, Western, and Indigenous societies, both ancient and contemporary. The authors analyze prevailing assumptions about these societies and propose more faithful, sensitive analyses of their ontological views about reality—a step toward mutual understanding and translatability across cultures and research fields.Science in the Forest, Science in the Past is a pioneering interdisciplinary exploration that will challenge the way readers interested in sciences, mathematics, humanities, social research, computer sciences, and education think about deeply held notions of what constitutes reality, how it is apprehended, and how to investigate it.Trade Review"Is there one big Science, or are there many legitimate forms of knowledge? Are primary qualities the sole object of scientific inquiry, or is there a space for investigating the multidimensionality of phenomena? Are the ontological foundations of different systems of worlding incompatible, or do they allow hybridization and the expression of foundational principles? This innovative book tackles these questions afresh by bringing together an impressive set of international scholars in fields ranging from ancient civilizations and non-Western cultures to the computing sciences. Their deconstruction of the sterile deadlock between universalism and relativism will be a milestone for years to come." -- Philippe Descola, Collège de France, author of Beyond Nature and Culture"The volume is. . .well worth taking the time to read. I encourage engaging and reflecting. . ." * Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science *"The chapters of this book constitute serious and detailed reflections on forms of knowledge that go beyond, in different times and spaces, those where anthropology as a science has historically been constituted. Approaching these differences, understanding their inflections, languages, ​​and areas of interest, could not be more useful at a time when the prevailing forms of knowledge seem to have reached unprecedented material and social limits." * Anthropos (Translated from Spanish) *

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Book SynopsisA lively exploration of the Indigenous traditions of shamanism in the Far North of Eurasia and North America. In this book, Charles Stépanoff draws on ethnographic literature and his fieldwork in Siberia to reveal the immense contribution to human imagination made by shamans and the cognitive techniques they developed over the centuries. Indigenous shamans are certain men and women who are able to travel in spirit in ways that appear mysterious to Westerners but which rely on the human capacity of imagination. They perceive themselves simultaneously in two types of space—one visible, the other virtual—putting them in contact and establishing links with nonhuman beings in their surroundings. Shamans share their experience of spirit travel with their patients, families, or the wider community, allowing them to experience this odyssey through the invisible together. This work will appeal to anthropologists and to anyone with an interest in learning about the power of imagination from the masters of the invisible, the shamans of the Far North.

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Book Synopsis1. An Introduction to Nonreligious Asylum Seekers.- 2. Portraits.- 3. The Atheist Converts'.- 4. Evidence-hearing and Evidence-making.- 5. Emotions.- 6. Reasons for Hope, Reasons to Doubt.

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Book SynopsisThe simple fabric face mask is a key agent in the fight against the global spread of COVID-19. However, beyond its role as a protective covering against coronavirus infection, the face mask is the bearer of powerful symbolic and political power and arouses intense emotions. Adopting an international perspective informed by social theory, The Face Mask in COVID Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis offers an intriguing and original investigation of the social, cultural and historical dimensions of face-masking as a practice in the age of COVID. Rather than Beck’s ‘risk society’, we are now living in a ‘COVID society’, the long-term effects of which have yet to be experienced or imagined. Everything has changed. The COVID crisis has generated novel forms of sociality and new ways of living and moving through space and time. In this new world, the face mask has become a significant object, positioned as one of the key ways people can protect themselves and others from infection with the coronavirus. The face mask is rich with symbolic meaning as well as practical value. In the words of theorist Jane Bennett, the face mask has acquired a new ‘thing-power’ as it is coming together with human bodies in these times of uncertainty, illness and death. The role of the face mask in COVID times has been the subject of debate and dissension, arousing strong feelings. The historical and cultural contexts in which face masks against COVID contagion are worn (or not worn) are important to consider. In some countries, such as Japan and other East Asian nations, face mask wearing has a long tradition. Full or partial facial coverings, such as veiling, is common practice in regions such as the Middle East. In many other countries, including most countries in the Global North, most people, beyond health care workers, have little or no experience of face masks. They have had to learn how to make sense of face masking as a protective practice and how to incorporate face masks into their everyday practices and routines. Face masking practices have become highly political. The USA has witnessed protests against face mask wearing that rest on ‘sovereign individualism’, a notion which is highly specific to the contemporary political climate in that country. Face masks have also been worn to make political statements: bearing anti-racist statements, for example, but also Trump campaign support. Meanwhile, celebrities and influencers have sought to advocate for face mask wearing as part of their branding, while art makers, museums, designers and novelty fashion manufacturers have identified the opportunity to profit from this sudden new market. Face masks have become a fashion item as well as a medical device: both a way of signifying the wearer’s individuality and beliefs and their ethical stance in relation to the need to protect their own and others’ health. The Face Mask in COVID Times: A Sociomaterial Analysis provides a short and accessible analysis of the sociomaterial dimensions of the face mask in the age of COVID-19. The book presents seven short chapters and an epilogue. We bring together sociomaterial theoretical perspectives with compelling examples from public health advice and campaigns, anti-mask activism as well as popular culture (news reports, blog posts, videos, online shopping sites, art works) to illustrate our theoretical points, and use Images to support our analysis. Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction: The Face Mask as Sociomaterial Artefact This chapter will introduce the rationale for the book, addressing the question of why sociomaterial theories are so important to make sense of the meanings and practices related to the face mask in the age of COVID. It will provide the context for understanding the face mask as a sociocultural artefact, discussing the history of the face mask (and other facial coverings, such as veiling practices) internationally. This chapter also provides an overview of the theoretical perspectives we are using in our analysis. We draw particularly on the vital materialism offered in the work of feminist new materialist scholars and Indigenous and First Nations philosophies as well as domestication theory. These perspectives position material objects such as face masks as contributing to assemblages of people with nonhuman things. It is with and through these combinations of humans and nonhumans that agencies and forces are generated. We ‘think with’ vital materialism in the following chapters to consider how the face mask has taken on the extraordinary meanings, values and affective intensities. This chapter, therefore, provides the basis for elucidating the divergent cultural responses to face masks in contemporary political and geographical contexts that follows in the book. Chapter 2: The Micro and Macro Politics of Masks This chapter will trace the anti-mask and #masks4all movements during the COVID crisis, examining the meanings both groups attached to the mask. We interrogate the process by which masks came to be regarded as a necessity in many countries that had previously been apathetic to mask-wearing as a public health strategy, and how this played out at the level of everyday practices. We interrogate how masks came to be a key site of contestation during the pandemic and a significant symbol of the event. Focusing on several high-profile case studies involving public conflicts around masks, this chapter employs Karen Barad’s concept of intra-action to examine the discourses, objects, bodies, habits, relations of power and affects that intra-act to constitute the divergent meanings of masks that came about during the early months of the pandemic. This chapter draws connections between the micro-level everyday anxieties surrounding mask-wearing in shops to public health messaging at the national level to international tensions surrounding their manufacture and purchase. Chapter 3: Ordinary Objects, Extraordinary Times This chapter explores the way face masks and their (contested) emergence during the pandemic offer us an opportunity to think about our intimacy with ordinary objects. Though intimacy is often conceptualised as emerging in inter-personal relationships, taking up a vital materialist perspective we consider the way it emerges in the relations between humans and nonhuman objects, such as the face mask. Drawing on scholarship from science and technology studies, we contextualise face masks within a history of intimate objects that have become ‘domesticated’, such as glasses and clothing, and, more recently, smartphones and smart watches. In tracing this domestication, this chapter examines establishing of everyday routines and habits, as well as attempts to normalise masks through public health messaging. This chapter will explore the way this intimacy is connected to some initial discomfort with widespread mask wearing during the pandemic. Chapter 4: Bodies, Breath, Boundaries This chapter examines the embodied and affective aspects of wearing a mask and considers how these experiences shift in relation to the sociomaterial contexts and conditions in which they are worn. By attending to the entangled materialities of objects, breath and bodies, this chapter will explore the indeterminacy of bodily boundaries in order to illuminate the often-overlooked leakiness of social life and underline its collective dimensions. Drawing on Karen Barad’s concepts of entanglement and intra-action and Stacy Alaimo’s transcorporeality, we extend understandings of bodies as bounded entities and trace their interconnectedness. We then consider how this interconnectedness matters specifically in pandemic times. Paying attention to the specificities of face masks and the embodied practice of mask wearing, we trace the affective and material flows that move across bodies and environments. Chapter 5: DIY Cultures and the Making of Masks Face masks have quickly emerged as a fashion accessory and key selling point for many retailers, from luxury companies including Louis Vuitton to boutique crafters via platforms such as Etsy. However, due to production delays, issue of cost and accessibility, and limited supplies of available Personal Protective Equipment being necessarily directed to frontline service workers, a notable do-it-yourself (DIY) culture of mask making has emerged. This chapter explores the relational politics and distributed agencies of DIY face masks. With several case studies on the creative exchange of accessible tools and techniques and grassroots social justice supply campaigns, it considers the significance of how face masks are made to matter in the COVID context. This chapter positions these making practices within the broader landscape of contemporary DIY cultures, focusing on the ways in which the profit-resistant, creativity- and community-oriented aesthetic and political ethos of DIY shapes the meaning, materiality and multiplicity of the mask. Chapter 6: Face Masking as An Act of Care As masks and the practices associated with them (wearing, refusing, creating) were positioned at the centre of the COVID crisis in many countries, we consider the ways that mask-wearers and makers emphasise the act of wearing the mask as an act care for others, as well as self-protection. At the same time, those who refuse masks are positioned in opposition, as careless – or potentially hostile to others. We engage the work of Maria Puig de la Bellacasa to think how masks and mask wearing and creation become implicated in the ethical, political and material dimensions of care. Locating ourselves in the rapidly shifting and emerging conditions of the COVID pandemic, masks become central to our ethical and careful responses. Here we consider the way that care and being careful extends towards the minute level of one’s breath. Epilogue Here we offer some concluding comments, reflecting on the themes that thread together the chapters in the book.

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Book SynopsisDenken in Bildern? Hatte die überwältigende Fülle von Bildern, von Vergleichen und Gleichnissen aus allen Bereichen des antiken Wissens, noch bis ins 18. Jahrhundert zur Beliebtheit von Plutarchs Schriften beigetragen, so galt sie seit der Aufklärung eher als Zeichen mangelnder Seriosität und gedanklicher Stringenz. Rainer Hirsch-Luipold zeigt demgegenüber, wie Plutarch Bilder und Bildfelder als Teil einer besonderen philosophischen Darstellungsform begreift. Die umfassende Struktur des Bildhaften wird aus seiner Verwendung des griechischen Begriffs eikon deutlich. Unter diesem Begriff verbindet der Mittelplatoniker und delphische Priester Phänomene der darstellenden Kunst (Statue, Gemälde, Siegelabdruck etc.) und der Sprache (Gleichnis, Allegorie, Metapher, Rätselwort etc.) mit einer philosophischen Sicht der Welt als Abbild und Widerschein einer höheren göttlichen Realität.Neben Untersuchungen zur Rezeption von darstellender Kunst und zur Terminologie bildhafter Sprache bietet die Arbeit ausführliche literarische und philosophische Interpretationen der Bildersprache ausgewählter Schriften. Rainer Hirsch-Luipold interpretiert die Bilder als Teil der philosophischen Gedankenführung, eröffnet so den Blick auf die philosophische und religionsgeschichtliche Bedeutung Plutarchs und führt zugleich ein Instrument zur Analyse des Aufbaus und der Struktur seiner Schriften vor. Aufgrund ihrer religiösen Färbung wird die Bildersprache Plutarchs zudem als pagane Parallele zur gleichzeitig entstehenden Gleichnissprache des Neuen Testaments interessant.

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Book SynopsisThe Enlightenment promised humanity a bright future of emancipation which never actuallymaterialized. Instead, our social order is still based on gender inequality, which rests upon afalse conviction: that the individual can be conceived of as separate from community; that the more individualized a person is, the less they need to establish links with their community to feel safe; and that the more they use reason to build a relationship with the world, the less they need emotions. Th is conviction, which guides the ideals of our social system, is based on a fantasy: the fantasy of individuality.This volume is a step in fleshing out the historical reasons for gender inequality from theorigins of humankind to present times in the Western world. It is a theoretically-informedand up-to-date overview of the history of gender inequality that takes as its starting pointthe mechanisms through which human beings construct their self-identity.Starting from a peripheral, interdisciplinary and heterodox perspective, this book intends toappraise the complexity of gender identity in all its richness and diversity. It seeks to understand the persistence of relationality in supposedly fully individualized male selves, and the construction of new forms of individuality among women that did not follow the masculine model. It is argued here that by balancing community and self beyond the contradictions of hegemonic masculinity, modern women are struggling to build a new, more empowering form of personhood.The author is an archaeologist, who uses her discipline not only to provide data, theory anda long-term perspective, but also in a metaphorical sense: to construct a socio-historicalgenealogy of current gender systems, through an examination of how personhood and self- identity have been constructed in the Western world.Table of Contents1: General approach.- 2: Sex and gender.- 3: The Origin.- 4: Relational identity or identity when one has no power over the world.- 5: Individuality or identity when one has power over the world.- 6: Relational identity/ Individuated identity. The appearance of things.- 7: The fantasy of individuality. Part I: women and gender identity.- 8: The fantasy of individuality. Part II: men’s (unconscious) performance of relational identity.- 9: Dependent individuality and independent individuality.- 10: Sex and gender all over again. 11: Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThe book aims to explain the emergence of the Norwegian—and to some extent, the Scandinavian—welfare state in historical and anthropological terms. Halvard Vike argues that particular forms of political grassroots mobilization contributed heavily to what he calls “a low level of gravity state”—a political order in which decentralized institutions make it possible to curtail centralizing forces. While there is a large international literature on the Nordic welfare states, there is limited knowledge about how these states are embedded in local contexts. Vike's approach is based on an ethnographic practice which may be labeled “in and out of institutions.” It is based on ethnographic work in municipal assemblies, local bureaucracies, political parties, voluntary organizations, and various informal contexts.Table of Contents1. Local Politics in the Welfare State: Patterns of Conflict and Political Practice2. Cross Cutting Cleavages, the Politics of Resistance – and Social Control3. Local Politics in Historical Perspective4. Culminations of Complexity: Practicing Bureaucracy in Local Worlds5. The Welfare Municipality: Universalism, Gender, and Service Provision6. Post-Liberal Horizons: Conceptions of Freedom in the Northern Periphery7. The Future of the Welfare State in an Age of Centralization

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Book Synopsis"The papers composing this volume treat of the inner rather than of the outer life of Japan, for which reason they have been grouped under the title Kokoro (heart). [This] word signifies also mind, in the emotional sense; spirit; courage; resolve; sentiment; affection; and inner meaning, just as we say in English, "the heart of things." —Lafcadio HearnAs an interpreter of Japan for the West, Lafcadio Hearn has no peer. His books are still read with fascination by foreigners and Japanese alike—a tribute to his keen powers of observation and the vividness of his prose. Kokoro is Hearn's love letter to Japan—his exploration of the genius of Japanese civilization and the wonder he felt at encountering these islands and their inhabitants.The 15 extraordinary stories in this book include: "Kimiko"— A beautiful geisha hatches a desperate plan to save her mother from poverty but then must make a heartbreaking choice. "A Conservative"— A samurai's son embraces the West and travels to Europe but finds his new home to be a shallow and faithless land. "A Street Singer"— A woman captivates crowds with the beauty of her voice, but her life story goes much deeper than her musical talents. "By Force of Karma"— The peculiar tale of a Buddhist priest who receives a letter from a mysterious woman and ultimately takes his own life. Published six years after Hearn arrived in Japan, these stories focus on the inner spiritual life of the Japanese. Sometimes touching and always compelling, they are drawn from Hearn's own experiences, telling stories of the people and customs that still make Japan so unique. Kokoro includes an informative foreword by Patricia Welch which highlights how, 125 years later, our understanding of Japan can still be deepened by Hearn's heartfelt prose.Trade Review"When not penning his observations, travels and historico-cultural analysis, Hearn switches to passages of novelistic invention, as if crafting an inspirational gothic fantasy out of Japan that will take him to the heart ("kokoro") of the mystery of human existence." --The Japan Times"Many of the essays in Kokoro are informed by Hearn's preoccupation and fascination with Japan's headlong rush to catch up with the West. Now, 125 years later, his heartfelt reflections on the psyche of a nation in a time of transition still captivate the reader." --The Japan Times"This book is a brilliant analysis of the collective Japanese heart from an honest outsider's perspective…Hearn's prose is as vivid as it gets. He writes in a way that reads like fiction--as if life simply couldnÆt be as beautiful as he describes…" --Dominique Jardiolin, "Chroniqled" bookstagram

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Book SynopsisBarkcloth or tapa, a cloth made from the inner bark of trees, was widely used in place of woven cloth in the Pacific islands until the 19th century. A ubiquitous material, it was integral to the lives of islanders and used for clothing, furnishings and ritual artefacts. Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth takes a new approach to the study of the history of this region through its barkcloth heritage, focusing on the plants themselves and surviving objects in historic collections. This object-focused approach has filled gaps in our understanding of the production and use of this material through an investigation of this unique fabric’s physical properties, transformation during manufacture and the regional history of its development in the 18th and 19th centuries.The book is the outcome of a research project which focused on three important collections of barkcloth at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. It also looks more widely at the value of barkcloth artefacts in museum collections for enhancing both contemporary practice and a wider appreciation of this remarkable fabric. The contributors include academics, curators, conservators and makers of barkcloth from Oceania and beyond, in an interdisciplinary study which draws together insights from object-based and textual reseach, fieldwork and tapa making, and information on the plants used to make fibres and colourants.This book will be of interest to tapa makers, museum professionals including curators and conservators; academics and students in the fields of anthropology, museum studies and conservation; museum visitors and anyone interested in finding out more about barkcloth.Trade Review…organised, factual, and academically strong. […] This underlining focus being conservation and preservation makes this book a good source for researchers, academics, museums curators, conservators, and students. * Journal of Dress History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Image credits Biographies Introduction Frances Lennard Part I: Tapa as Fabric: Bast and Colourants The procurement, cultural value and fabric characteristics of Polynesian tapa species Andy Mills Plant profile 1. Paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera Plant profile 2. Breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis Mark Nesbitt Technical variation in historical Polynesian tapa manufacture Andy Mills Breadfruit tapa: not always second best Michele Austin Dennehy, Jean Chapman Mason, Adrienne L. Kaeppler Plant profile 3. Pacific banyan, Ficus prolixa Plant profile 4. Māmaki, Pipturus albidus Mark Nesbitt A new perspective on understanding Hawaiian kapa-making Lisa Schattenburg-Raymond Polynesian tapa colourants Andy Mills, Taoi Nooroa, Allan Tuara Plant profile 5. Beach hibiscus, Sea hibiscus, Hibiscus tiliaceus Plant profile 6. ‘Ākia, Wikstroemia uva-ursi Mark Nesbitt Hawaiian dyes and kapa pigments: a modern perspective and brief analysis of the historic record Lisa Schattenburg-Raymond Part II: Understanding Tapa in Time and Place Towards a regional chronology of Polynesian barkcloth manufacture Andy Mills Living with tapa and the social life of ritual objects Adrienne L. Kaeppler Plant profile 7. ‘Oloa, Neraudia melastomifolia Plant profile 8. Polynesian arrowroot, Tacca leontopetaloides Mark Nesbitt West Polynesian dyes and decorations as cultural signatures Adrienne L. Kaeppler ‘A classification of Tongan ngatu’: change and stability in Tongan barkcloth forms since 1963 Billie Lythberg White for purity, brown for beautiful like us and black because it is awesome Fanny Wonu Veys Plant profile 9. Koka, Bischofia javanica Plant profile 10. Candlenut, Aleurites moluccana Mark Nesbitt Barkcloth from the islands of Wallis (‘Uvea) and Futuna Hélène Guiot Barkcloth in the Māori world Patricia Te Arapo Wallace ‘Ahu Sistas: reclaiming history, telling our stories Pauline Reynolds, Jean Clarkson Plant profile 11. Turmeric, Curcuma longa Plant profile 12. Noni, Morinda citrifolia Mark Nesbitt ‘Tataki ʻe he Leá: Guided Language’ Tui Emma Gillies, Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows Part III: Tapa in Collections and the Community The Hunterian’s Polynesian barkcloth collection Andy Mills From maker to museum: Polynesian barkcloth at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Mark Nesbitt, Brittany Curtis, Andy Mills Plant profile 13. Mati, Ficus tinctoria Plant profile 14. Tou, Cordia subcordata Plant profile 15. Ironwood, Casuarina equisetifolia Mark Nesbitt Smithsonian Institution barkcloth collections Adrienne L. Kaeppler ‘Holomua ka hana kapa’: a symposium on caring for kapa and kapa makers at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, December 2017 Alice Christophe Fiji masi and the Auckland Museum Pacific Collection Access Project Fuli Pereira, Leone Samu-Tui Plant profile 16. Malay apple, Syzygium malaccense Plant profile 17. Red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle Mark Nesbitt Shown to full advantage: conservation and mounting of barkcloth for display in the ‘Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Clothing’ exhibition at the British Museum Monique Pullan Conservation as part of ‘Situating Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Place’: improving preservation, enhancing access and sharing knowledge Frances Lennard, Reggie Meredith Fitiao, Su’a Tupuola Uilisone Fitiao, Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan, Beth Knight Afterword: Polynesian barkcloth past, present, future Mark Nesbitt, Frances Lennard and Andy Mills Bibliography

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

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Book SynopsisLuhmann's theory is fascinating and complex. It offers incomparably enlightening insights, references and research opportunities, but reveals its utility only after a quite high competence threshold. Using the reticular form of the glossary, this book makes the theory accessible while maintaining its complexity. Without being obstructed by knowledge gaps or by references to concepts presented elsewhere, readers inside and outside sociology get the required support to explore sociological systems theory and to engage with it. Luhmann himself, in his introduction, praises the form of the glossary to cope with the challenges of the theoretical description of our highly complex society.Table of ContentsConvivial Futures?; One Step Beyond; From Lived Convivialism to Convivialist Transformations; The First Convivialist Steps; Feminism and Convivialism; Convivialism Facing the Territorial Question; Is Convivialism the Answer? Depends on the Question; Convivializing the Economy; Imagining the Convivialist Enterprise; Towards a Post-Covid Economy for the Common Good; Is a Post-Growth Society Possible?; Money Creation as a Foundational Tool for Convivialism; Pluriversalism and Nature: Conviviality to Reanimate the World; Convivial Conservation with Nurturing Masculinities in Brazil's Atlantic Forest; A Convivialist Solution for the Multiple Crisis of Biodiversity, Climate, and Public Health; The Post-Development Agenda; Letter to the End-of-the-World Generation; (Un-)Convivial Futures: Right Here, Right Now; "2050"; Once upon a Time ... There Will Be a Convivial Desire; A Reflection on 200 Years of Our Youngest Bodily Organ: Convivialis Futuris; List of Contributors.

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Book SynopsisIn phenomenological tradition, presence has been understood as fundamental for human experience: I experience the world as my lifeworld because I am present in this world. Even more, I experience myself as I only in the physical presence of the other. However, this concept of presence has become fragile through processes of medialization - especially in (post-)pandemic everyday life. Presence can no longer be experienced exclusively in physical proximity, but also digitally or virtually. With global case studies alongside theoretical discussions by both students as well as junior and senior researchers, the volume launches a conversation between social sciences and humanities on how this change affects human experience.

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Book SynopsisThroughout the nineteenth century, social expressions and dynamics have been reflected in the surge of various printed products. The contributors analyze a diverse range of sources, such as caricatures, journalistic reports, travelogues, scholarly volumes, social novels, and fairytale collections, viewing them as early manifestations of social knowledge and ethnographic representation situated at the confluence of popular and scientific publishing. Their comprehensive exploration unveils alternative contexts and dimensions of early ethnographic knowledge production, providing insights into a history of social knowledge that surpasses disciplinary, national, and genre-related boundaries.

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Book SynopsisDecolonising academia in Africa? Inspiration from the development of anthropology at African universities and international collaboration on par.

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Book SynopsisSocieties worldwide are increasingly interconnected through trade, migration, education, and digitization. This has resulted in a profound new complexity of cultural groups. Consequently, designers are confronted with the challenge of gaining a clear understanding of this cultural diversity.Culture is a complex phenomenon defined by an ongoing process of shifts in human interactions and experiences. In addition to the functional, technical, and economic requirements, it is primarily culture that defines how any designed object and service will perform and prove itself: a process that largely takes place outside the domain and control of the designer.Culture Sensitive Design provides an overview of theory as well as practical models and methods, aimed to motivate and inspire design students, practitioners, and educators to get in touch with different cultural values, customs, and symbols. It is in order to avoid mistakes that may be obstructive for certain groups of people; to enable cross-cultural cooperation; to learn more about the diverse and complex layers of culture that define who we are, how we think, how we imagine, and how we create; and to open up the design space, thereby creating a tremendous source of new ideas. Richly illustrated with examples of real life situations, the book provides everything necessary to generate optimal circumstances for the best design solutions to emerge.

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