Search results for ""AltaMira Press,U.S.""

In Vietnam during the long nineteenth century from the Tây Son rebellion to the 1920s, individuals negotiated changing interpretations of their culinary choices by their families, neighbors, and governments. What people ate reflected not just who they were, but also who they wanted to be. Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam starts with the spread of Vietnamese imperial control from south to north, marking the earliest efforts to create a common Vietnamese culture, as well as resistance to that cultural and culinary imperialism. Once the French conquered the country, new opportunities for culinary experimentation became possible, although such experiences were embraced more by the colonized than the colonizers. This book discusses how colonialism changed the taste of Vietnamese fish sauce and rice liquor and shows that state intervention made those products into tangible icons of a unified Vietnamese cuisine, under attack by the French. Vietnamese villagers began to see the power they could bring to bear on the state by mobilizing around such controversies in everyday life. The rising new urban classes at the turn of the twentieth century also discovered new perspectives on food and drink, delighting in unfamiliar snacks or giving elaborate multicultural banquets as a form of conspicuous consumption. New tastes prompted people to reconsider their preferences and their position in the changing modern world. For students of Vietnamese history, food here provides a lens into how people of different class and ethnic backgrounds struggled to adapt first to Vietnamese and then French imperialism. Food historians will find a provocative case study arguing that food does not simply reveal identity but can also help scholars analyze people's changing ambitions.

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Written as a travelogue, Surface Collection: Archaeological Travels in Southeast Asia tackles the most pressing issues of cultural-heritage management in an engaging and accessible way. In each chapter the author makes the past relevant to the present through his encounters with archaeological sites. While the book's anecdotes are associated primarily with Thailand and Indonesia—from a decaying National Museum in Manila, to the search for traces of the thousands of Communists who were killed after an attempted coup in Bali, to the discovery of a bottle of perfume found among the personal effects of Indonesian ex-president Sukarno—they have broad international interest because of the issues they raise. These archaeological stories, again and again, remind us what history both remembers and conceals.

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This work is the result of decades of research on the Early Bronze Age I skeletal material from the archaeological site of Bâb Edh-Dhrâ' in Jordan. Bâb Edh-Dhrâ' is home to one of the Near East's largest and most carefully documented collections of human skeletal material, which is one of the few sources of information about the inhabitants of this pre-biblical world in the late-fourth and third millennia B.C. This definitive study by physical anthropologists will be consulted for decades by archaeologists and anthropologists working in the Levant, Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as anyone studying ancient Near Eastern migration patterns, skeletal changes, and incidences of diseases.

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The myth of Bigfoot has captured the popular imagination since the creature's first public debut in 1958—numerous citations of 'evidence,' newspaper articles, books, hysterical personal accounts, and even Hollywood movies illustrate the American public's enduring romance with the Sasquatch. The scientific community on the whole, however, has stubbornly refused to comment on what it views as a very tall tale, though Bigfoot's existence continues to be hotly argued between proponents of the beast and its skeptics. Now, biological anthropologist and primate physiology specialist David J. Daegling enters the fray to offer both sides of the dispute benefit of objective scientific study. A well-crafted read, Bigfoot Exposed will prove to be as much a model of scientific method for anthropologists and researchers as it is an engaging and persuasive debunking of the myth of Bigfoot.

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Exploding the traditional myth that view queens as simply an appendage to the king, these essays explore the social and cultural constructions of female power. This volume does more than merely identify and describe queens, but rather, offers its readers an understanding of the roles of these 'dominant women', situated within archaeological discourse that change our assumptions about female-ruled societies. Examining the ancient societies in Asia, North and South America, Europe and Africa, the authors explore the powerful positions held by queens, as well as the role that gender played in their kingdoms. Spearheading the notion that 'women's work' is not the same in all cultures, the contributions in this volume compel readers to rethink gender relationships and ideology in our cultures.

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A collection of original essays examining the Goddess Movement in its many facets, Daughters of the Goddess explores the ways women have abandoned Western patriarchal religions and have embraced a spirituality based in a celebration of the Goddess and the female body as sacred text. Among the first scholars to publish in this area, editor Wendy Griffin brings together a group of academics and practitioners who offer a wide-ranging study of this movement, from a critique of the patriarchal cult of Princess Diana to a celebration of bellydance as a form of spiritual expression. Other essays not only trace women's myriad spiritual journeys but also examine the creation of personal rituals that have led to healing and a new sense of identity for many women. An innovative volume, Daughters of the Goddess serves as an invaluable guide for anyone wishing to gain a thorough introduction to this rapidly growing religious and cultural movement.

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Some forty scholars examine California's prehistory and archaeology, looking at marine and terrestrial palaeoenvironments, initial human colonization, linguistic prehistory, early forms of exchange, mitochondrial DNA studies, and rock art. This work is the most extensive study of California's prehistory undertaken in the past 20 years. An essential resource for any scholar of California prehistory and archaeology!

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This new collection turns a critical anthropological eye on the nature of health policy internationally. The authors reveal that in light of prevailing social inequalities, health policies may intend to protect public health, but in fact they often represent significant structural threats to the health and well being of the poor, ethnic minorities, women, and other subordinate groups. The volume focuses on the 'anthropology of policy,' which is concerned with the process of decision-making, the influences on decision-makers, and the impact of policy on human lives. This collaboration will be a critical resource for researchers and practitioners in medical anthropology, applied anthropology, medical sociology, minority issues, public policy, and health care issues.

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A newer edition of this book is available at the following address: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780759123212 Rapid Assessment Process (RAP) has gone under many names but invariably uses the techniques of fieldwork and ethnography in a telescoped manner to provide solid, field-based research findings for use by policymakers and program planners. It uses an emic perspective, a team of researchers, triangulation of research findings, and iterative process to produce high-quality research in a fraction of the time taken by traditional ethnography. Long used for third world projects, RAP is now being used to inform policy in many different settings. This volume is the first introduction to this group of methods, explaining to researchers and to students how to do RAP research well. The author, an international development professional who has been doing RAP studies for over two decades, clearly outlines the process, promise and pitfalls of RAP in this brief volume. Included are many examples of successful RAP studies and clear guidance to readers on how to embark on their own RAP research.

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This is an exploration of body/landscape relations and what is possible when body and language are thought of and written together instead of in opposition to each other.

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Existential sociology provides scholars with a dramatic and adventurous way of understanding the workings of everyday life. It highlights the importance of individuals, their emotions, and their constructed interaction with social structures and cultural contexts built around them. The idea of an existential sociology, first developed a quarter century ago, has remained robust within symbolic interactionist circles. This collection of original essays, a sequel to two previous ones by the volume's editors, explores existential thinking in sociology after the advent of postmodernism. It focuses on key themes in this research arena through grounded examination of everyday situations and includes the work of Altheide, Clark, Fontana, Lyman and other leading figures in this area of sociology. It will be useful to scholars and for courses on symbolic interactionism, social theory, sociology of the emotions, sociology of culture, and sociology of everyday life.

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The study of phytoliths—inorganic silica remnants plants leave behind when they die and decay—has developed dramatically over the last twenty years. New publications have documented a diverse array of phytoliths from many regions around the globe, while new understandings have emerged as to how and why plants produce phytoliths. Together, these developments make phytoliths a powerful tool in reconstructing past environments and human uses of plants. In Phytoliths, Dolores Piperno makes sense of the discipline for both those working directly with phytoliths in the field or the lab as well as for those who rely on the results of phytolith studies for their own research. Including over a hundred images, Piperno's book will be of great benefit to archaeologists and paleobotanists in the classroom or the lab.

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Death is a topic that has fascinated people for centuries. In the English-speaking world, eulogies in poetic form could be traced back to the 1640s, but gained prominence with the "graveyard school" of poets in the eighteenth century often stressing the finality of death. Chinese American Death Rituals examines Chinese American funerary rituals and cemeteries from the late nineteenth century until the present in order to understand the importance of Chinese funerary rites and their transformation through time. The authors in this volume discuss the meaning of funerary rituals and their normative dimension and the social practices that have been influenced by tradition. Shaped by individual beliefs, customs, religion, and environment, Chinese Americans have resolved the tensions between assimilation into the mainstream culture and their strong Chinese heritage in a variety of ways. This volume expertly describes and analyzes Chinese American cultural retention and transformation in rituals after death.

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This new collection of essays demonstrates how a politics of polarity have defined the 150-year experience of Chinese immigration in America. Volume editor Cassel relates how the well-publicized accusations of espionage against scientist Wen Ho Lee at the nuclear facility at Los Alamos can be understood as part of an ongoing systemic and institutionalized racism in American society. Chinese-Americans have been courted as 'model workers' by American business, but also continue to be perceived as perpetual foreigners. The contributors offer engrossing accounts of the lives of immigrants, their tenacity, their diverse lifeways, from the arrival of the first Chinese gold miners in 1849 into the present day. The 21st century begins as a uniquely 'Pacific Century' in the Americas, with an increasingly large presence of Asians in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The book will prove to be a valuable resource on the Asian immigrant experience for researchers and students in Chinese American studies, Asian American history, immigration studies, and American history. The Chinese in America is published in cooperation with the Chinese Historical Society of Greater San Diego and Baja California.

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While The Inclusive New Testament is certainly an inclusive-language translation, it is much more: it is a re-imagining of the Christian scriptures and our relationship to them. Not merely replacing male pronouns, the translators have rethought what kind of language has built barriers between the text and its readers. Seeking to be faithful to the original Greek, they have sought new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths. The Inclusive New Testament is a fresh, dynamic translation into modern English, carefully crafted to let the power and poetry of the language shine forth-particularly when read aloud-giving it an immediacy and intimacy rarely found in translations of the Bible. The Inclusive New Testament is also available together with The Inclusive Psalms or as a part of The Inclusive Bible.

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Museums in the Digital Age: Changing Meanings of Place, Community, and Culture showcases how the use of technology in museums should be understood as factors directly related to the museums’ notion of community, local culture, and place, whether these places are in mid-America, urban metropolises, or ethnically diverse and underserved communities. Here, museum expert Susana Smith Bautista brings more than twenty years of experience in cultural institutes in Los Angeles, New York, and Greece to propose a social understanding of why museums should be adopting technology, and how it should be adapted based on their particular missions, communities, and places. This book is timely because we are in the midst of the digital age, which is rapidly changing due to rapidly changing developments in technology and society as well, with social adaptations of technology. Theory is always racing to catch up with practice in the digital age, but theory remains a critical - and often neglected - component to accompany the practical application of technology in museums. In order to illustrate these points, the book presents five case studies of the most technologically advanced art museums in the United States today: ·The Indianapolis Museum of Art ·The Walker Art Center ·The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ·The Museum of Modern Art ·The Brooklyn Museum Each case study ends with a Lessons Learned section to bring these points home. While the case studies focus on museums in the United States, and also on art museums, this book is relevant to all types of museums and to museums all over the world, as they equally face the challenge of incorporating technology into their institutions. Although these case studies are all well-established and well-endowed museums, Bautista reveals valuable insight into the difficulties they face and the questions they are asking which are relevant to even the smallest museum or community cultural center.

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Leading health scholars reveal the impact of globalization on human health, as it is mediated through environmental change. They explore the destabilizing impact of globalization on the planet's ecology, and on the health of the human populations that are dependent on the delicate global bionetwork. Their timely case studies describe the cultural adaptations of indigenous populations to their changing environments, evaluating their technological and global political-economic processes. The authors analyze local and global public health strategies, examine the association between globalization and demographies, and offer creative solutions for future health policies. This book will be a valuable resource for professionals in international health, medical anthropology, sociology and geography, environmental studies, and globalization studies.

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Exploring Maya Ritual Caves offers a rare survey and explication of most of the known ancient Maya ritual caves in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. The caves were the Maya underworld, where rituals, including animal and human sacrifice, were carried out. The Maya cave cult and mythology, construction and modification of the caves, and cult art and artifacts are discussed. Chládek, an intrepid explorer, then describes important caves that he has recently visited and provides photos of their wonders.

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Legal Anthropology: An Introduction offers an initial overview of the challenging debates surrounding the cross-cultural analysis of legal systems. Equal parts review and criticism, James M. Donovan outlines the historical landmarks in the development of the discipline, identifying both strengths and weaknesses of each stage and contribution. Legal Anthropology suggests that future progress can be made by looking at the perceived fairness of social regulation, rather than sanction or dispute resolution as the distinguishing feature of law.

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Death is a topic that has fascinated people for centuries. In the English-speaking world, eulogies in poetic form could be traced back to the 1640s, but gained prominence with the 'graveyard school' of poets in the eighteenth century often stressing the finality of death. Chinese American Death Rituals examines Chinese American funerary rituals and cemeteries from the late nineteenth century until the present in order to understand the importance of Chinese funerary rites and their transformation through time. The authors in this volume discuss the meaning of funerary rituals and their normative dimension and the social practices that have been influenced by tradition. Shaped by individual beliefs, customs, religion, and environment, Chinese Americans have resolved the tensions between assimilation into the mainstream culture and their strong Chinese heritage in a variety of ways. This volume expertly describes and analyzes Chinese American cultural retention and transformation in rituals after death.

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The distinguished environmentalists in this collection offer an in-depth analysis and call to advocacy for community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). Their overview of this transnational movement reveals important links between environmental management and social justice agendas for sustainable use of resources by local communities. In this volume, leaders who have been instrumental in creating and shaping CBNRM describe their model programs; the countermapping movement and collective claims to land and resources; legal strategies for gaining rights to resources and territories; biodiversity conservation and land stabilization priorities; and environmental justice and minority rights. This book will be of value to instructors, practitioners and activists in anthropology, cultural geography, environmental justice, environmental policy, political ecology, indigenous rights, conservation biology, and CBNRM.

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Originally intending to produce the first comprehensive scholarly reference guide to the antecedents, practices, and theory of oral history, the editors have gone even further, creating a highly readable and useful tool for scholars, students, and the general public. Covering the vast scope of this increasingly popular field, the eminent contributors discuss almost every aspect of a field that once was the province of historians but now has become increasingly democratized and available across numerous disciplines.

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Gaining access is a critical part of doing research, not only because one must "get in" in order to gain information, but also because the quality of access affects what information is available to the researcher. Despite its importance, the literature on qualitative methods has not yet provided an extensive treatment of this issue. Gaining Access fills the void by offering useful, prescriptive advice on how to successfully enter different field settings for interviewing and observation. The detailed methodological guidelines presented by the authors are reinforced in a set of case studies by expert researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds on a wide variety of formal and informal settings, from working with ethnic minorities in Bosnia to studying prisons, sex workers, welfare offices, and the clergy. This book will provide useful ideas to experienced qualitative researchers as well as invaluable advice to novices conducting their first study.

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Johnny Salda-a outlines the basic elements of longitudinal qualitative data, focusing on micro-levels of change observed within individual cases and groups of participants. He draws upon his primary experience in theater education to examine time and change in longitudinal qualitative studies; contending that 'playwrights and qualitative researchers write for the same purpose: to create a unique, insightful, and engaging text about the human condition.' Offering sixteen specific questions through which researchers may approach the analysis of longitudinal qualitative data, Professor Salda-a presents a text intended as a primer for fellow newcomers to long term inquiry, based on traditional social science methods from traditional qualitative and quantitative paradigms, but enriched by an artist-educator's unconventional perspective.

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States are where the power lies, and power is gendered. With these simple statements, Lisa Brush turns a gendered lens on states, power, and governance, showing the inherent inequalities in political systems and gender systems and how they intersect. Her gender lens allows a clear assessment of the different effects state power and social polices have on men and women, highlighting both difference and dominance in the governance of gender. She then turns her eye on the way in which state power supports male dominance, the gender of governance. Her nuanced arguments supported by cases from the American and other western political systems will make this book a useful antidote to traditional textbooks on government, the state, politics, and social policy.

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Despite the economic utopianism brought on by globalization, effective solutions to the persistent plight of urban blacks throughout the African diaspora continue to elude scholars, politicians, and community leaders. Charles Green brings a decade of research and original fieldwork in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States to investigate the interface of the historic racism faced by these urban communities and contemporary trends of globalization. Green pays particular attention to the condition of the youth, whose aspirations, vulnerabilities, and insights into their own conditions are central to the future prospects for their communities as a whole. Considering the impacts of economic restructuring and cultural diffusion alike, his analysis asserts the importance of both global ties and local distinctiveness. Ultimately, Manufacturing Powerlessness aims to encourage the formation of alliances throughout the diaspora so that urban black communities can manufacture a future of empowerment. Visit the author's web page

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While ecological and biophysical sciences have dominated the theory and practice of conservation, practitioners and researchers worldwide know that conservation initiatives have profound social impacts and consequences for local communities and cultures. This concise and accessible book will give students and practitioners a solid introduction to important methods from ethnography and interviews to surveys and community mapping, always attending to the imperatives of local control and community partnerships.

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Critically Reading the Theory and Methods of Archaeology stands out as the most thorough and practical guide to the essential critical reading and writing skills that all students, instructors, and practitioners should have. It provides priceless insight for the here and now of the Theory and Methods of Archaeology classes and for a lifetime of reading, learning, teaching, and writing. Chapters focus on rigorous reasoning skills, types of argument, the main research orientations in archaeology, the basic procedural framework that underlies all schools of archaeology, and issues in archaeology raised by skeptical postmodernists.

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When Alfred Kroeber left Lima, Peru for the ruins of the Nazca region in July 1926, he could have had no inkling of the importance of what he would uncover. Nor would he have guessed that his excavation report would not appear until the end of the century, completed by Donald Collier and Patrick Carmichael after Kroeber's death in 1960. Kroeber's report contains what is still the only complete analysis and seriation of the beautiful painted pottery of Nazca, complete with over 400 photographs and drawings of objects uncovered in the excavations, some in full color. His report is also notable for its rare discussion of Nazca architecture, its description of cloth, hair bundles and other artifact groups, its accurate analysis of Nazca human remains, and even for one of the earliest descriptions and photographs of the famous Nazca lines. With careful editing by Collier and Carmichael, Kroeber's work is far ahead of its time methodologically and is still an important source document for contemporary archaeology and art history of South America. A final chapter by Katharina J. Schreiber puts Kroeber's work in the context of contemporary Nazca studies, including a reassessment of the sites discovered in the 1926 expedition. Important for both professional and avocational anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, and those interested in the history of anthropology. Published in cooperation with The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois

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Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology is a collection of classic articles by some of the best known proponents of oral history, demonstrating the basics of oral history, while also acting as a guidebook for how to use it in research. Added to this new edition is insight into how oral history is practiced on an international scale, making this book an indispensable resource for scholars of history and social sciences, as well as those interested in oral history on the avocational level. This volume is a reprint of the 1984 edition, with the added bonus of a new introduction by David Dunaway and a new section on how oral history is practiced on an international scale. Selections from the original volume trace the origins of oral history in the United States, provide insights on methodology and interpretation, and review the various approaches to oral history used by folklorists, historians, anthropologists, and librarians, among others. Family and ethnic historians will find chapters addressing the applications of oral history in those fields.

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Environmentally friendly practices are crucial to the mission of museums, which, as houses of preservation, are uniquely suited to modeling green behavior and sustainability. The Green Museum remains the leading handbook for museums seeking to learn ways to implement environmentally sustainable practices at their institutions, whether they are planning new construction or want to find out how to “green” their day-to-day operations. As environmental sustainability becomes the rule rather than the exception for businesses of all kinds, this new edition features updated standards, techniques, and information as well as new case studies.

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: Archaeology has been complicit in the appropriation of indigenous peoples' pasts worldwide. While tales of blatant archaeological colonialism abound from the era of empire, the process also took more subtle and insidious forms. Ian McNiven and Lynette Russell outline archaeology's "colonial culture" and how it has shaped archaeological practice over the past century. Using examples from their native Australia— and comparative material from North America, Africa, and elsewhere— the authors show how colonized peoples were objectified by research, had their needs subordinated to those of science, were disassociated from their accomplishments by theories of diffusion, watched their histories reshaped by western concepts of social evolution, and had their cultures appropriated toward nationalist ends. The authors conclude by offering a decolonized archaeological practice through collaborative partnership with native peoples in understanding their past.

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The pursuit of gender in the archaeological record is explored in this exciting new collection of essays by renowned archaeologists and gender theorists. These essays place gender in the context of the past, by approaching the data in light of the previous decades of gender research. Issues such as tool-making, hunting, and evolution take on new meaning as the contributors examine the impact of gender worldwide. They do so in terms of the theories, methods, and ways of teaching and learning amassed through archaeological data. These essays provide insight into the study of gender in archaeology and will prove valuable to the scholarship of gender-based theory.

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Economic development is an important focus of anthropological work in rural and urban communities around the world, and in this volume the contributors offer expert analyses on the theory and practice of development. Chapters cover the key topics of market systems, agricultural knowledge, modernization, population growth, participatory development, conservation strategies, culturally sustainable development, globalization and privatization, tourism, urban development, and financial markets. The cross-cultural focus of the volume provides original data on development processes in many countries, including the Philippines, Bali, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, Kazakstan, and the United States. The book will be a welcome source of comparative research for anthropologists, development specialists, agricultural researchers, environmentalists, and geographers. Published in cooperation with the Society for Economic Anthropology. Visit their web page.

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Friedman and a distinguished group of contributors offer a compelling analysis of globalization and the lethal explosiveness that characterizes the current world order. In particular, they investigate global processes and political forces that determine networks of crime, commerce and terror, and reveal the economic, social and cultural fragmentation of transnational networks. In a critical introduction, Friedman evaluates how transnational capital represents a truly global force, but geographical decentralization of accumulation still leads to declining state hegemony in some areas and increasing hegemony in others. The authors examine the growth and increasing autonomy of indigenous populations, and the massively destabililizing effect of migration processes. They describe the rapid increase in criminalization of ethnic and immigrant groups as well as an increase in class stratification, creating new forms of social confrontation and violence. In addition to ethnic, identity-based conflict there are analyses of transnational criminal networks, which also represents disintegration of larger homogeneous territories or hierarchical orders. The authors ask us to reevaluate the dynamics of globalization—the contradictions of centralization and fragmentation around the world—as we discover how best to transform these conditions for the future. This research was originally funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Globalization, the State and Violence will be a valuable reference in anthropology, social theory, international politics and economics, ethnic conflict, immigration, and economic history.

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In a series of essays based on original ethnographic research, Pyong Gap Min and his contributors examine the unique identity issues for second generation ethnic Asians, from Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Indian, and Vietnamese descent. They describe how societal expectations and structural barriers have a powerful influence on the formation of ethnic identities in a strongly racialized American society. Key factors discussed are the importance of culture and language retention, ethnic attachment, transnational ties, pan-Asian coalitions and friendships, social and geographic mobility, racial domination and racial awareness, life cycle changes, immigrant women's sexuality and gender traditionalism, deviant behavior, and educational and occupational achievement. This book will be a valuable resource in the study of Asian American culture, race, ethnicity and American society.

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From the street corners of the North End of Boston to the Basque regions of Spain, renowned sociologist William Foote Whyte has been a pioneer in developing methods and theories that have changed and expanded the way that we look at social structures and the individuals within them. Now, Whyte passes on his experience and knowledge with a look at problems he encountered in the field, and how he was able to overcome them. This book is both a guide through the practical and conceptual complexities and problems associated with fieldwork, as well as a look back on the life of one of the most interesting and important sociologists of our time.

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In this thought-provoking reader of largely new or newly revised articles, scholars link ethnicity to language, nationalism, localism, religion and other issues in various crucial areas around the globe: former Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, Sri Lanka, Southeast and East Asia, Africa and Latino communities in the United States. An important professional resource and an excellent teaching tool for courses in anthropology and ethnic studies.

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The second edition of Archaeological Ethics is an invitation to an ongoing and lively discussion on ethics. In addition to topics such as looting, reburial and repatriation, relations with native peoples, and professional conduct, Vitelli and Colwell-Chanthaphonh have responded to current events and news stories. Twenty-one new articles expand this ongoing discussion into the realm of intellectual property, public outreach, archaeotourism, academic freedom, archaeological concerns in times of war, and conflicting values. These compelling articles, from Archaeology Magazine, American Archaeology, and Expedition are written for a general audience and provide a fascinating introduction to the issues faced every day in archaeological practice. The article summaries, discussion and research questions, and suggestions for further reading_particularly helpful given the vast increase in related literature over the last decade_serve as excellent teaching aids and make this volume ideal for classroom use.

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Distinguished anthropologist George Marcus and his co-author Fernando Mascarenhas engage in a new experiment in anthropological writing. Ocasião reveals the key relationship between anthropologist and subject through the letters and commentaries exchanged between Marcus and Mascarenhas, Marques of Fronteira and Alorna in Portugal. The authors discuss the persistence and survival of the contemporary Portuguese nobility, who serve as witnesses to important transitions in modern Portuguese history. The epistolary form is the medium of this innovative ethnography, and will stimulate a new critique of ethnographic genres, originating in the work of James Clifford and Marcus in Writing Culture. This new book will appeal to readers concerned with anthropological methods and fieldwork; the anthropology of elites, and a diverse European and American community of scholars interested in Portuguese culture.

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Archaeological research of the Near East lags behind other regions in its consideration of gender-related issues in its treatment of the past. Diane Bolger's present work contributes to the nascent research that aims to fill this gap. Gender in Ancient Cyprus examines some of the fundamental facets of gender as they intersect with the dynamics of social, political, and economic change in Cyprus, beginning with the earliest traces of human habitation on the island to the final phases of the Bronze Age. The book closely analyzes gender as it relates to the domestic space, technology and labor, ritual and social identity, and the roles of children, as well as the practices of modern day Near Eastern archaeology and the roles of women in it. Parallels are drawn to more developed cases elsewhere in the world. This volume is important for scholars and students interested in gender-sensitive interpretations of the archaeological record and in the ways that gender reshapes its present practices.

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Prompted by the overt omission of Muncie's black community from the famous community study by Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture, the authors initiated this project to reveal the unrecorded historical and contemporary life of Middletown, a well-known pseudonym for the Midwestern city of Muncie, Indiana. As a collaboration of community and campus, this book recounts the early efforts of Hurley Goodall to develop a community history and archive that told the story of the African American community, and rectify the representation of small town America as exclusively white. The authors designed and implemented a collaborative ethnographic field project that involved intensive interviews, research, and writing between community organizations, local experts, ethnographers, and teams of college students. This book is a unique model for collaborative research, easily accessible to students. It will be a valuable resource for instructors in anthropology, creative writing, sociology, community research, and African American studies.

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Gaining access is a critical part of doing research, not only because one must 'get in' in order to gain information, but also because the quality of access affects what information is available to the researcher. Despite its importance, the literature on qualitative methods has not yet provided an extensive treatment of this issue. Gaining Access fills the void by offering useful, prescriptive advice on how to successfully enter different field settings for interviewing and observation. The detailed methodological guidelines presented by the authors are reinforced in a set of case studies by expert researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds on a wide variety of formal and informal settings, from working with ethnic minorities in Bosnia to studying prisons, sex workers, welfare offices, and the clergy. This book will provide useful ideas to experienced qualitative researchers as well as invaluable advice to novices conducting their first study.

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This handbook gathers original, authoritative articles from leading archaeologists to compile in a single place the latest thinking about archaeological methods. Topics range from theoretical models undergirding research to concrete strategies for field work and laboratory analysis. Public archaeology topics such as curation, collaboration, funding, and publication are also included among the 34 chapters in the book. Chapters are authored by well-known scholars on both sides of the Atlantic including Fagan, Hodder, Chippindale, Kvamme, McManamon, and many others. An extensive bibliography accompanies each chapter. As a single reference for current information on contemporary archaeological field methods, this volume is unmatched.

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Gold. Copper. Iron. Metal working in Africa has been the subject of both public lore and extensive archaeological investigation. Here, four of the leading contemporary researchers on this topic attempt to provide a complete synthesis of current debates and understandings: Where, how, and when was metal first introduced to the continent? How were iron and copper tools, implements, and objects used in everyday life, in trade, in political and cultural contexts? What role did metal objects play in the ideological systems of precolonial African peoples? Substantive chapters address the origins of metal working and the technology and the various uses and meanings of copper and iron. An ethnoarchaeological account in the words of a contemporary iron worker enriches the archaeological explanations. This book provides a comprehensive, timely summary of our current knowledge.

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