|
Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology
In analyzing the obstacles to democratization in post- independence
Africa, Mahmood Mamdani offers a bold, insightful account of
colonialism's legacy-a bifurcated power that mediated racial
domination through tribally organized local authorities,
reproducing racial identity in citizens and ethnic identity in
subjects. Many writers have understood colonial rule as either
"direct" (French) or "indirect" (British), with a third
variant-apartheid-as exceptional. This benign terminology, Mamdani
shows, masks the fact that these were actually variants of a
despotism. While direct rule denied rights to subjects on racial
grounds, indirect rule incorporated them into a "customary" mode of
rule, with state-appointed Native Authorities defining custom. By
tapping authoritarian possibilities in culture, and by giving
culture an authoritarian bent, indirect rule (decentralized
despotism) set the pace for Africa; the French followed suit by
changing from direct to indirect administration, while apartheid
emerged relatively later. Apartheid, Mamdani shows, was actually
the generic form of the colonial state in Africa. Through case
studies of rural (Uganda) and urban (South Africa) resistance
movements, we learn how these institutional features fragment
resistance and how states tend to play off reform in one sector
against repression in the other. Reforming a power that
institutionally enforces tension between town and country, and
between ethnicities, is the key challenge for anyone interested in
democratic reform in Africa.
Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given
area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject
in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of
travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Since the financial
crisis of 2008, the anthropological study of economic activity has
profoundly changed. A Research Agenda for Economic Anthropology
poses new questions for anthropologists about the post-recession
world, interrogating common social and political assumptions and
stimulating innovative directions for research in economic
anthropology. Employing a broad range of intellectual orientations,
this comprehensive book tackles the most pressing developments in
economic anthropology. The stimulating and thought-provoking
chapters engage with the major features of modern economies,
including inequality, debt, financialisation, neoliberalism and the
ethics of economic practice, as well as with the effects of social
mobilisation and activism. The contributors shed light on
previously overlooked topics, reassess familiar subjects that need
a fresh approach and share their own predilections concerning the
modern economic world. With contributors ranging from senior
academics to those early in their career, this work is critical
reading for any anthropologist concerned with the economy and
economic activity. Those searching for novel questions or for a
sense of the direction of the discipline will particularly benefit
from this book's broad, inquisitive approach. Economic sociologists
and geographers will also gain from the comprehensive coverage of
the many facets of modern economies. 'The chapters in James
Carrier's provocative new collection give us stimulating ideas that
set us well on the way to a new kind of economic anthropology.
Anybody who finds themselves simultaneously fascinated and yet
puzzled by what seems to be the ever more ''economized'' kind of
society we live in will find much to attract them in these
wide-ranging pages. And this won't just be anthropologists (or
broad-minded economists), but students old and young, some seeking
a new take on an old issue - markets and the state, inequality, or
ethical action; others instead urged to reach toward new challenges
- expanding our ideas of ''management'', thinking about resources
along a time dimension, or reflecting on how politics is expressed
in the language of finance. And there is much more. The opposite of
a comprehensive ''wrapping-up'' exercise, this lively collection
provides us with a distinct set of starting points that take us
into exciting new fields within, and well beyond, economic
anthropology. Lively, challenging and rewarding reading.' - Gavin
Smith, University of Toronto, Canada and the National University of
Ireland
Using an intersectional approach, Marriage, Divorce, and Distress
in Northeast Brazil explores rural, working-class, black Brazilian
women's perceptions and experiences of courtship, marriage and
divorce. In this book, women's narratives of marriage dissolution
demonstrate the ways in which changing gender roles and marriage
expectations associated with modernization and globalization
influence the intimate lives and the health and well being of women
in Northeast Brazil. Melanie A. Medeiros explores the women's rich
stories of desire, love, respect, suffering, strength, and
transformation.
A niece of Jane Austen and a novelist herself, Catherine Hubback
was fifty-two years old when she left England for America. She
travelled to California on the Transcontinental Railroad and
settled in Oakland, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. Her
son Edward shared her household and commuted by ferryboat to a
wheat brokerage in the City. In letters to her eldest son John and
his wife Mary in Liverpool, Catherine conveys her delight - and her
exasperation - at her new environment. She portrays her neighbours
with a novelist's wry wit and brings her English sensibility to
bear on gardening with unfamiliar plants and maintaining a proper
wardrobe in a dry climate. She writes vividly of her adventures as
she moves about a landscape recognizable to present-day residents,
at a time when boats rather than bridges spanned the bay, and hot
springs were the main attraction in the Napa Valley. In an
atmosphere of financial unrest, she writes freely of her anxieties,
while supplementing Edward's declining income by making lace and
teaching the craft to other women. She recalls her 'prosperous
days' in England, but finds pleasure in small things and assuredly
takes her place in a society marked by great disparities in wealth.
In addition to transcriptions of the letters, this highly readable
edition offers pertinent information on many of the people and
places mentioned, explanatory notes, and striking illustrations.
The introduction places the letters in context and tells the story
of Catherine Hubback, whose life evolved in ways unprecedented in
the Austen family.
"One of the season's most talked about cultural studies" ("Los
Angeles" "Times")--an incisive and irreverent appreciation of nerds
that combines history, sociology, psychology, and memoir from noted
journalist and self-proclaimed nerd Ben Nugent.
Most people know a nerd when they see one, but yet can't define
just what a nerd is exactly. "American Nerd: The Story of My People
"gives readers the history of" "the concept of nerdiness and its
related subcultures. What makes Dr. Frankenstein the archetypal
nerd? Where did the modern jock come from? When and how did being a
self-described nerd become trendy? As the nerd emerged in the
nineteenth century, and popped up again and again in college humor
journals and sketch comedy, our culture obsessed over the
phenomenon.
"Part history, part memoir, and all funny" ("GQ"), "American Nerd"
is critically acclaimed writer Benjamin Nugent's entertaining
fact-finding mission. He seeks the best definition of nerd and
illuminates the common ground between nerd subcultures that might
seem unrelated: high-school debate team kids and ham radio
enthusiasts, medieval reenactors and pro-circuit videogame players.
Why do the same people who like to work with computers also enjoy
playing Dungeons & Dragons? How are those activities similar?
This clever, enlightening book will appeal to the nerd (and
anti-nerd) that lives inside everyone.
Sometimes history seems like a laundry list of malevolent monarchs,
pompous presidents and dastardly dictators. But are they really the
ones in the driving seat? Sapiens: A Graphic History – The Masters of
History takes us on an immersive and hilarious ride through the human
past to discover the forces that change our world, bring us together,
and – just as often – tear us apart.
Grab a front-row seat to the greatest show on earth and explore the
rise of money, religion and empire. Join our fabulous host Heroda Tush,
as she wonders: which historical superhero will display the power to
make civilisations rise and fall? Will Mr Random prove that luck and
circumstance prevail? Will Lady Empire convince us of the irrefutable
shaping force of conquerors? Or will Clashwoman beat them all to
greatness by reminding us of the endless confrontations that seem to
forever plague our species?
In this next volume of the bestselling graphic series, Yuval Noah
Harari, David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave continue to present the
complicated story of humankind with wit, empathy and originality.
Alongside the unlikely cast of new characters, we are rejoined by the
familiar faces of Yuval, Zoe, Professor Saraswati, Bill and Cindy (now
Romans), Skyman and Captain Dollar. As they travel through time, space
and human drama in search of truth, it's impossible not to wonder: why
can’t we all just get along?
This third instalment in the Sapiens: A Graphic History series is an
engaging, insightful, and colourful retelling of the story of humankind
for curious minds of all ages, and can be browsed through on its own or
read in sequence with Volumes One and Two.
|
|