When scientists found the remains of a tiny hominid on an Indonesian in 2004, they claimed they found a totally new species of human ancestor (homo floresiensis), and called it a Hobbit. Film crews rolled in and the little creature took the world by storm, but a group of prominent scientists, including Maciej Henneberg and Robert Eckhardt, smelled a rat. They refuted the data--the size and shape of bones, the inferences about height--and they raised fundamental questions about scientific method, revealing cultural and political pressures that lead to the wide acceptance of unsupported theories. The Hobbit Trap describes how the case against the "new species" theory developed and offers an important critique of the species concept in evolution. In this thoroughly updated second edition, the authors include new data and analysis of the Flores fossils, and expand their important analysis of scientific practice, calling for a new movement to reverse the decline in scientific standards and the rise in scientific politics. This lively and important challenge to conventional wisdom is accessible to the general reader and makes a stimulating addition to courses on the history and philosophy of science, evolution and physical anthropology.

An introduction to the ethnography and human geography of non-European peoples, this book deals with the economic and social life of a number of groups at diverse levels of cultural achievement and in different regions of the world. International in its scope the book covers: Malaysia, Africa, North America, Canada, Siberia, the Amazon, Eastern Solomon Islands, India, Central Asia and the Middle East. Originally published in 1934. This re-issues the seventh edition of 1949.

Buffalo conjure up the West the way no other symbol can. They hold a special place in our culture and imagination. In this prize-winning collection, writers reveal the buffalo in plains ecology and culture from prehistoric times to its present and uncertain future.

Situated at the intersection of natural science and philosophy, Our Genes explores historical practices, investigates current trends, and imagines future work in genetic research to answer persistent, political questions about human diversity. Readers are guided through fascinating thought experiments, complex measures and metrics, fundamental evolutionary patterns, and in-depth treatment of exciting case studies. The work culminates in a philosophical rationale, based on scientific evidence, for a moderate position about the explanatory power of genes that is often left unarticulated. Simply put, human evolutionary genomics - our genes - can tell us much about who we are as individuals and as collectives. However, while they convey scientific certainty in the popular imagination, genes cannot answer some of our most important questions. Alternating between an up-close and a zoomed-out focus on genes and genomes, individuals and collectives, species and populations, Our Genes argues that the answers we seek point to rich, necessary work ahead.

From the twelfth century, a growing sense of cultural confidence in the Latin West (at the same time that the central lands of Islam suffered from numerous waves of conquest and devastation) was accompanied by the increasing importance of the genre of empirical ethnographies. From a a global perspective what is most distinctive of Europe is the genre's long-term impact rather than its mere empirical potential, or its ethnocentrism (all of which can also be found in China and in Islamic cultures). Hence what needs emphasizing is the multiplication of original writings over time, their increased circulation, and their authoritative status as a 'scientific' discourse. The empirical bent was more characteristic of travel accounts than of theological disputations - in fact, the less elaborate the theological discourse, the stronger the ethnographic impulse (although many travel writers were clerics). This anthology of classic articles in the history of medieval ethnographies illustrates this theme with reference to the contexts and genres of travel writing, the transformation of enduring myths (ranging from oriental marvels to the virtuous ascetics of India or Prester John), the practical expression of particular encounters from the Mongols to the Atlantic, and the various attempts to explain cultural differences, either through the concept of barbarism, or through geography and climate.

In Digital Society: An Interactionist Perspective, William Housley explores the ways interactionist thinking contributes to our understanding of current trends and topics within digital sociology. Drawing on a range of aligned approaches, concepts and empirical studies, he explores how notions of self and presentation, action and agency, practical reason and interaction are of fundamental importance to our understanding of some of the emerging contours of digital society; inclusive of big data, social media, the social life of methods, algorithmic culture, 'artificial intelligence' and the pivot to voice. In doing so, Housley aims to demonstrate the enduring relevance of work associated with Goffman, Garfinkel and Sacks in understanding everyday digital social life. The book provides a range of insights into how sociology and social science continues to draw upon interactionism and aligned traditions such as ethnomethodology in making sense of the Interaction Order 2.0 and beyond.

Drawing on a wealth of ethnographic detail, Stephanie Bjork offers the first study on the messy role of clan or tribe in the Somali diaspora, and the only study on the subject to include women's perspectives. Somalis Abroad illuminates the ways clan is contested alongside ideas of autonomy and gender equality, challenged by affinities towards others with similar migration experiences, transformed because of geographical separation from family members, and leveraged by individuals for cultural capital. Challenging prevailing views in the field, Bjork argues that clan-informed practices influence everything from asylum decisions to managing money. The practices also become a pattern that structures important relationships via constant--and unwitting--effort.

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

This book is based on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork with Partition survivors from west Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, in Delhi and its surroundings between 2017–18. It locates the global rise of far-right nationalism within globalisation and memories of victimhood. Focussing on Hindu nationalism in India, this book is an important and timely contribution to the literature on South Asian Partition Studies that shows how tragedy begets tragedy. It tries to answer an urgent, provocative but nevertheless necessary question: 'What does it mean to remember the Partition in the time of fascism?' The author shows what makes up cycles of violence by connecting the reinscription of trauma in Partition memories to the self-serving justifications of the contemporary violence of Hindu nationalism. It analyses how the hegemony of Hindu nationalism has structured the narratives of Hindu Partition survivors and recruited them in service of a putative Hindu nation.

`A marvellous achievement! The Handbook has all the marks of a winner - compelling writing, comprehensive coverage and very useful discussions. This is a real benchmark for ethnography. It will set the background for debate and point to new directions for years to come. My graduate students will love it' - Jaber F Gubrium, University of Florida, Gainesville

`The Handbook of Ethnography compiles invaluable, original, critical essays on ethnographic work, earning it a place on everyone's must-have bookshelf' - Virginia Olesen, University of California, San Francisco

?The Handbook of Ethnography provides an informed and sophisticated perspective on the nature of ethnography, its historical grounding and substantive applications, the variety of practices that constitute it, and its likely future directions. As such, it is a very valuable resource for post-graduates and experienced researchers alike and is an important contribution to the literature on social research methodologies? - Qualitative Research

 

Ethnography is one of the chief research methods in sociology, anthropology and other cognate disciplines in the social sciences. This Handbook provides an unparalleled, critical guide to its principles and practice. The volume is organized into three sections. The first systematically locates ethnography firmly in its relevant historical and intellectual contexts. The roots of ethnography are pinpointed and the pattern of its development is demonstrated. The second section examines the contribution of ethnography to major fields of substantive research. The impact and strengths and weaknesses of ethnographic method are dealt with authoritatively and accessibly. The third section moves on to examine key debates and issues in ethnography, from the conduct of research through to contemporary arguments. The result is a landmark work in the field, which draws on the expertise of an internationally reknowned group of inter-disicplinary scholars. The Handbook provides readers with a one-stop critical guide to the past, present and future of ethnography. It will quickly establish itself as the ethnographer's bible.

Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research is the essential guide to the theory and practice of conducting ethnographic research in consumer environments. Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny argue that, while the recent explosion in the use of "ethnography" in the corporate world has provided unprecedented opportunities for anthropologists and other qualitative researchers, this popularization too often results in shallow understandings of culture, divorcing ethnography it from its foundations. In response, they reframe the field by re-attaching ethnography to theoretically robust and methodologically rigorous cultural analysis. The engrossing text draws on decades of the authors' own eclectic research-from coffee in Bangkok and boredom in New Zealand to computing in the United States-using methodologies from focus groups and rapid appraisal to semiotics and visual ethnography. Five provocative forewords by leaders in consumer research further push the boundaries of the field and challenge the boundaries of academic and applied work. In addition to reorienting the field for academics and practitioners, this book is an ideal text for students, who are increasingly likely to both study and work in corporate environments.

Biological Anthropology and Prehistory: Exploring Our Human Ancestry Second Edition Patricia Rice "(West Virginia University)" Norah Moloney ("Institute"" of Archaeology"")" Written specifically for courses that cover biological anthropology and archaeology, this beautifully illustrated text offers a balanced and up-to-date introduction to our human past. Highlights of the New Edition:

• Devoting equal time to biological anthropology and prehistory, this text exposes students to the many sides of major controversial issues and involves students in the scientific thought process.
• Amidst discussions of bones and artifacts, the text maintains a focus on people, demonstrating to students how biological anthropology and archaeology are relevant to their lives today.
• Featuring the latest research from original sources, this new text is far and away the most up-to-date text available.
• The superior art program features hundreds of photographs and figures, and the multimedia presentation options include documentary film clips and lecture launcher videos.

What the reviewers are saying... "I consider Rice and Moloney to be an excellent basic handbook for undergraduate anthropology students focusing on either biological/physical anthropology and/or archaeology ... I know of no other text that contains this basic 'canon' of knowledge within the covers of one book." "Teryl E. Schessler, California State University- Fullerton" "The general approach is highly descriptive and even-handed with respect to controversial issues. As such it is easily readable, would be comfortable to teach, and is well- illustrated." "Joan Brenner Coltrain, University of Utah""""Every chapter in this book is extremely well done and it is very much up to date." "Joanna Casey, University of South Carolina"" " "A solid introduction to human biological and cultural evolution." "James A. Delle, Kutztown University"" " ________________________________________________________________________ ** Anthropology Experience ad here **

From Gustavo Politis, one of the most renowned South American archaeologists, comes the first in-depth study in English of the last "undiscovered" people of the Amazon. His work is groundbreaking and urgent, both because of encroaching guerrilla violence that makes Nukak existence perilously fragile, and because his work with the Nukak represented one of the last opportunities to conduct research with hunter-gatherers using contemporary methodological and the theoretical tools. Through a rich and comprehensive ethno-archaeological portrait of material culture "in the making," this work makes methodological and conceptual advances in the interpretation of hunter-gather societies. Politis's conclusions, based on six years of original research and on comparative analysis, are integrative and contribute to the identification of the multiple factors involved in the formation of hunter-gatherer archaeological assemblages.

Social scientists have used the term "Creolization" to evoke cultural fusion and the emergence of new cultures across the globe. However, the term has been under-theorized and tends to be used as a simple synonym for "mixture" or "hybridity." In this volume, by contrast, renowned scholars give the term historical and theoretical specificity by examining the very different domains and circumstances in which the process takes place. Elucidating the concept in this way not only uncovers a remarkable history, it also re-opens the term for new theoretical use. It illuminates an ill-understood idea, explores how the term has operated and signified in different disciplines, times, and places, and indicates new areas of study for a dynamic and fascinating process.

The study of the cultural landscape has gained momentum in recent years, revealing new insights to geographers, archaeologists, sociologists and architects. The cultural landscape is often viewed as an emblematic site and thus a key player in the heritage process. This book explores the overlapping and often complex relationships between identity, memory, heritage and the cultural landscape. It provides an overview of new approaches in the study of these relationships, combined with evidence from Ireland, England, Scotland and the United States. These case studies demonstrate the significance of the past in the contemporary construction of identity narratives and draw attention to the powerful role of monuments and parades as sites of cultural heritage. The focus then shifts to the way in which heritage has become politicized for various ends, demonstrating the changing perception of particular heritage sites and buildings, and the role that this has played in constructing and reconstructing particular identities.

This volume is a call to qualitative researchers to respond to the political and methodological conservativism of the new millennium. Based upon the plenary papers at the first International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry, 22 scholars from five countries and many academic disciplines address how qualitative inquiry can maintain its forward-looking agenda, its emphasis on ethical practice, and its stance in favor of social justice in a world where conservatives aggressively control the political system, the university, and grant agency purse strings. Contributions by such noted scholars as Patti Lather, Janice Morse, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Ernest House, Yvonna Lincoln, and H.L. Goodall, Jr. make this an important benchmark work for all involved in qualitative inquiry.

Zoe C. Sherinian shows how Christian Dalits (once known as untouchables or outcastes) in southern India have employed music to protest social oppression and as a vehicle of liberation. Her focus is on the life and theology of a charismatic composer and leader, Reverend J. Theophilus Appavoo, who drew on Tamil folk music to create a distinctive form of indigenized Christian music. Appavoo composed songs and liturgy infused with messages linking Christian theology with critiques of social inequality. Sherinian traces the history of Christian music in India and introduces us to a community of Tamil Dalit Christian villagers, seminary students, activists, and theologians who have been inspired by Appavoo's music to work for social justice. Multimedia components available online include video and audio recordings of musical performances, religious services, and community rituals.

This volume is a call to qualitative researchers to respond to the political and methodological conservativism of the new millennium. Based upon the plenary papers at the first International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry, 22 scholars from five countries and many academic disciplines address how qualitative inquiry can maintain its forward-looking agenda, its emphasis on ethical practice, and its stance in favor of social justice in a world where conservatives aggressively control the political system, the university, and grant agency purse strings. Contributions by such noted scholars as Patti Lather, Janice Morse, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Ernest House, Yvonna Lincoln, and H.L. Goodall, Jr. make this an important benchmark work for all involved in qualitative inquiry.

Both timely and topical, with 2005 marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, this unique book examines the little-known and under-researched area of German migration to Britain in the immediate post-war era. Authors Weber-Newth and Steinert analyze the political framework of post-war immigration and immigrant policy, and the complex decision-making processes that led to large-scale labour migration from the continent. They consider: * identity, perception of self and others, stereotypes and prejudice * how migrants dealt with language and intercultural issues * migrants' attitudes towards national socialist and contemporary Germany * migrants' motivation for leaving Germany * migrants' initial experiences and their reception in Britain after the war, as recalled after 50 years in the host country, compared to their original expectations. Based on rich British and German governmental and non-governmental archive sources, contemporary newspaper articles and nearly eighty biographically-oriented interviews with German migrants, this outstanding volume, a must-read for students and scholars in the fields of social history, sociology and migration studies, expertly encompasses political as well as social-historical questions and engages with the social, economic and cultural situation of German immigrants to Britain from a life-historical perspective.

Upon walking U.S. inner-city streets you sooner or later come upon groups of black kids wearing prison-style outfits; there is a boom box, and rap music. And inevitably you will hear the N-word. Upon entering a district housing migrants in any European city you will encounter almost identical scenes - youngsters dressed in prison style, the boom box, rap. Only most of the kids are of a "white" or olive complexion. They call themselves "Wiggers," "white Niggers" or "Black albinos." It was this "Wigger" metaphor, with its implications of a transnational response to uprootedness and racialized exclusion that inspired CAAR to invite African American researchers working among inner city black youth and European and Israeli migration scholars to a symposium of trans-cultural and - national orientation called "Crossing Boundaries." We placed the study of African American youth - and thus a native though marginalized American population - next to research on migrant youth in Western Europe. The essays gathered here hope to contribute to an understanding on how to address the myriad challenges that both the youth and the countries in which they live must confront.

This book explores the differences for participants when the wives migrate for reproductive labor in the United States. This book also adds a much needed non-working class dimension to the impact of migration on women and marital relations, particularly in the Pacific Rim: where husbands remain in Taiwan, the country of origin, and send remittances to support their wives and children in the United States, the receiving country. This book thus contributes to theorizing the class and gender dimensions of international migration, and provides comparative data for the study of transnational migration. It also sheds light on understanding the familial aspect of the many interactions across the Pacific Rim, an aspect that remains understudied.

Assimilation has been a contentious issues for most immigrant groups in the United States. The host society is assumed to lire immigrants and their descendants away from their ancestral heritage. Yet, in their quest for a "better" life, few immigrants intentionally forsake heir ethnic identity; most try to hold onto their culture by transplanting their traditional institutions and recreating new communities in America. Armenian-Americans are no exception.

Armenian-Americans have been generally overlooked by census enumerators, survey analysts, and social scientists because of their small numbers and relative dispersion throughout the United States. They remain a little-studied group that has been called a "hidden minority." Armenian Americans fills this significant gap. Based on the results of an extensive mail questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews, and participant observation of communal gatherings, this book analyzed the individual and collective struggles of Armenian-Americans to perpetuate their Armenian legacy while actively seeking new pathways to the American Dream.

This volume shows how men and women of Armenian descent become distanced from their ethnic origins with the passing of generations. Yet assimilation and maintenance of ethnic identity go hand-in-hand. The ascribed, unconscious, compulsive Armenianness of the immigrant generation is transformed into a voluntary, rational, situational Armenianness. The generational change is from being Armenian to feeling Armenian.

The Armenian-American community has grown and prospered in this century. Greater tolerance of ethnic differences in the host society, the remarkable social mobility of many Armenian-Americans and the influx of large numbers of new immigrants from the Middle East and Soviet bloc in recent decades have contributed to this development. The future of this community, however, remains precarious as it strives to adjust to the ever changing social, economic, and political conditions affecting Armenians in the United States; the diaspora; and the new republic of Armenia. Armenian-Americans will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, and social historians, and of course to people of Armenian ancestry.

The study of ethnology or 'Volkskunde' in Austria has had a troubled past. Through most of the 20th century it was under the influence of the so-called Viennese 'Mythological School' and the controversy between the two opposing branches, the 'Ritualist' and the 'Mythologists', set much of the agenda from the 1920s until long after the World War ended in 1945. The volume examines two Austrian characters, Richard Wolfram and Karl Haiding, and the impact of their research and sets them in the context of Austrian ethnology before, during and after the war years. The book concludes by examining the present day ethnological outlook in the country.

The book offers a critical overview of Croatian ethnology written by the most prominent Croatian ethnologist/ anthropologist in the second half of the 20th century - Dunja Rihtman-Augustin (recently deceased). She was the first Croatian ethnologist to break with the long established tradition of diffusionist (culture area) studies of her contemporaries and start to anthropologize Croatian ethnology. This book, compiled and completed by Jasna Capo Zmegac, highlights some crucial remarks with regard to the relationship between ethnology and politics. They are formulated as a series of research questions and problems, including: the role of folk culture as mythomoteur, cannonization of the folk culture, nationalization of the peasants in the 19th century and the role of ethnology. This vividly written text offers an exceptional insight into Croatian ethnological developments in the past century, as well as into crucial ruptures in Croatian society which have had important repercussions on ethnological discipline.