In this major contribution to debates about English identity, leading theorist Robert J.C. Young argues that Englishness was never really about England at all. In the nineteenth century, it was rather developed as a form of long-distance identity for the English diaspora around the world. Young shows how the effects of this continue to reverberate today, nationally and globally.
Written by an internationally established theorist, whose work has been translated into 20 languages
Shows how potent the idea of Englishness is
Helps to explain why the UK continues to act as if it has a 'special relationship' to the US
Helps to explain why the UK is so successfully multicultural
Part of the prestigious Blackwell Manifestos series

..".forcefully and effectively opposes cultural models that strongly dichotomize social reproduction and social recreation." . JRAI

"an interesting anthropological attempt, or, rather, an impressive empirical contribution to exploring diverse contemporary themes in modern sports and leisure activities. In many ways, their book, which comprises of nine different and exciting empirical cases covering a rich ethnographic area, intends to expand and broaden the term "sport" as something more than just purely being an activity carried out for mental, physical or bodily restitution; it is a site of meaning production as well as consumption performed by individuals across the globe. ... the book represents an important contribution to the study of leisure." . Idrottsforum.org

The burgeoning social scientific study of tourism has emphasized the effects of the post-industrial economy on travel and place. However, this volume takes some of these issues into a different area of leisure: the spare-time carved out by people as part of their everyday lives - time that is much more intimately juxtaposed with the pressures and influences of work life, and which often involves specific bodily practices associated with hobbies and sports. An important focus of the book is the body as a site of identity formation, experience, and disciplined recreation of the self. Contributors examine the ways rituals, sports, and forms of bodily transformation mediate between contemporary ideologies of freedom, choice and self-control.

With contributions from 70 experienced practitioners from around the world, this second edition of the authoritative Handbook of Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology provides a solid foundation in both the practical and ethical components of forensic work. The book weaves together the discipline's historical development; current field methods for analyzing crime, natural disasters, and human atrocities; an array of laboratory techniques; key case studies involving legal, professional, and ethical issues; and ideas about the future of forensic work--all from a global perspective. This fully revised second edition expands the geographic representation of the first edition by including chapters from practitioners in South Africa and Colombia, and adds exciting new chapters on the International Commission on Missing Persons and on forensic work being done to identify victims of the Battle of Fromelles during World War I. The Handbook of Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology provides an updated perspective of the disciplines of forensic archaeology and anthropology.

not lie in the conceptual distinctions but in the perceived functions of metaphors and whether in the concrete case they are judged positive or negative. The ongoing debates reflect these concerns quite clearly~ namely that metaphors are judged on the basis of supposed dangers they pose and opportunities they offer. These are the criteria of evaluation that are obviously dependent on the context in which the transfer of meaning occurs. Our fundamental concern is indeed the transfer itself~ its prospects and its limits. Looking at possible functions of metaphors is one approach to under standing and elucidating sentiments about them. The papers in this volume illustrate, by quite different examples, three basic functions of metaphors: illustrative, heuristic~ and constitutive. These functions rep resent different degrees of transfer of meaning. Metaphors are illustrative when they are used primarily as a literary device, to increase the power of conviction of an argument, for example. Although the difference between the illustrative and the heuristic function of metaphors is not great, it does exist: metaphors are used for heuristic purposes whenever "differences" of meaning are employed to open new perspectives and to gain new insights. In the case of "constitutive" metaphors they function to actually replace previous meanings by new ones. Sabine Maasen in her paper introduces the distinction between transfer and transforma tion.

The discerning open-minded reader, prepared to forego the geocentric paradigm of most human philosophy and science, will be carried away by this text which offers a cosmic perspective of the evolution of life on our planet, of the history and future of mankind, as well as of meaning in the universe.

The possibility of a more advanced civilization than our own provides a cosmic perspective on developments on our earth. The text reproaches earthly scientists, philosophers and religious thinkers for their geocentric approach: they tend to accept this earth as the centre of the universe. But like Galileo we should all be open to the new and unexpected.

This text is challenging and thought-provoking with an unusual perspective.

This volume is based on the Field Museum of Natural History Spring System atics Symposium held in Chicago on May 11, 1991. The financial support of Ray and Jean Auel and of the Field Museum is gratefully acknowledged. When we teach or write, we present only those elements that support our arguments. We avoid all weak points of our debate and all the uncer tainties of our models. Thus, we offer hypotheses as facts. Multiauthored books like ours, which simultaneously advocate and question diverse views, avoid the pitfalls and lessen the impact of indoctrination. In this volume we analyze the anthropological and biological disagreements and the positions taken on the origins of modern humans, point out difficultieswith the inter pretations, and suggest that the concept of the human origin can be explained only when we first attempt to define Homo sapiens sapiens. One of the major controversies in physical anthropology concerns the geographic origin of anatomically modern humans. It is undisputed, due to the extensive research of the Leakeys and their colleagues, that the family Hominidae originated in Africa, but the geographic origin of Homo sapiens sapiens is less concretely accepted. Two schools of thought existon this topic."

"Sandra Dudley brings unique and valuable insights into the field of forced migration both through her study of the Karenni refugees in Thailand, an overlooked group of refugees who have fled dire circumstances of counter/insurgency and destruction, and a material culture disciplinary lens. This is an eloquently composed text with high scholarly merits." . Hazel Lang, Australian National University

Focusing on the highly diverse Karenni refugee population living in camps on the Thai-Burma border, this innovative book explores materiality, embodiment, memory, imagination, and identity among refugees, providing new and important ways of understanding how refugees make sense of experience, self, and other. It examines how and to what ends refugees perceive, represent, manipulate, use as metaphor, and otherwise engage with material objects and spaces, and includes a focus on the real and metaphorical journeys that bring about and perpetuate exile.

The combined emphasis on both displacement and materiality, and the analysis of the cultural construction and intersections of exilic objects, spaces, and bodies, are unique in the study of both refugees and material culture. Drawing theoretical influences from phenomenology, aesthetics, and beyond, as well as from refugee studies and anthropology, the author addresses the current lack of theoretical analysis of the material, visual, spatial, and embodied aspects of forced migration, providing a fundamentally interlinked analysis of enforced exile and materiality.

Sandra Dudley has worked with and on Karenni refugees since 1996, completing her doctorate in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford in 2001. She is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, having previously taught at Oxford and UEA and worked at the Pitt Rivers Museum."

The modern world is saturated with images. Scientific knowledge of the human body (in all its variety) is highly dependent on the technological generation of visual data - brain and body scans, x-rays, diagrams, graphs and charts. New technologies afford scientists and medical experts new possibilities for probing and revealing previously invisible and inaccessible areas of the body. The existing literature has been successful in mapping the impact and implications of new medical technologies and in marrying the visual and the body but thus far has focused only narrowly on particular kinds of technology or taken only a purely textual/visual (cultural studies) approach to images of the body. Combining approaches from three of the most dynamic and popular fields of contemporary social anthropology - the study of the visual, the study of the technological and the study of the human body - this volume draws these together and interrogates their intersection using insights from ethnographic approaches. Offering a fascinating and wide range of perspectives, the chapters in this volume bring an innovative focus that reflects the authors' shared interest in 'the body' and visualising technologies.

Jeanette Edwards is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. She is author of Born and Bred: Idioms of Kinship and New Reproductive Technologies in England (2000); co-author of Technologies of Procreation: Kinship in the Age of Assisted Conception (2nd edition, 1999); co-editor of European Kinship in the Age of Biotechnology (2009); and coeditor, with Harvey and Wade, of Anthropology and Science (2007).

Penelope Harvey is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Manchester and co-Director of CRESC (ESRC Centre for Research on Socio- Cultural Change). She has done ethnographic research in Peru, Spain and the UK, and published on engineering practice, state formation, information technologies and the politics of communication.

Peter Wade is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. His publications include Race and Ethnicity in Latin America (1997); Music, Race and Nation (2000); Race, Nature and Culture (2002); and Race and Sex in Latin America (2009).

This book is a collection of the articles presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW 979859) held in St. Petersburg, from the 15-18 November 2003 in the Hermitage Museum. The title of the workshop was "The impact of the environment on Human Migration in Eurasia." More than 40 scientists from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and Latvia took part. The themes of the workshop focused on the origin, development, interactions, and migrations of prehistoric and ancient populations, specifically the Scythians, in Eurasia and their relationships with the environment of the time. The discussion of these questions necessitated the participation of specialists from a wide range of academic fields. Beyond any doubt, the environment played an important role in the life of ancient nomadic populations, forming the basis of their economies and influencing various aspects of their mode of life. In this respect, the collaboration of specialists in the Humanities and Science is essential for the solution of scientific questions concerning these peoples. Over the past few years, a large amount of new proxy data related to environmental changes during the Pleistocene and the Holocene and their impact on human life has become available. Our discussion was predominantly limited to environmental changes related to the Holocene. In st this period of about 10000 years, the main focus was on the 1 millennium BC.

For courses in non-majors biology. Helps students learn the concepts and applications of human biology using relevant topics and realistic scenarios Known for its unique "Special Topic" chapters and emphasis on everyday health concerns, the 6th Edition of Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues continues to personalize the study of human biology using a conversational writing style, vibrant, easy-to-follow illustrations, abundant applications, and a new emphasis on using everyday science literacy skills. The authors provide a practical, friendly introduction to the study of the human body, preparing readers to navigate today's rapidly expanding and shifting world of health information. Each chapter now features brand-new "Consider This Case" exercises and "Finding and Evaluating Information" activities that challenge readers to think critically and apply their knowledge to solve real-world cases. Along with scientific updates and content improvements throughout the text, the 6th Edition also includes a new "Special Topic" chapter on the Obesity Epidemic. Note: You are purchasing a standalone product; Mastering Biology does not come packaged with this content. Students, if interested in purchasing this title with Mastering Biology, ask your instructor for the correct package ISBN and Course ID. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information. If you would like to purchase both the physical text and Mastering Biology, search for: 0134056671 / 9780134056678 Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues Plus Mastering Biology with eText -- Access Card Package, 6/e Package consists of: 0134045440 / 9780134045443 Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues, 6/e 0134254910 / 9780134254913 Mastering Biology with Pearson eText -- ValuePack Access Card -- for Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues, 6/e Biology of Humans: Concepts, Applications, and Issues, 6th Edition is also available via Pearson eText, a simple-to-use, mobile, personalized reading experience that lets instructors connect with and motivate students - right in their eTextbook. Learn more.

Since its very beginning, archaeology has in many senses always related to a much wider constituency than just archaeologists. This relationship between archaeology and the public has often been overlooked and constantly changes. Public archaeology, as a field of research and practice, has been developing since the 1970s in English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States, Britain, and Australia, and is today beginning to spread to other parts of the world. Global expansion of public archaeology comes with the recognition of the need for a careful understanding of local contexts, particularly the culture and socio-political climate.

This volume critically examines the current theories and practices of public archaeology through relevant case studies from different regions throughout the world, including: Japan, China, South Korea, New Caledonia, South Africa, Senegal, Jordon, Italy, Peru, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. These case studies are examined from a wide variety of theoretical contexts, to provide a thorough and comprehensive guide to the state of public archaeology today, as well as implications for its future.

As the theory and practice of public archaeology continues to change and grow, archaeology s relationship with the broader community needs to be critically and openly examined. The contributions in this wide-ranging work are a key source of information for anyone practicing or studying archaeology in a public context.

"

Nishiyama Matsunosuke is one of the most important historians of Tokugawa (Edo) popular culture, yet until now his work has never been translated into a Western language. Edo Culture presents a selection of Nishiyama's writings that serves not only to provide an excellent introduction to Tokugawa cultural history but also to fill many gaps in our knowledge of the daily life and diversions of the urban populace of the time. Many essays focus on the most important theme of Nishiyama's work: the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries as a time of appropriation and development of Japan's culture by its urban commoners.

"A grippingly honest account of the dilemmas of being an engages anthropologist in a world where taking sides has become increasingly complex. These courageous authors strip back the mask of objectivity in fieldwork and confront head-on the limits of empathy and the sometimes disturbing ethical conditions under which they obtained their knowledge. An original and powerful call for partiality despite the pitfalls. A must-read for all aspiring anthropologists." . Jenny B. White, Boston University

"An ambitious and satisfying collection that conjoins anthropologists' political and ethical commitments to the worlds they study, inhabit and engage. Taking Sides shows the limits of some strands of postmodern reflexivity, moves political contexts to the fore, and illustrates how anthropology can move beyond critical analysis to praxis." . David Price, Associate Professor of anthropology and sociology at St. Martin's University, in Lacey, Washington

"An outstanding collection of essays that both instruct and provoke. They exemplify the virtues of politically engaged anthropology and invite the reader to reflect critically on what it means to be a scholar in today's conflict-torn world. Illuminating for the specialist and the non-specialist alike." . Alex Callinicos, Professor of European Studies French Department King's College London Strand

Concerns with research ethics have intensified over recent years, in large part as a symptom of "audit cultures" (M. Strathern) but also as a serious matter of engagement with the ethical complexities in contemporary research fields. This volume, written by a new generation of scholars engaged with contemporary global movements for social justice and peace, reflects their efforts in trying to integrate their scholarly pursuits with their understanding of social science, politics and ethics, and what political commitment means in practice and in fieldwork. This is a book of argument and analysis, written with passion, clarity and intellectual sophistication, which touches on issues of vital significance to social scientists and activists in general.

Heidi Armbruster holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from SOAS in London. She is a lecturer in German and Transnational Studies at the University of Southampton.

Anna Laerke holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from SOAS, University of London. She is a Research Fellow at The Open University and independent evaluator of Children's Fund services in Milton Keynes."

"On the whole, the general arguments made here for the continued importance of kinship in modernity, as well as the two major changes in kinship organization, are convincing. Kinship in Europe is also to be commended for its impressive array of subjects and the admirably diverse nature of its contributors. Above all, it manages to complicate traditional narratives of modernity, and provides a less simplistic, linear model of development." . H-German

Since the publication of Philippe Aries's book, Centuries of Childhood, in the early 1960s, there has been great interest among historians in the history of the family and the household. A central aspect of the debate relates the story of the family to implicit notions of modernization, with the rise of the nuclear family in the West as part of its economic and political success. And some historians have pushed the idea of the nuclear family back in time for the most successful regions of Europe. During the past decade that synthesis has begun to break down as historians have begun to examine kinship, the way individual families are connected to each other through marriage and descent, finding that during the most dynamic period in European industrial development, class formation, and state reorganization, Europe became a "kinship hot" society. The essays in this volume explore two major transitions in kinship patterns--at the end of the Middle Ages and at the end of the eighteenth century--in an effort to reset the agenda in family history.

David Warren Sabean has taught at the University of East Anglia, University of Pittsburgh, Cornell University, and UCLA. He was a fellow of the Max Planck Institute for History (1976-83) and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2001-2). He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Forschungspreis (2004-6). He is currently the Henry J. Bruman Professor of German History at UCLA.

Simon Teuscher is Professor of History at the University of Basel. He has previously taught at UCLA (2000-2004) and Zurich (1995-99) and been a Resident Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2004-5).

Jon Mathieu has taught in different universities in Switzerland and in other countries. He was the founding director of the Istituto di Storia delle Alpi at the University of Lugano (2000-5), currently he is Professor at the University of Lucerne."

The symposium "Prehistoric Iberia: genetics, anthropology and linguistics" was held in the Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid on 16th -17th November 1998. The idea was bringing together specialists who could address not clearly resolved historic and prehistoric issues regarding ancient Iberian and Mediterranean populations, following a multidisciplinary approach. This was necessary in the light of the new bulk of genetic, archeological and linguistic data obtained with the new DNA technology and the recent discoverings in the other fields. Genes may now be easily studied in populations, particularly HLA genes and markers of the mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome. Basques, Iberians, North Africans, Berbers (Imazighen) and Mediterraneans have presently been widely studied. The genetic emerging picture is that Mediterraneans are closely related from West (Basque, Iberians, Berbers) to East (Jews, Lebanese, Cretans); however, Greeks are outliers in all the analyses done by using HLA genes. Anthropologists and archeologists showed how there was no people substitution during the revolutionary Mesolithic-Neolithic transition; in addition, cultural relationships were found between Iberia and predinastic Egypt (EI Badari culture). Basque language translation into Spanish has been the key for relating most Mediterranean extinct languages. The Usko-Mediterranean languages were once spoken in a wide African and European area, which also included parts of Asia. This was the "old language" that was slowly substituted by Eurasian languages starting approximately after the Bronze Age (or 2,000 years BC).

After putting down this weighty (in all senses of the word) collection, the reader, be she or he physician or social scientist, will (or at least should) feel uncomfortable about her or his taken-for-granted commonsense (therefore cultural) understanding of medicine. The editors and their collaborators show the medical leviathan, warts and all, for what it is: changing, pluralistic, problematic, powerful, provocative. What medicine proclaims itself to be - unified, scientific, biological and not social, non-judgmental - it is shown not to resemble very much. Those matters about which medicine keeps fairly silent, it turns out, come closer to being central to its clinical practice - managing errors and learning to conduct a shared moral dis course about mistakes, handling issues of competence and competition among biomedical practitioners, practicing in value-laden contexts on problems for which social science is a more relevant knowledge base than biological science, integrating folk and scientific models of illness in clinical communication, among a large number of highly pertinent ethnographic insights that illuminate medicine in the chapters that follow."

Complex patterns of acculturation are revealed in the most comprehensive ethnographic study of contemporary French immigrants in the United States. Written by a French-born American anthropologist who has insider status among French Americans, "The French in the United States" offers a fresh look at the histories and experiences of French immigrants. In the foreign-born generation, a high degree of social integration into American society co-exists with the maintenance of a French identity which manifests itself in the areas of language, culture, and perceptions. The French heritage does not usually endure past the second generation, however, because its maintenance within the family is not adequately supported by collective efforts, due to a lack of cohesiveness among French-born individuals who have become permanent immigrants.

A number of factors account for the foregoing: the small number of French natives in the United States, their scattered geographical distribution, the absence of spatially defined communities populated by direct immigrants from France, and a very high rate of intermarriage. Another important factor is the primarily individual nature of migration from France to this country since the last half of the 20th century, and a highly developed sense of self-direction in those who stay permanently. Their French identity must be regarded as cultural rather than ethnic: it is tied to a distant homeland, rather than to a group with territorial, institutional, and organizational identity in the United States. Lindenfeld delves into the makings of this French identity and distinguishes French immigrants from other Americans.

"A valuable resource for teaching and research alike, Other People's Anthropologies rethinks canonical accounts of the discipline's history." . Anthropos

"The collection is a very welcome addition to the growing but still inadequate number of books and articles on world anthropologies. It is clearly written with concise chapters that give the reader a sense of the richness, diversity, commonalities and potentials of anthropology in the world today. Although the value goes beyond the classroom, this volume should be of interest particularly to those teaching anthropological theory who want to increase students' awareness of the significant anthropological scholarship beyond the so-called 'center'." . Anthropology News

"At last A volume that exposes the ethnocentric underbelly of Anglo-American anthropology. The practice and history of anthropology is far more interesting and engaging than most English-speakers know. This volume, combining reflective essays from prominent scholars and cutting-edge work by younger anthropologists will change the way many think of anthropology." . Robert Gordon

Anthropological practice has been dominated by the so-called "great" traditions (Anglo-American, French, and German). However, processes of decolonization, along with critical interrogation of these dominant narratives, have led to greater visibility of what used to be seen as peripheral scholarship. With contributions from leading anthropologists and social scientists from different countries and anthropological traditions, this volume gives voice to scholars outside these "great" traditions. It shows the immense variety of methodologies, training, and approaches that scholars from these regions bring to anthropology and the social sciences in general, thus enriching the disciplines in important ways at an age marked by multiculturalism, globalization, and transnationalism.

Aleksandar Bo kovi is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade (Serbia) and Visiting Professor of Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). His research areas include ethnicity and nationalism, popular culture, and he has also published widely on the history and theory of anthropology. In recent years, he published on anthropology in former Yugoslavia (Anthropology Today, 2005), Brazil (Dialectical Anthropology, 2005), South Africa (with Ilana van Wyk, Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, 2005), and "world anthropologies" (Anthropos, 2007). Bo kovi? is the author or editor of several books, including, most recently, Myth, Politics, Ideology (Belgrade, 2006)."

Against the historical backdrop of successive socialist and post-socialist claims to have completely remade society, the contributors to this volume explore the complex and often paradoxical continuities between diverse post-socialist presents and their corresponding socialist and pre-socialist pasts. The chapters focus on ways in which: pre-socialist economic, political, and cultural forms in fact endured an era of socialism and have found new life in the post-socialist present, notwithstanding revolutionary socialist claims; continuities with a pre-socialist past have been produced within the historical imaginary of post-socialism; and socialist economic, political, and cultural forms have in fact endured in a purportedly postsocialist era, despite the claims of neo-liberal reformers.

Harry G. West is Reader in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His research in northern Mozambique has examined how colonialism, revolutionary socialism, and post-socialist political and economic liberalization have reconfigured institutions of local authority.

Parvathi Raman is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Her research in South Africa explores the historical impact of Indians in the South African Communist Party, and their contribution to the struggle against apartheid.

"Collections often are uneven and not coherent enough; fortunately, this is not the case at all here: in spite of the great number of contributions they complement each other well, with many cross references..." . Verfassung und Recht in Ubersee

"The volume represents an excellent model for what may be considered a constant duty of the researcher: always questioning the epistemological validity of concepts, theories, main instruments in research work, always trying to readjust them in order to avoid over-generalise erroneous assumptions. This implies a dynamic and flexible positioning toward empirical data and theory at the same time, something that the contributors to this volume accomplished with success, thus opening new paths in property analysis." . Social Anthropology

As an important contribution to debates on property theory and the role of law in creating, disputing, defining and refining property rights, this volume provides new theoretical material on property systems, as well as new empirically grounded case studies of the dynamics of property transformations. The property claimants discussed in these papers represent a diverse range of actors, including post-socialist states and their citizens, those receiving restitution for past property losses in Africa, Southeast Asia and in eastern Europe, collectives, corporate, and individual actors. The volume thus provides a comprehensive anthropological analysis not only of property structures and ideologies, but also of property (and its politics) in action.

Franz von Benda-Beckmann is head of the project group "Legal Pluralism" at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, Germany. He is professor for law in developing countries at Wageningen University, the Netherlands and honorary professor at the University of Leipzig. His research in Malawi and Indonesia focuses property and inheritance, social security, decentralization and legal anthropological theory.

Keebet von Benda-Beckmann is head of the project group "Legal Pluralism" at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, Germany. She is a professor of Anthropology of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam and honorary professor at the University of Leipzig. Her research focuses on disputing, decentralisation, social security, and natural resources in Indonesia and the Netherlands.

Melanie Wiber is Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Her research focuses on new forms of property, economic and legal anthropology, natural resource management and especially agriculture and the fishery"

This book is a collection of the articles presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW 979859) held in St. Petersburg, from the 15-18 November 2003 in the Hermitage Museum. The title of the workshop was "The impact of the environment on Human Migration in Eurasia." More than 40 scientists from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and Latvia took part. The themes of the workshop focused on the origin, development, interactions, and migrations of prehistoric and ancient populations, specifically the Scythians, in Eurasia and their relationships with the environment of the time. The discussion of these questions necessitated the participation of specialists from a wide range of academic fields. Beyond any doubt, the environment played an important role in the life of ancient nomadic populations, forming the basis of their economies and influencing various aspects of their mode of life. In this respect, the collaboration of specialists in the Humanities and Science is essential for the solution of scientific questions concerning these peoples. Over the past few years, a large amount of new proxy data related to environmental changes during the Pleistocene and the Holocene and their impact on human life has become available. Our discussion was predominantly limited to environmental changes related to the Holocene. In st this period of about 10000 years, the main focus was on the 1 millennium BC.

The tremendous increase in migrations and diasporas of human groups in the last decades are not only bringing along challenging issues for society, especially related to the economic and political management of multiculturalism and culturally effective health care, but they are also creating dramatic changes in traditional knowledge, believes and practices (KBP) related to (medicinal) plant use. The contributors to this volume - all internationally recognized scholars in the field of ethnobiology, transcultural pharmacy, and medical anthropology - analyze these dynamics of traditional knowledge in especially 22 selected case studies.

Andrea Pieroni is a Lecturer in Pharmacognosy, Herbal / Traditional Medicines and Ethnopharmacy at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Bradford, UK. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Bonn. His recent research concerns transcultural health and pharmacy, traditional medicines and ethnobotany. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the new Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine and the coordinator of the first collaborative ethnobotanical research project funded by the EU Commission (RUBIA).

Ina Vandebroek is a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute of Economic Botany, New York Botanical Garden, USA. She holds a Ph.D. in neurospychopharmacology from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and has conducted research into the ethnobotany and ethnomedicine of traditional healers in the Bolivian Andes and Amazon. The project she is currently working on at the New York Botanical Gardens is funded by the National Institutes of Health and involves the dynamics of medicinal plant knowledge and use by Dominican immigrants in New York City.

Informative as well as entertaining, this volume offers many interesting facets of the first hundred years of anthropology at Oxford University.

Horses with riders trailed by foot processionals, silver bands and pipe bands, furling medieval banners, lavish costumes, and singers and actors--the "Common Riding" is an elaborate, little-studied ritual phenomenon of the border towns of Scotland. In this vividly written and insightful analysis, Gwen Kennedy Neville uses this civic ceremony as a window for glimpsing the process of ritual, symbol, and experience in the development of the concept of "the town" in Western culture.
Based on extensive fieldwork in the town of Selkirk, The Mother Town looks at the Common Riding in detail, uncovering pre-Reformation symbolism and pageantry--often medieval and Catholic--in a region that has been Protestant for over four hundred years. Neville shows how the ceremony is a model of the way civic ritual serves to construct a system of towns which gives rise to the modern world. Further, she contends that these civic rituals create a ceremonial setting in which the contradictions between tradition and modernity can be temporarily resolved and where past and present live side by side.
Neville offers a provocative and illuminating study of how the ritual of Common Riding makes a dramatic statement about local strife, communal independence, and Protestantism in the towns of the Scottish Borders.