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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General
The Athabaskan language family is the largest group of Amerindian languages in North America, including languages such as Navajo and Apache. This volume is a collection of previously unpublished articles on Athabaskan syntax, semantics, and morphology, and will be of interest not only to those with a anthropological interest in Native American languages, but also to theoretical linguists concerned with issues discussed. The book will also be useful in that it directly confronts the problems facing languages like Navajo as they struggle to survive; the list of contributors thus brings together not only prominent linguists (including Navajos) but educators as well.
"A foster mother herself, Wozniak brings particular poignancy and
insight to this fascinating look at motherhood and social policy.
Her interviews with foster mothers are coupled with research on who
foster mothers are and why they fostera].Wozniak also looks at the
larger issues of women's roles in society and how we handle the
needs of displaced children. . . an important but little-researched
topic." "[A] thoughtful and well-researched book." "Wozniak presents a very readable analysis of the broad
challenges facing foster families...This book is important for
anyone in the social work or family services field." The first book on foster care written from foster mothers' perspectives, They're All My Children voices the often painful experiences of contemporary U.S. foster mothers as they struggle to mother and care-work in the face of exploitative social relations with the state. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, Wozniak, herself a former foster mother and an anthropologist, presents and analyzes women's personal stories about fostering to reflect on the larger socio-cultural context of American family lifenamely, how we think about kinship, identity, and work. Foster mothers construct enduring kinship relationships with children, and often with the children's biological families. These relationships enhance children's chances to growth and thrive and in turn extend women's kin relationships into often distant and disparate communities. Wozniak also highlights the economic side of fostering to show how foster mothers are both mothers and workers; foster children are both providersand provided for, adored sentimental children and economic figures. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, Wozniak argues that we have not gone far enough in understanding the experiences of these women whose life work lies outside the usual boundaries. Nor have child welfare gone far enough in revising the theories upon which child welfare policies are based. Foster mothers and their experiences challenge the patriarchal, nuclear family ideals upon which foster care programs are based, a challenge that They're All My Children takes forward.
Twelve Step Programs are significant features in the American landscape. Their popularity compels us to take them seriously. This book studies one such program, Al-Anon, which was founded in 1951 by wives of alcoholics who were struggling with the effects of alcoholism on themselves and their families. In the 1990s its scope was broadened to include husbands, grown children, lovers, friends, and anyone else affected by another's drinking or chemical use. This study used an ethnographic approach: it reveals that Al-Anon and similar groups act as sites of spiritual renewal and moral reconstruction for primarily white, middle-class, middle-aged, Protestant Americans who report experiencing a crisis of identity. Investigating Twelve Step Programs lends further insight into the cultural crisis affecting many Americans as well as the strategies some have found to make sense of their lives.
In Divination in Exile, Alexander K. Smith offers the first comprehensive scholarly introduction to the performance of divination in Tibetan speaking communities, both past and present. While Smith surveys a variety of ritual practices, the volume focuses on divination and its associated rites in the contemporary Tibetan Bon tradition. Drawing from multi-site ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Himachal Pradesh and the translation of previously unpublished Tibetan language materials, Divination in Exile offers a valuable, social scientific contribution to our understanding of the perception and usage of ritual manuscripts in contemporary Tibetan cultural milieus.
From which evaluative foundation should we develop public policies designed to promote wellbeing among different cultural groups in different circumstances? This book seeks to advance an objective, universal theory of cultural evaluation grounded in a eudaemonic account of human wellbeing. The approach brings together a 'thick vague' conception of the good; a determinate, particularist conception of circumstance; an egalitarian moral philosophy with concessions to sufficientarianism, and a normative functionalist view of culture, to assess the value of cultural institutions to those that they affect. Engaging closely with needs and capabilities paradigms, the approach seeks to identify and explain cultural deficits in given circumstances. The applicability of the theory is illustrated through analysis of the effect of settler-indigenous relations on Aboriginal Australian people. This book is ideal for students and scholars of cultural theory and public policy.
Samuels's collection of critical essays gives body and scope to the subject of nineteenth-century sentimentality by situating it in terms of "women's culture" and issues of race. Presenting an interdisciplinary range of approaches that consider sentimental culture before and after the Civil War, these critical studies of American literature and culture fundamentally reorient the field. Moving beyond alignment with either pro- or anti-sentimentality camps, the collection makes visible the particular racial and gendered forms that define the aesthetics and politics of the culture of sentiment. Drawing on the fields of American cultural history, American studies, and literary criticism, the contributors include Lauren Berlant, Ann Fabian, Susan Gillman, Karen Halttunen, Carolyn L. Karcher, Joy Kasson, Amy Schrager Lang, Isabelle Lehuu, Harryette Mullen, Dana Nelson, Lora Romero, Shirley Samuels, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Lynn Wardley, and Laura Wexler.
Marketing has situated itself as an indispensable tool in today's business world-an unavoidable step in the process from production to consumption. This book is the first of its kind to map out the organizing principles and cultural logic of marketing, and trace the profession's ascent to global domination. Applbaum argues that marketing can be seen as a particular set of cultural practices that surfaced in reaction to the affluence of Western society, and not the answer to the call of inherent human needs and wants. In order to understand globalization, transnational corporations, and the spread of consumer culture, one must understand the logic of marketing.
This book examines how identities emerge, persist and change in various Pacific societies. The 'shifting images' of identity are explored in pre-colonial, colonial as well as post-colonial circumstances. All the essays in this volume address both continuity and discontinuity in the construction of identities in the rapidly changing Pacific region. A region increasingly characterized by state-formation processes and global influences.
The richness and vibrancy of Vietnamese spirituality are vividly portrayed in these twelve essays that shed light on the remarkable reflorescence of religion in this communist country. Ancestor worship, mediumship, sacrifices, and communal rituals have not only survived Vietnam's reintegration into the capitalist world; they are intrinsic to the dramatic reshaping of its contemporary social and cultural life. Transnational Buddhism and Christianity challenge the political status quo as they answer conflicting aspirations for enlightenment, justice, national development and cultural identity. Making conceptual contributions to anthropology and comparative religion, this book provides insights from post-revolutionary Vietnam into the diverse passages to re-enchantment in the modern world.
A groundbreaking, comprehensive anthology. Scholars have traced applied anthropology as far back as the classical age, when Greek rulers gathered data about neighbouring people in order to inform Greek foreign policy. Most anthropology ever since has had a practical focus: knowledge for the sake of knowledge is valuable; knowledge with practical applications is even more so. The authors focus on how the field of anthropology can best be utilised practically today. In making their arguments, they consider past, present, and future trends in applied anthropology, especially with regard to issues such as globalisation, ethnographic research, and governmental policies. This anthology focuses on how people can make their training in anthropology work for them in seemingly unrelated fields. Specific topics covered include: anthropology and development, the environment, agricultural anthropology, health and medicine, nutritional anthropology, displacement and resettlement, business and industry, anthropology applied to education, applied anthropology and the aged, and emerging trends in applied anthropology. Collects together contributions from key thinkers in the field.
Human variation represented a central research topic for life scientists and posed challenging administrative issues for colonial bureaucrats in the first half of the 20th century. By following scientists' and administrators' interests in innovating styles and tools for making and circulating documents, in reshaping landscapes and environments, and in fixing distances between humans, the book advances new understandings of the materiality of colonial institutional life and governance.
As US imperialism continues to dictate foreign policy, Deadly Contradictions is a compelling account of the American empire. Stephen P. Reyna argues that contemporary forms of violence exercised by American elites in the colonies, client state, and regions of interest have deferred imperial problems, but not without raising their own set of deadly contradictions. This book can be read many ways: as a polemic against geopolitics, as a classic social anthropological text, or as a seminal analysis of twenty-four US global wars during the Cold War and post-Cold War eras.
Inuit hunting traditions are rich in perceptions, practices and stories relating to animals and human beings. The authors examine key figures such as the raven, an animal that has a central place in Inuit culture as a creator and a trickster, and qupirruit, a category consisting of insects and other small life forms. After these non-social and inedible animals, they discuss the dog, the companion of the hunter, and the fellow hunter, the bear, considered to resemble a human being. A discussion of the renewal of whale hunting accompanies the chapters about animals considered 'prey par excellence': the caribou, the seals and the whale, symbol of the whole. By giving precedence to Inuit categories such as 'inua' (owner) and 'tarniq' (shade) over European concepts such as 'spirit 'and 'soul', the book compares and contrasts human beings and animals to provide a better understanding of human-animal relationships in a hunting society.
'Race' and Racism examines the origins and development of racism in North America. It addresses the inception and persistence of the concept of 'race' and discusses the biology of human variance, addressing the fossil record of human evolution, the relationship between creationism and science, population genetics, 'race'-based medicine, and other related issues. The book explores the diverse ways in which people in a variety of cultures have perceived, categorized, and defined one another without reference to any concept of 'race.' It follows the history of American racism through slavery, the perceptions and treatment of Native Americans, Jim Crow laws, attitudes toward Irish and Southern European immigrants, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the civil rights era, and numerous other topics.
In an era of intensifying globalization and transnational connectivity, the dynamics of cultural production and the very notion of creativity are in transition. Exploring creative practices in various settings, the book does not only call attention to the spread of modernist discourses of creativity, from the colonial era to the current obsession with 'innovation' in neo-liberal capitalist cultural politics, but also to the less visible practices of copying, recycling and reproduction that occur as part and parcel of creative improvization.
In an era of intensifying globalization and transnational connectivity, the dynamics of cultural production and the very notion of creativity are in transition. Exploring creative practices in various settings, the book does not only call attention to the spread of modernist discourses of creativity, from the colonial era to the current obsession with 'innovation' in neo-liberal capitalist cultural politics, but also to the less visible practices of copying, recycling and reproduction that occur as part and parcel of creative improvization.
An essential resource for those interested in multicultural issues, this dictionary presents common terms used in multicultural counseling and research. The terms are not only denotatively defined, but connotations are also included, as well as historical information and important writings about the terms. The dictionary is thus not only a straightforward compendium of definitions, but also a resource for further investigation. This is intended to be a resource for those interested in the area of multiculturalism. Important publications investigating and/or explicating these terms are also discussed and referenced. Moreover, authors define these terms with a point of view; many terms are defined in a manner that connects them with perspectives commonly expressed by scholars and practitioners in the field. Thus, connotations are included as well as denotations of the terms.
This comprehensive introductory text integrates evolutionary, ecological, and demographic perspectives with new results from field studies and contemporary noninvasive molecular and hormonal techniques to understand how different primates behave and the significance of these insights for primate conservation. Each chapter is organized around the major research themes in the field, with Strier emphasizing the interplay between theory, observations, and conservation issues. Examples are drawn from the "classic" primate field studies as well as more recent studies, including many previously neglected species, to illustrate the vast behavioral variation that exists across the primate order. Primate Behavioral Ecology 6th Edition integrates the impacts of anthropogenic activities on primate populations, including zoonotic disease and climate change, and considers the importance of behavioral flexibility for primate conservation. This fully updated new edition brings exciting new methods, theoretical perspectives, and discoveries together to provide an incomparable overview of the field of primate behavioral ecology and its applications to primate conservation. It is considered to be a "must read" for all students interested in primates.
Written by a member of the Black Haitian community, this book brings to life the mechanisms that shape Haitian immigrant identity and underscores the complexity of such an identity. Zephir explains why Haitians define themselves as a distinct ethnic group and examines the various parameters of Haitian ethnicity. Through hundreds of interviews, the author gathered the voices of Haitians as they speak, as they feel, and most importantly, how they experience America and its system of racial classification. This work is a description of the diversity of the Black population in America and an effort to dispel the myth of a monolithic minority or sidestream culture.
If it takes a village to raise a child, Anne Wescott Dodd and Jean L. Konzal feel that it takes a community to make a school. Not content with the idea of a school being contained within four walls and existing only for a few hours every day, Dodd and Konzal know that a school which looks after the complete child exists far beyond its four walls and for the whole 24 hours in each day. They present a radical democratic vision of the public school where everyone—not just students, teachers and parents—plays a part in shaping our children and, consequently, our future.
Mortuary Dialogues presents fresh perspectives on death and mourning across the Pacific Islands. Through a set of rich ethnographies, the book examines how funerals and death rituals give rise to discourse and debate about sustaining moral personhood and community amid modernity and its enormous transformations. The book's key concept, "mortuary dialogue," describes the different genres of talk and expressive culture through which people struggle to restore individual and collective order in the aftermath of death in the contemporary Pacific.
This is a major new account of the nature of religion and its changing role in modern societies, by one of the most original French sociologists writing on religion today. In a stylish and accessible study, Hervieu-Leger addresses the problem of how to distinguish religion from other systems of meaning in modern Western society. The crucial point, she argues, is the chain of memory and tradition which makes the individual believer a member of the community. From this point of view, religion is the ideological, symbolic and social device by which individual and collective awareness of belonging to a lineage of believers is created and controlled. Modern societies, Hervieu-Lé: ger argues, are not more rational than past societies, but rather suffer from a kind of collective amnesia. They are less and less capable of maintaining a living collective 'chain' of memory as a source of meaning. However, as major religious traditions decline, a range of surrogate memories appears, which also permit the contraction of collective identities. These 'small memories' are creating an upsurge of 'emotional communities' and the affirmation of ethno-religions within Europe and elsewhere. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of theology, religious studies and sociology. |
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