This monograph - which was very well received when originally published in France - contains a great deal of detailed information about the attitudes towards learning and written culture among members of the nobility in different parts of Europe in the Middle Ages. An encounter between a warring knight and the world of learning could seem a paradox. It is nonetheless related with the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, an essential intellectual movement for western history. Knights not only fought in battles, but also moved in sophisticated courts. Knights were interested on Latin classics and reading, and writing poetry. Supportive of "jongleurs" and minstrels, they enjoyed literary conversations with clerics who would attempt to reform their behaviour, which was often brutal. These lettered warriors, while improving their culture, learned to repress their own violence and were initiated to courtesy: selective language, measured gestures, elegance in dress, and manners at the table. Their association with women, who were often learned, became more gallant. A revolution of thought occurred among lay elites who, in contact with clergy, began to use their weapons for common welfare.This new conduct was a tangible sign of Medievalist society's leap forward towards modernity.

Do newborns think? Do they know that "three" is greater than "two"? Do they prefer "right" to "wrong"? What about emotions-can newborns recognize happiness or anger? If the answer to these questions is yes, then how are our inborn thoughts and feelings encoded in our bodies? Could they persist after we die? Going all the way back to ancient Greece, human nature and the mind-body problem have been the topics of fierce scholarly debates. But laypeople also have strong opinions about such matters. Most people believe, for example, that newborn babies don't know the difference between right and wrong-such knowledge, they insist, can only be learned. For emotions, they presume the opposite-that our capacity to feel fear, for example, is both inborn and embodied. These beliefs are stories we tell ourselves about what we know and who we are. They reflect and influence our understanding of ourselves and others and they guide every aspect of our lives. In The Blind Storyteller, the cognitive psychologist Iris Berent exposes a chasm between our intuitive understanding of human nature and the conclusions emerging from science. Her conclusions show that many of our stories are misguided. Just like Homer, we, the storyteller, are blind. How could we get it so wrong? In a twist that could have come out of a Greek tragedy, Berent proposes that our errors are our fate. These mistakes emanate from the very principles that make our minds tick: Our blindness to human nature is rooted in human nature itself. An intellectual journey that draws on philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, and Berent's own cutting-edge research, The Blind Storyteller grapples with a host of provocative questions, from why we are so afraid of zombies, to whether dyslexia is "just in our heads," from what happens to us when we die, to why we are so infatuated with our brains. The end result is a startling new perspective on the age-old nature/nurture debate-and on what it means to be human.

Undocumented Saints follows the migration of popular saints from Mexico into the US and the evolution of their meaning. The book explores how Latinx battles for survival are performed in the worlds of faith, religiosity, and the imaginary, and how the socio-political realities of exploitation and racial segregation frame their popular religious expressions. It also tracks the emergence of inter-religious states, transnational ethnic and cultural enclaves unified by faith. The book looks at five vernacular saints that have emerged in Mexico and whose devotions have migrated into the US in the last one hundred years: Jesus Malverde, a popular bandido turned saint caudillo; Santa Olguita, an emerging feminist saint linked to border women's experiences of sexual violence; Juan Soldado, a murder-rapist soldier who is now a patron for undocumented immigrants and the main suspect in the death of an eight-year-old victim known now as Santa Olguita; Toribio Romo, a Catholic priest whose ghost/spirit has been helping people cross the border into the US since the 1990s; and La Santa Muerte, a controversial personification of death who is particularly popular among LGBTQ migrants. Each chapter contextualizes a particular popular saint within broader discourses about the construction of masculinity and the state, the long history of violence against Latina and migrant women, female erasure from history, discrimination against non-normative sexualities, and as US and Mexican investment in the control of religiosity within the discourses of immigration.

..".a thought-provoking book. Alia lays out the intricacies of Inuit naming so clearly, describes the Arctic environment so vividly, and conveys such a rich sense of Inuit values, concerns, and humour that readers are likely to hunger for more information and to pose ethnographic and on mastic questions that press forward the horizons of Inuit ethnography. Names and Nunavut is a welcome addition to Arctic ethnography and should be of interest not only to linguists and anthropologists working in the Arctic but to anyone interested in the relationship between onomasty, personhood, and cosmology and to anyone looking for fresh insights to the micropractices of linguistic and onomastic colonialism." . NAMES A Journal of Onomastics

"Embedded within this nuanced and extraordinarily well-researched account of the political onomastics (the politics of naming) involved with Inuit (colonial) history are an abundance of theoretical, ethical and political insights into both the complex nature of the Inuit and their evolving engagement with Qallunaat (non-Inuit, Euro-Canadian), as well as the complex nature of engaging in such research. This publication, refreshing in its focus on extensive local community research, delves into the complicated dynamic between colonial administration and its effects on the culture and identity of the Inuits. . British Journal of Canadian Studies

On the surface, naming is simply a way to classify people and their environments. The premise of this study is that it is much more - a form of social control, a political activity, a key to identity maintenance and transformation. Governments legislate and regulate naming; people fight to take, keep, or change their names. A name change can indicate subjugation or liberation, depending on the circumstances. But it always signifies a change in power relations. Since the late 1970s, the author has looked at naming and renaming, cross-culturally and internationally, with particular attention to the effects of colonisation and liberation. The experience of Inuit in Canada is an example of both. Colonisation is only part of the Nunavut experience. Contrary to the dire predictions of cultural genocide theorists, Inuit culture - particularly traditional naming - has remained extremely strong, and is in the midst of a renaissance. Here is a ground-breaking study by the founder of the discipline of political onomastics."

"This welcome volume collects 12 essays addressing problems in the analysis of sociocultural values and sociocultural hierarchy, in dialogue with ideas of Dumont." . American Ethnologist

Louis Dumont's concept of hierarchy continues to inspire social scientists. Using it as their starting point, the contributors to this volume introduce both fresh empirical material and new theoretical considerations. On the basis of diverse ethnographic contexts in Oceania, Asia, and the Middle East they challenge some current conceptions of hierarchical formations and reassess former debates - of post-colonial and neo-colonial agendas, ideas of "democratization" and "globalization," and expanding market economies - both with regard to new theoretical issues and the new world situation.

Dancing at the crossroads used to be young peoples opportunity to meet and enjoy themselves on mild summer evenings in the countryside in Ireland until this practice was banned by law, the Public Dance Halls Act in 1935. Now a key metaphor in Irish cultural and political life, dancing at the crossroads also crystallizes the argument of this book: Irish dance, from Riverdance (the commercial show) and competitive dancing to dance theatre, conveys that Ireland is to be found in a crossroads situation with a firm base in a distinctly Irish tradition which is also becoming a prominent part of European modernity. Helena Wulff is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Publications include Twenty Girls (Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1988), Ballet across Borders (Berg, 1998), Youth Cultures (co-edited with Vered Amit-Talai, Routledge, 1995), New Technologies at Work (co-edited with Christina Garsten, Berg, 2003). Her research focusses on dance, visual culture, and Ireland."

Reproductive disruptions, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption, and childhood disability, are among the most distressing experiences in people s lives. Based on research by leading medical anthropologists from around the world, this book examines such issues as local practices detrimental to safe pregnancy and birth; conflicting reproductive goals between women and men; miscommunications between pregnant women and their genetic counselors; cultural anxieties over gamete donation and adoption; the contested meanings of abortion; cultural critiques of hormone replacement therapy; and the globalization of new pharmaceutical and assisted reproductive technologies. This breadth - with its explicit move from the local to the global, from the realm of everyday reproductive practice to international programs and policies - illuminates most effectively the workings of power, the tensions between women s and men s reproductive agency, and various cultural and structural inequalities in reproductive health. Marcia C. Inhorn is Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where she directs the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. A specialist on infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in the Muslim Middle East, she is the author or editor of four books on the subject. Her publications include Quest for Conception: Gender, Infertility, and Egyptian Medical Traditions (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, winner of Eileen Basker Prize for outstanding research in gender and health), Infertility and Patriarchy: The Cultural Politics of Gender and Family Life in Egypt (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996) and Local Babies, Global Science: Gender, Religion, and In Vitro Fertilization in Egypt (Routledge Press, 2003)."

The International No. 1 Bestseller 'Cuts to the heart of who we are' Sunday Times 'A book that begs discussion' Vanity Fair All Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage with two children and a husband who wouldn't touch her? All Maggie wanted was to be understood. How did she end up in a relationship with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small town? All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her have sex with other men and women? Three Women, which was nearly a decade in the making, is a staggering work of non-fiction for our times. *The book Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alexa Chung, Jodie Comer, Reese Witherspoon, Harry Styles, Fearne Cotton, Caitriona Balfe, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sharon Horgan, Zoe Ball, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Davina McCall, Gemma Chan, Christine and the Queens and Gillian Anderson are all reading* 'I will probably re-read it every year of my life' Caitlin Moran 'Will have millions nodding in recognition' The Times 'As gripping as the most gripping thriller' Marian Keyes 'When I picked it up, I felt I'd been waiting half my life to read it' Observer 'The kind of bold, timely, once-in-a-generation book that every house should have a copy of, and probably will before too long' New Statesman The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller The No. 1 New York Times Bestseller Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year A Stylist Book of the Decade The Most-Picked Book of the Year of 2019

The excavation of Gobekli Tepe has revealed the hitherto unknown religion of the Neolithic Revolution." This book offers an archaeological starter basis for interpreting that ancient religion. Other fresh perspectives affect our understanding of civilization, human sacrifice, cannibalism, warfare, and imperialism. Fresh contextual perspectives are presented on ancient Egypt and Greece, on Abraham, the Scapegoat question, as well as on the teaching strategies of Confucius in China-all these are remotely linked to Gobekli Tepe. The author is a former student of Mircea Eliade (University of Chicago) and the family resemblance in his orientation shows. His earlier innovations in the History of Religions field include: (1) a historical interpretation of Navajo hunter mythology; (2) recording the nine-night Navajo Coyoteway Ceremonial in 1974, which had been declared extinct in 1910; (3) identification of the Serpent as primary deity of ancient Middle American Civilization, thereby rejecting the primacy of the Jaguar totem; (4) identifying Neo-Platonism as a bridge leading from ancient Egyptian theology at Heliopolis to orthodox Christian theology.

First published in 1922, this classic text examines the extensive and complex trading system maintained by the Trobriand Islanders. While the main theme is economics and social organization, the power of magic, mythology and folklore are also examined.

It is now well over a hundred and fifty years since the first celebrated geographical explorations of Africa took place. However, it was many years before there began quests of a different kind - the investigation of behaviour, personality, attitude and ability among Africa's people. Originally published in 1975, this book is an account of that work: the first explorations in Africa of psychology. In an exhaustive and well-documented report the author, a psychologist who had himself done research in Nigeria, Uganda and who had lectured at Makerere University, drew together the main threads of the research carried out so far, putting the issues in an African perspective but anchoring them firmly within the framework of modern psychological thinking and technique of the time. Are there any common personality and intellectual characteristics among Africans? How does weaning affect African child development? How have Africans' feelings developed about city life and industrial work? The questions the author considers range from the broad-based to the specific. The challenges which lay ahead for African investigators then moving into the mainstream of the work are also discussed. But perhaps above all the book made a convincing case for psychology becoming a relevant and finely honed discipline in Black Africa, characterised by practical application to Black African society. Each chapter covers a defined area of modern psychology of the time and presents a comprehensive survey in a language no more technical that the subject warrants. At the time is was felt this book would be invaluable to students of Africa secondary education whose course included a psychology component and to African students beginning a degree course in psychology. It would also have provided an informative supplement to courses in medicine, development studies, political science, sociology and anthropology.

From the medical use of marijuana to organ donations to animal testing, the medical profession is rife with controversial issues. Students and teachers can now use this reference resource to explore all sides of these issues. Narrative chapters, each one devoted to a specific topic, encourage students to consider all the facts surrounding the various controversies. Case studies and first-person accounts bring the issues to life and concluding questions for each chapter challenge students to use their critical thinking skills to draw their own conclusions.This collection provides historical as well as contemporary contexts for an examination of government structures in the United States and the states of the former U.S.S.R. Throughout, the contributors look at federalism at both local and national levels, and they try to assess how and why the two systems developed as they did.

Each of the fifteen chapters analyzes the pro and con arguments and current status of a specific controversy, illuminating the philosophical dilemmas faced by medical professionals as well as their patients and the general public as a whole. The Goldsteins present opposing arguments on the sources and nature of each controversy, providing readers with an understanding of the causes and effects of medical controversies. This basic introduction to these many different issues, including, among others, the arguments surrounding a need for national health insurance, the arguments surrounding the ethics of cloning, the arguments surrounding the needs and dangers of childhood vaccinations, and the arguments surrounding end-of-life issues will provide a starting ground for students interested in researching these topics further, while also encouraging them to begin dialogues with their peers to help them develop their ability to analyze complicated issues.

This book looks at representations of the male body, sexuality, and power in Mexican literature and the arts. The analysis includes literature, visual art, and cinema produced from the 1870s to the present, focusing on the Porfirian regime, the Post-revolutionary era, and the decadence of the revolutionary state and the emergence of the neo-liberal order in the 1980s to the present.

"Mundane Heterosexualities" provides the reader with a critical overview of feminist thinking on the topic of heterosexuality. It argues that as a social rather than sexual category, heterosexuality can be seen as the organizing principle of our everyday lines. Presenting new data on the making of heterosexual relationships within extended families, it raises profound methodological questions about empirical research into an invisible or unmarked category which have implications for work on the body, emotions, everyday life and masculinity, amongst other issues.

Upon the 25th anniversary of his passing, this collection addresses the wide application of Victor Turner's thought to cultural performance in the early 21st century. From anthropology, sociology, and religious studies to performance, cultural, and media studies, Turner's ideas have had a prodigious interdisciplinary impact. Examining his relevance in studies of performance and popular culture, media, and religion, along with the role of Edith Turner in the Turnerian project, contributors explore how these ideas have been re-engaged, renovated, and repurposed in studies of contemporary cultural performance.

This book reflects on the methodological challenges and possibilities encountered when researching practices that have been historically defined and classified as 'craft.' It fosters an understanding of how methodology, across disciplines, contributes to analytical frameworks within which the subject-matter of craft is defined and constructed. The contributions are written by scholars whose work focuses on different craft practices across geographies. Each chapter contains detailed case study material along with theoretical analysis of the research challenges confronted. They provide valuable insight into how methodologies emerge in response to particular research conditions and contexts, addressing issues of decolonization, representation, institutionalization, and power. Informed by anthropology, art history and design, this volume facilitates interdisciplinary discussion and touches on some of the most critical issues related to craft research today.

Based on three years of extensive fieldwork, this ethnographic study of prostitution in the metropolitan city of Dalian, China, explores the lives of rural migrant women working as karaoke bar hostesses, delving into the interplay of gender politics, nationalism, and power relationships that inhere in practices of birth control, disease control, and control of women's bodies.

Disorder and instability are matters of continuing public concern. Terrorism, as a threat to global order, has been added to preoccupations with political unrest, deviance and crime. Such considerations have prompted the return to the classic anthropological issues of order and disorder. Examining order within the political and legal spheres and in contrasting local settings, the papers in this volume highlight its complex and contested nature. Elaborate displays of order seem necessary to legitimate the institutionalization of violence by military and legal establishments, yet violent behaviour can be incorporated into the social order by the development of boundaries, rituals and established processes of conflict resolution. Order is said to depend upon justice, yet injustice legitimates disruptive protest. Case studies from Siberia, India, Indonesia, Tibet, West Africa, Morocco and the Ottoman Empire show that local responses are often inconsistent in their valorization, acceptance and condemnation of disorder.

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 Professor of Anthropology of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Honorary Professor at the universities of Leipzig and Halle. Her research focuses on legal pluralism, disputing, decentralization, social security and natural resources in Indonesia and the Netherlands. Publications include "Changing Properties of Property," co-edited with Franz von Benda-Beckmann and Melanie Wiber (Berghahn 2006).

Fernanda Pirie is Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. She has carried out research into conflict and its resolution in both Ladakh and among the nomads of Amdo in eastern Tibet. Her writings focus on order and disorder and the relations between law and religion. She is the author of the forthcoming "Peace and conflict in Ladakh: the construction of a fragile web of order" (Brill 2006).

How do Amazonian native young people perceive, question, and negotiate the new kinds of social and cultural situations in which they find themselves? Virtanen looks at how current power relations constituted by ethnic recognition, new social contacts, and cooperation with different institutions have shaped the current native youth in Amazonia.

Dancing at the crossroads used to be young people's opportunity to meet and enjoy themselves on mild summer evenings in the countryside in Ireland--until this practice was banned by law, the Public Dance Halls Act in 1935. Now a key metaphor in Irish cultural and political life, "dancing at the crossroads" also crystallizes the argument of this book: Irish dance, from Riverdance (the commercial show) and competitive dancing to dance theatre, conveys that Ireland is to be found in a crossroads situation with a firm base in a distinctly Irish tradition which is also becoming a prominent part of European modernity. Helena Wulff is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Publications include Twenty Girls (Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1988), Ballet across Borders (Berg, 1998), Youth Cultures (co-edited with Vered Amit-Talai, Routledge, 1995), New Technologies at Work (co-edited with Christina Garsten, Berg, 2003). Her research focusses on dance, visual culture, and Ireland.

Based on long-term medical anthropological research in northern Ghana, the author analyses issues of health and healing, of gender, and of the control and use of money in a changing rural African setting. He describes the culture of medical pluralism, so typical for neo-colonial states, and people's choices of "traditional" (local) medicine (plants and sacrifices), Islamic medicine (charms and various written solutions) and "modern" therapy (biomedicine, in particular western pharmaceuticals). He concludes that the rural-urban divide is a fiction, that demarcations between these areas are frequently blurred, linked by a postcolonial, capitalist discourse of local markets, regional economies and national structures, which frequently emerge in local African settings but often originate in global and multinational markets.

Aby Warburg (1866-1929), founder of the Warburg Institute, was one of the most influential cultural historians of the twentieth century. Focusing on the period 1896-1918, this is the first in-depth, book-length study of his response to German political, social and cultural modernism. It analyses Warburg's response to the effects of these phenomena through a study of his involvement with the creation of some of the most important public artworks in Germany. Using a wide array of archival sources, including many of his unpublished working papers and much of his correspondence, the author demonstrates that Warburg's thinking on contemporary art was the product of two important influences: his engagement with Hamburg's civic affairs and his affinity with influential reform movements seeking a greater role for the middle classes in the political, social and cultural leadership of the nation. Thus a lively picture of Hamburg's cultural life emerges as it responded to artistic modernism, animated by private initiative and public discourse, and charged with debate.