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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > Social & cultural anthropology > General
Thanks to Renzo Duin's annotated translation, the voice of Lodewijk
Schmidt-an Afrodiasporic Saramaka Maroon from Suriname-is finally
available for Anglophone audiences worldwide. More than anything
else, Schmidt's journals constitute meticulous ethnographic
accounts telling the tragic story of the Indigenous Peoples of the
Eastern Guiana Highlands (northern Brazil and southern French
Guiana and Suriname). Schmidt's is a story that takes account of
the pathological mechanisms of colonialism in which Indigenous
Peoples and African Diaspora communities-both victims of
colonialism-vilify each other, falling privy to the
divide-and-conquer mentality mechanisms of colonialism. Moreover,
silenced in the original 1942 publication, Schmidt was sent on a
covert mission to determine if the Nazis had established bases and
airfields at the southern border of Suriname. Schmidt described the
precariousness of the Amazonian forest and the Indigenous Peoples
and African Diasporic people who lived and continue to live there,
drawing on language that foreshadows our current anthropic and
ecological concerns. Duin's profound knowledge of the history,
geography, and ecology of the region contextualizes Schmidt's
accounts in a new introduction and in his analysis and afterthought
forces us to take account of the catastrophe that is deforestation
and ethnocide of the Indigenous Peoples of Amazonian Guiana.
Lodewijk J. Schmidt (1898-1992) Saramaka from Gansee (modern
Saamaka spelling: Ganze; pronounced Ganze), upper Suriname river,
Suriname, South America. The Saramaka are one of the largest
African Diaspora communities in Suriname. He was educated by the
Herrnhutters in the school of the Moravian Church, and during the
mid-twentieth century he took part in several momentous
expeditions, such as the 1935-38 Border Expedition between Suriname
and Brazil. The present work is the annotated translation of his
accounts of a tri-partite expedition conducted between 1940 and
1942 at and across the southern border of Suriname. Renzo S. Duin
(1974) obtained a PhD in Anthropology from the University of
Florida (USA). Between 1996 and 2019 he conducted over 40 months of
fieldwork in the Guianas (Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana). His
research and publications cover a broad range of topics:
socio-political landscape studies; material culture; intangible
heritage; social memory; oral history; identity; ethno-astronomy;
historical ecology; decolonization; and the intertwining nature of
these topics, and as such offers an alternative to the twentieth
century model of tropical forest cultures in Amazonia.
The volume deals with the history of the concept of Arya and Aryans
in East and West, with the linguistic, textual and archaeological
evidence in South Asia and beyond. The terms Aryan and Non-Aryan,
corresponding to Sanskrit arya and anarya, can readily be shown
that among the literary traditions indigenous to South Asia have
always evoked strong responses, both positive and negative, as they
continue to do even today; but it can also be shown that while they
designate a boundary that is in some sense an ethnic one in the
Veda, in other literatures the distinction has a religious or moral
character. There have been reconsiderations and reinterpretations
of the terms within and outside of the academy. There is on the one
hand the established view of a migration of Aryans into South Asia;
on the other hand there are new voices calling the whole endeavour
fanciful, motivated by colonialism, "Orientalism", nationalism, or
something else. What is startling is that the criticism of the
status quo comes from completely different directions.
South Asia is home to more than a billion Hindus and half a billion
Muslims. But the region is also home to substantial Christian
communities, some dating almost to the earliest days of the faith.
The stories of South Asia's Christians are vital for understanding
the shifting contours of World Christianity, precisely because of
their history of interaction with members of these other religious
traditions. In this broad, accessible overview of South Asian
Christianity, Chandra Mallampalli shows how the faith has been
shaped by Christians' location between Hindus and Muslims.
Mallampalli begins with a discussion of South India's ancient
Thomas Christian tradition, which interacted with West Asia's
Persian Christians and thrived for centuries alongside their Hindu
and Muslim neighbours. He then underscores efforts of Roman
Catholic and Protestant missionaries to understand South Asian
societies for purposes of conversion. The publication of books and
tracts about other religions, interreligious debates, and
aggressive preaching were central to these endeavours, but rarely
succeeded at yielding converts. Instead, they played an important
role in producing a climate of religious competition, which
ultimately marginalized Christians in Hindu-, Muslim-, and
Buddhist-majority countries of post-colonial South Asia.
Ironically, the greatest response to Christianity came from poor
and oppressed Dalit (formerly "untouchable") and tribal communities
who were largely indifferent to missionary rhetoric. Their mass
conversions, poetry, theology, and embrace of Pentecostalism are
essential for understanding South Asian Christianity and its place
within World Christianity today.
This impressive and inspiring volume has as its modest origins the
documentation of a contemporary collecting project for the British
Museum. Informed by curators' critiques of uneven collections
accompanied by highly variable information, Sillitoe set out with
the ambition of recording the totality of the material culture of
the Wola of the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea, at a time
when the study of artefacts was neglected in university
anthropology departments. His achievements, presented in this
second edition of Made in Nuigini with a new contextualizing
preface and foreword, brought a new standard of ethnography to the
incipient revival of material culture studies, and opened up the
importance of close attention to technology and material
assemblages for anthropology. The `economy' fundamentally concerns
the material aspects of life, and as Sillitoe makes clear, Wola
attitudes and behaviour in this regard are radically different to
those of the West, with emphasis on `maker users' and egalitarian
access to resources going hand in hand with their stateless and
libertarian principles. The project begun in Made in Niugini, which
necessarily restricted itself to moveable artefacts, is continued
and extended by the newly published companion volume Built in
Niugini, which deals with immoveable structures and buildings. It
argues that the study of material constructions offers an
unparalleled opportunity to address fundamental philosophical
questions about tacit knowledge and the human condition.
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Modern Greece
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This volume provides an overview of the history of Greece, while
also focusing on contemporary Greece. Coverage includes such
21st-century challenges as the economic crisis and the influx of
immigrants and refugees that is changing the country's character.
This latest volume in the Understanding Modern Nations series
explores Greece, the birthplace of democracy and Western
philosophical ideas. This thematic encyclopedia is one-of-its kind
in its down-to-earth approach and comprehensive analysis of complex
issues now facing Greece. It analyzes such topics as government and
economics without jargon and brings a lighthearted approach to
chapters on such topics as etiquette (e.g., what gestures to avoid
so as not to offend), leisure (how Greeks celebrate holidays), and
language (the meaning of "opa"). No other book on Greece is
organized like this thematic encyclopedia, which has more than 200
entries on topics ranging from Archimedes to refugees. Unique to
this encyclopedia is a "Day in the Life" section that explores the
actions and thoughts of a high school student, a bank employee, a
farmer in a small village, and a retired couple, giving readers a
vivid snapshot of life in Greece. "Day in the Life" features
portray the specific daily activities of various people in Greece,
from teenagers to working adults in different fields, thereby
providing readers with insight into daily life in the country Key
terms related to the reading are defined in a Glossary appendix A
chart of national holidays provides at-a-glance information about
Greece's important religious and secular holidays Photos and
sidebars illuminate the text, helping to illustrate key topics and
allow students to dive more deeply into ideas Sidebars provide fun
facts and anecdotal information that help to engage readers
Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics re-examines the relationship
between Eurasia's past and its present by interrogating the social
construction of time and the archaeological production of culture.
Traditionally, archaeological research in Eurasia has focused on
assembling normative descriptions of monolithic cultures that
endure for millennia, largely immune to the forces of historical
change. The papers in this volume seek to document forces of
difference and contestation in the past that were produced in the
perceptible engagements of peoples, things, and places. The
research gathered here convincingly demonstrates that these forces
made social life in ancient Eurasia rather more fitful and its
publics considerably more unruly than archaeological research has
traditionally allowed. Contributors are Mikheil Abramishvili, Paula
N. Doumani Dupuy, Magnus Fiskesjoe, Hilary Gopnik, Emma Hite,
Jean-Luc Houle, Erik G. Johannesson, James A. Johnson, Lori
Khatchadourian, Ian Lindsay, Maureen E. Marshall, Mitchell S.
Rothman, Irina Shingiray, Adam T. Smith, Kathryn O. Weber and Xin
Wu.
Africa Reimagined is a passionately argued appeal for a rediscovery of our African identity. Going beyond the problems of a single country, Hlumelo Biko calls for a reorientation of values, on a continental scale, to suit the needs and priorities of Africans. Building on the premise that slavery, colonialism, imperialism and apartheid fundamentally unbalanced the values and indeed the very self-concept of Africans, he offers realistic steps to return to a more balanced Afro-centric identity.
Historically, African values were shaped by a sense of abundance, in material and mental terms, and by strong ties of community. The intrusion of religious, economic and legal systems imposed by conquerors, traders and missionaries upset this balance, and the African identity was subsumed by the values of the newcomers.
Biko shows how a reimagining of Africa can restore the sense of abundance and possibility, and what a rebirth of the continent on Pan-African lines might look like. This is not about the churn of the news cycle or party politics – although he identifies the political party as one of the most pernicious legacies of colonialism. Instead, drawing on latest research, he offers a practical, pragmatic vision anchored in the here and now.
By looking beyond identities and values imposed from outside, and transcending the divisions and frontiers imposed under colonialism, it should be possible for Africans to develop fully their skills, values and ingenuity, to build institutions that reflect African values, and to create wealth for the benefit of the continent as a whole.
Dialogue and the New Cosmopolitanism: Conversations with Edward
Demenchonok stands in opposition to the doctrine that might makes
right and that the purpose of politics is to establish domination
over others rather than justice and the good life for all. In the
pursuit of the latter goal, the book stresses the importance of
dialogue with participants who take seriously the views and
interests of others and who seek to reach a fair solution. In this
sense, the book supports the idea of cosmopolitanism, which-by
contrast to empire-involves multi-lateral cooperation and thus the
quest for a just cosmopolis. The international contributors to this
volume, with their varied perspectives, are all committed to this
same quest. Edited by Fred Dallmayr, the chapters take the form of
conversations with Edward Demenchonok, a well-known practitioner of
international and cross-cultural philosophy. The conversations are
structured in parts that stress the philosophical, anthropological,
cultural, and ethical dimensions of global dialogue. In our
conflicted world, it is inspiring to find so many authors from
different places agreeing on a shared vision.
We live in a globalized world in which a person in Burkina Faso can
identify with Star Wars heroes, and in which a New York trader
drinks the same Starbucks coffee as his Taiwanese counterpart. How
are individuals socialized in Rome, Bombay, and Tokyo? To answer
this question, a unique investigation has been carried out using
two scales of analysis usually tackled separately by global
studies: the scale of the cosmopolitan world and its global
narratives, imaginaries, iconographies; as well as the scale of
everyday life and socialization to otherness. This two-fold
perspective constitutes the innovative approach of this volume that
endeavors to address an operationalization of the cosmopolitan
perspective and reacts to current debates and new research
findings. With a Foreword by Natan Sznaider. This book was first
published in 2016 as Pluriel et commun. Sociologie d'un monde
cosmopolite by Les Presses de Sciences Po, Paris. Other editions:
the book is also published in Italian as Plurale e comune.
Sociologia di un mondo cosmopolita by Morlacchi editore, Perugia,
2018; and in Brazilian as Plural e comum. Sociologia de um mundo
cosmopolita by Edicoes Sesc, Sao Paulo, 2018.
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