Over the years, the dissemination of technology across society has increased exponentially. As technology continues to improve worldwide connectivity, positive relations between countries is paramount to achieving cultural and economic progression. The Handbook of Research on Sociopolitical Factors Impacting Economic Growth in Islamic Nations is a pivotal scholarly resource on the current factors impacting international relations between Islamic countries. Featuring extensive coverage on sociopolitical structures, economic sector analysis, sociocultural properties, and political policies, this publication is ideal for academicians, students, and researchers interested in discovering more about the current trends and techniques in the economic infrastructures of Islamic nations.

Hip-Hop Within and Without the Academy explores why hip-hop has become such a meaningful musical genre for so many musicians, artists, and fans around the world. Through multiple interviews with hip-hop emcees, DJs, and turntablists, the authors explore how these artists learn and what this music means in their everyday lives. This research reveals how hip-hop is used by many marginalized peoples around the world to help express their ideas and opinions, and even to teach the younger generation about their culture and tradition. In addition, this book dives into how hip-hop is currently being studied in higher education and academia. In the process, the authors reveal the difficulties inherent in bringing this kind of music into institutional contexts and acknowledge the conflicts that are present between hip-hop artists and academics who study the culture. Building on the notion of bringing hip-hop into educational settings, the book discusses how hip-hop is currently being used in public school settings, and how educators can include and embrace hip-hop s educational potential more fully while maintaining hip-hop s authenticity and appealing to young people. Ultimately, this book reveals how hip-hop s universal appeal can be harnessed to help make general and music education more meaningful for contemporary youth."

Red States examines how the recurrent use of Native American history in southern cultural and literary texts produces ideas of ""feeling southern"" that have consequences for how present-day conservative political discourses resonate across the United States. Assembling a newly constituted archive that includes theatrical and musical performances, pre-Civil War literatures, and contemporary novels, Gina Caison argues that notions of Native American identity in the U.S. South can be understood by tracing how audiences in the region came to imagine indigeneity through texts ranging from the nineteenth-century Cherokee Phoenix to the Mardi Gras Indian narratives of Treme. Policy issues such as Indian Removal, biracial segregation, land claim, and federal termination frequently correlate to the audience consumption of such texts, and therefore the reception histories of this archive can be tied to shifts in the political claims of--and political possibilities for--Native people of the U.S. South. This continual appeal to the political issues of Indian Country ultimately generates what we see as persistent discourses about southern exceptionality and counternationalism.

Scholars from various disciplines have used key concepts to grasp mobilities, but as of yet, a working vocabulary of these has not been fully developed. Given this context and inspired in part by Raymond Williams' Keywords (1976), this edited volume presents contributions that critically analyze mobility-related keywords: capital, cosmopolitanism, freedom, gender, immobility, infrastructure, motility, and regime. Each chapter provides an historical context, a critical analysis of how the keyword has been used in relation to mobility, and a conclusion that proposes future usage or research.

Looking at the ways in which the memory of slavery affects present-day relations in Amsterdam, this ethnographic account reveals a paradox: while there is growing official attention to the country's slavery past (monuments, festivals, ritual occasions), many interlocutors showed little interest in the topic. Developing the notion of "trace" as a seminal notion to explore this paradox, this book follows the issue of slavery in everyday realities and offers a fine-grained ethnography of how people refer to this past - often in almost unconscious ways - and weave it into their perceptions of present-day issues.

Every year, countless young adults from affluent, Western nations travel to Brazil to train in capoeira, the dance/martial art form that is one of the most visible strands of the Afro-Brazilian cultural tradition. In Search of Legitimacy explores why "first world" men and women leave behind their jobs, families, and friends to pursue a strenuous training regimen in a historically disparaged and marginalized practice. Using the concept of apprenticeship pilgrimage-studying with a local master at a historical point of origin-the author examines how non-Brazilian capoeiristas learn their art and claim legitimacy while navigating the complexities of wealth disparity, racial discrimination, and cultural appropriation.

In this book the late Jeffrey Clark subjects the history of colonialism among the Wiru of Papua New Guinea to a fresh and subtle examination. Colonized and colonizers alike are the focus of an analysis that draws upon theories of culture, temporality, discursive representation, and anthropology in the postcolonial era.

With great care and judicious inclusion of noteworthy material, Gunde has provided a one-stop reference on the contributions of the Chinese and their way of life. In one volume, the essence of China--past and present--is brilliantly captured. The extensive coverage includes chapters on the land, history, and people; thought and religion; literature and art; music and dance; food and clothing; architecture and housing; family and gender; and holidays and leisure activities. The volume is further enhanced by a chronology, guide to pronunciation, glossary, suggested readings, numerous photos, and volume map.

China is ever-important on the global stage as the world's second-largest and most populous country. Up-to-date and written with warmth, eloquence, and authority, "Culture and Customs of China" will be a popular source for students and the interested reader seeking to understand the modern people and culture in the context of an ancient history.

First published in 1994, this in-depth and long-term study presents an ethnography which is comprised of personal narratives of victims of domestic abuse and homelessness. Drawing on these stories, the book addresses a number of issues surrounding the provision of services for homeless women and domestic abuse victims, including the effectiveness of assistance programs and laws and potential solutions to the problems of both domestic abuse and homelessness. This book will be of interest to those studying social work, health care and mental health, sociology and women's studies.

During 1928-9 the renowned anthropologist Raymond Firth visited Tikopia, a small island in the east of Solomon Islands, for the first time. This book takes the collection he made as its subject, and explores how through its acquisition, Firth ceased to be a stranger and became a respected figure incorporated into Tikopia society. The objects were originally viewed by Firth as data in a scientific record of a culture, and evidence challenging the belief that complex economic transactions could only take place in a recognizable market economy. Elizabeth Bonshek, however, revisits the collection's documentation and the ethnography of Tikopia with a different intent in mind: to highlight the social relations the collecting process illuminates and to acknowledge Tikopia voices, past and present. She argues that Firth downplayed the impact of contact with outsiders - whalers, traders and missionaries calling for the abandonment of the Work of the Gods - yet this context is vital for understanding why local people actively contributed to his collecting and research. She follows the life of the collection after leaving the island in institutions that attributed different meanings to its significance, in a failed repatriation request and in a new role in the transmission of 'cultural heritage' along with Firth's writings. She concludes that Firth's exchanges of objects with other high-ranking men were culturally appropriate to the social values dominant in that time and place. Indeed, she suggests that while Firth was acquiring Tikopia artefacts, the Tikopia were perhaps acquiring him. On what ethical and economic terms does an anthropologist acquire other people's things? Collecting Tikopia deftly applies the insights of contemporary material culture studies to a historically important case. Bonshek coaxes ethnographic documents and museum artefacts to reveal how objects both materialize cultural identities over time and mediate social relations across worlds of difference. Professor Robert Foster, University of Rochester, President of the Society for Cultural Anthropology. Richly supported by documentation this skilful and insightful analysis reveals the complexity of cross-cultural interactions and highlights important concerns for the interpretation and management of cultural heritage in museum 'treasure places' worldwide. Dr Robin Torrence, Senior Principal Research Scientist, Anthropology Research, Australian Museum.

The use of visual art is relatively common in scientific literature, and academic publications sometimes reproduce famous paintings to attract potential readers. When used in this manner, artwork is just a marginal adornment. In The Painted Mind, however, each chapter is inspired by an artistic masterpiece. Throughout the book, Dr. Troisi highlights the artistic significance of each painting and introduces the reader to their creators' biographical stories. The Painted Mind has a scientific focus on the evolutionary analysis of human mind and behavior. Its discussion of emotions and behaviors integrates a variety of perspectives that can ultimately be reduced to the evolutionary distinction between proximate mechanisms and adaptive functions. Although Dr. Troisi is primarily a clinical psychiatrist, his eclectic scientific background-ranging from primate ethology to neuroscience, from behavioral biology to molecular genetics, and from Darwinian psychiatry to evolutionary psychology-gives his writing a unique perspective. In addition to integrating data and findings from each of these disciplines, the book's presentation of evolutionary theories of the human mind is also intermixed with lively discussion of individual cases. Some are clinical cases from Dr. Troisi's own psychiatric practice; others reference the psychological profiles of historical figures and fictional characters.

The longstanding European conception that Roma and non-Roma are separated by unambiguous socio-cultural distinctions has led to the construction of Roma as "non-belonging others." Challenging this conception, Textures of Belonging explores how Roma negotiate and feel belonging at the everyday level. Inspired by material culture, sensorial anthropology, and human geography approaches, this book uses ethnographic research to examine the role of domestic material forms and their sensorial qualities in nurturing connections with people and places that transcend socio-political boundaries.

At a time of rising global economic precarity and social inequality, the field of economic anthropology offers solutions through the study of local and contextualized economic practices. This book is made up of an exciting collection of succinct essays authored by leading scholars primarily from the field of economic anthropology, but also featuring contributions from sociology and history. The chapters engage with debates at the cutting edge of research on the topics of Eurasia, the anthropology of postsocialism and the embeddedness of economic practices.

This short volume is an ideal starting point for anyone wanting to learn about, arguably, the most famous anthropologist of the twentieth century. "Since her death, a steady drip of books about Mead, one of the most significant women in twentieth century social science and American society, has appeared, some interesting, many quite a bit less so. While Shankman's biography makes use of them, it nevertheless stands out among the better ones, not only for its well-informed and balanced view of Mead, but also for its concision."-Times Literary Supplement Tracing Mead's career as an ethnographer, as the early voice of public anthropology, and as a public figure, this elegantly written biography links the professional and personal sides of her career. The book looks at Mead's early career through the end of World War II, when she produced her most important anthropological works, as well as her role as a public figure in the post-war period, through the 1960s until her death in 1978. The criticisms of Mead are also discussed and analyzed. From the introduction: After her death, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.... On the other side of the world, Mead's passing was remembered in a very different context. On the island of Manus off the coast of New Guinea, the people of Pere village also mourned her death. Mead first studied the people of Pere in the late 1920s, returning in the 1950s with further visits thereafter. Over a span of five decades, she touched their lives, and they touched hers. Such was Mead's stature that they commemorated her death with a ceremony befitting a great leader.

Using some of his landmark publications on kinship, along with a new introduction, chapter and conclusion, Robert Parkin discusses here the changes in kinship terminologies and marriage practices, as well as the dialectics between them. The chapters also focus on a suggested trajectory, linking South Asia and Europe and the specific question of the status of Crow-Omaha systems. The collection culminates in the argument that, whereas marriage systems and practices seem infinitely varied when examined from a very close perspective, the terminologies that accompany them are much more restricted.

Social scientists have generally remained impervious to a major economic and cultural adaptation--namely, the peripatetic lifestyle--although this adaptation has been an integral part of developments within the socioeconomic and cultural networks that social scientists study. This lack of interest derives perhaps from the ambiguous integration of peripatetics into these networks as well as the often negatively charged constructs -Gypsies, outsiders, or marginal others--imposed on peripatetics by dominant cultures. As peddlers of the strange to borrow a phrase from Clifford Geertz, peripatetics are situated at the fringes of their host societies and many students of the social ecological and behavioral sciences still continue to overlook the roles of peripatetic peoples.

This collection presents the latest in cross-cultural comparative research on the nature of peripatetic peoples. Contributors examine the place of peripatetic peoples in the everyday lives and diverse cognitive maps of client communities. Relying on Georg Simmel's construct of The Stranger, the contributors to this volume suggest that peripatetic peoples are simultaneously outsiders and insiders, but most important, they are entrepreneurial middlemen traders par excellence. All told, the essays provoke vital reassessments of the anthropological focus on the role and status of cultural brokers and go-betweens in political, economic, and social interactions.

The life and career of one of anthropology's most important ancestors, William Robertson Smith in the context of the history of anthropology. William Robertson Smith's influence on anthropology ranged from his relationship with John Ferguson McLennan, to advising James George Frazer to write about "Totem" and "Taboo" for the Encyclopaedia Britannica that he edited. This biography places a special emphasis on the notes and observations from his travels to Arabia, as well as on his influence on the representatives of the "Myth and Ritual School." With his discussion of myth and ritual, Smith influenced generations of scholars, and his insistence on the connection between the people, their God, and the land they inhabited inspired many of the concepts later developed by Emile Durkheim. "This is a clear, well-informed and interesting account of Robertson Smith's central ideas. The theories are set in the context of debates of the day, and their influence on anthropology and bible studies is discussed. An original and fascinating section reviews Robertson Smith's field work in the Middle East, which was much more extensive and intensive than is, I think, generally appreciated."-Adam Kuper, London School of Economics From the introduction: Although respected and studied, especially since the 1990s, Smith has a somewhat paradoxical position in the history of social and cultural anthropology. Anthropologists educated in the twentieth century admire him, but many contemporary scholars are not quite sure what to make of him.