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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > Social & cultural anthropology > General
From the origins of the city in the mid-nineteenth century to the
beginning of World War II, Seattle's urban workforce consisted
overwhelmingly of migrant laborers who powered the seasonal,
extractive economy of the Pacific Northwest. Though the city
benefitted from this mobile labor force-consisting largely of
Indigenous peoples and Asian migrants-municipal authorities,
elites, and reformers continually depicted these workers and the
spaces they inhabited as troublesome and as impediments to urban
progress. Today the physical landscape bears little evidence of
their historical presence in the city. Tracing histories from
unheralded sites such as labor camps, lumber towns, lodging houses,
and so-called slums, Seattle from the Margins shows how migrant
laborers worked alongside each other, competed over jobs, and
forged unexpected alliances within the marine and coastal spaces of
the Puget Sound. By uncovering the historical presence of
marginalized groups and asserting their significance in the
development of the city, Megan Asaka offers a deeper understanding
of Seattle's complex past.
Exploring the interactions of the Buddhist world with the
dominant cultures of Iran in pre- and post-Islamic times, this book
demonstrates that the traces and cross-influences of Buddhism have
brought the material and spiritual culture of Iran to its present
state. Even after the term 'Buddhism' was eradicated from the
literary and popular languages of the region, it has continued to
have a significant impact on the culture as a whole. In the course
of its history, Iranian culture adopted and assimilated a system of
Buddhist art, iconography, religious symbolism, literature, and
asceticism due to the open border of eastern Iran with the Buddhist
regions, and the resultant intermingling of the two worlds.
There has been a widespread fascination with age-dissimilar couples
in recent years. This book examines how the romantic relationships
of these couples are understood. Based on qualitative research,
McKenzie investigates notions of autonomy, relatedness,
contradiction, and change in age-dissimilar relationships and
romantic love.
Authenticity in our globalized world is a paradox: culture flows
across borders with unprecedented ease while consumers demand the
real thing like never before. This collection examines how
authenticity relates to cultural products under globalization,
looking closely at how a cuisine, musical genre, or artifact
attains its aura of genuineness, of originality, when almost all
traditional cultural products are invented in a certain time and
place. The contributors in this volume identify how the aura - the
authority of the original object - is generated in the first place.
The methodologies and disciplines come from a variety of sources:
cultural studies, qualitative sociology, musicology, literary
studies, and beyond.
This book sets out to define and consolidate the field of
bioinformation studies in its transnational and global dimensions,
drawing on debates in science and technology studies, anthropology
and sociology. It provides situated analyses of bioinformation
journeys across domains and spheres of interpretation. As
unprecedented amounts of data relating to biological processes and
lives are collected, aggregated, traded and exchanged,
infrastructural systems and machine learners produce real
consequences as they turn indeterminate data into actionable
decisions for states, companies, scientific researchers and
consumers. Bioinformation accrues multiple values as it transverses
multiple registers and domains, and as it is transformed from
bodies to becoming a subject of analysis tied to particular social
relations, promises, desires and futures. The volume harnesses the
anthropological sensibility for situated, fine-grained,
ethnographically grounded analysis to develop an interdisciplinary
dialogue on the conceptual, political, social and ethical
dimensions posed by bioinformation.
Thirty years after the collapse of Communism, and at a time of
increasing anti-migrant and anti-Roma sentiment, this book analyses
how Roma identity is expressed in contemporary Europe. From
backgrounds ranging from political theory, postcolonial, cultural
and gender studies to art history, feminist critique and
anthropology, the contributors reflect on the extent to which a
politics of identity regarding historically disadvantaged,
racialized minorities such as the Roma can still be legitimately
articulated.
There are beastly forces in Belize. Forces that are actively
involved in making paradise impossible. On the Nervous Edge of an
Impossible Paradise is a collection of seven stories about local
lives in the fictional village of Wallaceville. They turn rogue in
the face of runaway forces that take the form and figure of a
Belize beast-time, which can appear as a comic mishap, social ruin,
tragic excess, or wild guesses. Inciting the affective politics of
life in the region, this fable of emergence evokes the unnerving
uncertainties of life in the tourist state of Belize.
In analyzing the obstacles to democratization in post- independence
Africa, Mahmood Mamdani offers a bold, insightful account of
colonialism's legacy-a bifurcated power that mediated racial
domination through tribally organized local authorities,
reproducing racial identity in citizens and ethnic identity in
subjects. Many writers have understood colonial rule as either
"direct" (French) or "indirect" (British), with a third
variant-apartheid-as exceptional. This benign terminology, Mamdani
shows, masks the fact that these were actually variants of a
despotism. While direct rule denied rights to subjects on racial
grounds, indirect rule incorporated them into a "customary" mode of
rule, with state-appointed Native Authorities defining custom. By
tapping authoritarian possibilities in culture, and by giving
culture an authoritarian bent, indirect rule (decentralized
despotism) set the pace for Africa; the French followed suit by
changing from direct to indirect administration, while apartheid
emerged relatively later. Apartheid, Mamdani shows, was actually
the generic form of the colonial state in Africa. Through case
studies of rural (Uganda) and urban (South Africa) resistance
movements, we learn how these institutional features fragment
resistance and how states tend to play off reform in one sector
against repression in the other. Reforming a power that
institutionally enforces tension between town and country, and
between ethnicities, is the key challenge for anyone interested in
democratic reform in Africa.
Communication in its most basic form--the sending of signals and
exchange of messages within and between organisms--is the heart of
evolution. From the earliest life-forms to "Homo sapiens," the
great chain of communication drives the evolutionary process and is
the indispensable component of human culture.
That is the central message of this unique perspective on both the
biological evolution of life and the human development of culture.
The book explores the totality of communication processes that
create and sustain biological equilibrium and social stability. The
authors argue that this ubiquitous connectivity is the elemental
unity of life.
Introducing a new subdiscipline--evolutionary communication--the
authors analyze the core domains of life--sheer survival, sex,
culture, morality, religion, and technological change--as
communications phenomena. What emerges from their analysis is a
brilliant interpretation of life interconnected through
communication from the basic molecular level to the most
sophisticated manifestations of culture.
Challenging the boundaries of conventional approaches to cultural
analysis, this is an original and engaging view of evolution and an
encouraging prognosis for our collective future.
This book presents a long-term study in genetic isolates of
indigenous small ethnics of Dagestan, located in the North-East
part of Caucasus in Russia. Dagestan is characterized by extreme
cultural and linguistic differences in a small geographic area and
contains 26 indigenous ethnic groups. According to archeological
data these indigenous highland ethnics have been living in the same
area for more than ten thousand years. Our long-term
population-genetic study of Dagestan indigenous ethnic groups
indicates their close relation to each other and suggests that they
evolved from one common ancestral meta-population. Dagestan has an
extremely high genetic diversity between ethnic populations and a
low genetic diversity within them. Such genetic isolates are
exceptional resources for the detection of susceptibility genes for
complex diseases because of the reduction in genetic and clinical
heterogeneity. The founder effect and gene drift in these primary
isolates may have caused aggregation of specific haplotypes with
limited numbers of pathogenic alleles and loci in some isolates
relative to others. The book presents a study in four ethnically
and demographically diverse genetic isolates with aggregation of
schizophrenia that we ascertained within our Dagestan Genetic
Heritage Research Project. The results obtained support the notion
that mapping genes of any complex disease (e.g., schizophrenia) in
demographically older genetic isolates may be more time and cost
effective due to their high clinical and genetic homogeneity, in
comparison with demographically younger isolates, especially with
genetically heterogeneous outbred populations.
This book is a detailed ethnography of traditional, predominantly
upper-caste, sequestered Hindu women in the temple town of
Bhubaneswar in Odisha, a state in eastern India. It elaborates on a
distinctive paradigm of domesticity and explicates a particular
model of human wellbeing among this category. Part of the growing
literature in "third wave" or "multicultural feminism", it seeks to
broaden the parameters of feminist discourse by going beyond
questions of individual liberty or gender equality to examine the
potential for female empowerment that exists in the context of
these women's lives. Its aims are twofold: first, to represent
these women in ways that they themselves would recognize; and,
second, to interpret, rather than merely "translate", the beliefs
and practices of the temple town such that their underlying logic
becomes readily accessible to readers, even those unfamiliar with
the Hindu world.
Urban renewal has been the dominant approach to revitalizing
industrialized communities that fall into decline. A national,
community-based organization, the Skillman Foundation sought to
engage in a joint effort with the University of Michigan's School
of Social Work to bring six neighborhoods in one such declining
urban center, Detroit, back to positions of strength and national
leadership. A Twenty-First Century Approach to Community Change
introduces readers to the basis for the Foundation's solicitation
of social work expertise and the social context within which the
work of technical assistance began. Building on research, the
authors introduce the theory and practice knowledge of earlier
scholars, including the conduct of needs assessments at multiple
levels, engagement of community members in identifying
problem-solving strategies, assistance in developing community
goals, and implementation of social work field instruction
opportunities. Lessons learned and challenges are described as they
played out in the process of creating partnerships for the
Foundation with community leaders, engaging and maintaining youth
involvement, managing roles and relationships with multiple
partners recruited by the Foundation for their specialized
expertise, and ultimately conducting the work of technical
assistance within a context of increasing influence of the city's
surrounding systems (political, economic, educational, and social).
Readers will especially note the role of technical assistance in an
evolving theory of change.
"Spirits without Borders is an ethnographic study of the
transnational and multicultural expansion of Vietnam's Mother
Goddess Religion and its spirit possession ritual. The product of
collaborative research by an American anthropologist and a
Vietnamese folklorist, the work explores how and why the ritual
spread from Vietnam to the US and back again, the impact of ritual
transnationalism in both countries, and the current spread of the
ritual to non-Vietnamese in the USA"--
Uncovers the systemic problems that expose poor communities to
environmental hazards From St. Louis to New Orleans, from Baltimore
to Oklahoma City, there are poor and minority neighborhoods so
beset by pollution that just living in them can be hazardous to
your health. Due to entrenched segregation, zoning ordinances that
privilege wealthier communities, or because businesses have found
the 'paths of least resistance,' there are many hazardous waste and
toxic facilities in these communities, leading residents to
experience health and wellness problems on top of the race and
class discrimination most already experience. Taking stock of the
recent environmental justice scholarship, Toxic Communities
examines the connections among residential segregation, zoning, and
exposure to environmental hazards. Renowned environmental
sociologist Dorceta Taylor focuses on the locations of hazardous
facilities in low-income and minority communities and shows how
they have been dumped on, contaminated and exposed. Drawing on an
array of historical and contemporary case studies from across the
country, Taylor explores controversies over racially-motivated
decisions in zoning laws, eminent domain, government regulation (or
lack thereof), and urban renewal. She provides a comprehensive
overview of the debate over whether or not there is a link between
environmental transgressions and discrimination, drawing a clear
picture of the state of the environmental justice field today and
where it is going. In doing so, she introduces new concepts and
theories for understanding environmental racism that will be
essential for environmental justice scholars. A fascinating
landmark study, Toxic Communities greatly contributes to the study
of race, the environment, and space in the contemporary United
States.
Tongan barkcloth, made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry
tree, still features lavishly in Polynesian ceremonies all over the
world. Yet despite the attention paid to this textile by
anthropologists and art historians alike, little is known about its
history. Providing a unique insight into Polynesian material
culture, this book explores barkcloth's rich cultural history, and
argues that its manufacture, decoration and use are vehicles of
creativity and female agency. Based on twelve years of extensive
ethnographic and archival research, the book uncovers stories of
ceremony, gender, the senses, religion and nationhood, from the
17th century up to the present-day. Placing the materiality of
textiles at the heart of Tongan culture, Veys reveals not only how
barkcloth was and continues to be made, but also how it defines
what it means to be Tongan. Extending the study to explore the
place of barkcloth in the European imagination, she examines
international museum collections of Tongan barkcloth, from the UK
and Italy to Switzerland and the USA, addressing the bias of the
European 'gaze' and challenging traditional gendered understandings
of the cloth. A nuanced narrative of past and present barkcloth
manufacture, designs and use, Unwrapping Tongan Barkcloth
demonstrates the importance of the textile to both historical and
contemporary Polynesian culture.
This wide-ranging resource uses evidence-based documentation to
examine claims and beliefs-and provide the facts-about sexual
assault and harassment and other forms of sexual violence in the
United States. Each title in the Contemporary Debates series
examines the veracity of controversial claims or beliefs
surrounding a major political/cultural issue in the United States.
They do so to give readers a clear and unbiased understanding of
current issues by informing them about falsehoods, half-truths, and
misconceptions-and confirming the factual validity of other
assertions-that have gained traction in America's political and
cultural discourse. Ultimately, this series has been crafted to
give readers the tools for a fuller understanding of issues,
events, policies, and laws that occupy center stage in American
life and politics. This volume in the series addresses the issue of
sexual violence in the U.S. It includes chapters devoted to
quantifying the extent of the problems of sexual assault and
harassment; demographic groups most likely to experience sexual
violence; physical, emotional, and societal impacts of sexual
assault; how investigations of sex-related charges are conducted;
laws and policies pertaining to both victims and offenders; and
sexual violence prevention and response services outside of the
criminal justice system. Features an easy-to-navigate
question-and-answer format Uses quantifiable data from respected
sources as the foundation for examining every issue Provides
readers with leads to conduct further research in extensive Further
Reading sections for each entry Examines claims and positions held
by individuals and groups of all political backgrounds and
ideologies
Volta Redonda is a Brazilian steel town founded in the 1940s by
dictator Getulio Vargas on an ex-coffee valley as a powerful symbol
of Brazilian modernization. The city's economy, and consequently
its citizen's lives, revolves around the Companha Siderurgica
Nacional (CSN), the biggest industrial complex in Latin America.
Although the glory days of the CSN have long passed, the company
still controls life in Volta Redonda today, creating as much
dispossession as wealth for the community. Brazilian Steel Town
tells the story of the people tied to this ailing giant - of their
fears, hopes, and everyday struggles.
Focussing ethnographically on private-sector maternity care in
South Africa, Privileges of Birth looks at the ways healthcare and
childbirth are shaped by South Africa's racialised history. Birth
is one of the most medicalised aspects of the lifecycle across all
sectors of society, and there is deep division between what the
privileged can afford compared with the rest of the population.
Examining the ethics of care in midwife-attended birth, the author
situates the argument in the context of a growing literature on
care in anthropological and feminist scholarship, offering a unique
account of birthing care in the context of elite care services.
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