Essays examining the Ostrogoths, the richest and most powerful Germanic tribe to emerge after the fall of the Roman Empire, and their role in the evolution of medieval Europe. Among the Germanic tribes who ruled the fragments of the western Roman empire, the Ostrogoths enjoyed the greatest wealth and splendour. Conquering Italy itself from the warlord Odoacer, they inherited the buildings, traditions, and administrative apparatus of imperial rule, and revived the empire in Spain, southern Gaul and the northwest Balkans. Aspects of their history and empire examined here include their ethnic identity in Italy and relations (as Asian heretics) with the Catholic Church; the vicissitudes of sixth century Rome, the monuments of the period in Ravenna; their influence on the economy, settlements, and social structures throughout Italy; the interweaving of society and administration with their internal and external politics; and the history of their Spanish empire. There are also studies of the Goths in eastern Europe before the emergence of the Ostrogoths, and under Hunnic rule. The whole significantly advances an understanding of how medieval Europe evolved from the combination of Roman civilisation with Germanic outsiders. Contributors: S. BARNISH, G.P. BROGLIO, T.S. BROWN, P.C. DIAZ, D.H. GREEN, W. HAUBRICHS, P. HEATHER, M. KAZANSKI, A. KOKOWSKI, F. MARAZZI, G. NOYE, I. WOOD

Drawing on cultural anthropology and cultural studies, this book sheds new light on the everyday politics of heritage and memory by illuminating local, everyday engagements with Germanness through heritage fetishism, claims to hometown belonging, and the performative appropriation of cultural property.

Why does one society survive while others perish? When two cultures come into contact, how do exploitation, violence, and terror arise? Interested in the survival of various cultures in the face of encroaching white civilization, Peter Elsass has studied five separate groups in Venezuela and Colombia and documented their successes and failures as they struggle to remain independent. This book has broad implications for anyone working with minority populations.

Animal-herding (pastoralism) is a subsistence strategy that is practised by populations of low-producing ecosystems worldwide. Increasingly, it is vanishing due to land pressure and ecological degradation, particularly in the developing world. While previous books have examined the social, cultural and economic dimensions of the pastoral way of life, there has been little systematic examination of the biology and health of pastoral groups. The Human Biology of Pastoral Populations fills this gap by drawing together our knowledge of the biology, population structure and ecology of herding populations. It investigates how pastoral populations adapt to limited and variable food availability, the implications of the herding way of life for reproductive patterns, population structure and genetic diversity and the impacts of ongoing social and ecological changes on the health and well-being of these populations. This volume will be of broad interest to scholars in anthropology, human biology, genetics and demography.

Thomas Csordas's eloquent analysis of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal answers one of the primary callings of anthropology: to stimulate critical reflection by making the exotic seem familiar and the familiar appear strange. Csordas describes the movement's internal diversity and traces its development and expansion across 30 years. He offers insights into the contemporary nature of rationality, the transformation of space and time in Charismatic daily life, gender discipline, the blurring of boundaries between ritual and everyday life, the sense of community forged through shared ritual participation, and the creativity of language and metaphor in prophetic utterance. Charisma, Csordas proposes, is a collective self-process, located not in the personality of a leader, but in the rhetorical resources mobilized by participants in ritual performance. His examination of ritual language and ritual performance illuminates this theory in relation to the postmodern condition of culture.

This book is unique in its approach in that each chapter covers women in their everyday lives and the problems, which concern them. Until now, ethnographic research has almost always been carried out with the help of the male population and as a result the picture that has emerged has been largely the image, which the men, and the men alone, have of their society. Originally published in 1963.

The first book entirely devoted to the practice and ethics of the emerging methodology of ethnocinema, this volume brings vividly to life not only the Sudanese young women with whom the author has collaborated for two years, but her own struggles as researcher, teacher and intercultural fellow traveller. A superb resource for anyone interested in conducting their own ethnocinema research project, the contents will be welcomed too by classroom teachers who recognise a need for alternative pedagogies within diverse classrooms, and peripatetic researchers and students who search for authentic representations of their own experiences within the academy and education system.

With access to online filmed material included, this publication is part handbook and part theoretical treatise framing a new creative ethnographic methodology. One of a rare breed of books covering the visual research techniques that are gaining traction in the academic community, it also introduces ground-breaking intercultural research into Sudanese women who have resettled in the West. Functional as pedagogic material in university and high school classrooms, this package has broad appeal in the academic and educational sectors.

""It is innovative, gutsy, practical, useful, critical and follows principles of socially just research."
"Prof Carolyn Ellis, University of Southern Florida, USA

""This is an ambitious and passionate work. The author has taken on the task not only of exploring the difficult experiences of a group of young refugee women but has also reflected bravely on her own personal and professional life.""Assoc Prof Greg Noble, University of Western Sydney, Australia

""This is an ambitious and passionate work. The author has taken on the task not only of exploring the difficult experiences of a group of young refugee women but has also reflected bravely on her own personal and professional life."
"Assoc Prof Greg Noble, University of Western Sydney, Australia

""This is an ambitious and passionate work. The author has taken on the task not only of exploring the difficult experiences of a group of young refugee women but has also reflected bravely on her own personal and professional life."
"Assoc Prof Greg Noble, University of Western Sydney, Australia

""It is innovative, gutsy, practical, useful, critical and follows principles of socially just research."
"Prof Carolyn Ellis, University of Southern Florida, USA

""This is an ambitious and passionate work. The author has taken on the task not only of exploring the difficult experiences of a group of young refugee women but has also reflected bravely on her own personal and professional life."
"Assoc Prof Greg Noble, University of Western Sydney, Australia

""This is an ambitious and passionate work. The author has taken on the task not only of exploring the difficult experiences of a group of young refugee women but has also reflected bravely on her own personal and professional life."
"Assoc Prof Greg Noble, University of Western Sydney, Australia

""This is an ambitious and passionate work. The author has taken on the task not only of exploring the difficult experiences of a group of young refugee women but has also reflected bravely on her own personal and professional life."
"Assoc Prof Greg Noble, University of Western Sydney, Australia"

Latah, the Malayan hyperstartle pattern, has fascinated Western observers since the late nineteenth century and is widely regarded as a 'culture-bound syndrome'. Dr Winzeler critically reviews the literature on the subject, and presents new ethnographic information based on his own fieldwork in Malaya and Borneo. He considers the biological and psychological hypotheses that have been proposed to account for latah, and explains the ways in which local people understand it. Arguing that latah has specific social functions, he concludes that it is not appropriate to regard it as an 'illness' or 'syndrome'.

This book is an attempt to apply ecological theories of competition and niche overlap to explain instances of ethnic collective action that occurred in American society around the turn of the nineteenth century. It uses event-history methods of analysis to explore models of racial and ethnic confrontations, riots, violence, protest marches, and other forms of public and collective activity organized around ethnic and racial boundaries. My research strategy which I develop in the pages that follow involved a constant interchange with my research group of graduate students, undergraduates, and colleagues.

An appreciation of the genetic and environmental determinants of tooth size is fundamental to an understanding of the metric variation of teeth in humans. Thus, besides imparting a sound knowledge of the theories of dental inheritance, development and evolution, this book has an important role in demonstrating the diverse practical applications of odontometrics. A particular feature of the book is the inclusion of numerous tables which bring together a vast body of information on tooth size in different population groups. Students of oral biology, orthodontics, physical anthropology, human biology, forensic science and archaeology will find this work of great value as a text and reference source. As Professor Phillip Tobias writes in the foreword, 'The breadth of Dr Kieser's reading, and his mastery of a staggering array of anthropological, evolutionary, embryological, orthodontic and statistical concepts shine through every page of this work'.

This special symposium volume of the SSHB explores the biological effects of human isolation and migration, and how the situations to which they give rise help to elucidate a variety of biological problems, ranging from evolutionary change to disease etiology. The majority of the case studies presented here are by Asian investigators, and provide a uniquely accessible source of information. Besides documenting the results, the book illustrates the different methods employed in such studies. It will be invaluable to those contemplating similar investigations elsewhere, and will be of interest to researchers in a range of disciplines including epidemiology, clinical medicine, demography, anthropology, genetics and evolutionary biology.

It has been half a century since the publication of An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal's seminal work on race in America. This book is an attempt to contribute to a fresh understanding of this dilemma by viewing the issues of race as they are now, not as they were a generation or so ago.

A pioneering piece of ethnohistory, The Hollow Crown uses a variety of interdisciplinary means to reconstruct the sociocultural history of a warrior polity in south India between the fourteenth and the twentieth centuries. Central to the book is the belief that comparative sociology has systematically denied the importance of the Indian state and obscured the political basis of Indian society by representing caste as fundamentally a religious system. In reconstructing the history of the polity that eventually became the colonial princely state of Pudukkottai, Dr Dirks therefore raises a whole series of issues concerning the methodologies of history and anthropology, the character of Tamil kingship and social organization, the relationship between politics and ritual, the impact of colonialism and 'modernization', and the dynamics of the whole last millennium of south Indian history.

Anthropologists are increasingly pressurised to formulate field methods for teaching. Unlike many hypothesis-driven ethnographic texts, this book is designed with the specific needs of the anthropology student and field researcher in mind, with particular emphasis on the core anthropological method: long term participant observation. "Anthropological Practice" explores fieldwork experiences unique to anthropology, and provides the context by which to explain and develop practice-based and open-ended methodology. It draws on dialogues with over twenty established and younger anthropologists, whose fieldwork spans the late 1960s to the present day, taking place in locations as diverse as Europe, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, Iran, Afghanistan, North and South America.
Revealing first-hand and hitherto unrecorded aspects of fieldwork, "Anthropological Practice" provides critical, systematic ways to enhance anthropological and alternative knowledge. It is an essential text for anthropology students and researchers, and for all disciplines concerned with ethnography.
Interviewees include: Paul Clough, Roy Gigengack, Louise de la Gorgendiere, Suzette Heald, Michael Herzfeld, Signe Howell, Felicia Hughes-Freeland, Ignacy Marek Kaminski, Margaret Kenna, Raquel Alonso Lopez, Malcolm Mcleod, Brian Morris, Helene Neveu Kringelbach, Akira Okazaki, Joanna Overing, Jonathan Parry, Carol Silverman, Mohammad Talib, Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper, Sue Wright, Helena Wulff, Joseba Zulaika.

Anthropologists are increasingly pressurised to formulate field methods for teaching. Unlike many hypothesis-driven ethnographic texts, this book is designed with the specific needs of the anthropology student and field researcher in mind, with particular emphasis on the core anthropological method: long term participant observation. "Anthropological Practice" explores fieldwork experiences unique to anthropology, and provides the context by which to explain and develop practice-based and open-ended methodology. It draws on dialogues with over twenty established and younger anthropologists, whose fieldwork spans the late 1960s to the present day, taking place in locations as diverse as Europe, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, Iran, Afghanistan, North and South America.
Revealing first-hand and hitherto unrecorded aspects of fieldwork, "Anthropological Practice" provides critical, systematic ways to enhance anthropological and alternative knowledge. It is an essential text for anthropology students and researchers, and for all disciplines concerned with ethnography.
Interviewees include: Paul Clough, Roy Gigengack, Louise de la Gorgendiere, Suzette Heald, Michael Herzfeld, Signe Howell, Felicia Hughes-Freeland, Ignacy Marek Kaminski, Margaret Kenna, Raquel Alonso Lopez, Malcolm Mcleod, Brian Morris, Helene Neveu Kringelbach, Akira Okazaki, Joanna Overing, Jonathan Parry, Carol Silverman, Mohammad Talib, Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper, Sue Wright, Helena Wulff, Joseba Zulaika.

A detailed study of the political organization in an important area of Tanzania shortly before Independence. Unyamwezi covers 35,000 square miles and has a population of 400,000. Dr Abrahams outlines the social and economic framework and examines the origins of the modern political system. He then discusses the internal organization of Nyamwezi chiefdoms and villages and the emergence of national politics. The theoretical and comparative implications of the study, which is based on extensive field work in the area, are also considered.

In this study, Peter Fry describes and analyses spirit-mediumship amongst a community of Zezuru people living near Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He examines the belief system which underpins spirit-mediumship and the basis of the mediums' authority. He pays special attention to the way in which religious beliefs are used politically in specific social situations ranging from village disputes to issues of national importance. Instead of portraying the spirits and their mediums as a fixed and stable hierarchy, Peter Fry stresses the dynamics of a religious system which changes over time in relation to changing external factors and to the ability of individual competing mediums to build up followings by responding to and moulding consensus. The book makes comparisons between the religious systems of the Zezuru and the Valley Korekore, both subgroups of Shona-speaking peoples, and concludes by discussing the role of Zezuru mediums in the context of the confrontation between black and white nationalisms. The spirit-mediums, opposed structurally to the white mission churches, are seen as vehicles of black cultural nationalism in the area.

Dr Schildkrout probes questions of ethnicity, religion, cultural change and the African national identity in this study of the immigrant community of Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city. She compares first- and second-generation immigrants - those born in their rural homelands, and those born in Ghana - in terms of their orientation to politics, to kinship, and to community participation. The author explores the meaning of ethnic identity for rural- and urban-born immigrants, and establishes certain generalizations about ethnicity based on these comparisons. The book discusses the issues of migration, particularly interregional migration; the position of the 'stranger'; questions of cultural change in modern Africa; the 'generational gap' in the African context; the questions of citizenship and national identity in Africa today, and the emergence of new identities, regional, national and religious. This book has importance not only as a local case study that gives a full description of West African urban life, but also as a theoretical reconsideration of ethnicity that has application outside the African context.

This account of an East African religion as it was during the 1950s discusses a variety of issues in the study of religion, within the context of case materials and other field data. The Taita people of southern Kenya called their religion Butasi after its central act which combined utterance with spraying-out of liquid from the mouth. Taking up the central theme of mystical anger, Dr Harris explores the social and cultural aspects of doctrines and rituals. She shows that the interpretation and shaping of the experience of misfortune occurred in religious interaction: between living humans having mystical attributes, and between them and person-like mystical agencies. Many of the concepts, practices, themes and elements discussed have been reported for other African religions, often with little comment or analysis. Here they are brought together, explored, and related to one another. The result is a many-sided, yet integrated picture of a single religion. Presented in clear and non-technical language, the study serves to illuminate many religions throughout the world.

The growth of ???new genetics??? has dramatically increased our understanding of health, diseases and the body. Anthropologists argue that these scientific advances have had far-reaching social and cultural implications, radically changing our self-understanding and perception of what it means to be human; that we have become ???biomedicalized???, fragmented and commodified - redefining our notions of citizenship, social relations, family and identity. This book shows how anthropology can contribute to and challenge the ways we have come to understand genetic issues. Exploring a range of issues and case studies in genetic research, it provides an ethnographic ???reality-check???, arguing that we must look beyond the ???gene-centrism??? of genetic codes, family trees and insular populations, to explore their wider cultural, ethical and philosophical implications. Including coverage of the controversial and widely discussed Icelandic Health Sector Database, this accessible survey will be welcomed by graduate students and researchers in social anthropology, human genetics and biotechnology.

Research on the evolution of higher intelligence rarely combines data from fields as diverse as paleontology and psychology. In this volume we seek to do just that, synthesizing the approaches of hominoid cognition, psychology, language studies, ecology, evolution, paleoecology and systematics toward an understanding of great ape intelligence. Leading scholars from all these fields have been asked to evaluate the manner in which each of their topics of research inform our understanding of the evolution of intelligence in great apes and humans. The ideas thus assembled represent a comprehensive survey of the various causes and consequences of cognitive evolution in great apes. The Evolution of Thought will therefore be an essential reference for graduate students and researchers in evolutionary psychology, paleoanthropology and primatology.

Over ten years ago, Benjamin Fain, a physicist now living in Tel Aviv, attempted to hold a conference on Jewish culture in Moscow, an effort that was foiled by the KGB. Many of the participants were eventually able to flee, most emigrating to Israel. In this book, these distinguished scholars and others from around the world present their personal and professional views of Jewish culture in the Soviet Union.
The book explores a wide range of topics, including underground literature, religious revival, and the rise of a national Jewish consciousness. Some writers claim that the refuseniks are not the leaders of the Soviet Jews but rather an isolated minority, with most Jews being assimilated, acculturated, and uninterested in fleeing. Other essayists look at the ambivalent role traditionally played by the Soviet Union in both allowing some forms of cultural expression and suppressing any efforts at individual religious practice. Others explore the revival of Jewish culture as instanced by underground teaching of Hebrew. A major debate involves the Nature of Jewish emigration, whether the Jews will go to Israel or to America.

In this field there has been an explosion of information generated by scientific research. One of the beneficiaries of this has been the study of morphology, where new techniques and analyses have led to insights into a wide range of topics. Advances in genetics, histology, microstructure, biomechanics and morphometrics have allowed researchers to view teeth from alternative perspectives. However, there has been little communication between researchers in the different fields of dental research. This book brings together overviews on a wide range of dental topics linking genes, molecules and developmental mechanisms within an evolutionary framework. Written by the leading experts in the field, this book will stimulate co-operative research in fields as diverse as paleontology, molecular biology, developmental biology and functional morphology.

This study of the 1870 and 1890 Ghost Dance movements among North American Indians offers an innovative theory about why these movements arose when they did. Emphasizing the demographic situation of American Indians prior to the movements, Professor Thornton argues that the Ghost Dances were deliberate efforts to accomplish a demographic revitalization of American Indians following their virtual collapse. By joining the movements, he contends, tribes sought to assure survival by increasing their numbers through returning the dead to life. Thornton supports this thesis empirically by closely examining the historical context of the two movements and by assessing tribal participation in them, revealing particularly how population size and decline influenced participation among and within American Indian tribes. He also considers American Indian population change after the Ghost Dance periods and shows that participation in the movements actually did lead the way to a demographic recovery for certain tribes.