The book examines the process of national identity formation. It argues that identity, whether of a small community, a nation, an ethnic group, or a religious community, requires an Other against whom it becomes meaningful. In other words, identity develops via difference from Others against whom our sense of self becomes meaningful. This thesis emerges out of the synthesis the study develops from the from the various modern and poststructuralist theories of identity and nationalism.

The Muslim states that have come into being from the ruins of the Soviet Union, and the Muslim areas of Russia, are striving to carve out a future for themselves in the face of new realities. In addition to international constraints, they find themselves caught between two complex legacies: on the one hand, that of Russian and Soviet periods--colonialism, russification, de-islamicization, centralization and communism; on the other, that of the period prior to the Russian conquest--localism, tribalism and Islam.
The interaction and contradictions within each category, and between them, form the essence of the struggle to formulate new identities. The problems this book describes reflect these legacies in a wide range of fields. They indicate the anomalies that were created by the inconsistencies in Soviet imperialism vis-a-vis its Muslim subject nations, and the injustice and distortions resulting from policies which emanated from a remote and insensitive center.

Ethnic Violence and the Societal Security Dilemma explores how the phenomenon of ethnic violence can be understood as a form of security dilemma by shifting the focus of the concept away from its traditional concern with state sovereignty to that of identity instead. The book is divided into theoretical and empirical chapters, beginning with the categorisation by the author of the security dilemma concept into 'tight', 'regular' and 'loose' formulations, and its combination with the Copenhagen School's notion of societal security. This reconceptualisation of the traditional security dilemma then provides a framework capable of explaining conflictual dynamics between ethnic groups and how some cases can be resolved without recourse to outright war. It includes case studies on: Ethnic violence between Serbs and Croats in the Krajina region of Croatia, August 1990 Ethnic violence between Hungarian and Romanians in the Transylvania region of Romania, August 1990. This book will interest students and researchers of ethnic violence and the security dilemma.

The concept of diaspora has evolved to include new meanings relating to global deterritorialization, transnational migration and cultural hybridity. In many cases it has come to replace minority, ethnic group and immigrant as a label of self reference and this development has introduced new perspectives on global networks and local identities. This study rejects the idea that locality has lost its meaning and argues that diaspora and locality are interrelated. The authors discuss the key concepts and theory, focusing on religion, the appropriation of space and place in history and the present. It features case histories on the Caribbean, Irish, Irish-American, Armenian, African and Greek diasporas.

The Continental Saxons developed from a subsistence economy, practiced up to the Carolingian conquest in the late eighth century, to become rulers of the Holy Roman Empire a little over a century and a half later. A historian introduces the topic, evaluating the reliability of the sources. Archaeologists then describe the living conditions, especially along the coast where villages have been excavated, and social customs revealed by grave-goods. Legal procedures are inferred from surviving evidence, and the regional economy, based on agriculture and animal husbandry, is reconstructed through the study of vegetable remains and pollen analysis. The birth of urban communities, stimulated by monastic settlements and trade, is followed through archaeological evidence; study of visual art-forms is based on analysis of grave-goods; and in the absence of surviving evidence for poetry, a Carolingian eulogical poem is discussed. Also discussed are Saxon political relations prior to and during the Carolingian conquest; the few signs of traditional religion that can be gleaned from the 'Lives' of missionaries; and Christianity and the activity of religious orders, which eventually brought about the conversion of the Saxons and the introduction of written culture.

Contents:
1. An introduction to Golf Course Wars
2. Construction of Canadian Myths of Identity
3. Displacing the Native in Canadian Histories
4. Cultural Displays: Inside the Canadian Museum of Civilisation
5. At the Barricades
6. Interventions
Conclusion: Myths of Disappearance and Alternative Remembrance

Transparency has, in recent years, become a watchword for good governance. Policymakers and analysts alike evaluate political and economic institutions--courts, corporations, nation-states--according to the transparency of their operating procedures. With the dawn of the New World Order and the "mutual veil dropping" of the post-Cold War era, many have asserted that power in our contemporary world is more transparent than ever. Yet from the perspective of the relatively less privileged, the operation of power often appears opaque and unpredictable. Through vivid ethnographic analyses, "Transparency and Conspiracy" examines a vast range of expressions of the popular suspicion of power--including forms of shamanism, sorcery, conspiracy theory, and urban legends--illuminating them as ways of making sense of the world in the midst of tumultuous and uneven processes of modernization.

In this collection leading anthropologists reveal the variations and commonalities in conspiratorial thinking or occult cosmologies around the globe--in Korea, Tanzania, Mozambique, New York City, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Orange County, California. The contributors chronicle how people express profound suspicions of the United Nations, the state, political parties, police, courts, international financial institutions, banks, traders and shopkeepers, media, churches, intellectuals, and the wealthy. Rather than focusing on the veracity of these convictions, "Transparency and Conspiracy" investigates who believes what and why. It makes a compelling argument against the dismissal of conspiracy theories and occult cosmologies as antimodern, irrational oversimplifications, showing how these beliefs render the world more complex by calling attention to its contradictions and proposing alternative ways of understanding it.
"
Contributors." Misty Bastian, Karen McCarthy Brown, Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff, Susan Harding, Daniel Hellinger, Caroline Humphrey, Laurel Kendall, Todd Sanders, Albert Schrauwers, Kathleen Stewart, Harry G. West

"The Survival of a Counterculture" is a lively, engaging look into the ways communards, or people who live in communes, maintain, modify, use, and otherwise live with their convictions while they attempt to get through the problems of everyday life. Communal families shape their norms to the circumstances they live with, just as on a larger scale nations and major institutions also shape their ideologies to the pressures of circumstance they feel. With a new introduction by the author that brings his work up to date, this volume raises important questions regarding sociological theory.

First published in 1969. Divided into two parts, the first sections in the book examine the significance of the tribal factor in certain general contexts and discuss some of the particular backgrounds to contemporary transition in East Africa. There are essays on politics, economic development, language, law and education, together with a comparative look at European nationalism. In the second part, the grass-roots basis and development of the concept of the tribe are considered and its operation in social life in rural areas discussed. The contributions come from a wide range of scholars in the social sciences, history and law and the contributors are: W.J. Argyle, George Bennett, Tom J. Mboya, W.H. Whiteley, Eugene Cotran, J.W. Tyler, J.S. La Fontaine, Michael Twaddle, Kathleen M. Stahl, P.H. Gulliver, Kirsten Alneas, David J. Parkin, R.D. Grillo, I.M. Lewis, H.F. Morris.

Fields of Change is a study of the means by which the Iteso adapted to the imposition of colonial rule and the loss of political independence. It explores their pacification and incorporation into a colonial state and the effects that these processes have had on Iteso territorial and political systems. At the same time it examines the way in which the political system both affected and was affected by other aspects of the Iteso social system, most notably in the fields of religion, descent and domestic kinship. First published in 1978.

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 force of hunger in shaping human character and social structure has been largely overlooked. This omission is a serious one in the study of primitive society, in which starvation is a constant menace. This work remedies this deficiency and opens up new lines of anthropological inquiry. The whole network of social institutions is examined which makes possible the consumption, distribution, and production of food-eating customs, as well as the religion and magic of food-production.

Designed to provoke controversy, the papers in this volume concentrate on two main themes: the study of myth and totemism. Starting with an English translation of La Geste d'Asdiwal, which is widely considered to be the most brilliant of all of Levi-Strauss's shorter expositions of his technique of myth analysis, the volume also contains criticism of this essay. The second part of the volume discusses how far Levi-Strauss's treatment of totemism as a system of category formation can be correlated with the facts that an ethnographer encounters in the field. First published in 1967.

Social anthropology is, in the classic definition, dedicated to the study of distant civilizations in their traditional and contemporary forms. But there is a larger aspiration: the comparative study of all human societies in the light of those challengingly unfamiliar beliefs and customs that expose our own ethnocentric limitations and put us in our place within the wider gamut of the world's civilizations. Thematically guided by social setting and cultural expression of identity, Social and Cultural Anthropology in Perspective is a dynamic and highly acclaimed introduction to the field of social anthropology, which also examines its links with cultural anthropology. A challenging new introduction critically surveys the latest trends, pointing to weaknesses as well as strengths.

Presented in a clear, lively, and entertaining fashion, this volume offers a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to social anthropology for use by teachers and students. Skillfully weaving together theory and ethnographic data, author Ioan M. Lewis advocates an eclectic approach to anthropology. He combines the strengths of British structural-functionalism with the leading ideas of Marx, Freud, and Levi-Strauss while utilizing the methods of historians, political scientists, and psychologists. One of Lewis' particular concerns is to reveal how insights from "traditional" cultures illuminate what we take for granted in contemporary industrial and post-industrial society. He also shows how, in the pluralist world in which we live, those who study "other" cultures ultimately learn about themselves. Social anthropology is thus shown to be as relevant today as it has been in the past.

What it means to be a Jew lies at the very heart of "Confessions of a Secular Jew," a provocative memoir and a thoughtful speculation on the nature of Jewish identity and experience in an increasingly secular world. The legacy bequeathed to Eugene Goodheart was a "progressive" secular Yiddish education which identified Jewish struggles against oppression with working class struggles against exploitation. In the vanguard was the Soviet Union. Goodheart's heroes were Moses, Bar Kochbah, Judah Maccabee, Karl Marx and that strange honorary Jew, Joseph Stalin, whose anti-Semitism would later become known to the world. "Confessions of a Secular Jew" is the story of Goodheart's disillusionment with the naive, even false, progressivism of that education. At the same time, it is an attempt to rescue and come to grips with the positive remains of that education and heritage. In the introduction to the new Transaction edition of his memoir, Goodheart addresses the themes of social justice, Zionism, chosenness, messianism, and alienation from a secular Jewish perspective. The memoir takes the reader from Goodheart's coming of age in Brooklyn to his higher education at Columbia College in the early fifties and beyond to his varied career as university teacher and literary critic. The memoir provides memorable characterizations of writers whom he knew, among them Lionel Trilling (his teacher), Saul Bellow, Richard Wright (whom he met in Paris), Hannah Arendt, and Philip Rahv.

This widely-acclaimed book on a troubled period of Kenyan history summarizes some of the more important Kikuyu customs, and a discussion of their break-down under the impact of European civilization. This discussion illustrates why and how the Mau Mau came into being and how the situation could be improved so that peace could once again come to Kenya.

What does it mean to be white? This remains the question at large in the continued effort to examine how white racial identity is constructed and how systems of white privilege operate in everyday life. White Out brings together the original work of leading scholars across the disciplines of sociology, philosophy, history and anthropology to give readers an important and cutting-edge study of "whiteness".
This landmark collection moves beyond the personal narratives and surface discussions that have dominated the first generation of whiteness studies and brings discussion towards an actual structural analysis of racism. The essays cover such topics as the philosophy of whiteness; the belief in color blindness; the effects of white privilege; and the possibility for anti-racism. Collected together, these essays provide both a critical analysis and a path for future directions for the field.

This book, together with "Latino Language and Literacy in Ethnolinguistic Chicago," documents how the future in a globalizing world is not only increasingly multilingual, but that diversity in language use (within one language and across languages) will always be with us. Most of the chapters in "Ethnolinguistic Chicago" are based on ethnographic studies of language, though several provide historical narratives as well. As a whole, this book offers a richly diverse set of portraits whose central themes emerged inductively from the research process and the communities themselves. All chapters emphasize language use as centrally related to ethnic, class, or gender identities. As such, this volume will interest anthropologists, sociologists, linguists, historians, educators and educational researchers, and others whose concerns require an understanding of "ground-level" phenomena relevant to contemporary social issues.

First published in 1939 by Routledge, this classic ethnography portrays the aboriginal woman as she really is - a complex social personality with her own prerogatives, duties, problems, beliefs, rituals and point of view. This groundbreaking and enduring study was researched in North-West Australia between 1935 and 1936 and was written by a woman who truly pioneered the study of gender in anthropology

Contents:
1 Introduction, 2 An Ethnographic Gaze: Scenes in the Anthropological Life of Timothy Asch, 3 Man, A Course of Study: Situating Tim Asch's Pedagogy and Ethnographic Films, 4 At the Beginning: Tim Asch in the Early Sixties,5 Efforts and Events in a Long Collaboration: Working with Tim Asch on Ethnographic Films on Roti in Eastern Indonesia, 6 From Event to Ethnography: Film-making and Ethnographic Research in Tana 'Ai Flores (Eastern Indonesia), 7 The Consequences of Conation: Pedagogy and the Inductive Films of an Ethical Film-maker, 8 Producing Culture: Shifting Representations of Social Theory in the Films of Tim Asch, 9 Subjects, Images, Voices: Representing Gender in Ethnographic Film, 10 Timothy Asch, the Rise of Visual Anthropology, and the Human Studies Film Archive, 11 Tim Asch, Otherness and Film Reception, 12 What Really Happened: A Reassessment of The Ax Fight, 13 The Ax Fight on CD-ROM, 14 Person, Event, and the Location of the Cinematic Subject in Timothy Asch's Films on Indonesia

Recent research suggests that ethnic boundaries are permeable, and that ethnic identities are overlapping. This is particularly true when cultures come into direct contact, as with the Egyptian conquest of Nubia in the second millennium BC. Professor Smith uses Nubia as a case study to explore the nature of ethnic identity. By using the tools of anthropology, he examines the ancient Egyptian construction of ethnic identities with its stark contrast between civilized Egyptians and barbaric foreigners - those who made up the 'Wretched Kush' of the title.

Universities have become important sources of patronage and professional artistic preparation. With the growing academization of art instruction, young artists are increasingly socialized in bureaucratic settings, and mature artists find themselves working as organizational employees in an academic setting. As these artists lose the social marginality and independence associated with an earlier, more individual aesthetic production, much cultural mythology about work in the arts becomes obsolete.
This classic ethnography, based on fieldwork and interviews carried out at the California Institute of the Arts in the 1980s, analyzes the day-to-day life of an organization devoted to work in the arts. It charts the rise and demise of a particular academic art "scene," an occupational utopian community that recruited its members by promising them an ideal work setting. Now available in paperback, it offers insight into the worlds of art and education, and how they interact in particular settings. The nature of career experience in the arts, in particular its temporal structure, makes these occupations particularly receptive to utopian thought. The occupational utopia that served as a recruitment myth for the particular organization under scrutiny is examined for what it reveals about the otherwise unexpressed impulses of the work world.
"One of those rare works that so strikingly captures enduring social truths that its appeal will be as great for the general reader as the specialist."--Michael Useem, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
" A] signal contribution to the relatively recent but growing field of the sociology of art. It will be widely discussed for a very long time as a work of extraordinary and extraordinarily attractive talent."--Kurt H. Wolff, Brandeis University
"A major original work both in sociology of the arts and in sociology of education. Her analysis goes far beyond any similar interpretations of art education or of the art world. It is a lasting contribution to sociology and should become a classic."--Maurice R. Stein, Jacob S. Potofsky, Brandeis University
Judith Adler is professor of sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University, and she has been published in "Society, Social Research, Issues in Criminology, Theory and Society," and "The American Journal of Sociology."

Recent research suggests that ethnic boundaries are permeable, and that ethnic identities are overlapping. This is particularly true when cultures come into direct contact, as with the Egyptian conquest of Nubia in the second millennium BC. Professor Smith uses Nubia as a case study to explore the nature of ethnic identity. By using the tools of anthropology, he examines the ancient Egyptian construction of ethnic identities with its stark contrast between civilized Egyptians and barbaric foreigners - those who made up the 'Wretched Kush' of the title.

"This study represents an attempt to provide the kind of book that I wish could have been placed in my hands when I first began to work amongst the Santals," says the author in his Preface. Based on material gathered during his 11-year residence amongst the Santal people, this is a pioneering anthropological study of one of the largest tribal peoples of India, whose homeland is based around the area north east of the Ganges. A proud and self reliant people who once rioted against the corruption of British tax officials in colonial India, they have retained their own language and independent religion. Culshaw explores every aspect of their culture, from their perception of themselves, and their interaction with their neighbours, to the intricacies of their art, both verbal and visual. The inclusion of diagrams of Santal instruments, and translations of their poetry and song, combined with the careful descriptions of the importance of both ceremonial and celebratory dance, animates the description of these people and accentuates the diversity and richness of their beliefs. The reader is taken on a journey of discovery, through the most important episodes in life, including birth, marriage and death, to encourage understanding of the customs and practices of these dignified people. Elements of everyday life, such as the manner in which the tribe is structured, and the impact of natural events that are so important to an agricultural community, are contrasted with their belief system, myths, legends and religion. Covering their history, their relationships with other ethnic groups, their social organisation and daily lives, their customs and religious beliefs, their art and folklore, and the impact of the Christian missions on their way of life, this wide-ranging account provides an excellent introduction to a fascinating culture, and deserves to be acknowledged as one of the most important books on this subject. Includes a glossary of Santali words and kinship terms.

Political anthropology has long been among the most vibrant subdisciplines within anthropology, and work done in this area has been instrumental in exploring some of the most significant issues of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including (post)colonialism, development and underdevelopment, identity politics, nationalism/transnationalism, and political violence. In"The Anthropology of Politics: A Reader in Ethnography, Theory, and Critique "readers will find a remarkable collection of classic and contemporary articles on the subject.

Following on from her landmark book on politics and anthropology, in this volume Joan Vincent provides a sweeping historical and theoretical introduction to the field. Selected readings from figures such as E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Edmund Leach, Victor Turner, Eric Wolf, Benedict Anderson, Talal Asad, Michael Taussig, Jean and John Comaroff, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak are enriched by Vincent's headnotes and suggestions for further reading. "The Anthropology of Politics "will prove an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and instructors alike.