The Kets of Central Siberia are perhaps the most enigmatic of Siberia's aboriginal tribes. Numbering barely 1100 souls at the end of the 20th century and living in several small villages on the middle reaches of the Yenisei, the Kets have retained much of their ancient culture, as well as their unique language. Genetic studies of the Ket hint at an ancient affininty with Tibetans, Burmese, and other peoples of South East Asia not shared by any other Siberian people. The Ket language, which is unrelated to any other living Siberian tongue, also appears to be a relic of a bygone linguistic landscape of Inner Asia. Linguists have attempted to link Ket with North Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan, Burushashi, Basque and Na Dene. None of these links have been proved to the satisfaction of linguists, and the research continues. Despite a growing interest in all aspects of Yeniseian studies, most information on the Kets and their extinct relatives, the Yughs, Kotts, Assans, Arins and Pumpokols, has hitherto remained inaccessible to the English-speaking scholar. This book offers encyclopaedic English-language description of existing sources of information on Yeniseian peoples and languages and inclu

Recognizing the significance of cultural aspects in the practice of medicine, this book places a strong emphasis on the social structure, customs, and history of the indigenous population and its ramifications on health care providers. The book also considers the econo-cultural influences on the way medicine is practiced. By including chapters that focus on health care's sudden advent as commodity and the microeconomic approach to public funding for health care facilities, the Nichters explore a world in which money and patients' expectations play an ever increasing role in the way health care is provided.
In this recently revised and updated edition of "Anthropology and International Health," prominent anthropologists Mark and Mimi Nichter examine some of the most significant health problems facing Southern Asia today and provide a critical assessment of the ways these problems are approached by those directly engaged in primary health care. This series of informative essays demonstrates th

The major significance of the German naturalist-physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) as a topic of historical study is the fact that he was one of the first anthropologists to investigate humankind as part of natural history. Moreover, Blumenbach was, and continues to be, a central figure in debates about race and racism. How exactly did Blumenbach define race and races? What were his scientific criteria? And which cultural values did he bring to bear on his scheme? Little historical work has been done on Blumenbach's fundamental, influential race work. From his own time till today, several different pronouncements have been made by either followers or opponents, some accusing Blumenbach of being the fountainhead of scientific racism. By contrast, across early nineteenth-century Europe, not least in France, Blumenbach was lionized as an anti-racist whose work supported the unity of humankind and the abolition of slavery. This collection of essays considers how, with Blumenbach and those around him, the study of natural history and, by extension, that of science came to dominate the Western discourse of race.

A significant work by one of anthropology's most important scholars, this book provides an introduction to the Chiapas Mayan community of Mexico, better known for their role in the Zapatista Rebellion. June Nash updates the status of this centuries-old confrontation as well as presenting a fascinating examination of how the Chiapas, as a governing entity, are entering into the New World Order.
Using the Chiapas as a case study of the effects and possibilities of globalization Nash views the Zapatista Rebellion as one expression of the Maya's attempts to remain true to their culture in the face of the extraordinary changes taking place in Mexico today. At issue here are the competing influences of Western modernity and the cultural traditions of the Chiapas-ideas about governing, identity, cultural traditions, and communal obligations are all at stake.
Based on over 40 years studying the Chiapas, Nash argues that this famous indigenous tribe has much to tell us about autonomy, nationality and globalization. Within a global economy, the Chiapas challenge for autonomy can be seen as a model for redefining ethnic group relations and the development process within Mexico, the hemisphere and our global society.

Series Information:
Routledge Studies in Science, Technology and Society

A significant work by one of anthropology's most important scholars, this book provides an introduction to the Chiapas Mayan community of Mexico, better known for their role in the Zapatista Rebellion. June Nash updates the status of this centuries-old confrontation as well as presenting a fascinating examination of how the Chiapas, as a governing entity, are entering into the New World Order.
Using the Chiapas as a case study of the effects and possibilities of globalization Nash views the Zapatista Rebellion as one expression of the Maya's attempts to remain true to their culture in the face of the extraordinary changes taking place in Mexico today. At issue here are the competing influences of Western modernity and the cultural traditions of the Chiapas-ideas about governing, identity, cultural traditions, and communal obligations are all at stake.
Based on over 40 years studying the Chiapas, Nash argues that this famous indigenous tribe has much to tell us about autonomy, nationality and globalization. Within a global economy, the Chiapas challenge for autonomy can be seen as a model for redefining ethnic group relations and the development process within Mexico, the hemisphere and our global society.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203906705

Examines the issues facing indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, including their role in the nation's constitutional and legal developments, and makes a number of recommendations which would satisfy their demands without compromising the sovereignty of the state.

This is one of the most extensive first-person accounts to survive from Ohio's pioneer and early settlement eras. Nine year-old Alder was captured and taken to Ohio by Indians in 1782. Adopted by a Mingo warrior and his Shawnee wife, Alder lived as an Indian until 1805. After he left the Indians, Alder became one of the first European settlers to live in central Ohio. Alder composed his memoirs in the 1840s. His account chronicles his life for fifty years, from the time of his capture to 1832. The narrative, therefore, provides a unique perspective on frontier Ohio and its transformation from wilderness to statehood and the continuing evolution in the relationship between Ohio's Indians and whites from the Revolutionary War-era to a time when many of the states Native peoples had been removed. Alders recollection provides an exceptional look at early Ohio. His portrait of his captors is revealing, complex, and sympathetic. The latter part of his narrative in which he describes his experiences in central Ohio is an extraordinary rich account of early pioneer life. Further, Alder was fortunate in that he encountered many of the persons and took part in many of the events that have become touchstones in Ohio's pioneer history, including Simon Kenton, Simon Girty, and Col. William Crawford. He participated in the Battles of Fort Recovery and Fallen Timbers, and his recollection of these actions are among the few extant accounts that describe these events from a Native American perspective.

""Doing Fieldwork" warrants our attention because its message, bolstered by the editor's new introduction, is that the 1930's heralded a paradigm shift in anthropology, and further that this shift in fact addressed the same contenious issues raised in today's so-called crisis of representation." -- Hispanic American Historical Review "A candid, detailed window into the fieldwork and analytical thinking of two of our most influential anthropologists. A gem for students of method and theory in ethnography."-Susan C. M. Scrimshaw, University of Illinois at Chicago
"This lively exchange of letters reveals how, by batting hunches and hypotheses back and forth, often agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, Redfield and Tax developed and sharpened theories (always grounded in ethnographic data) relating to such themes as worldview, race relations, caste vs. class, and acculturation. The book provides fascinating insights into the differences between the fieldwork experience in pre- and post-World War II years. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of social science." -George M. Foster, University of California, Berkeley
Prior to the 1930s the highlands of Guatemala were largely undescribed, except in travelogues. Just two decades later, the highlands had become one of the most anthropologically well-investigated areas of the world. This is largely due to the research that Robert Redfield and Sol Tax carried out between 1934 and 1941. Separately and together, Redfield and Tax anticipated and guided anthropological investigations of people living in peasant and urban communities in other areas of the world. Their work helped to define the major outlines of research in the 1970s, and since then much writing about the region has been formulated in critical response to the Redfield-Tax program.
Not coincidentally, since the mid-1970s anthropology has been caught up in a wave of self-doubt about the status of fieldwork and the authority of ethnographic description. This critical stance has often cast ethnography as a creative, literary enterprise. This volume presents a timely view of the process of ethnography as carried out by two of its early practitioners. Containing a wealth of ethnographic detail, the book reveals how Redfield and Tax developed and tested ethnological hypotheses, and it allows us to follow the development of their major theoretical statements. The result is an exceptionally clear picture of the process of ethnography. Redfield and Tax emerge as rigorous and sensitive observers of social life whose observations bear importantly on contemporary understandings of the ethnology of Guatemala and the enterprise of anthropology. This book will be of interest to students of method and theory in ethnography, Latin Americanists, and other professionals interested in the history of idea.
Robert A. Rubinstein has conducted fieldwork in Yucatan, Mexico, in Belize, in rural Egypt, and in the United States. He is editor, with Mary LeCron Foster, of Peace and War: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (also available from Transaction).

This unique work challenges the assumption that dictionaries act as objective records of our language, and instead argues that the English dictionary is a fundamentally ethnocentric work. Using theoretical, historical and empirical analyses, Phil Benson shows how English dictionaries have filtered knowledge through predominantly Anglo-American perspectives. The book includes a major case study of the most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and its treatment of China.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203205715

The names given to the variety of man-like fossils known to scientists should reflect no more than scientific views of the nature of human evolution. However, often in the past these names have also reflected confusion regarding the basic principles of scientific nomenclature; and the matter has been further complicated by the many new finds of recent decades. It is the unique purpose of this book to clarify the present state of knowledge regarding the main lines of human evolution by expressing what is known (and what is surmised) about them in appropriate taxonomic language. The papers in this volume were prepared by the world's leading authorities on the subject, and were revised in the light of discussions at a remarkable conference held in Austria in 1962 under the auspices of the Wenner-Gren Foundation. The authors review first the meaning of taxonomic statements as such, and then consider the substance of our present knowledge regarding the number and characteristics of species among living and extinct primates, including man and his ancestors. They also examine the relationship of behavior changes and selection pressures in evolutionary sequences. Ample illustrations, bibliographies and an index enhance the permanent reference value of the book, which will undoubtedly prove to be among the fundamental paleoanthropological works of our time.

Social Complexity in the Making is a highly accessible ethnography which explains the history and evolution of Ilahita, an Arapesh-speaking village in the interior Sepik region of northeastern New Guinea. This village, unlike others in the region, expanded at an uncharacteristically fast rate more than a century ago and has maintained its large size (more than 1500) and importance until the present day. The fascinating story of how Ilahita became this size and how organizational innovations evolved there to absorb internal pressures for disintegration, bears on a question debated ever since Plato raised it: what does it take for people to live together in harmony?
Anthropologist Donald Tuzin, drawing on more than two years fieldwork in the village, studies the reasons behind this unusual population growth. He discovers the behaviour and policies of the Tambaran, the all-male society which was the back bone of Ilahitan society, and examines the effect of the outside influences such as World War II on the village.
This work is a unique example of an anthropological case study which will be widely used amongst undergraduates and academics. It provides an excellent insight into techniques of ethnography and contributes to a deeper understanding of what makes a society evolve (and/or collapse).

This is one of the first books to introduce students to the key concepts and debates surrounding the relationship between bodily boundaries, abject materiality and spaces. The text includes original interview and focus group data informed by feminist theory on the body and uses case studies to illustrate the social construction of bodies. It will critically engage students in topical questions around sexuality, cultural differences and women's sub-ordination to men.

This book suggests that concepts of race have all but lost their relevance as sociologically significant descriptions. This book surveys ways in which social scientists have attempted to come to terms with this situation, before developing an alternative approach based on recent work by realist authors. This approach offers a radical revision of orthodox debates about race concepts, about the possibility of a social science and about the nature of empirical research. This is illustrated through two policy examples: an account of post war migration to the UK, and debates about trans-racial adoption in the UK and the USA.

Kinship and Continuity is a vivid ethnographic account of the development of the Pakistani presence in Oxford, from after World War II to the present day. Alison Shaw addresses the dynamics of migration, patterns of residence and kinship, ideas about health and illness, and notions of political and religious authority, and discusses the transformations and continuities of the lives of British Pakistanis against the backdrop of rural Pakistan and local socio-economic changes. This is a fully updated, revised edition of the book first published in 1988.

Since the 1980s there has been a continual engagement with the history and the place of western medicine in colonial settings and non-western societies. In relation to South Asia, research on the role of medicine has focussed primarily on regions under direct British administration. This book looks at the 'princely states' that made up about two fifths of the subcontinent. Two comparatively large states, Mysore and Travancore - usually considered as 'progressive' and 'enlightened' - and some of the princely states of Orissa - often described as 'backward' and 'despotic' - have been selected for analysis. The authors map developments in public health and psychiatry, the emergence of specialised medical institutions, the influence of western medicine on indigenous medical communities and their patients and the interaction between them. Exploring contentious issues currently debated in the existing scholarship on medicine in British India and other colonies, this book covers the 'indigenisation' of health services; the inter-relationship of colonial and indigenous paradigms of medical practice; the impact of specific political and administrative events and changes on health policies. The book also analyses British medical policies and the Indian reactions and initiatives they evoked in different Indian states. It offers new insights into the interplay of local adaptations with global exchanges between different national schools of thought in the formation of what is often vaguely, and all too simply, referred to as 'western' or 'colonial' medicine. A pioneering study of health and medicine in the princely states of India, it provides a balanced appraisal of the role of medicine during the colonial era. It will be of interest to students and academics studying South Asian and imperial and commonwealth history; the history of medicine; the sociology of health and healing; and medical anthropology, social policy, public health, and international politics.

Winner of the 2015 LGBT Studies Award presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation Unearths connections between homoeroticism, cannibalism, and cultures of consumption in the context of American literature and US slave culture that has largely been ignored until now Scholars of US and transatlantic slavery have largely ignored or dismissed accusations that Black Americans were cannibalized. Vincent Woodard takes the enslaved person's claims of human consumption seriously, focusing on both the literal starvation of the slave and the tropes of cannibalism on the part of the slaveholder, and further draws attention to the ways in which Blacks experienced their consumption as a fundamentally homoerotic occurrence. The Delectable Negro explores these connections between homoeroticism, cannibalism, and cultures of consumption in the context of American literature and US slave culture. Utilizing many staples of African American literature and culture, such as the slave narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglass, as well as other less circulated materials like James L. Smith's slave narrative, runaway slave advertisements, and numerous articles from Black newspapers published in the nineteenth century, Woodard traces the racial assumptions, political aspirations, gender codes, and philosophical frameworks that dictated both European and white American arousal towards Black males and hunger for Black male flesh. Woodard uses these texts to unpack how slaves struggled not only against social consumption, but also against endemic mechanisms of starvation and hunger designed to break them. He concludes with an examination of the controversial chain gang oral sex scene in Toni Morrison's Beloved, suggesting that even at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century, we are still at a loss for language with which to describe Black male hunger within a plantation culture of consumption.

The "British in Spain" achieved notoriety during the 1980s. As a group they were stereotyped as being made up of exiled criminals, drunken hooligans and inward looking pensioners - unwelcome colonisers reconstructing their own insular "little England". Presenting a more complex picture, this book-length ethnography of the British expatriate community draws on history, social geography, tourism studies, and theories of ethnicity and community to frame detailed interviews with British migrants themselves. What emerges is an account of who migrates, their reasons for migration and the day to day realities of expatriate life. Whilst Britons migrating to Spain have not integrated into their host communities, neither have they colonised swathes of the Spanish coast. The author presents instead a marginal group occupying a liminal space between two countries and two cultures. It should appeal to social anthropologists and sociologists as well as to the general reader.

The "British in Spain" achieved notoriety during the 1980s. As a group they were stereotyped as being made up of exiled criminals, drunken hooligans and inward looking pensioners - unwelcome colonisers reconstructing their own insular "little England". Presenting a more complex picture, this book-length ethnography of the British expatriate community draws on history, social geography, tourism studies, and theories of ethnicity and community to frame detailed interviews with British migrants themselves. What emerges is an account of who migrates, their reasons for migration and the day to day realities of expatriate life. Whilst Britons migrating to Spain have not integrated into their host communities, neither have they colonised swathes of the Spanish coast. The author presents instead a marginal group occupying a liminal space between two countries and two cultures. It should appeal to social anthropologists and sociologists as well as to the general reader.

This ethnographic study explores the status of African Americans during the Reconstruction era, examining the particularities of such topics as race relations, social systems, legal systems, and economic and political status. Rather than dealing with the status of African Americans as an isolated human rights issue, Gao examines the African American role in American society in the context of American society, particularly paying attention to the intellectual roots of the belief system of white and black Americans during the Reconstruction.

Scattered across the South-East Asian massif, a few dozen ethnic groups (numbering around 50 million) maintain highly original cultural identities and political and economic traditions, against pressure from national majorities. They face the same challenges; the means by which social change has been imposed by the lowlanders are similar from country to country, and the results are comparable.

A book about changing historical discourses of social differentiation and distinction in one of the ethnically and politically most complex regions of the world. Deals with crucial issues in currently renewed debates on cultural pluralism, nationalism, irredentism, ethnic dispersal, and the relations between global and local cultural forms.

The presence and impact of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States cannot be ignored. Already the largest minority group, by 2050 their numbers will exceed all the other minority groups in the United States combined.
This volume, called by one US reviewer `the best set of essays that I have ever read on Latino identity and group rights', addresses the issues concerned through a varied and interdisciplinary approach. With first-rate scholarship from a group of internationally renowned, established contributors, this collection of cutting-edge material makes a significant contribution to Latin American studies as well as Philosophy and Ethnic studies.

The presence and impact of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States cannot be ignored. Already the largest minority group, by 2050 their numbers will exceed all the other minority groups in the United States combined.
This volume, called by one US reviewer `the best set of essays that I have ever read on Latino identity and group rights', addresses the issues concerned through a varied and interdisciplinary approach. With first-rate scholarship from a group of internationally renowned, established contributors, this collection of cutting-edge material makes a significant contribution to Latin American studies as well as Philosophy and Ethnic studies.

Series Information:
Opening Out: Feminism for Today