Based upon Ajit Maan's groundbreaking theory of Internarrative Identity, this collection focuses upon redefining self, slave narrative, the black Caribbean diaspora, and cyberspace to explore the interconnection between identity and life experience as expressed through personal narrative.

Cubans today are at home in diasporas that stretch from Miami to Mexico City to Moscow. Back on the island, watching as fellow Cubans leave, the impact of departure upon departure can be wrenching. How do Cubans confront their condition as an uprooted people? "The Portable Island: Cubans at Home in the World "offers a stunning chorus of responses, gathering some of the most daring Cuban writers, artists, and thinkers to address the haunting effect of globalization on their own lives.

Including a stellar line-up of international scholars, this book is an ambitious analysis of cosmopolitanism that will push the debate into new arenas, open up new lines of inquiry and have an impact on the study of globalization and global processes for years to come.

In eleven ethnographic chapters of Rethinking Ethnography in Central Europe examines how issues of global economic and cultural dependencies, mobilities, citizens activism, social movements, and socio-political aspects of post-socialist modernities articulate on the level of everyday discourse and practices.

Over several generations villagers of Dominica have been shifting from Patwa, an Afro-French creole, to English, the official language. Despite government efforts at Patwa revitalization and cultural heritage tourism, rural caregivers and teachers prohibit children from speaking Patwa in their presence. Drawing on detailed ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of video-recorded social interaction in naturalistic home, school, village and urban settings, the study explores this paradox and examines the role of children and their social worlds. It offers much-needed insights into the study of language socialization, language shift and Caribbean children's agency and social lives, contributing to the burgeoning interdisciplinary study of children's cultures. Further, it demonstrates the critical role played by children in the transmission and transformation of linguistic practices, which ultimately may determine the fate of a language.

Amy L. Paugh is Associate Professor of Anthropology at James Madison University. Her research investigates language socialization, children's cultures and language ideologies in the Caribbean and United States.

Jacob Kinnard offers an in-depth examination of the complex dynamics of religiously charged places. Focusing on several important shared and contested pilgrimage places-Ground Zero and Devils Tower in the United States, Ayodhya and Bodhgaya in India, Karbala in Iraq-he poses a number of crucial questions. What and who has made these sites important, and why? How are they shared, and how and why are they contested? What is at stake in their contestation? How are the particular identities of place and space established? How are individual and collective identity intertwined with space and place? Challenging long-accepted, clean divisions of the religious world, Kinnard explores specific instances of the vibrant messiness of religious practice, the multivocality of religious objects, the fluid and hybrid dynamics of religious places, and the shifting and tangled identities of religious actors. He contends that sacred space is a constructed idea: places are not sacred in and of themselves, but are sacred because we make them sacred. As such, they are in perpetual motion, transforming themselves from moment to moment and generation to generation. Places in Motion moves comfortably across and between a variety of historical and cultural settings as well as academic disciplines, providing a deft and sensitive approach to the topic of sacred places, with awareness of political, economic, and social realities as these exist in relation to questions of identity. It is a lively and much needed critical advance in analytical reflections on sacred space and pilgrimage.

This book focuses on the subjectivities of stock market investors to explore tensions within the Chinese state's engagement in contemporary financial capitalism. It adopts a genealogical method to investigate how the production of foreign-trained financial experts (haigui) and informal experts (sanhu) points to paradoxes in China's efforts to cultivate financial expertise. Chinese financialisation relates to the state's project of financialising human capital in reaction to a contractualised labour market and the vanishing welfare state. Through ethnographic inquiry, Dal Maso shows the Chinese stock markets are crucial to the new redistributive regime where wage labour risks losing its primacy. Here, one can observe how the relationship between money and wages in China is being reworked and witness the development of a new economic order in which the state's legitimacy becomes increasingly dependent on its capacity to jiushi-to rescue the market in times of crisis.

There are some serious concerns and critical questions about the on-going minority protesting in China, such as Tibetan monks' self-immolations, Muslims' suicide bombings, and Uyghur large-scale demonstrations. Why are minorities such as the Uyghur dissatisfied, when China is rising as a world power? What kind of struggle must they go through to maintain their identity, heritage, and rights? How does the government deal with this ethnic dissatisfaction and minority riots? And what is ethnic China's future in the 21st century? Ethnic China examines these issues from the perspective of Chinese-American scholars from fields such as economics, political science, criminal justice, law, anthropology, sociology, and education. The contributors introduce and explore the theory and practice of policy patterns, political systems, and social institutions by identifying key issues in Chinese government, society, and ethnic community contained within the larger framework of the international sphere.Their endeavors move beyond the existing scholarship and seek to spark new debates and proposed solutions while reflecting on established schools of history, religion, linguistics, and gender studies.

This volume explores political culture, especially the catastrophic elements of the global social order emerging in the twenty-first century. By emphasizing the texture of political action, the book theorizes how social context becomes evident on the surface of events and analyzes the performative dimensions of political experience. The attention to catastrophe allows for an understanding of how ordinary people contend with normal system operation once it is indistinguishable from system breakdown. Through an array of case studies, the book provides an account of change as it is experienced, negotiated, and resisted in specific settings that define a society's capacity for political action.

"The book accomplishes admirably its stated aim, namely 'to highlight and critically examine the fundamental features of the extended-case method, in order to advance its substantial, continuing merits'. Its editors and chapter contributors demonstrate that the extended-case method is more than a 'method', it is a sophisticated mode of research and analysis arising from the long-standing political, institutional and epistemological concerns of Gluckman and his students...This book is a timely addition to the ongoing rethinking of practice theory after Bourdieu. With its ethnographic grounding, attention to situated process, and stress on the latent potentialities of social interaction for the structuring of social life (cf. Giddens 1984), the renewal of this social anthropological tradition signaled by the present study has much to offer cultural anthropologists in the United States and elsewhere." . Ethnos ... Everyone will welcome this renewal of the extended case / situational analysis approach. Recovering the original reasons for doing things that one otherwise takes for granted not only recovers an earlier richness and generosity of intellect but makes for a very spirited and reinvigorating contemporary exercise....this is an important enterprise in charting the development of anthropology, and indeed social science more broadly. . Marilyn Strathern, DBE, FBA, University of Cambridge

This collection of essays explores the transformations of the political landscapes within which black social movements in Latin America have been operating since the end of the 1970s. Evaluating black social movements in their various national contexts, the essays reveal that these transformations have mostly consisted in the passage from state-sponsored ideological 'monocultural mestizaje' to state-managed multiculturalism and corporatism or co-optation. As the contributions to this volume show, black personalities and leaders of social movements were incorporated within the apparatus of the state. These new situations have rendered Afro-Latino political struggles more complex, at times even heightening the antagonism they encounter.

While social constructionist approaches to social problems are popular among academic researchers in sociology, communication, public policy, and criminology, this perspective tends not to be adequately covered in popular social problems texts. There are several likely reasons why students are often not introduced to constructionist perspectives until they reach advanced undergraduate or even graduate work. Student interest often lies in understanding real problems in the social world, but social constructionist perspectives focus on questions about how humans create the meaning of our world. Donileen R. Loseke claims that questions of constructionists seem esoteric and perhaps even a waste of time in a world containing very real want and pain. Social constructionism originally was posed as an alternative to other theoretical approaches examining social problems as objective conditions. This has led some to argue that either you believe that social problems exist out-side human awareness, or you believe that social problems are constructed. Loseke is convinced that social construction perspectives help us make sense of daily living. The questions of construction--how do humans create, sustain, and change meaning--only sound esoteric. At its best, social constructionism encourages a way of thinking that is distinctly sociological and empowering, to those who use it. However, the insights of constructionism do not depend on suspending all belief that a real world exists outside our understanding of it. Constructionism is less an alternative to other theoretical frameworks, than an important addition. Different frameworks pose questions about different aspects of life. To deny theimportance of any theoretical framework is to limit our comprehension. The author claims that we cannot afford to do this if we want to understand the perplexity and complexity of the human condition.

Hugh Lenox Scott, who would one day serve as chief of staff of the U.S. Army, spent a portion of his early career at Fort Sill, in Indian and, later, Oklahoma Territory. There, from 1891 to 1897, he commanded Troop L, 7th Cavalry, an all-Indian unit. From members of this unit, in particular a Kiowa soldier named Iseeo, Scott collected three volumes of information on American Indian life and culture - a body of ethnographic material conveyed through Plains Indian Sign Language (in which Scott was highly accomplished) and recorded in handwritten English. This remarkable resource - the largest of its kind before the late twentieth century - appears here in full for the first time, put into context by noted scholar William C. Meadows. The Scott ledgers contain an array of historical, linguistic, and ethnographic data - a wealth of primary-source material on Southern Plains Indian people. Meadows describes Plains Indian Sign Language, its origins and history, and its significance to anthropologists. He also sketches the lives of Scott and Iseeo, explaining how they met, how Scott learned the language, and how their working relationship developed and served them both. The ledgers, which follow, recount a variety of specific Plains Indian customs, from naming practices to eagle catching. Scott also recorded his informants' explanations of the signs, as well as a multitude of myths and stories. On his fellow officers' indifference to the sign language, Lieutenant Scott remarked: ""I have often marveled at this apathy concerning such a valuable instrument, by which communication could be held with every tribe on the plains of the buffalo, using only one language."" Here, with extensive background information, Meadows's incisive analysis, and the complete contents of Scott's Fort Sill ledgers, this ""valuable instrument"" is finally and fully accessible to scholars and general readers interested in the history and culture of Plains Indians.

This book examines social change in Africa through the lens of hip hop music and culture. Artists engage their African communities in a variety of ways that confront established social structures, using coded language and symbols to inform, question, and challenge. Through lyrical expression, dance, and graffiti, hip hop is used to challenge social inequality and to push for social change. The study looks across Africa and explores how hip hop is being used in different places, spaces, and moments to foster change. In this edited work, authors from a wide range of fields, including history, sociology, African and African American studies, and political science explore the transformative impact that hip hop has had on African youth, who have in turn emerged to push for social change on the continent. The powerful moment in which those that want change decide to consciously and collectively take a stand is rooted in an awareness that has much to do with time. Therefore, the book centers on African hip hop around the context of "it's time" for change, Ni Wakati.

The significance of food and feasting to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures has been extensively studied by archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians. Foodways studies have been critical to our understanding of early agriculture, political economies, and the domestication and management of plants and animals. Scholars from diverse fields have explored the symbolic complexity of food and its preparation, as well as the social importance of feasting in contemporary and historical societies. This book unites these disciplinary perspectives - from the social and biological sciences to art history and epigraphy - creating a work comprehensive in scope, which reveals our increasing understanding of the various roles of foods and cuisines in Mesoamerican cultures.

The volume is organized thematically into three sections. Part 1 gives an overview of food and feasting practices as well as ancient economies in Mesoamerica. Part 2 details ethnographic, epigraphic and isotopic evidence of these practices. Finally, Part 3 presents the metaphoric value of food in Mesoamerican symbolism, ritual, and mythology. The resulting volume provides a thorough, interdisciplinary resource for understanding, food, feasting, and cultural practices in Mesoamerica.

Quoting is all around us. But do we really know what it means? How do people actually quote today, and how did our present systems come about? This book brings together a down-to-earth account of contemporary quoting with an examination of the comparative and historical background that lies behind it and the characteristic way that quoting links past and present, the far and the near. Drawing from anthropology, cultural history, folklore, cultural studies, sociolinguistics, literary studies and the ethnography of speaking, Ruth Finnegan's fascinating study sets our present conventions into cross cultural and historical perspective. She traces the curious history of quotation marks, examines the long tradition of quotation collections with their remarkable cycling across the centuries, and explores the uses of quotation in literary, visual and oral traditions. The book tracks the changing defi nitions and control of quoting over the millennia and in doing so throws new light on ideas such as 'imitation', 'allusion', 'authorship', 'originality' and 'plagiarism'.

This book examines the social and political dimensions of migration from a perspective between the realms of demography and politics. It approaches the issue of migration by highlighting the important power relations that have previously been neglected in studies in the area. The book starts by investigating Indonesian migration to provide an understanding of internal migration. It then looks beyond its national borders for a wider understanding of Asia, and showcases several case studies both in Indonesia and beyond to illustrate the intricate politics of migration. Further, it considers the politics of migration from the sending country perspective and unravels the link between migration and security. The book provides reviews of the wider literature relating to population mobility and distribution, and shows readers how to adopt a new perspective in the study of movement of people -an issue that is becoming increasingly important as movement of people unfolds globally in terms of both volume and direction. This book is a valuable resource for students, academics and researchers in the area of demography and social-politics, especially those interested in migration and refugees. It also offers insights for those interested in understanding decentralization in greater depth.

Although there are other reference books about Asian Americans, no other book focuses solely on businesspeople. This collection of engagingly written biographies gives the details on the lives of 96 Asian men and women who have had successful business careers, giving information on their education, training, and career highlights and histories. The book provides valuable information as well as inspiration to students, from high school through university. Each biography concludes with references for further reading, and an appendix lists the people profiled by field of business, from fashion to restaurant franchises, from high technology to the movie industry.

Each biography in IDistinguished Asian American Business LeadersR tells the story of an individual who has worked hard and often surmounted such obstacles as prejudice, learning the English language and American customs, attaining higher education, and working long hours to start a business or succeed in a company. These life stories not only reflect individual triumphs but also the trials of families and ethnic groups who applied their skills and passions for economic prosperity. Included in the biographies are an Internet entrepreneur who successfully negotiated a $400 million deal from Microsoft Corporation and another who, along with his partner, gave away $100 million in bonuses to their employees after the lucrative sale of their company. Some of the people profiled are highly educated with law and doctorate degrees, while others never completed college. Some have experienced extreme poverty, including those who came to this country as boat people after the Vietnam War; others were born to wealth but have had to fight to achieve their business goals. Each biography ends with a bibliography for further reading. The book is aimed not only at high school and college students but any person interested in how some Asian Americans, from recent immigrant to fourth generation, labored to realize their entrepreneurial and corporate dreams. The stories show that business is rich in creative opportunities that cannot be easily limited to a single management theory.

This edited volume presents thirteen contributions that reflect upon the practical, ethical, theoretical and methodological challenges that researchers face when conducting fieldwork in settings that are characterized with deteriorating security situations, increasing state control and conflicting inter-ethnic relations. More precisely, they shed light to the intricacies of conducting fieldwork on highly politicized and sensitive topics in the region of Kurdistan in Iraq, Syria and Turkey as well as among Kurdish diaspora members in Europe. This volume is multidisciplinary in its focus and approach. It includes contributions from scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, ranging from sociology and political science to social psychology and anthropology. The complexity of security situations, and the atmospheres of distrust and suspicion have led the contributors to be creative and to adapt their research methods in ways that at times transcend disciplinary boundaries and conventions. Relatedly, the contributions also open the often-considered Pandora's box of discussing the failures in what is often a "messy" research field, and how to adopt one's methods to rapidly changing political circumstances. This necessitates greater reflexivity in existing power relations of the surrounding context and how those affect not only the interaction situations between the researcher and the participants, but also raise questions for the overall research process, concerning namely social justice, representation and knowledge production. The contributions unravel this by unpacking positionalities beyond ethnicities, discussing how gendered and other positionalities are constructed in fieldwork interactions and by illustrating how the surrounding structures of power and dominance are present in every-day fieldwork. What differentiates this book from the existing literature is that it is the first academic endeavor that solely focuses on methodological reflections aimed to the field of Kurdish Studies. It offers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary account of scholars' fieldwork experiences in the Kurdish regions and as such, it is also of value to scholars conducting or about to conduct fieldwork in conflict regions elsewhere.

In one form or another, water participates in the making and unmaking of people's lives, practices, and stories. Contributors' detailed ethnographic work analyzes the union and mutual shaping of water and social lives. This volume discusses current ecological disturbances and engages in a world where unbounded relationalities and unsettled frames of orientation mark the lives of all, anthropologists included. Water emerges as a fluid object in more senses than one, challenging anthropologists to foreground the mutable character of their objects of study and to responsibly engage with the generative role of cultural analysis.

Often, violent behavior or harassment from a soldier is dismissed by the military as unacceptable acts by individuals termed, "rotten apples." In this study, the author argues that this dismissal is unsatisfactory and that there is an urgent need to look at the (mis)behavior of soldiers from a structural point of view. When soldiers serve as an occupational force, they find themselves in a particular situation influenced by structural circumstances that heavily influence their behavior and moral decision-making. This study focuses on young Israeli men and their experiences as combat soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), particularly those who served in the "Occupied Palestinian Territories" (OPT) during the "Al Aqsa Intifada," which broke out in 2000. In describing the soldiers' circumstances, especially focusing on space, the study shows how processes of numbing on different levels influence the (moral) behavior of these soldiers.