This book intertwines phenomenological fieldwork with a wide range of Heidegger's writings to explore how our everyday uses of mobile media technologies permit a unique avenue to rediscover poiesis, our creative cultivation that is simultaneously a bringing forth, a revealing. Shining a light on poiesis better allows us to see how human beings are, at their core, dwellers that disclose worlds and cultivate meaning. In our chaotic modern world, our ability to appreciate this foundational feature of our existence seems to be fading from view. Such forgetting has fractured our confidence; we increasingly question, doubt, and struggle with what unfolds before us. This book thus argues that we ought to look towards our intimate and recursive mobile media practices as the avenue for which we can revitalize poiesis, as doing so allows us a purview into how we are always situated in a meaningful locale, playing an imperative role in its continued cultivation.

This work deals with the identification and integration process of immigrants in Australia and the role that religion plays in this process. Viktor Zander investigates the immigrant community of Slavic Baptists in Victoria and analyzes the relationship between ethnic and religious identities as well as their social dynamics. "Identity" and "marginality" are addressed as crucial issues for Slavic immigrants and their Australian-born children. The work is based on the authora (TM)s field-research in the Slavic Baptist community in Victoria. Key Features Second volume in relaunch of the series "Religion and Society" (RS)

This book makes valuable theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to the study of overseas doctoral students' cross-cultural adaptation. Focusing on Australia, one of the top three destinations for Chinese students, this book seeks to understand how Chinese doctoral students perceive their lived experience of adapting to the academic and research environment at Australian universities. The book presents an innovative data collection chiefly based on interviews. It probes into Chinese doctoral students' emic perception of their cross-cultural adaptation from a human development perspective and in three main phrases: how motivated and prepared they are for their overseas stay (planning), how they experience their adaptation as active agents (implementing), and how they evaluate their overseas doctoral journey after the fact (reflecting). Empirically speaking, its findings can help bolster the effectiveness of cross-cultural adaptation and that of the internationalisation of doctoral education. Methodologically speaking, it combines popular techniques and underused instruments such as graphics and maps to offer an in-depth portrait of the issue. Given its content, the book is primarily intended for researchers in cultural studies and practitioners in international education, or in a broader sense for anyone who has a keen interest in how individuals navigate the learning trajectory and construe meanings in unfamiliar academic and socio-cultural settings. Though the book focuses on Australia as a case study, its findings are equally applicable to other contexts.

This is the extraordinary story of Mikidadi, an ordinary Tanzanian from a remote coastal island, who became a Koran-school teacher, charity leader, environmental activist and guardian of an extended family. But this biography is not only about Mikidadi's life and legacy, but also his times. He lived through transitions from colonialism to independence, socialism to neoliberalism, a single- to a multi-party state, and a local Swahili Islam to a more globalized and politicized form. He also experienced the growth of corruption, and the increasing role of Western NGOs and Islamic charities. In considering how wider historical processes impacted on Mikidadi, as life got progressively harder for his family, this book seeks to counter some of the recent rewriting of Tanzania's post-colonial history. Skilfully moving through the decades, between events at national, regional and individual levels, between three generations, and even adding a further layer of her own life as an anthropologist, Caplan succeeds in writing an engaging, accessible account that will appeal to both academics and students. For at the centre of this book is an unlikely friendship that began in 1966 between a 12-year-old boy and a 23-year-old woman, and lasted nearly four decades, to be cut short by Mikidadi's untimely death in 2002. Recollections of meetings, and extracts from fieldwork notes and correspondence, bring a lively immediacy to this exchange, in which profound cultural differences between researcher and researched are transcended in interconnected lives. "This clear and well-written book celebrates a life and its place in history. It is an exemplar of public anthropology." - David Zeitlyn, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford. 'An unprecedented ethnographic analysis of contemporary Tanzanian history exploring how individuals, families and communities over time perceive, act, negotiate and strive to adjust in the shade of shifting political, economic and ideological conditions.' - Kjersti Larsen, Professor, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo 'Clear, engaging, and insightful, this accessible biography provides a rich entry point into African history and anthropology through an intimate account of life in a coastal East African village.' - Christine J. Walley, Professor of Anthropology, Director of Graduate Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'A model of participatory and ethical research, Mikidadi is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, development practitioners, and environment activists.' - Marjorie Mbilinyi, Professor, University of Dar es Salaam (1968-2003); Principal Policy Analyst, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (2004-14)

Indigeneity and Decolonization in the Bolivian Andes: Ritual Practice and Activism explores how Evo Morales's victory in the 2005 Bolivian presidential elections led to indigeneity as the core of decolonization politics. Anders Burman analyzes how indigenous Aymara ritual specialists are essential in representing this indigeneity in official state ceremony and in legitimizing the president's role as "the indigenous president." This book goes behind the scenes of state-sponsored multiculturalist ritual practices and explores the political, spiritual and existential dimensions underpinning them.

Well-Being as a Multidimensional Concept highlights the ways that culture and community influence concepts of wellness, the experience of well-being, and health outcomes. This book includes both theoretical conceptualizations and practice-based explorations from a multidisciplinary group of contributors, including distinguished, widely celebrated senior experts as well as emerging voices in the fields of health promotion, health research, clinical practice, community engagement, and health system policy. Using a social science approach, the contributors explore the interface among culture, community, and well-being in terms of theory and research frameworks; culture, community, and relationships; food; health systems; and collaboration, policy, messaging, and data. The chapters in this collection provide a broader understanding of well-being and its role as a culturally embedded and multidimensional concept. This collection furthers our ability to apprehend social and cultural constructs and dynamics that influence health and well-being and to better understand factors that contribute to or prevent health disparities.

Until the mid 1950s, the Jews of Egypt lived in a multicultural and diverse society, which constituted a model of conviviality and tolerance, using French as its lingua franca. The Jews constituted a respected and well-integrated urban community of about 80 to 100,000, and made an impressive contribution to the socioeconomic modernization of the country. Together with the rise of Arab nationalism and the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the escalating Arab-Israeli conflict brought about the rapid demise of Egyptian Jewry. Like the other Jewish communities of Arab lands, these people were either expelled or forced into exile in the aftermath of the 1948, 1956, and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. As a consequence, close to half of the Jewish population of Egypt found refuge in Israel while the rest dispersed throughout the Western world, mainly in France, Brazil, and the United States. This book focuses on a group of about two thousand who settled in Australia, the "Edge of the Diaspora." It also examines the migration experience of Egyptian Jews who settled in France, in order to compare and contrast their integration in a non Anglo-Celtic environment. Although the Jews of Egypt, like most refugees, suffered the trauma of dispossession, expulsion, and dislocation, their particular experience did not attract the attention of Australian sociologists or historians. Even within the context of Australian Jewry, their story was largely unknown even though there has been much discussion about the postwar migration of European Jews. The author Racheline Barda believes that it is important to give them a voice, to tell their stories, and delve into their past history, thereby discovering the richness of their cultural heritage which ultimately gave them the tools for a successful integration in Australian society. One of the crucial concerns of this work was the preservation and transmission of the rich and dynamic history of this unique group to successive generations, through the oral testimonies of first-hand witnesses of a vanished world. This book makes an important contribution to the study of contemporary Australian society as well as diaspora studies. It deals with a topic that has rarely been reported on or studied in Australia--the migration experience of a small and unique ethnoreligious population such as the Jews of Egypt. It is the first comprehensive research on their immigration and integration into Australian society. Traditionally, sociohistorians have mostly concentrated on the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe or on the long established local Jewish community, which was historically of British and German origin. The Jews of Egypt constitute one of the largest Jewish communities to settle in Australia from outside European societies, in response to the rise of Arab nationalism and hostility to Israel. Based on a series of comprehensive interviews conducted mainly in Australia and France, this study reconstructs the history of a Jewish community and the circumstances of its demise. It takes the innovative approach of systematically analyzing the ethnic, religious, and cultural characteristics of both sample groups, highlighting the diversity that is inherent to the group as a whole. By specifically targeting the issue of identity, it provides an insight into the dynamics of a multilayered identity, which performs as a vehicle of integration and acculturation for a migrant group in any host society. Apart from individuals studying the particular history of Egyptian Jews wherever they settled after their forced emigration from Egypt, the book would be of interest to scholars specializing in diaspora studies, ethnic and immigrant studies, and social history.

Despite the pervasiveness of barter across societies, this mode of transaction has largely escaped the anthropologist's gaze. Drawing on data from fairs in the Argentinean Andes, this book addresses a local modality of barter known as cambio. Bringing out its embeddedness within religious celebrations, it argues that cambio is practiced as a sacrifice to catholic figures and local ancestors, thereby challenging a widespread view of barter as a non-monetary form of commodity exchange. This ethnography of Andean barter considers processes of value creation, both economic and subjective, to further our understanding of how social groups create themselves through economic exchanges.

This volume addresses the fraught relationship between market and society in times of social and economic crisis, exploring how they interact in key social, cultural, and political arenas on a global scale. The contributors examine the neoliberal market in anthropological and ethnographic terms to question whether "market logic" has won out against social aspects of human existence in a framework of minimal state protection and the devaluation of human labor. Fruitfully combining empirical data and theoretical approaches, the volume investigates the extent to which ordinary people accept unequal allocations of resources and examines their sense of belonging in an expansive neoliberal economy.

This volume reflects on what happens when the idea and practice of universal human rights cross the cultural borders between different communities of knowledge. Although such rights are usually presumed to be founded on certain globally shared beliefs, the norms and values of many cultures are often incommensurable with these "universal" principles, and hence the need to translate and "vernacularize" them. Any law that would successfully institutionalize them must frame human rights in a way that defers to the historically constituted cultural capital of the society in which it is to function. The essays in this book seek to illuminate different cognitive contexts that produce different meanings of rights, identify spaces of intercultural crossings where differences can coexist, and offer usable narratives and metaphors that could help mediate between distinct cultures. They show that the path forward does not lead through a unified theory of human rights that can be applied globally, nor through mere repackaging of rights in a more understandable language. What is needed is a deep understanding of the process of intercultural dialogue, the cultural "grammar" involved in relationships of difference.

Introduces key terms, research frameworks, debates, and histories for Asian American Studies Born out of the Civil Rights and Third World Liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s, Asian American Studies has grown significantly over the past four decades, both as a distinct field of inquiry and as a potent site of critique. Characterized by transnational, trans-Pacific, and trans-hemispheric considerations of race, ethnicity, migration, immigration, gender, sexuality, and class, this multidisciplinary field engages with a set of concepts profoundly shaped by past and present histories of racialization and social formation. The keywords included in this collection are central to social sciences, humanities, and cultural studies and reflect the ways in which Asian American Studies has transformed scholarly discourses, research agendas, and pedagogical frameworks. Spanning multiple histories, numerous migrations, and diverse populations, Keywords for Asian American Studies reconsiders and recalibrates the ever-shifting borders of Asian American studies as a distinctly interdisciplinary field. Visit keywords.nyupress.org for online essays, teaching resources, and more.

Thirty years after the collapse of Communism, and at a time of increasing anti-migrant and anti-Roma sentiment, this book analyses how Roma identity is expressed in contemporary Europe. From backgrounds ranging from political theory, postcolonial, cultural and gender studies to art history, feminist critique and anthropology, the contributors reflect on the extent to which a politics of identity regarding historically disadvantaged, racialized minorities such as the Roma can still be legitimately articulated.

This volume examines gender and mobility in Africa though the central themes of borders, bodies and identity. It explores perceptions and engagements around 'borders'; the ways in which 'bodies' and women's bodies in particular, shape and are affected by mobility, and the making and reproduction of actual and perceived 'boundaries'; in relation to gender norms and gendered identify. Over fourteen original chapters it makes revealing contributions to the field of migration and gender studies. Combining historical and contemporary perspectives on mobility in Africa, this project contextualises migration within a broad historical framework, creating a conceptual and narrative framework that resists post-colonial boundaries of thought on the subject matter. This multidisciplinary work uses divergent methodologies including ethnography, archival data collection, life histories and narratives and multi-country survey level data and engages with a range of conceptual frameworks to examine the complex forms and outcomes of mobility on the continent today. Contributions include a range of case studies from across the continent, which relate either conceptually or methodologically to the central question of gender identity and relations within migratory frameworks in Africa. This book will appeal to researchers and scholars of politics, history, anthropology, sociology and international relations.

The volume was inspired by the Children and Anthropology conference at the 14th International Congress of Anthropology and Ethnological Sciences, which was held at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in July of 1998. It was there that the contributing researchers/authors presented an argument aimed at changing the face of both anthropology and the study of children. They contend that anthropologists could and should contribute to a revitalized framework for the study of children and that childhood and youth culture are important sites for developing a more innovative and integrated anthropology.

As anthropologists struggle with competing research paradigms and agendas in this post-industrial, post-structural, late-modern world, it is argued here that research on children is an important arena for demonstrating the value of an anthropology that is both integrative (across sub-fields) and comparative. It seems clear that children in the 21st century will confront a range of both new and continuing problems that anthropologists are well-situated to address, such as the exploitation of Third World child labor, AIDS and other epidemics affecting children world-wide, and the impact of immigration as well as forced relocations due to war, natural disasters, and other social and environmental ills.

Identity Politics and the Third World revisits the theories of identification in challenging existing methods of ascertaining developing world identities on the grounds of objectivity and universality. The construction of postcolonial identities refers to the creation of systems of identification. This construction is undertaken at two levels: by the colonizer, in the form of myths about the subject races and a simultaneous belief in the notion that the subject cannot represent him/herself; and subsequently, by the colonized in an attempt to resist colonization and establish a sense of solidarity against the rulers. In the global context, the third world becomes a market place where identities are framed by the laws of consumer dynamics. Identities are again constructed here on two levels: by the forces of multinational economics, in the form of essentially hybrid, homogenously differentiated communities, and, in counterpoint, by the myths of unique national cultures. This book is designed to describe and critically analyse the structuring of identity and culture and the politics that informs them. Centering on the concepts of `polarity' and `in-betweenness', the idea of cosmopolitan or global identity is deconstructed in the wake of capitalist consumerism and multinational politics using the theories of identity construction and representation as formulated by Edward Said and Homi Bhabha for understanding colonialist politics and the postcolonial condition.

Exploring the roles of Muslim guards and guides in Jewish cemeteries in Morocco, Cory Thomas Pechan Driver suggests that these custodians use performances of ritual and caring acts for Jewish graves for multiple reasons. Imazighen [Berbers] stress their close ties with Jews in order to create a moral self intentionally set apart from the mono-ethically Arab and mono-religiously Muslim Morocco. Other subjects, and particularly women, use their ties with Jewish sites to harness power and prestige in their communities. Others still may care for these grave sites to express grief for a close Jewish friend or adoptive family. In examining these motives, Driver not only documents the flow of material and spiritual capital across religious lines, but also moves beyond Muslim memory of the past on the one hand and Jewish dread of the future on the other to think about the Muslim/Jewish present in Morocco.

This edited volume brings together the voices of different academics to illuminate the role of culture in determining the character and quality of the social and professional lives of mobile academics. The book examines specific issues on cultural diversity and the management of the heterogeneous classroom and diverse teaching/learning contexts. Teaching, learning, and research are processes carried out in situated contexts and within constructed, inherited, and negotiated cultural milieu, contexts that invariably affect the performance of the immigrant academics in their new homes and host academic institutions. The chapters in this volume provide analyses, reflections, and synthesis of intercultural and cross-cultural experiences. They include how migrant and expatriate scholars or students negotiate their cultural identities in new environments, how they engage with issues of differences in language accents, and how they navigate issues of minority versus majority status. They look at how immigrant scholars modulate their natal cultures in their new homes, how they work and rework their pedagogical beliefs and practices to suit the new and diverse classroom situations, and how native academics and the larger members of the receiving societies encompass the new challenges and opportunities of their now diverse society in a framework that they can understand. As the educational landscape goes increasingly global by the minute, studies such as these that deliver much insight on how migrant, immigrant, and expatriate academics, in their interaction with their hosts and with other immigrants, negotiate and resolve various psychosocial and socioeconomic challenges and dissonances, provide valuable and much-needed perspectives. This unique book provides an important discourse on the mobility across the boundaries of cultures and their primary subject of examination--to which the concepts of culture, change, and mobility are applied--is the mobile or sojourning academic (as students, teachers, and researchers). This is an important book for those in cross-cultural studies and education.

This volume provides an overview of the history of Greece, while also focusing on contemporary Greece. Coverage includes such 21st-century challenges as the economic crisis and the influx of immigrants and refugees that is changing the country's character. This latest volume in the Understanding Modern Nations series explores Greece, the birthplace of democracy and Western philosophical ideas. This thematic encyclopedia is one-of-its kind in its down-to-earth approach and comprehensive analysis of complex issues now facing Greece. It analyzes such topics as government and economics without jargon and brings a lighthearted approach to chapters on such topics as etiquette (e.g., what gestures to avoid so as not to offend), leisure (how Greeks celebrate holidays), and language (the meaning of "opa"). No other book on Greece is organized like this thematic encyclopedia, which has more than 200 entries on topics ranging from Archimedes to refugees. Unique to this encyclopedia is a "Day in the Life" section that explores the actions and thoughts of a high school student, a bank employee, a farmer in a small village, and a retired couple, giving readers a vivid snapshot of life in Greece. "Day in the Life" features portray the specific daily activities of various people in Greece, from teenagers to working adults in different fields, thereby providing readers with insight into daily life in the country Key terms related to the reading are defined in a Glossary appendix A chart of national holidays provides at-a-glance information about Greece's important religious and secular holidays Photos and sidebars illuminate the text, helping to illustrate key topics and allow students to dive more deeply into ideas Sidebars provide fun facts and anecdotal information that help to engage readers

Despite the growth in literature on political corruption, contributions from field research are still exiguous. This book provides a timely and much needed addition to current research, bridging the gap and providing an innovative approach to the study of corruption and integrity in public administration. The volume contributors provide insights from nine different countries, all drawing on extensive fieldwork data and following ethnographic methodologies. The topics discussed in this book include: the role of anti-corruption legislation; organizational change and morality; party corruption; socio-cultural dimensions of corruption; clientelism and patronage. Analyzing these topics comparatively, the volume concludes that in countries where public perception of corruption is high, citizens are well aware of the generalized damage of these practices and the loss of trust they cause for public administrations. On the other hand, corruption in public administration takes place following patterns that mirror some of the fundamental social and cultural features that characterize interactions among citizens and institutions. Scholars and students of the fields including public policy, public administration, sociology and anthropology will find this book to be of use to their research and studies. It will also be of interest to policy-makers internationally and public sector practitioners. Contributors include: M. Acar, C. Baez Camargo, E. Denisova-Schmidt, Z.T. Lofranco, N. Luci, R.M. Rivera, R.F Sambaiga, D. Torsello

In America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring, Robert Perrucci and Carolyn C. Perrucci identify the broad economic and technological changes that have led to the loss of high wage jobs, declining opportunity, and increased income and wealth inequality. These changes have altered the way that Americans think about themselves, their future, and the lives of their children and neighbors. Focusing on the erosion of trust, hope, and caring between and among Americans and their social institutions, the authors confront the challenge by proposing policies that will build hope (through jobs and wages) in order to promote greater trust of institutions and more caring for the less fortunate. Examining data from the past thirty-year period, Perrucci and Perrucci apply a critical sociological lens to view the dominant economic, political, and cultural institutions that have shaped the main social problems facing Americans. They challenge Americans to act on behalf of their individual and collective interests by becoming informed and involved in developing new solutions to improve their lives.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, continues to struggle with socioeconomic and political development. "Culture and Customs of the Congo" provides the full context of traditional culture and modern practices against a backdrop of a turbulent history. The volume opens up a land and peoples little known in the United States. Written expressly to meet the needs of students and the general audience, the work will inform about the geography, economy, political history, and history from the slave trade to dictatorship; ancestral religions and inroads of western faiths; ancestral literary heritage and communication; art, architecture, and housing; diet and dress; marriage, family, and women; lifestyles and life events, and traditional and modern music and dance.

Congolese society comprises hundreds of ethnic groups, such as the Luba, the Kongo, and the Kuba. The countryside is largely based on the hunting and gathering, herding, and farming lifestyles. The city is marked by lifestyles reflecting the prevalence of small business activities and increasing cultural sycretism of customs from different parts of the Congo and Western imports. Mukenge's narrative gives the diverse perspectives of their cultures with their fascinating juxtapositions to our familiar western ways. Examples of this are found in the Religion and Worldview chapter, which discusses ancestral religions, the spirits of the land, and supernatural power practitioners. The Literature chapter covers verbal competition and game songs. Congolese cuisine is based on starches such as the cassava root, the corn, and the plantain; green vegetables, insects, fish and, to a lesser extent, meat. Other chapters cover topics from the distinct Congolese dress and symbolic adornments, all-important family lines, to ceremonial music and dance. A chronology and glossary are added value.

In the wake of structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and health reforms in the 1990s, the majority of sub-Saharan African governments spend less than ten dollars per capita on health annually, and many Africans have limited access to basic medical care. Using a community-level approach, anthropologist Ellen E. Foley analyzes the implementation of global health policies and how they become intertwined with existing social and political inequalities in Senegal. ""Your Pocket Is What Cures You"" examines qualitative shifts in health and healing spurred by these reforms, and analyzes the dilemmas they create for health professionals and patients alike. It also explores how cultural frameworks, particularly those stemming from Islam and Wolof ethnomedicine, are central to understanding how people manage vulnerability to ill health. While offering a critique of neoliberal health policies, ""Your Pocket Is What Cures You"" remains grounded in ethnography to highlight the struggles of men and women who are precariously balanced on twin precipices of crumbling health systems and economic decline. Their stories demonstrate what happens when market-based health reforms collide with material, political, and social realities in African societies.

At once a social history and anthropological study of the world's oldest voluntary collective farms, All or None is a story of how landless laborers joined together in Ravenna, Italy to acquire land, sometimes by occupying private land in what they called a "strike in reverse," and how they developed sophisticated land use plans, based not only on the goal of profit, but on the human value of providing work where none was available. It addresses the question of the viability of cooperative enterprise as a potential solution for displaced workers, and as a more humane alternative to capitalist agribusiness.