|
Showing 1 - 9 of
9 matches in All Departments
Amerindian societies have an iconic status in classical political
thought. For Montaigne, Hobbes, Locke, Hume and Rousseau, the
native American 'state of nature' operates as a foil for the
European polity. Challenging this tradition, The Imbalance of Power
demonstrates ethnographically that the Carib speaking indigenous
societies of the Guiana region of Amazonia do not fit conventional
characterizations of 'simple' political units with 'egalitarian'
political ideologies and 'harmonious' relationships with nature.
Marc Brightman builds a persuasive and original theory of
Amerindian politics: far from balanced and egalitarian, Carib
societies are rife with tension and difference; but this imbalance
conditions social dynamism and a distinctive mode of cohesion. The
Imbalance of Power is based on the author's fieldwork in
partnership with Vanessa Grotti, who is working on a companion
volume entitled Living with the Enemy: First Contacts and the
Making of Christian Bodies in Amazonia.
The first book to address the classic anthropological theme of
property through the ethnography of Amazonia, Ownership and Nurture
sets new and challenging terms for anthropological debates about
the region and about property in general. Property and ownership
have special significance and carry specific meanings in Amazonia,
which has been portrayed as the antithesis of Western,
property-based, civilization. Through carefully constructed studies
of land ownership, slavery, shamanism, spirit mastery, aesthetics,
and intellectual property, this volume demonstrates that property
relations are of central importance in Amazonia, and that the
ownership of persons plays an especially significant role in native
cosmology.
Amazonia and Siberia, classic regions of shamanism, have long
challenged 'western' understandings of man's place in the world. By
exploring the social relations between humans and non-human
entities credited with human-like personhood (not only animals and
plants, but also 'things' such as artifacts, trade items, or
mineral resources) from a comparative perspective, this volume
offers valuable insights into the constitutions of humanity and
personhood characteristic of the two areas. The contributors
conducted their ethnographic fieldwork among peoples undergoing
transformative processes of their lived environments, such as the
depletion of natural resources and migration to urban centers. They
describe here fundamental relational modes that are being tested in
the face of change, presenting groundbreaking research on
personhood and agency in shamanic societies and contributing to our
global understanding of social and cultural change and continuity.
Amazonia and Siberia, classic regions of shamanism, have long
challenged 'western' understandings of man's place in the world. By
exploring the social relations between humans and non-human
entities credited with human-like personhood (not only animals and
plants, but also 'things' such as artifacts, trade items, or
mineral resources) from a comparative perspective, this volume
offers valuable insights into the constitutions of humanity and
personhood characteristic of the two areas. The contributors
conducted their ethnographic fieldwork among peoples undergoing
transformative processes of their lived environments, such as the
depletion of natural resources and migration to urban centers. They
describe here fundamental relational modes that are being tested in
the face of change, presenting groundbreaking research on
personhood and agency in shamanic societies and contributing to our
global understanding of social and cultural change and continuity.
This open access book applies insights from the anthropology of
hospitality to illuminate ethnographic accounts of migrant
reception in various parts of the Mediterranean. The contributors
ground the idea and practice of hospitality in concrete
ethnographic settings and challenge how the casual usage of
Derridean or Kantian notions of hospitality can blur the boundaries
between social scales and between metaphor and practice. Host-guest
relations are multiplied through pregnancy and childbirth, and new
forms of hospitality emerge with the need to offer mortuary
practices for dead strangers, helping to illuminate the spatial and
scalar dimensions of morality and politics in Mediterranean migrant
reception.
This book compiles research from leading experts in the social,
behavioral, and cultural dimensions of sustainability, as well as
local and global understandings of the concept, and on lived
practices around the world. It contains studies focusing on ways of
living, acting, and thinking which claim to favor the local and
global ecological systems of which we are a part, and on which we
depend for survival. The concept of sustainability as a product of
concern about global environmental degradation, rising social
inequalities, and dispossession is presented as a key concept. The
contributors explore the opportunities to engage with questions of
sustainability and to redefine the concept of sustainability in
anthropological terms.
This book compiles research from leading experts in the social,
behavioral, and cultural dimensions of sustainability, as well as
local and global understandings of the concept, and on lived
practices around the world. It contains studies focusing on ways of
living, acting, and thinking which claim to favor the local and
global ecological systems of which we are a part, and on which we
depend for survival. The concept of sustainability as a product of
concern about global environmental degradation, rising social
inequalities, and dispossession is presented as a key concept. The
contributors explore the opportunities to engage with questions of
sustainability and to redefine the concept of sustainability in
anthropological terms.
The first book to address the classic anthropological theme of
property through the ethnography of Amazonia, Ownership and Nurture
sets new and challenging terms for anthropological debates about
the region and about property in general. Property and ownership
have special significance and carry specific meanings in Amazonia,
which has been portrayed as the antithesis of Western,
property-based, civilization. Through carefully constructed studies
of land ownership, slavery, shamanism, spirit mastery, aesthetics,
and intellectual property, this volume demonstrates that property
relations are of central importance in Amazonia, and that the
ownership of persons plays an especially significant role in native
cosmology.
Amerindian societies have an iconic status in classical political
thought. For Montaigne, Hobbes, Locke, Hume and Rousseau, the
native American 'state of nature' operates as a foil for the
European polity. Challenging this tradition, The Imbalance of Power
demonstrates ethnographically that the Carib speaking indigenous
societies of the Guiana region of Amazonia do not fit conventional
characterizations of 'simple' political units with 'egalitarian'
political ideologies and 'harmonious' relationships with nature.
Marc Brightman builds a persuasive and original theory of
Amerindian politics: far from balanced and egalitarian, Carib
societies are rife with tension and difference; but this imbalance
conditions social dynamism and a distinctive mode of cohesion. The
Imbalance of Power is based on the author's fieldwork in
partnership with Vanessa Grotti, who is working on a companion
volume entitled Living with the Enemy: First Contacts and the
Making of Christian Bodies in Amazonia.
|
|