Bronislaw Malinowski, born and educated in Poland, helped to establish British social anthropology. His classic monographs on the Trobriand Islanders were published between 1922 and 1935, when he was professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. This 1993 collection of Malinowski's early writings, establishes the intellectual background to this achievement. Written between 1904 and 1914, before he went to Melanesia, all but two of the essays are published here in English for the first time. They show how Malinowski's considerable impact on twentieth-century thought is rooted in the late nineteenth-century philosophy of central Europe, especially the work of philosopher and physicist Ernst Mach, Friedrich Nietzsche, and in the ethnological theories of James Frazer.

Now that nearly twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet bloc there is a need to understand what has taken place since that historic date and where we are at the moment. Bringing together authors with different historical, cultural, regional and theoretical backgrounds, this volume engages in debates that address new questions arising from recent developments, such as whether there is a need to reject or uphold the notion of post-socialism as both a necessary and valid concept ignoring changes and differences across both time and space. The authors' firsthand ethnographies from their own countries belie such a simplistic notion, revealing, as they do, the cultural, social, and historical diversity of countries of Central and Southeastern Europe.

Bronislaw Malinowski, born and educated in Poland, helped to establish British social anthropology. His classic monographs on the Trobriand Islanders were published between 1922 and 1935, when he was professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. This collection of Malinowski's early writings establishes the intellectual background to his achievement, and shows how his considerable impact on twentieth-century thought is rooted in the late nineteenth-century philosophy of central Europe, especially the work of Ernst Mach and Friedrich Nietzsche, and in the ethnological theories of James Frazer.

Viva Africa 2009, held in Hradec Kralove, was an opportunity for western and eastern european scholars to think critically about the condition of Africa half a century after the advent of Independence. The questions raised by an examination of the African continent five years after the end of colonial rule are many but they all boil down to the issue of poverty, violence and development. Why is it that countries of Africa have not fared better since they gained their freedom? Generations of (African and non-African) Africanists have addressed this question and their answers have depended partly on their expecations and partly on their reading of the situation on the ground at the time. (From the Foreword)

This book gives voice to the representatives of various social science disciplines who use the expression 'actor in politics' according to the requirements of their respective approaches. They nevertheless arrive at an interesting and, to a great extent, impressive unity in diversity. What the book shows is the encounter of African actors and their agency with external actors and factors. Another connection uniting the contributions is the fact that they address the impact political actors outside the official or formal domain can and do exert on the respective societies. Informal politics and informal political actors and their entanglement with the official and formal domain of politics are among peculiarities of current African politics. But, informality in politics and entanglement of formal and informal political actors might also hint at the future of politics and political order in general. (Series: African Studies / Afrikanische Studien - Vol. 51)

"The major contribution of the volume lays in its rethinking of the postsocialist paradigm from an insider's perspective. By taking a longue duree perspective on their societies, contributors explore cultural, political, and economic transformations, revealing the complex interactions between global processes and specific localities. Their scholarship prove, . if still necessary, that Central and Eastern European anthropology is thriving both at home and abroad." JRAI

"This book may be a pioneering endeavour, not only in the study of anthropological changes in the heart of Europe, but also for Central European socio-anthropological research. It is nearly impossible to compare this to other books in this field as it is truly an innovative work and acts as a source of inspiration for additional research and the deepening of discussion on existing materials." Central European Journal of International and Security Studies

."..all these case studies presented are fascinating, covering as they do often little or unresearched topics...This collection should be interesting for people engaged in East European studies." Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

"Seeking to dispel the myth that Eastern European anthropology is parochial and centered on folkloric research, the volume showcases rich ethnographies that spell out the connections between local and global processes and provide insight into new social hierarchies and marginalities." Anthropos

Now that nearly twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet bloc there is a need to understand what has taken place since that historic date and where we are at the moment. Bringing together authors with different historical, cultural, regional and theoretical backgrounds, this volume engages in debates that address new questions arising from recent developments, such as whether there is a need to reject or uphold the notion of post-socialism as both a necessary and valid concept ignoring changes and differences across both time and space. The authors' firsthand ethnographies from their own countries belie such a simplistic notion, revealing, as they do, the cultural, social, and historical diversity of countries of Central and Southeastern Europe.

Laszlo Kurti has taught anthropology at the American University, and Eotvos University in Budapest, and presently teaches at the University of Miskolc. He has conducted fieldwork in the US, Romania and Hungary. His books include: "Beyond Borders" (1996, co-edited with J. Langman), "The Remote Borderland" (2001), "Youth and the State in Hungary" (2002), and he served as co-editor for "Working Images" (2004).

Peter Skalnik currently teaches social anthropology at the University of Pardubice. He was the Czech ambassador to Lebanon (1992-1997). He has edited or co-edited: "The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski" (1993), "The Post-communist Millennium: The Struggles for Sociocultural Anthropology in Central and Eastern Europe" (2002), "Anthropology of Europe: Teaching and Research" (2004), "Studying Peoples in the People's Democracies: Socialist Era Anthropology in East-Central Europe" (2005).

In Africa, the distribution of power and powerlessness seems to be more rigid than on other continents. Political power is in the hands of narrow elites, while the overwhelming majority has hardly any access to decision-making. The common denominator of this book is the notion of power. It follows the analytical differentiation between the concept of power over that which is largely used by mainstream political science, and the concept of power as social practice. The book asks pertinent questions on how power is composed, created, and used on the African continent. (Series: Afrikanische Studien/African Studies - Vol. 43)