In this volume, leading public anthropologists examine paths towards public engagement and discuss their experiences with engaged anthropology in arenas such as the media, international organizations, courtrooms, and halls of government. They discuss topics ranging from migration to cultural understanding, justice, development aid, ethnic conflict, war, and climate change. Through these examples of hands-on experience, the book provides a unique account of challenges faced, opportunities taken, and lessons learned. It illustrates the potential efficacy of an anthropology that engages with critical social and political issues.

This book examines changing and emerging state and state-like borders in the post-Soviet space in the decades following state collapse. This book argues border-making is not only about states' physical marking of territory and claims to sovereignty but also about people's spatial practices over time. In order to illustrate how borders come about and are maintained, this book looks at border communities at internal, open administrative borders and borders in the making, as well as physically demarcated international state borders. This book also pays attention to both the spatial and temporal aspects of borders and the interplay between boundaries and borders over time and thus identifies some of the processes at play as space is territorialized in Eurasia in the aftermath of state collapse.

The past two decades have witnessed the end of several civil wars and authoritarian regimes. In a period shaped by the ideal of democratization, in which more countries are emerging from deep-rooted conflicts, international attention is turning to the question of how societies with a grievous past face issues of accountability and reconciliation. How do societies deal with a past characterized by gross human rights violations? What kinds of processes judicial as well as non-judicial are most likely to generate a sense of reconciliation? Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book provides a systematic and comparative analysis of reconciliation processes in various societies that in recent years have made a transition from authoritarian to democratic rule, or from war to relative peace. Revisiting case studies from Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia through a lens of comparative analysis, shedding new light on how societies have dealt with their violent pasts, Roads to Reconciliation is essential reading for both scholars and practitioners concerned with human rights, transitional justice, or peace building."

The past two decades have witnessed the end of several civil wars and authoritarian regimes. In a period shaped by the ideal of democratization, in which more countries are emerging from deep-rooted conflicts, international attention is turning to the question of how societies with a grievous past face issues of accountability and reconciliation. How do societies deal with a past characterized by gross human rights violations? What kinds of processes--judicial as well as non-judicial--are most likely to generate a sense of reconciliation? Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book provides a systematic and comparative analysis of reconciliation processes in various societies that in recent years have made a transition from authoritarian to democratic rule, or from war to relative peace. Revisiting case studies from Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia through a lens of comparative analysis, shedding new light on how societies have dealt with their violent pasts, Roads to Reconciliation is essential reading for both scholars and practitioners concerned with human rights, transitional justice, or peace building.

In this volume, leading public anthropologists examine paths towards public engagement and discuss their experiences with engaged anthropology in arenas such as the media, international organizations, courtrooms, and halls of government. They discuss topics ranging from migration to cultural understanding, justice, development aid, ethnic conflict, war, and climate change. Through these examples of hands-on experience, the book provides a unique account of challenges faced, opportunities taken, and lessons learned. It illustrates the potential efficacy of an anthropology that engages with critical social and political issues.

"I have been able to follow a Bosnian community over a period of six years, during which it has undergone dramatic changes. In the late 1980s people were working hard against economic crisis. In 1990 they were full of optimism for the future. In January 1993 the village was in fear, surrounded by war on all sides. In April 1993 it was attacked by Croat forces. In October 1993 none of the Muslims in the village remained. They had either fled, been placed in detention camps, or been killed."

Thus begins Tone Bringa's moving ethnographic account of Bosnian Muslims' lives in a rural village located near Sarajevo. Although they represent a majority of the population in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Muslims are still members of a minority culture in the region that was once Yugoslavia. The question of ethno- national identity has become paramount in this society, and the author focuses on religion as the defining characteristic of identity. Bringa pays particular attention to the roles that women play in defining Muslim identities, and she examines the importance of the household as a Muslim identity sphere. In so doing, she illuminates larger issues of what constitutes "nationality."

This is a gripping and heartfelt account of a community that has been torn apart by ethno-political conflict. It will attract readers of all backgrounds who want to learn more about one of the most intractable wars of the late twentieth century and the people who have been so tragically affected.