Society & Social Sciences Books

Originally published in 1962, this study discusses the changes in the life of the Ovimbundu from the time of their caravan trade in slaves, rubber, and ivory down to the more recent period when the organization of their chiefdoms was influenced by the...

Originally published in 1943 this book discusses the life and culture of the Lovedu, a Bantu tribe in South Africa. As well as discussing the Rain-Queen, much of the book is devoted to the royal institutions; the network of links woven by kinship,...

Originally published in 1967 this volume presents studies of 10 West African kingdoms which have played an important part in the economic, political and cultural life of the region. Ranging geographically from the kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria to...

Originally published in 1947 and reprinted with a new preface in 1961, this book is based on field studies and gives an account of the social organization of the Swazi, wiith special reference to the aristocratic structure of their society and the way in...

Originally published in 1954 this book was originally designed for administrators but has become a key title for anthropologists. It includes a summary account of the history and social organisation of the Nuer and provides a descriptive analysis of...

This book illuminates the experiences of a set of students and faculty who are members of the Dalit caste - commonly known as the 'untouchables' - who are relatively 'successful' in that they attend or are academics at a prestigious university.

As China globalises the number of marriages between Chinese people and foreigners is increasing. These Chinese-foreign marriages have profound implications for China's cultural identity. This book, based on extensive original research, outlines the...

Originally published in 1950 and updated in 1968, this book discusses the functions and status of native chiefs in what were the French colonies in West Africa. It also examines the relation of the French legal code to native law and custom and the...

This book is about the political economy of China's industrial reform and the rise of a group of Chinese big businesses under the Communist Party and the central state's control. It examines the origins, evolution and institutional configuration of this...

Originally published in 1978, this book is a collection of chapters based on the papers read at a conference in 1976 at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The title starts with an introductory essay in which a metatheoretical and philosophical...

Our views on human nature are fundamental to the whole development, indeed the whole future, of human society. Originally published in 1974, Professor Thorpe believed that this was one of the most important and significant topics to which a biologist can...

This book discusses Japan's earlier experiments with jury trials, compares developing views in Japan on this issue with views in other countries where dissatisfaction with the jury system is often evident, and concludes by assessing how the new...

Psychoanalytic Case Studies from an Interpersonal-Relational Perspective contains reports of long-term treatments, including many dialogues and dreams, with commentaries following each one. Drawing from theories that have been developed since Freud, the...

Originally published in 1977, the objective of this book was to examine the mechanisms by which the multiple factors or determinants - homeostatic deficits, hormonal influences, circadian rhythms, experiential and cognitive factors - become translated by...

How do some political leaders capture popular support? What is the appeal of belonging to a nation? Can democracy thrive?The Psychology of Politics explores how the emotions which underpin everyday life are also vital in what happens on the political...

This definitive and most detail work ever to have been published, devoted exclusively to the chemistry and biology of chlorinated insecticides, comes from the authoritative pen of a leading investigator in this field. It should serve for many years to...

This volume, by recognizing the complexity of cultural production in both its diasporic and national contexts, seeks a nuanced critical approach in order to look ahead to the future of transnational literary studies. The majority of the chapters, written...

This book offers a variety of theoretical perspectives on the study of religion that bridge the gap between mainstream concerns of sociologists and the sociology of religion. Following an assessment of the current state of the field, the authors develop...

The label 'Suicide Cults' has been applied to a wide variety of different alternative religions, from Jonestown to the Solar Temple to Heaven's Gate. Additionally, observers have asked if such group suicides are in any way comparable to Islamist suicide...

Western societies are immersed in debates about immigration and  illegality. This book examines these processes and outlines how the figure of the "crimmigrant other" has emerged not only as a central object of media and political discourse,...

Demography has always mattered in conflict, but with conflict increasingly of an inter-ethnic nature, with sharper demographic differences between ethnic groups and with the spread of democracy, numbers count in conflict now more than ever. This book...

Rooted in multimodal conversation analysis and based on video recordings of naturally occurring social interactions, this book presents a novel analytical perspective for the study of touch. The authors focus on how different forms of touch are...

Sport is a geographic phenomenon. The physical and organizational infrastructure of sport occupies a prominent place in our society. This important book takes an explicitly spatial approach to sport, bringing together research in geography, sport studies...

The most comprehensive study of ideology and utopia since Karl Mannheim's work of the 1930s, Utopia and Revolution can be understood as turning classical political theory on its head or, perhaps, inside out

Originally published in 1967, this book is a study of witchcraft and sorcery among the Shona, Ndebele and Kalanga peoples of Zimbabwe. It analyses in their social context verbatim evidence and confessions from a comprehensive series of judicial records...

This book examines the drug dealer in contemporary society from an interdisciplinary perspective and considers the increasingly blurred demarcation between illegitimate and legitimate drug markets. It explores the motives and drivers of those involved in...

Widowhood in an American City focuses on the roles and lifestyles of urban American widows fifty years of age or older

The great critic Peter Viereck, in a volume that both reproduces an earlier effort and presents an entirely new work on the intersection of history and literature, offers a biting critique of the American desire for normalcy that leads to a culture of...

Franz Vranitzky, the banker turned politician, was chancellor during the ten years (1986-96) when the world dramatically changed in the aftermath of the cold war

In this age of large cities, mass culture, and ever more massive events, people must struggle against an overwhelming crowd of their own creations to maintain human integrity

The latest volume of Culture and Civilization gathers contemporary exponents of critical theory, specifically those based in the Frankfurt School of social thinking. Collectively, this volume demonstrates the continuing intellectual viability of critical...

Humor, wit, and laughter surround each person. From everyday quips to the carefully contrived comedy of literature, newspapers, and television we experience humor in many forms, yet the impetus for our laughter is far from innocuous

Robert G. Gregory challenges the apparent assumption that non-Western peoples lack a significant indigenous philanthropic culture

The post-World War Two period has witnessed numerous armed conflicts characterized by extensive violations of relevant obligatory international norms

The changing economic and demographic patterns of the United States have many measurements; few of them, however, are more comprehensive than the new circulation realities of the press

When the cold war ended, many hoped it signified enhanced prospects for a more stable world

As part of its Education Amendments, the United States Congress passed Title IX in 1972 to ensure that no person should be discriminated against in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance

Today we face the painful reality of the prevalence of chronic, rather than acute, diseases

The Report on Smoking and Health published by the Royal College of Physicians in England in 1965 warned of a connection between lung -cancer and smoking

This book, originally published as The Old East Side, is a collection of literature and documents ranging from the autobiography of the sculptor Jacob Epstein and the novels of Abraham Cahan to the reporting of William Dean Howells and the fictional...

Robert Filmer's prime assumption is that the Bible contains the entire truth about the nature of the world and the nature of society

By exploring the role of military officers and chronicling the sequences of events, Soldiers and Politics in Southeast Asia offers insight into the conditions that fostered military governments specifically in Thailand, Burma, South Vietnam, Indonesia,...

"One of our most original social thinkers," according to the New York Times, Robert Nisbet offers a new approach to sociology

In this classic volume, written at the height of the Cold War, with a new preface of 2006, Peter Viereck, one of the foremost intellectual spokesmen of modern conservatism, examines the differing responses of American and European intellectuals to the...

Our encounters with the physical world are filled with miraculous puzzles-wind appears from somewhere, heavy objects (like oil tankers) float on oceans, yet smaller objects go to the bottom of our water-filled buckets. As adults, instead of confronting a...

In this remarkable study, Robert R. Faulkner shows that the Hollywood film industry, like most work communities, is dominated by a highly productive and visible elite who exercise major influence on the control of available resources, career chances, and...

Public administration is commonly assumed to be a young discipline, rooted in law and political science, with little history of its own

From Instinct to Identity begins an account of personality development by tracing the legacy of the human species from its primate heritage to its present form