Anthropology Books

This book gives a social anthropological account of whaling culture in Japan. When originally published this was the first comprehensive account in English of the history of Japanese whaling, showing how it has given rise to a particular culture. The...

From Rebellion to Riots is a critical analysis of the roots of contemporary violence in one of Indonesia s most ethnically heterogeneous provinces, West Kalimantan. Since the late 1960s, this province has suffered periodic outbreaks of ethnic violence...

Envisioning Brazil is a comprehensive and sweeping assessment of Brazilian studies in the United States. Focusing on synthesis and interpretation and assessing trends and perspectives, this reference work provides an overview of the writings on Brazil by...

As European colonies in Asia and Africa became independent nations, as the United States engaged in war in Southeast Asia and in covert operations in South America, anthropologists questioned their interactions with their subjects and worried about the...

Focusing on former socialist states in Eastern Europe, the contributors disclose the political and physical dangers inherent in field research. They reveal how communities undergo political and economic dislocations, plummeting living standards, and...

Contends that the ambivalence felt by all humans about sex, death and eating other animals can be explained by a set of coordinated principles that are expressed in taboos. Valeri evokes the world of the Huaulu, to show the attractions of the animal...

Romantic Motives explores a topic that has been underemphasized in the historiography of anthropology. Tracking the Romantic strains in the the writings of Rousseau, Herder, Cushing, Sapir, Benedict, Redfield, Mead, Levi-Strauss, and others, these essays...

The transition to democracy in South Africa was one of the defining events in twentieth-century political history. The South African women's movement is one of the most celebrated on the African continent. Shireen Hassim examines interactions between the...

This volume offers information on how, for 50 years, the bush Kaliai in Melanesia have worked the deserted cargo left by US Marines during World War II into their indigenous culture. The author seeks to show how cargo cults in general bring together...

A rich ethnography of present-day Iranian seminarian women, revealing the complex ways that they create and define their intellectual and political connections to the Islamic republic.

The Realness of Things Past proposes a new paradigm of historical practice. It questions the way we conventionally historicize the experiences of non-modern peoples, western and non-western, and makes the case for an alternative. It shows how our...

Have you ever wondered what people say in Focus Groups? Focus Groups have been an extremely effective marketing research tool for decades. The fate or success of many products has been decided by people discussing their values and needs in small groups...

Systems of Classification in Premodern Medical Cultures puts historical disease concepts in cross-cultural perspective, investigating perceptions, constructions and experiences of health and illness from antiquity to the seventeenth century...

This book provides a comprehensive and multifaceted analysis of the Sámi society and its histories and people, offering valuable insights into how they live and see the world. The chapters examine a variety of social and cultural practices, and...

Social, economic, and technological changes disrupt many Indigenous, ethnic, and rural communities even when offering progress. Under these conditions, social and psychological dysfunctions are likely to emerge. This book provides insights regarding how...

This book describes a ubiquitous and potent emotion that has only rarely and recently been studied in any systematic manner. The words that come closest to denoting it in English are being moved or touched, having a heart-warming feeling, feeling...

This book examines the stories that corporations tell about themselves-and explores the powerful influence of corporations in the transformation of cultural and social life. Six case studies draw on CEO memoirs, annual reports, management manuals,...

Vietnam is a land whose features change dramatically within short distances--from mountains and high plateaus to coastal plains and inland swamps

The great expanse of Arctic and Sub-Arctic lands that stretch across the northern edge of the American continent is as difficult and demanding to human beings as any in the world. The Athapaskan-speaking Indians who made it their home never captured the...

Based on an intensive fourteen-year study of a Hungarian peasant village, Proper Peasants greatly expands our knowledge of Eastern European social organizations with its accurate portrayal of a rapidly vanishing peasant way of life. Centering on the...

Re-visiting Tikopia a decade after his first visit, Raymond Firth here examines what impact the forces of modernization had on Tikopia society with regard to economics, law, politics and social affairs. Suffering a famine whilst there, the author also...

An illuminating introduction to the methods and problems of social anthropology, this book draws on a wide range of illustrations, including Raymond Firth's own experiences in New Zealand, Malaya and the Solomon Islands. The concept of social...

In this work the author gives detailed evidence for the ascent of Witchcraft set out in his previous volume of The History Witchcraft and Demonology. The epedemic that occurred is trated as it appeared in various countries and comprehensive chapters deal...

This volume explores the process of heritage making and its relation to the production of touristic places, examining several case studies around the world. Most existing literature on heritage and tourism centers either on its managerial aspects, the...

This book examines the complex relationship between class and gender dynamics among tea ceremony (chadō) practitioners in Japan. Focusing on practitioners in a provincial city, Akita, the book surveys the rigid, hierarchical chadō system at grass roots...

Originally published in 1915, this pioneer study has long occupied an important place in the literature of sociology. An exercise in the statistical correlation of the economic and social institutions of the working classes of the early twentieth...

Southeast Asia's Credit Revolution describes and explains the rise of microfinance - the provision of credit and other financial services for the poor - in Southeast Asia, over the past four decades the most consistently successful region of the...

In this book Martin McQuillan brings Derrida's writing into the immediate vicinity of geo-politics today, from the Kosovan conflict to the war in Iraq.  The chapters in this book follow both Derrida's writing since Specters of Marx and the present...

Sandra Beckett's book explores the contemporary retelling of the Red Riding Hood tale in Western children's literature.

This encyclopedia examines Russian culture from 1953, Stalin's death, to the present day. Both 'Russian' and 'Culture' are defined broadly. Given the diversity of the Federation in its ethnic composition and regional characteristics,...

First published in 1930, this is the final of Edward Westermarck's trilogy of titles that explore the society, culture and customs of Morocco. Compiled from years of personal research and interviews conducted with local people, this collection of native...

Artifacts in organizations are ubiquitous but often overlooked. The chapters in this book illustrate that artifacts are everywhere in organizational life. They prevail in how offices are decorated, language is used, business cards are designed, and...

First published in 1987, Constructive Drinking is a series of original case studies organized into three sections based on three major functions of drinking. The three constructive functions are: that drinking has a real social role in everyday life;...

First published in 1980, this book provides an overview of E. E. Evans-Pritchard's approach to anthropology. His seminal works on the Azande and the Nuer had an immense impact on the field in Britain. He wrote these works in his thirties and forties,...

This volume provides an ethnographic account of courtship, marriage and family life among the people of the Trobriand Islands.