Social and cultural anthropology Books

This book provides an original treatment of the concept of good and beauty in ancient Egypt. It seeks to examine the dimensions of nefer, the term used to describe the good and the beautiful, within the context of ordinary life. Because the book is...

Through a cultural analysis of the symbols of death - flesh, blood, bones, souls, time numbers, food and money - Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore throws light upon the Chinese perception of death and how they cope with its eventuality. In the seeming...

Geno-technology is a technology unlike any other, with significant implications for life in the 21st century. It directly affects us at a deeply personal level, it poses a threat to the boundaries which conventionally define selfhood, it generates...

This book focuses on the developments in research, national-historical narratives, and geographies of East Central Europe. It explores the emergence of specific discursive practices, architectures of ethnic identity, and the eventual juxtaposition during...

This book explores contemporary transformations of identities in a digitizing society across a range of domains of modern life. As digital technology and ICTs have come to pervade virtually all aspects of modern societies, the routine registration of...

This book explores how the often well-meaning routines and assumptions of a generous welfare state can reflect and even contribute to the stigmatisation of refugees and Muslims in Europe today. While the main cases are from Sweden, examples are included...

This book investigates the complex and unpredictable temporalities of waste. Reflecting on waste in the context of sustainability, materiality, social practices, subjectivity and environmental challenges, the book covers a wide range of settings, from...

Provides basic information on successfully collecting, processing, analyzing, and describing skeletal human remains.Forensic Anthropology Training Manual serves as a practical reference tool and a framework for training in forensic anthropology.The first...

Many societal and cultural changes have taken place over the past several decades, almost all of which have had a significant effect on the mental health professions. Clinicians find themselves encountering clients from highly diverse backgrounds more...

Kyoto is both a popular destination for tourists and home to one and a half million inhabitants.  There is lively debate about how best to develop the city, involving a variety of stakeholders, forming a particlar social arena that has no match...

Zachary Kingdon here provides an in-depth account of the background, origin and development of the spirit figure sculptures which emerged during colonial times among the Makonde people of Mozambique.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore,...

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore,...

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore,...

This book is the first comprehensive account of the changing role of men and the construction of masculinity in contemporary Japan. The book moves beyond the stereotype of the Japanese white-collar businessman to explore the diversity of identities and...

This concise, contemporary option for instructors of cultural anthropology breaks away from the traditional structure of introductory textbooks. Emphasizing the interaction between humans and their environment, the tension between human universals and...

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore,...

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore,...

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race provides up-to-date explanation and analyses by leading scholars of contemporary issues in African American philosophy and philosophy of race. These original essays encompass the major topics and approaches in...

Get all wrapped up in lovemaking--with strings attached!Could your sex life use some new thrills? If so, here's your ticket to fulfilling all those unconfessed desires. Whether you would like to make dominance and submission (D/s) a permanent part of...

An economic revolution is transforming America: the New Mainstream. In this groundbreaking book, Guy Garcia explains how Americans will eat, work, play, learn, and spend money in the twenty-first century--and why any organization that ignores the lessons...

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore,...

Named Book of the Year by Books and Culture

The Cannibal Within offers an evolutionary account of the propensity of human beings, in extreme circumstances to eat other human beings, despite the strong Western taboo against such practices

This book investigates three Indian revolts in the Americas: the 1680 uprising of the Pueblo Indians against the Spanish; the Great Rebellion in Bolivia, 1780-82; and the Caste War of Yucatan that began in 1849 and was not finally crushed until 1903...

The universal act of dressing-shared by both men and women, young and old, rich and poor, minority and majority-has shaped human interactions, communicated hopes and fears about the future, and embodied what it means to be Somali. Heather Marie Akou...

In Africa, where the birthrate of twins is among the highest in the world, twins can be seen as a burden to their families and a threat to the social order, or they can be seen as a gift from God and beings with unique abilities who bring about social...

In this ethnography of postsocialist Moscow in the late 1990s, Olga Shevchenko draws on interviews with a cross-section of Muscovites to describe how people made sense of the acute uncertainties of everyday life, and the new identities and competencies...

While devotional practices are usually viewed as mechanisms for reinforcing religious boundaries, in the multicultural, multiconfessional world of the Eastern Mediterranean, shared shrines sustain intercommunal and interreligious contact among groups...

Offers an extremely sophisticated, nuanced view of the social and political construction of an African middle class in colonial Zimbabwe." -Elizabeth SchmidtTracing their quest for social recognition from the time of Cecil Rhodes to Rhodesia's unilateral...

This is a very strong, thought-provoking [volume]... "-George MarcusAs home photographs shift from the print format to digital technology and as video moves from the television screen to multimedia, it is crucial to develop new strategies of interpreting...

This unique collaboration by academic historians, Oneida elders, and Episcopal clergy tells the fascinating story of how the oldest Protestant mission and house of worship in the upper Midwest took root in the Oneida community. Personal bonds that...

How do parents and children care for each other when they are separated because of migration? The way in which transnational families maintain long-distance relationships has been revolutionised by the emergence of new media such as email, instant...

Ambivalent Europeans examines the implications of living on the fringes of Europe. In Malta, public debate is dominated by the question of Europe, both at a policy level - whether or not to join the EU - and at the level of national identity - whether or...

Arguing with Anthropology is a fresh and wholly original guide to key elements in anthropology, which teaches the ability to think, write and argue critically. Using the classic 'question of the gift' as a master-issue for discussion, and drawing on a...

Social Complexity in the Making is a highly accessible ethnography which explains the history and evolution of Ilahita, an Arapesh-speaking village in the interior Sepik region of northeastern New Guinea. This village, unlike others in the region,...