Deftly bridging literary conventions, this compelling work exposes the cultural origins of a quiet revolution that occurred over the course of the twentieth century. Elizabeth Krause combines novelistic and ethnographic techniques to illuminate...

The United States on the eve of the Second World War was still a society largely isolated from the world. Facing enemies with unfamiliar cultural traditions, the U.S. government turned to anthropologists for insight. The result was a research effort that...

Addresses the politics of immigration, in the everyday lives of one communityNational immigration debates have thrust both opponents of immigration and immigrant rights supporters into the news. But what happens once the rallies end and the banners come...

Categories of analysis in the social sciences include the binary pair 'nature' and 'culture', as defined by western societies. Anthropologists have often imputed these categories to the world-views of non-western people and the construct has acquired the...

Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge brings feminist anthropology up to date, highlighting the theoretical sophistication that characterizes recent research. Twelve essays by outstanding scholars, written with the volume's concerns specifically in mind,...

Explores the world of the Saramaka Maroons of Suriname and the status of women as reflected in social structure and art

Significant because [it] traces the development process from the non-industrial societies to present-day socialist nations, includes scholars from the first and third worlds, and provides data for a comparative analysis of structural changes in gender...

Environmental issues have become increasingly prominent in local struggles, national debates, and international policies. In response, scholars are paying more attention to conventional politics and to more broadly defined relations of power and...

In a wide-ranging account of the development of ideas about human difference, Nicholas Thomas challenges reigning theories that portray colonialism as monolithic in character, purpose, and efficacy throughout the world. Taking issue with such writers as...

How did the industrialized nations of North America and Europe come to be seen as the appropriate models for post-World War II societies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America? How did the postwar discourse on development actually create the so-called Third...

The 25th-anniversary edition of the groundbreaking book that changed anthropology, asserting that ethnographers needn’t exclude themselves or their vulnerabilities from their workIn a new epilogue to this classic work, renowned ethnographer and...

The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faithHow do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people―as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see...

The Polynesian island of Tahiti is in the imagination an island paradise, an idyllic world inhabited by noble savages, carefree and uncomplicated. Tahiti separates myth from reality. Finney describes and analyzes the forces of change that have confronted...

Winner of the 2011 ALLA Book Award honorable mention!Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network is an ethnography of undocumented immigrants who work as busboys at a Chicago-area restaurant. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz introduces readers to...

A bold, thought-provoking pathway to the national solidarity that could, finally, address the ills of racism in America “Racism is an existential threat to America,” Theodore R. Johnson declares at the start of his profound and exhilarating book. It is a...

Despite its sensational title, Carl Bock's account of his travels in the 1870s in both Borneo and Sumatra covers much more than the well-known head-hunting pursuits of the Dayaks. Bock vividly portrays scenes of contemporary life and society in an era of...

What is the state of race relations in the U.S.? Are we making progress toward ending racial discrimination and prejudice? What, exactly, does "race" mean?In Race in the 21st Century: Ethnographic Approaches, Second Edition, John Hartigan, Jr., takes an...