Book Description

Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology proposes an innovative approach to understanding culture as a constructed phenomenon open to investigation of its implicit premises and explicit forms.

This exciting book offers a refreshing hands-on alternative to more traditional textbooks by challenging readers to think about culture in new ways and to apply these ideas to their own lives. Investigating Culture teaches students to think like anthropologists by encouraging them to compare their own cultural experiences with that of anthropologists who enter a culture specifically to study it. Approaching the study of culture or cultural anthropology in this way trains students to confront the reflexive nature of anthropology early on and to distance themselves from the inherent flaws of studying the "exotic Other."

Investigating Culture is divided into nine chapters that focus on the variety of ways that humans orient themselves --- in space and time, by means of language, the body, the structures of everyday life, and the symbols of religion and public ritual. Each chapter includes an introduction outlining the central issues, selected classic readings, examples from a variety of cultures, suggested additional readings, and a series of exercises designed to make the analysis of culture personally accessible. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

One of the best Amish Books(IMO)
Mr.Hosteler has written one of the best informative books on the Amish.I have read this sevral years ago as a young teen and have now re-pershased it and am greatful to have it back on my shelves.

Wonderful Book for Learning about the Amish
I purchased the book Amish Society at Lapp's farm in Lancaster County. A book that even the Amish feel is good enough to sell themselves -- worked for me. I didn't read it until I got home from Lancaster Co., PA but it certainly explained a lot of things to me like why I saw cars in the yards of some of the Amish homes, why I saw Amish teenage boys smoking cigarettes, and how Amish sects differ.

As a grand-daughter of a related sect of plain people, The Hutterities, it was interesting to see how the Amish were similar to the Amish and how they differ. In a way it seemed like voyeurism to discover what the private lives of these very private people are like.

This is highly recommended anyone visiting the Amish or wanting ot learn more about them.

Straight from the source
The author is a professor emeritus from Temple University and grew up in an Old-Order Amish family. So in addition to academic credentials, the author has lived the life he describes so well in this book.

While this is not a travelogue for those wishing a tour of Amish Country, it would be a very good thing to read before you go to Lancaster, PA or any of the other Amish-settled areas in the US and Canada. Dr. Hostetler describes attitudes to "the English World", the religious and daily life, and how the Amish merge with their secular neighbors.

The book also describes a bit of the struggle the Amish faced in the 60's when they sought permission to have their own schools and end formal educatiion for their children at grade 8. While he says little about it, Hostetler's own life must have been affected by this attitude to what is required in education; he left the community to become a university professor, and subsequently lived with the Hutterites, another religious society in Canada and Europe.

This is an enjoyable and realistic book with no sentimentality or gloss. If you want to know more about the Amish, this is definitely the book to read.

Could be better
It's a good book, but any adjective stronger than that would overstate it. The first chapter is nothing but sociological bombast that does not advance the reader's understanding of Amish society. The book improves after that, but Hostetler relapses into sociological jargon every several pages.

A must-read for those interested in the Amish
Clearly one of the leading authorities on the Amish, Hostetler's book is a well-researched and well-written look at a group of people struggling to maintain their traditional ways in our modern society. This is an excellent introduction to the Amish. ... Read more

Book Description

In the past thirty years, the United States has undergone a profound transformation in its social structure: Crime has increased, trust has declined, families have broken down, and individualism has triumphed over community. Has the Great Disruption of recent decades rent the fabric of American society irreparably? In this brilliant and sweeping work of social, economic, and moral analysis, Francis Fukuyama shows that even as the old order has broken apart, a new social order is already taking its place. The Great Disruption forges a new model for understanding the Great Reconstruction that is under way. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Nothing new here
Fukiyama's End of History was a bit overwritten, but it contained some original and provocative ideas which he convincingly defended. The book caught my attention to the degree that I've bought Fukiyama's subsequent books: Trust, and now The Great Disruption.

Trust, Fukiyama's middle book, explored some of the links between what he calls "spontaneous sociability", circles of trust, and productivity. Not exactly the sweeping scope of End of History, but he did promote some new ideas.

The Great Disruption, in many ways, reads like "Trust Lite". This time around Fukiyama focuses on the relationships between rules, social order, and economic growth. He offers some empirical data (and nifty line charts) on statistics like crime, out of wedlock births, poverty, etc. There is some good information here, but I reached the end of the book without having acquired any new ideas or concepts.

The book's conclusion is strange. First, he puts in a plug for his End of History theme: that liberal democracy is the only viable alternative for the advancement of society. He then goes on to contradict his Hegelian theory of historical directionality by concluding that history in the "social and moral sphere" is not in fact directional in nature, but is cyclical. Finally, he concludes that the future of mankind depends on the "upward direction of the arrow of History", contradicting his previous point and again promoting his idea of the "directionality". Huh??

In the end, Fukiyama runs us around in circles (280 pages worth) without reaching any real conclusions at all. There wasn't really enough material here for a book, and as I read Disruption I felt that I was just getting bits and pieces that he'd forgotten to include in his previous two releases. This is recycled material. Not recommended.

Good food for thought
The one thing with Francis Fukuyama is that he can't be faulted for not speaking his mind. From his essential "End of History" he has drawn further conclusions on the demise of Western society. On the one hand, it is an interesting read, while, on the other hand it is a bit weak in many ways. Fukuyama uses broad statistics and generalisations to make stunning conculsions about society in general, and people in particular. While I don't personally agree with much of what he writes, it provides an excellent forum for discussion and a welcome point of view to some narrow assumptions in sociology. I wouldn't recommend it for an introduction, but rather for a good supplement if you're already interested.

Are we naturally social people?
As a third world citizen this book impressed me with one of its main idea that says that no matter the storms of selfishness and individualism, sooner or later, we will come back to be social and reliable to each other again. That trend to be social to other people would be, under Fukuyama's point of view, based on physiological features of our human constitution. The references Mr. Fukuyama cites, for instance, to relate the human brain's functioning and language to our "natural" trend to be social should be reviewed by the readers interested in deeper understanding.

Mr. Fukuyama would not be the first scholar who believes that is human culture what makes more intensive our "hidden" trends to be social (or, the reverse, what makes us violent to each other and intolerant). Reading "Trust", another book of him, oneself realizes how important is the society's culture towards the role of family and work and school to build up social capital. The very essential difference between one society and the rest, in the race for competitiveness, under the ideas from "Trust" would be human created: culture, related to social capital and his formation. But now, in "The Great Disruption" appears our physiology as an important source of explanations of our collective and cultural creations (like language, attitudes towards work,and our social capital too).

What i can comment from my knowledge of peruvian history is that the social capital is a cultural product, made by people in history, with all our rational and non-rational choices, made individually and colectively. Being together in the same territory, under the same national state, and tolerate each other group, even though among different groups of peruvians we don't trust, could be explained by some physiologicals fundamentals. But this is not the same of building up social capital.Our biology,probably, makes harder having some behaviors along the time, but nothing else. So, was our human physiology an important explanation of what made less harder troublesome times in peruvian history, making us at least "just a little" tolerant to each other groupe, despite of all our differences?. May be. But the solutions of our pending challenge, of building up more social capital, will come from choices, determined by culture and social motives, not from physiology.

A very interesting book, against all their debatable ideas.

Great book
Fukuyama is an intellectual giant of our time, yet readable and to the point. I recommend anyone to start off with his "End of History" before graduating to "Trust" and specially "Great Disruption". Could he yet better himself?

contradictions
I started out really liking this book and if it had continued in the vein it began, I probably would have given it four or five stars. The author's definition of social capital is key to the book's good and bad points: "Social Capital can be defined as a set of informal values or norms shared among members of a group that permits cooperation among them." He proceeds from there to analyze various factors in the world that add to or detract from social capital and correlate these to historical changes in culture, economy, crime, etc. Things that help social capital include trust, community, marriage, education; things that hurt it include crime, greed, individualism, single parent families, etc. After all his outstanding analysis, I could only imagine the chapter on capitalism would have to point how the greed and individualism it inspires is a problem. But no! Instead he seems to stop and redefine what social capital is, just so he can say that capitalism is a good thing: "The view that social capital is a public good is wrong." "...rather a private good that is pervaded by externalities." So this rationalizing basically gets to a point where he is suggesting that greed and individualism now do work for the common good and therefore add to social capital. It was enough to make me want to throw the book out the window! Luckily, the window I was next to didn't open!

In the end his conclusions were very anti-climactic. There have been many of these "disruptions" in the past and this current one is just another like the ones before (not so "Great" after all?) and it is currently on the decline, taking care of itself, so apparently all you and I need to do is sit back in our LazyBoys and have another beer! NOT a feel-good book, they say? I think it IS. I would recommend it only for the first half of the book. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Five Stars
A must for any one seriously interested in the Hopi people, their history and future.Highly recommended.

Land and Life - Vida y Tierra
The text under discussion is a profound critique of not only the activities of the BIA and the neo-colonialist Hopi Tribal Council but, in its essence, stands as a moving and formidable critique of Western civilization - one that illuminates the processes of cultural genocide that has been carried out against indigenous populations in the wake of their military conquest and occupation by a foreign power - and the deep resistance of traditional indigenous peoples to the processes of cultural genocide.

The elders who speak through the auspices of this work embody a profound political, moral, cultural and spiritual sophistication
that upholds the values concentrated in the name of their publication - Techqua Ikachi - Land and Life - Tierra y Vida.
What is most striking is the awareness the text creates of the inseparability of morality, culture, spiritual practice and political depth, and their rootedness in the Land, in the Earth, and in the relationship of peoples to the Earth. The most fundamental premise that is expressed in the text is its call to "blend with the land," and the text as a whole illuminates the meaning of a culture devoted to this principle in practice.

In so doing it stands as a striking counterpoint to the disintegrative powers of the culture of the capitalist colonial settler state that now occupies the land, and offers a sharp and abiding critique of the alienation and atomization inherent in the world view and cultural practices of the now-dominant European conqueror. From this standpoint the text is a classic treatment of resistance to the imposition of colonial rule and of the impact of colonial rule on the cultures of occupied and oppressed peoples.

In effect, even if it is not explicitly stated, the criticism of the Traditional Elders aimed at the "Progressive" Tribal Council is similar to the critique of the Autonomous American Indian Movement and other similar groups - and a critique that presaged other, similar Indiancritiques by twenty years.

The picture the traditionals paint of the Tribal Council is one of a neo-colonial puppet government which has acted at the behest of and in accommodation to the colonial power of the United States in stripping massive amounts of coal from sacred lands, destroying sacred sites, depleting the water table in a profoundly dangerous manner, and that has acted to disintegrate Hopi culture to accommodate the demands of the dominant culture. The Traditional Hopi have also resisted the forced relocation of thousands of Navajo / Dine people from Hopi land. The forced relocation constitutes the destruction of the single largest group of Native American living in a traditional manner in the US. It is, in effect, and act of genocide the Hopi Traditionals have resisted in concert with the Traditional Dine (Navajo) people, based on their own sacred agreements.

The Hopi Tribal Council was illegitimately constituted on the basis of a "majority vote" that represented, in practice, only a tiny fraction of the Hopi people from a minority of the autonomous villages. The Traditional Hopi never made a treaty of any kind with the US government, and maintain their right to the status of a sovereign nation.

The evolving, century long story of the struggle between the Traditionals and the "Progressives" (Or, Hostiles and Friendlies) is laid out in compelling detail from a Traditional perspective. The reader of this review should be aware, however, that the Traditional perspective does not reduce to the anti-colonial categories utilized thus far in this review.

The story is, rather, the story of the unfolding of Hopi prophecy, the tale of a People and their Mission to maintain the Earth in Balance together with all peoples, and of the propheticcharge laid on the Hopi by a central deity.

The tale of conflict that is told paints a picture of the unfolding of that life way as foretold in Hopi prophecy, and thus it paints a practical and illuminating picture of the kinds of practical and spiritual blending with the Earth that will be required of all of us if the planet and humanity are to survive.

The tale is told at all the levels outlined above - the spiritual, cultural, moral and political levels - each element interwoven into a seed - a gestalt of information that together constitute the Hopi prophecy and Mission as articulated by its most traditional elders. The subtitle of the text, which asserts that Hotevilla ( the village founded by the Tradtionals to maintain the Traditional Balance and prophetic charge of the Hopi People) is a "microcosm of the world" should serve the reader as a guide in understanding why the tale is told in the form it adopts.

The prophetic instructions insist that the Earth and its Peoples have entered a period known as the time of Purification, and urge each of us to abandon the two hearted path of modern "civilization" and return to the path of one-heartedness that the Hopi Traditionals have sought, so valiantly, to maintain.

I have deliberately avoided much emphasis on the content of the Hopi prophecy or their spiritual and cultural practices as rooted in the Land. It is up to the reader to determine for her or him self whether the sharing of this prophecy matters to them and to the world. I believe it is of central and unequivocal importance. Your choice is your own. Choose well.

Fascinating insight into Hopi prophecy and BIA politics
This book is not popular among those Hopi who are on the payroll of the US Government or helping the Peabody Coal Company or part of the BIA-created tribal council.But it does tell the story of those elders, particularly Dan (who died recently), who have an important message for the world. Highly recommended!

Irritating book. I would not waste my money on it.
This is a large book, yet only the last small section actually deals with the Hopi prophesies. Spends most of his time talking about Nostradamous, his own ideas, etc. Manages to insult both Hopi AND Christians with hisadvice to go out and make up your own ceremony- Hopi elders I spoke withconsider this highly detrimental to the balance of the world. This book iscontroversial among the Hopi, too. Some like it, but most I have spokenwith do not consider it a worthwhile book. ... Read more

Book Description

This book brings a cross-cultural dimension to the study of human development across the lifespan. It focuses on major developmental topics and provides a global and multicultural perspective by introducing the reader to contemporary and classical research. Basic principles and research findings are connected to practical everyday situations in order to enrich one's understanding of and appreciation for development as it occurs in diverse cultures throughout the world.Covering the entire lifespan, this book focuses on cultural contexts throughout the world while emphasizing links between theory, research and practical applications.For people interested in cross-cultural issues in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, education or family studies. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Stands alone as the cross-cultural developmental text book
I just got this book from the publisher and have decided to use it for my cross-cultural development class.No other book that I have found does an even remotely adequate job of combining cross-cultural research and humandevelopment.Teaching this class should be a lot easier.

easy to understand with many interesting stories
I have read that book and I found many interesting stories about how culture affect our live which I've never imagine it before and I learn a lot about many different unique cultures around the world and if you wantto know more detail about culture differences and compare them, you shouldread this book.

Fun reading for a textbook!
I have used this book as a textbook in a sophmore - junior - senior level university course in cross-cultural psychology.It is so readable, that students report that they read ahead just for fun.Recommended for anyoneinterested in how culture affects our lives. ... Read more

Book Description

Contemporary American Religion collects qualitative, on-the-ground studies of local congregations by up-and-coming religious scholars. Ethnography combined with more traditional sociological methods, help make sense of complex religious communities--from Messianic Jews to evangelical feminists, from Gospel Hour at a gay bar to exurban megachurches. This collection covers a wide span of the religious landscape, always trying to uncover new theoretical insights. Essential reading for classes in sociology of religion, contemporary American religion, and anthropology of religion. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Solid, clear - a TRULY rational analysis of religion
This book is excellent. Intellectually insightful and extremely well-written. It is a huge breath of fresh air in the midst of all the BS that is fogging up current American sociology of religion. This book lays out a blistering, air-tight attack on "rational choice" theories of religion and shows how flawed such an approach truly is. How can you even talk about "cost/benefit" concerning religion when no two people can even agree on what a "cost" is or what a "benefit" is? For one person, a three hour Bible study session every Wednesday is a burdern ("cost"), but to another person, is is a joy/pleasure. To reduce religious involvement to base economic models is simply unsociological and teaches us very little. Afer all -- what is "rational" anyway? Bruce explains why rational choice theories of religion are weak -- and then some. His critiques of Stark, Finke, and Iannaccone are brutal -- and right on. Bruce goes on to reveal the extent of secularization in Europe -- his evidence is solid (unlike Stark's). Bruce's analyses of religion -- and its demise in Europe -- are plausible and well-reasoned.
I found this entire book insightful, enjoyable, and perhaps the best sociological analysis of religion to come out in years. Bruce is Brilliant. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Creates more questions than answers
I read this book in a "Political and Economic Anthropology" class and found it to be somewhat disappointing. Cultural anthropology, by its very nature, is case study oriented, so it is no surprise that the articles focus on many different places and situations, many of which are interesting to read. However, I think the book failed to pull all the very diverse articles together and come out with a point or thesis for the anthology as a whole.

Throughout much of the reading, even after classroom discussions, I found myself asking "so what's the point?", "what is this book supposed to be teaching me about globalization in general?", "what does this particular article have to say about the broader processes involved with globalization?", etc... The introduction, written by the editors, is a good introduction to the concepts of globalization. The second article by Appadurai is theoretical in nature, but is almost incomprehensible. He uses so much jargon (and even some made-up words) and allusions to other theories that unless you already know what he's trying to say, his article will do little more than frustrate you. The remainder of the articles deal with individual case studies by various researchers.

This anthology contains some interesting articles that give glimpses into how some people and cultures are affected by and interacting with forces of globalization. In that regard, it is pretty good. However, if you are looking for an approachable, theoretical introduction to globalization from an anthropological standpoint which augments it argument with case studies (as oppose to just including them obstensibly for their own sake), you might want to look elsewhere

Disappointing
Characteristic of this reader is the bothersome overlap of topics. It dramatically fails to give insight in theories of globalization itself and the link between these theories and global reality. After studying this reader even experienced students of Anthropology will give anything for something that is less grandiloquent and more useful because of it's simplicity. ... Read more

Book Description

John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today--that much of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts.
M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably. ... Read more

Book Description

Hunting and gathering peoples, including Kalahari Bushmen, Australian aborigines, Eskimos, and Pygmies, are the subject of endless appeal. This illustrated reference volume is the first devoted exclusively to hunting and gathering peoples that is both accessible to the nonspecialist and written by leading scholars. It is a state-of-the-art summary of knowledge on the subject, covering an extraordinary range of materials: case studies of over fifty of the world's hunter-gatherers, the archaeological background, religion and world view, music and art, questions of gender, health and nutrition, and contemporaryrights. ... Read more

Amazon.com

"Only barbarians are not curious about where they come from, how they came to be where they are, where they appear to be going, whether they wish to go there, and if so, why, and if not, why not." So wrote Isaiah Berlin in "The Pursuit of the Ideal," the semiautobiographical essay that commences The Proper Study of Mankind, the intellectual equivalent of a "greatest hits" collection. Born in Riga, Latvia, in 1909, Berlin left the Soviet Union for England 12 years later. After being educated at St.Paul's and Oxford, he would go on to become one of the 20th century's most vigorous--and eclectic--political philosophers until his death in 1997.

The Proper Study of Mankind shows the full range of Berlin's work and the breadth of his interests. In "The Originality of Machiavelli," after summing up what others have thought of the author of The Prince, Berlin launches into his own thoughtful analysis, concluding that Machiavelli's most significant contribution to philosophy was "his de facto recognition that ends equally ultimate, equally sacred, may contradict each other, that entire systems of value may come into collision without possibility of rational arbitration, and that this happens not merely in exceptional circumstances, as a result of abnormality or accident or error ... but ... as part of the normal human situation." This concept of pluralism is the undercurrent that flows through much of Berlin's writing on the history of ideas, whether he addresses opposition to the French Enlightenment or considers Tolstoy's theory of history. Other treats to be found in this collection include the autobiographical "Conversations with Akhmatova and Pasternak" and what might be considered "intellectual profiles" of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. This book is highly recommended for any reader interested in modern philosophy; one can only hope that it will inspire some to delve into more of Berlin's work.--Ron Hogan ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Includes summaries of some long conversations
Isaiah Berlin wrote a lot of essays, as the size of this book, THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND, absolutely demonstrates. Near the middle of the book is an essay, "The Originality of Machiavelli," which shows how well Berlin could categorize intellectual activities into various kinds of significance.

"His distrust of unworldly attitudes, absolute principles divorced from empirical observation, is fanatically strong - almost romantic in its violence; the vision of the great prince playing upon human beings like an instrument intoxicates him. He assumes that different societies must always be at war with each other, since they have differing purposes. He sees history as an endless process of cut-throat competition, . . ." (p. 318).

The index is great, and even has an entry for "Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich . . . conversation with Stalin." Pasternak wanted to talk to Stalin, but the question which Stalin put to Pasternak, "whether he was present when a lampoon about himself, Stalin, was recited by Mandel'shtam" (p. 533) was not what Pasternak wanted to talk about. Pasternak wanted to talk to Stalin "about ultimate issues, about life and death." (p. 534). After Stalin put down the receiver, "Pasternak tried to ring back but, not surprisingly, failed to get through to the leader." (p. 534). Stalin had been quick to decide where that conversation was going, and cut it short by observing, "If I were Mandel'shtam's friend, I should have known better how to defend him." (p. 534). It is not obvious that Stalin would have appreciated a defense which asserted that the poem about Stalin was more true than anything else that Pasternak had ever seen, read, or heard, and any decent country would have comedians that would constantly broadcast such ideas on the radio 24/7 until the invention of TV would allow people to watch movies like "Forrest Gump" in the comfort of their own homes. Stalin has been rightly condemned for being hopelessly authoritarian when judging humor that was aimed at his sorry self, and Isaiah Berlin sees the pattern as one that Russia was particularly prone to suffer indefinitely. "Whatever the differences between the old and the new Russia, suspicion and persecution of writers and artists were common to both." (p. 537).

Berlin's account of his conversations with Anna Akhmatova strive to reflect what culture means for people who actively create work like Heine's comment, "I may not deserve to be remembered as a poet, but surely as a soldier in the battle for human freedom." (p. 537). We are now such a comic society on a global level that pop mock rap on the internet can pick on the soldier's mentality in a hilarious way, but it is good to be able to read Isaiah Berlin to account for how much such humor matters.

A fabulous collection of essays
Isaiah Berlin probably is one of the 20th century's most underrated thinkers. A truely learned man he brought his insight in the history of ideas, reflecting on the elightenment and freedom, the golden age of Russian literature, and rubbing shoulders with the high and the mighty. All of these facets are displayed here. Mr. Hardy has done an exceptional job at assembling these essays. My favorite being "The Hedgehog and the Fox." In this essay, Berlin explores the natures of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky is the hedgehog who knows one thing really well. Tolstoy is the fox, reflecting his epic sweep and universal understanding of humanity. In a nutshell, Berlin's political philosophy is strongly lined up on the side of freedom and the dignity of the individual. Not exactly in favor in these days of extremist bland thinking. My one complaint is that there is so much more to Berlin than these exceptional essays. If 20th century philosophy is to be remembered as more than an unpleasant memory, it will be as the time of the age of Berlin.

hedgehog and fox
The fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one big thing -Archilochus, 8th century BC

Never have the readers of the New York Times been more humbled and mystified than the November day in 1997 when the paper ran a front page obituary for the Latvian-born British philosopher Isaiah Berlin. You could hear the collective gasp and feel the pull of the intake of breath as thousands of folks who pride themselves on being "in the know" turned to one another and asked, across a table laid with grapefruit halves and bran cereal,, "Was I supposed to know who Isaiah Berlin was? I've never heard of him." The answer is that there was no real reason most of us would have heard of him, though we'd likely read a couple of his book reviews. He was after all a philosopher who never produced a magnum opus summarizing his worldview. His reputation really rested on a couple of amusing anecdotes, one oft-cited essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox, and on his talents as a conversationalist, which would obviously only have been known to an elite few. Oddly enough, he has experienced a significant revival of interest since his death, but he is basically still just known for this essay.

If, like me, you finally forced yourself to read War and Peace and were simply mystified by several of the historic and battle scenes, this essay is a godsend. Though many critics, and would would assume almost all readers, have tended to just ignore these sections of the book, Berlin examines them in light of Tolstoy's philosophy of history and makes a compelling case that Tolstoy intended the action of these scenes to be confusing. As Berlin uses the fox and hedgehog analogy, a hedgehog is an author who has a unified vision which he follows in his writing ("...a single, universal, organising principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance...") , a fox has no central vision nor organizing principle; his writings are varied, even contradictory. Berlin argues that Tolstoy was a fox who wanted to be a hedgehog, that he longed for a central idea to organize around, but so distrusted the capacity of human reason to discern such an idea, that he ended up knocking down what he saw as faulty ideas, without ever settling on one of his own.

According to Berlin, in War and Peace, Tolstoy used the chaotic swirl of events to dispel a "great illusion" : "that individuals can, by the use of their own resources, understand and control the course of events." Or as he puts it later, Tolstoy perceived a "central tragedy" of human life :

...if only men would learn how little the cleverest and most gifted among them can control, how little they can know of all the multitude of factors the orderly movement of which is the history of the world...

This idea is strikingly similar to the argument that F. A. Hayek made almost a century later in his great book The Road to Serfdom, though Hayek made it in opposition to centralized government planning. Tolstoy's earlier development of this theme makes him a pivotal figure in the critique of reason and a much more significant figure than I'd ever realized in the history of conservative thought.

I'd liked War and Peace more than I expected to when I first read it--despite not grasping what he was about in these sections of the book--and I'm quite anxious to reread it now in light of Berlin's really enlightening analysis. I've no idea how to judge the rest of Berlin's work or how he ranks as a philosopher, but you can't ask more of literary criticism than that it explain murky bits, that it engender or rekindle interest in an otherwise musty-seeming work, and that it take a potentially dated book and make us realize that it is still relevant. This essay succeeds on all those levels. In this instance at least, Isaiah Berlin warrants his hefty reputation.

GRADE : A+

A Renaissance for the Humanities
"The Proper Study of Mankind" is an awe-inspiring anthology of seventeen essays in the Humanities by the erudite and engaging Isaiah Berlin. The title may seem a bit stilted for Berlin, who is no starched collar, and whose writing is crisp, crackling, and refreshingly free of pomp and pedantry. But then...so long as one stops and thinks (something going out of fashion these days, but still very much in the spirit of Berlin)...that title does make sense. Of course! "The proper study of Mankind is Man." Not ideals. Not ideologies. But human beings as they really are--and what they actually do.

Berlin does not believe in final solutions to human questions. There is no definitive answer once and for all. Nor is there one way, the way, the only way to be, live, act, think, learn, work, write, express oneself, etc. Man is not singular. Man is plural. That is what makes humanity so facinating to "study." The mystery, the drama, the unpredictability of these intractable creatures baffle social scientists, human engineers, controlling personalities who--try as they may!--cannot quite track down, trap, take prisoner the wildly elusive chimera of "human nature."

Ah, but Shakespeare delights in this dazzling dance. And so does Berlin. He writes with riveting wonder at the butterfly flights of human beings, human minds, human wills, human histories. He traces errant clues left behind, on scattered pages, to defy the wind of time. Berlin is sensitive to these fragile fragments of thought, these traces, these rumblings of the human spirit. He is a great historian of ideas--one who listens with a keen sense of hearing for echoes and reverberations in the din of cacophony. He is a perceptive discerner of patterns in space, careers through time, and points of origin. He is original. He does not regurgitate his enormous reading. Rather, he chews, tastes, savors, spits out fat, sucks up marrow, and digests. Thus fortified by this huge feast of reading, Berlin writes something utterly new, all his own, from all that he has read.

The most stirring, most exciting, pages in this anthology are those of the finale (section V) of Berlin's essay on "The Apotheosis of the Romantic Will." When Berlin writes like this, you don't just see light, you feel fire! But then, turning to Berlin's penetrating essay on "The Origins of Machiavelli," the reader is captivated by an utterly different set of sensations: depth, moisture, deep caves, dank smells, dirt, digging in darkness, fearful, clutching one's dagger, probing, deeper--a Dante-esque spiralling down to the bowels of the earth--followed by a swift sudden plunge into the heart of this seminal genius, this Machiavelli, this spectre of the night whose short, simple, virus-like books continue to plague the west, century after century. This too is great reading!

Indeed, all of the essays in this anthology are good. It's just that some are better than others--depending on what you are looking for. The first six essays are predominantly conceptual. They distill the ideas. Thus, they have punch and potency. But they are somewhat dry and lacking in flavor. Reading them, the connoisseur sips pure alcohol. All the while, however, he or she longs for the exquisite taste of an excellent wine: full-bodied, fruity, robust, bursting with bouquet, and delightfully complex. That is to say: the vintage Berlin.

Abruptly after the first six essays, however, the corks pop, the writing flows, and taste buds bathe in champagne. Berlin is at his best--humane, historical, humorous--in the nine essays that follow: four on "The History of Ideas"; three on "Russian Writers"; and two on "Romanticism and Nationalism." The remaining essays, the last two, on "Twentieth-Century Figures" (Churchill and Roosevelt) round out the feast with a delicious dessert. After devouring this book, however, I keep coming back for seconds, thirds, fourths from my favorite essays--those on Romanticism, Nationalism, the Counter-Enlightenment, and, of course, Machiavelli.

Still, each essay in this anthology is ingenious in its own way: the approach, the point of view, the style of writing...everything curved, shaped, fitted--just so--to suit the subject. But there is no forced compartmentalization. Ideas from one essay spill over into another--and can be found swimming, quite freely, in a third. Those who demand strict obedience, straight lines, right angles, cleanliness, order, stability, sterility, etc., will be appalled. But those who despise totalitarianism will be overjoyed. ... Read more

Book Description

This book assesses the impact of writing on human societies, both in the Ancient Near East and in contemporary Africa, and highlights some general features of social systems that have been influenced by this major change in the mode of communication. Such features are central to any attempt at the theoretical definition of human society and such constituent phenomena as religious and legal systems, and in this study Professor Goody explores the role of a specific mechanism, the introduction of writing and the development of a written tradition, in the explanation of some important social differences and similarities. Goody argues that a shift of emphasis from productive to certain communicative processes is essential to account adequately for major changes in human societies. Whilst there have been previous descussions of the effect of literacy upon social organisation, no study has hitherto presented the general synthesis developed here. ... Read more

Book Description

With an emphasis on humans as both biological and cultural beings, this introduction to physical anthropology and archaeology features a focus on not only what humans are and were, but why they got to be that way. Results of current research are presented in a jargon-free manner that readers can readily understand and are accompanied by full documentation.Based on an extensively updated and revised version of Ember and Ember's Anthropology this volume addresses human evolution both biologically and culturally, modern humans and applied and practicing anthropology.For those interested in anthropology, archaeology, and human evolution. ... Read more

Book Description

Yurugu removes the mask from the European facade and thereby reveals the inner workings of global white supremacy: A system which functions to guarantee the control of Europe and her descendants over the majority of the world's peoples. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

It is a MUST TO READ THIS BOOK!!
Marimba Ani provided a tool to lift the "veil" of reality that has been draped over our minds during the last 2 mellinea. She was formerly known as Dr. Donna Richards, "Let the Circle be Unbroken", wich is also short necessary reading. As a prequel New readers might also want to obtain: "Psychopathic Racial Personality" --Dr. Bobby E. Wright "The Falsification of African Conscious" --Dr. Amos N. Wilson "Chains and Images of Slavery"--Dr. Naim Akbar "Community of Self"--Dr. Naim Akbar Dr. Amos Wilson's Books (the remaider)are must reads!! Along with the Compliment book by Oba T'Shaka "Black Male/Female Equality[sic]" (even though the title should read "...Complimentarity". Please feel free to email me for discussion of the topics or help through them. P.S. don't forget to read Obenga's, "African Deep Thought" for a discussion of the Affirmative African Thought Structure/Science. Damu...

An Extraordinary Scholarly Work!
I started out wanting to know what could possess and entire race of people to participate in the most atrocious (sp) crime against humanity -- the four hundred year african slave trade--- I found the answer in "Yurugu". As it turns out, it makes perfect sense how europeans could participate in the slave trade for that many years without "batting an eye". It's in their blood, it's in their hearts, it's in their minds; it's in their souls (even though they think "souls" don't exist). "Yurugu" for me has confirmed many of the discomforts I have experienced as a person of African descent in dealing with europeans. The part of the book that I thought was signficant is where Dr. Ani describes and discusses the "bi-polar" affects of european culture and thought. European's inability to view the whole and their interconnectedness with the whole of humanity and their spiritually accounts for the chaos we are experiencing in these times. She confirms for many of us what we have known for years. This work is very powerful! A must read for every African of the diaspora!

check the method
The beauty of this book lies in Ani's methodology. Her critique extends to the Western intellectual tradition and its objectification of people of color. This tradition contributed to the process of creating the 'other' and to the more generalized devaluation of non-white people, and thus reinforced the imperial impulse of various European nations. The anthropologists played their part in reinforcing this impulse by 'studying' these people and 'justifying' their inferiority to Europeans. Ani documents this among such fathers of the field as Henri St. Simon. She then uses a similar methodological formula, that such fathers established in western universities, to critique European culture. As such, an admirable quality of the book is Ani's own ability to "turn every stratagem of the destroyers against themselves," by using a similar western methodology to construct the critique. The research spans from platonic discourse to the contemporary AIDS 'crisis.' I recommend this book to any student wishing to learn about ways to do an overtly political type of anthropology.

Excellent book
I am curently doing research on the Pan-African movement, and this book provides an excellent background of the Afrocentric critique of European imperialism and racism.

To the other reviewer who said that the moral equivalent of this book would be "A eurocentric critique of African thought and behavior", I would like to say you are wrong, for two reasons:

1. If Africans had enslaved and denigrated Europeans for five centuries, Europeans could legitimately write a book with the title you suggested, and it would be highly moral.
2. In the current situation, most mainstream social science is eurocentric and criticizes African culture and behavior. This is immoral, because it justifies crimes against humanity.

Remember, morality is on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressors. There must be justice in this world!

An articulate and voluminous work of racism
The moral equivalent of this book would be this: "Sambo: A European Centered Critique of African Cultural Thought and Behavior, in which the African traits of shiftlessness, laziness, violence and underachievement are examined from a European perspective." Would anyone doubt for a second that such a book would be nothing more than a racist diatribe? Probably not, and that's exactly what Yurugu is.

To begin with, it has nothing to do with "African-centered" anything. Aside from using a few borrowed words for things that could just as easily have been stated in good ol' English, there is not a trace of Africa to be found in this book, although it is generally referred to in the most idealistic manner. The Africa that has slavery to this day, that practices female genital mutilation and oppression of women on a wide scale, that is nearly devoid of democracy, that is rife with tribal disputes, wars and genocides is nowhere to be seen. Only an idealized version of it that exists only within the author's imagination does such an Africa exist.

This book is largely unreadable. It is long-winded and verbose. The intent of the book is clearly and unquestionably to make racist accusations against white people, sort of like a more erudite version of The Isis Papers or The Iceman Inheritance, but the author, seems unable to write concisely. Instead, she go on at length to make most points by implication rather than by expressly stating them. Not only is the book verbose, that verbosity is largely made up of coined, misdefined, and borrowed terminology. Is it possible to even take seriously a book wherein seemingly every paragraph has a reference to the "asili," "utamawazo," "utamaroho," etc., et al.? Not really, except for those who will do so simply because it enables them to buy into this attack against white people. One of the terms in her glossary is "Majority Peoples," which she describes as "the members of the indigenous core cultures of the world regarded collectively, exclusing the European minofity." By the same token, particularly since there are more people in Europe than in Africa, and that there are more Caucasian people in the world than Negroid people, one could define "Majority Peoples" to be all non-black people and attempt to separate blacks from the rest of humanity as dishonestly as the author tries to separate out whites.

As with many such books written in the 80s and 90s, it has the obligatory racist introduction by John Henrik Clarke. He could always be counted on to throw his two cents in to aid in the cause as per statements such as "They were the last branch of the human family to emerge into the arena called civilization." That's not remotely true, and in fact black Africans of sub-Saharan Africa were one of the last groups of people to be brought into civilization (and some parts of the interior of Africa remain uncivilized to this day), but saying this seems to make some people feel better.

Ms. Ani borrows some of the racist assertions put forth by Frances Cress Welsing, e.g., that whites are "melanin deficient" and were "driven" out of Africa. She buys into the "calcified pineal gland" nonsense about white people. She buys into the Iceman Inheritance nonsense about whites being interbred with Neanderthals. It makes sense that a racist book should rely on other racist books. She mischaracterized western religion, science, and culture, not for any valid reasons and, as with similar authors, takes the lack of advancement in Africa as being a conscious choice as though they were early environmentalists. She seems to have a particular problem with the word "progress," and because European societies progressed to more advanced stages than most other people, especially sub-Saharan African societies, she targets the concept of progress with particular attention, characterizing it as negatively as possible, equating it to the supposed Dogon character of "Yurugu," the title of the book, who couldn't live in harmony with nature. Do tell.

As for hypocrisy, probably the only thing consistently quoted from this largely unreadable book is the part on "Hypocrisy as a way of life." This is standard fare on white-bashing web sites. "Within the nature of European culture there exists a statement of value or 'moral' that has no meaning for the members of that culture. I call this the 'rhetorical ethic.'" Sheer nonsense, but the more gullible of racists will buy into it wholeheartedly. Do the concepts of truth, justice, honor, integrity, right, wrong, compassion, and so forth have "no meaning" to "Europeans?" Hardly. They've been the driving forces behind the unique Western value system of the inherent worth of the individual, individual rights, human rights, the divinity of man, the formation of democratic governments, and even the abolitionist movement (something that certainly wasn't conceived of by African societies!). There is hypocrisy in the world, including among Europeans, but probably no more so than any other people, and to assert so without proof is, well, racist. Part of racism, however, is to take character flaws that are present in all of humanity and pretend that they apply only to the group targeted for hatred.

A testament to the nature and effect of this book can be found in some of the earlier reviews of it, e.g., this: "I started out wanting to know what could possess and entire race of people to participate in the most atrocious (sp) crime against humanity -- the four hundred year african slave trade--- I found the answer in "Yurugu"." (Never mind that slavery existed in Africa long before Europeans arrived, and that Europeans were the first society to ban slavery). "it's in their souls (even though they think "souls" don't exist)." (Is there even a doubt that Europeans generally think souls exist? No, but racists like to pretend otherwise). "She confirms for many of us what we have known for years." No, she doesn't "confirm" any such misheld beliefs; she simply reinforces preconceived racist fallacies, and therein lies the popularity of this book. It is a racist book, and people who are racist towards whites will embrace it, but it is not an accurate, fair, or even "African-centered" book, just a racist one. ... Read more

Book Description

A powerful book documenting, in stunning photography, the 34 different tribes ofBurma, most of whom have never before been photgraphed. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Defense of Richard K. Diran
I read reviews of Richard's superb book "The Vanishing Tribes of Burma" on the http;//www.almudo.com web site, and was disturbed to see that 2 of the 3 reviews posted there were critical to one degree or another (the 2nd more so than the first).

The first is by a person claiming to be in northern Thailand with involvement with hill tribes there, and suggesting that Richard not only "moved" them from Thailand to Burma but that he photographed them for his own financial advantage.

I have known Richard personally for the best part of 10 years, and I can put to rest any notion that Richard wanted or need to financially benefit from his book.He did not then, does not know, never has, and likely never will.

I am not informed about hill tribes, so am not in a position to directly dispute the assertion that Richard fictionalized the location of the tribe, according to the reviewer.I can say I have never had reason to doubt Richard's word, not on anything.

The reviewer's 3rd criticism is a judgement call.He or she felt that a book such a Richard's is why hill tribe peoples resent outsiders coming in and photographing them -- i.e., they commercialize the images.The whole point was to make a record of hill tribe peoples, some of whom had never been photographed as far as is known, as both a record of and tribute to vanishing tribes and their ways of life.

The 2nd reviewer is more problematic, as he asserts he assisted in preparing the book and has personal knowledge that upsets him about the preparation.Richard has never mentioned any assistance from anyone other than Burmese contacts, contacts I believe exist because I know far too many people who say they've been helped by Richard's contacts for be to think a large number of people are *all* liars.Further, the 2nd reviewer partly bases his criticism on a purely subjective moral judgement condemning Richard's lifestyle, a basis of criticism which, in my professional view, has zero place in literary criticism; I'm trained through the master's level in literature, in which I hold 2 degrees, and I have taught in universities in America and Asia.I will, of course, make Richard aware of this review, if he isn't already.

I think the book is superb.Can I swear it is accurate? -- no.Can I assure Richard had no assistance other than that I stated above? -- no.But I have heard an academic in cultural anthropology with particular expertise on this region and its hill tribes praise the book as noteworthy and beautiful.

Why tribal people don't like their pictures taken...
I live and work with tribal people in northern Thailand.In fact, I see the people on the Red Lahu pages of this book nearly every day.They are good, patient people, but even they tire of people coming to take pictures of them only to turn around and make money from publishing books.Especially when they find themselves textually relocated to Burma in order for the book to have the proper mystique.

The funny thing about the Red Lahu pictures is that they may be the only authentic pictures in the entire book.Most of the pictures were so obviously staged that the beauty of the pictures--the pictures are attractive, I suppose--is lost.

How do I know they are staged?Simple.Their clothes are too clean.The mountains of the Golden Triangle region are not the best place in the world to keep your whites their whitest.As a result, nowadays, most tribal people only wear their traditional clothing on special occasions, for instance the special occasion of a white photographer handing them a fistful of money to whore themselves out as models.The whole thing is pretty tiresome.

A gift to humanity
I really appreciate that Richard Diran went to Burma, and over the course of 15 years made a stunning photographic record of its vanishing tribes. Many of these people are going the way of the do-do bird, and I think Diran has made a valuable contribution to us all with his portraits. I don't think comments on his lifestyle in Bangkok (see other review) have anything to do with the quality of the work in this book.

As someone who is very interested in Southeast Asia's minority people, I found Vanishing tribes a beautiful and useful book. I can say there is little to nothing of this quality available on several of the groups included in Diran's collection.

This book is a personal ego, nothing for the people...
Now that I have assisted Richard with his book, I find that this book is only to feed his lifestyle and nothing in return for the people.My sister in-law is featured on page 2 of the book, 2nd person, lower left.I wasinvolved with the Wa, Akha, Paluang, Shan, and the Hmong.These peoplelive in poverty still, while knowing Richard personlly and how some of thisphotography was prepared, makes me really sick.I would like for him toreturn the semi-nude photos of women he took, so that they can burn them. The 2 Ant women (Wa) page 119 are disgusted with this photo.I see them ona regular basis and they are dirt poor and one of them suffers from Malariaoften.I give them for medicine and food still.Richard, well, he livesin Bangkok, drinking, smoking and lives a great life.So much for a booksuch as this.I know the inner secrets of what went on with at least 5 ofthese people.For more review, and inside story do not hesitate to contactme.

Such beauty deserves to be seen
Great portraits of people in a remote part of the world. Not just for the anthropologist or people interested in so-calledm "primitive" people. The sense of style shown in the beautiful photographs should be seen by anyone interested in fashion, clothing design, or textiles. ... Read more

Book Description

This collection of short readings on all aspects of anthropology conveys the excitement and relevance of contemporary anthropology. This book organizes readings around the major subdisciplines within anthropology: biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and language and communication, making it easy to notice trends and themes. For anyone with an interest in anthropology. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Pre-romain cultures in Europe and North Africa
I live 13 km at the SSE of a Menhir of 4500 years old at the west of the Schelde stream, 7 km to the north of the 'confluent Scarpe et Escaut': its a region of old celtic culture and even pre=celtic of a very peacefull civilisation of farmers without military chiefs. The Hallstatt celts (800yAD)brought in the iron weapens from middle south Europe and after mixing with the peacefull local civilication brougt it to the magnifique La Tène culture. Gaius Julius Caesar decapitated the chiefs and the local culture and brougt the so called Pax Romana ... Read more

Book Description

Grimshaw sets a new agenda for visual anthropology, attempting to transcend the old division between image and text-based ethnography. She argues for the use of vision as a critical tool with which anthropologists can address issues of knowledge and technique. The first part of the book critically examines anthropology's history, focusing on the work of key individuals--Rivers, Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown--in the context of early modern art and cinema. In the book's second part, Grimshaw considers the anthropological films of Jean Rouch, David and Judith MacDougall and Melissa Llewelyn-Davies. ... Read more

Book Description

The "one China" policy officially supported by the People's Republic of China, the United States, and other countries asserts that there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of it. The debate over whether the people of Taiwan are Chinese or independently Taiwanese is, Melissa J. Brown argues, a matter of identity: Han ethnic identity, Chinese national identity, and the relationship of both of these to the new Taiwanese identity forged in the 1990s. In a unique comparison of ethnographic and historical case studies drawn from both Taiwan and China, Brown's book shows how identity is shaped by social experience--not culture and ancestry, as is commonly claimed in political rhetoric. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Been Waiting For This!
At last, a book that covers an aspect of Taiwanese history and culture not often discussed until recent years: the Taiwanese people are a hybrid people. Many have some Plains Aborigine blood (traced on the maternal side). But, with cultural stigma, many Plains Aborigines and part Plains Aborigines forfeited their identity and were absorbed by "Han" identity. I've been waiting for a book in English to discuss this area and am glad Melissa Brown published this book. ... Read more