Book Description

Teresa Caldeira's pioneering study of fear, crime, and segregation in São Paulo poses essential questions about citizenship and urban change in contemporary democratic societies. Focusing on São Paulo, and using comparative data on Los Angeles, she identifies new patterns of segregation developing in these cities and suggests that these patterns are appearing in many metropolises. ... Read more

Book Description

This unique anthology provides an introduction to a wide variety of views on human nature. Drawing from diverse cultures over three millennia, Leslie Stevenson has chosen selections ranging from ancient religious texts up to contemporary theories based on evolutionary science. An ideal companion to the editor's previous book, Ten Theories of Human Nature, 3/e (OUP 1998), this interdisciplinary reader can also be used independently.

The second edition of The Study of Human Nature offers substantial selections illustrating the perspectives discussed in Ten Theories of Human Nature, 3/e--the Bible, Hinduism, Confucianism, Plato, Kant, Marx, Freud, Sartre, B.F. Skinner's behaviorism, and Konrad Lorenz's ethnological diagnosis of human aggression. The Islamic tradition and 17th-18th century philosophers Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, and Rousseau are also represented. Selections from Rousseau, J.S. Mill, and Nancy Holmstrom raise feminist issues, and Henry Bracken's paper deals with racial issues. Examples from E.O. Wilson's sociobiology and his critics are also included, together with Chomsky and recent examples from evolutionary psychology. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Must Have
This fascinating book consist on a compilation of the best writing on the subject of what is to be human. Since the books included here are the bible , other sacred books, Decarte, etc, it is absurd to rate the writer's talents. They have been established a long time ago. Therefore all merit goes to the editor who has done a briliant job selecting what was worth showing. ... Read more

Book Description

The North American Great Plains and Rocky Mountains have yielded many artifacts and other clues about the prehistoric people who once lived there, but little is understood about the hunting practices that ensured their survival for thousands of years. Noted archaeologist George Frison brings a lifetime of experience as a hunter, rancher, and guide to bear on excavation data from the region relating to hunting, illuminating prehistoric hunting practices in entirely new ways. Sharing his intimate knowledge of animal habitats and behavior and his familiarity with hunting strategies and techniques, Frison argues that this kind of firsthand knowledge is crucial for understanding hunting in the past.Illustrations: 51 b/w photographs, 8 line illustrations, 8 maps, 1 table ... Read more

Book Description

This is a somewhat unconventional introduction to philosophy, with over 400 cartoons by the author designed to make teaching and learning more fun. Organized by individual theory, this lighthearted book can be used as a core text, or might supplement separate paperbacks or an anthology. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Nice Adult Beginners Book
If one is expecting a technically precise book which meets the needs of professionals or even undergraduates having to write that last minute term paper, then disappointment is at hand. If, however, you want a comfortable introduction to historically changing views of human nature as presented by Plato, Aristotle, The Buddha, Augustine, Descartes, Freud, and Sartre, this is a very worthwhile text.
Palmer does a nice job of presenting standard arguments for each of the thinkers discussed, frequently highlighting differences and always providing something of a cultural context.
This is a good book for someone who knows only a little about the subject or who knows perhaps a bit more than just a little but wants a quick enjoyable read as a review.

If you already know the 4 noble truths of the Buddha, the difference between Anselm and Descartes' versions of the Ontological Argument, Hume's attack on the foundations of knowledge, Kant's use of the apriori, and the implications of Sartre's Radical Freedom, then don't buy this book sight unseen.

For anyone else with a passing interest in philosophy, it's worth the money.

Very disappointed!
In all fairness, I am not actually rating the book, but I did want to warn others of the font used in his books.I just couldn't get past the lousy choice they made for the typeface so I returned it. This makes me very disappointed as I was really looking forward to reading the book.I had also ordered another of his books "Looking at Philosophy 3" and returned that one as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Suitably Modern traces the growth of a new middle class in Kathmandu as urban Nepalis harness the modern cultural resources of mass media and consumer goods to build modern identities and pioneer a new sociocultural space in one of the world's "least developed countries."

Since Nepal's "opening" in the 1950s, a new urban population of bureaucrats, service personnel, small business owners, and others have worked to make a space between Kathmandu's old (and still privileged) elites and its large (and growing) urban poor. Mark Liechty looks at the cultural practices of this new middle class, examining such phenomena as cinema and video viewing, popular music, film magazines, local fashion systems, and advertising. He explores three interactive and mutually constitutive ethnographic terrains: a burgeoning local consumer culture, a growing mass-mediated popular imagination, and a recently emerging youth culture. He shows how an array of local cultural narratives--stories of honor, value, prestige, and piety--flow in and around global narratives of "progress," modernity, and consumer fulfillment. Urban Nepalis simultaneously adopt and critique these narrative strands, braiding them into local middle-class cultural life.

Building on both Marxian and Weberian understandings of class, this study moves beyond them to describe the lived experience of "middle classness"--how class is actually produced and reproduced in everyday practice. It considers how people speak and act themselves into cultural existence, carving out real and conceptual spaces in which to produce class culture.

Reviews (1)

I'm surprised...
I was surprised to see that no one had reviewed this book yet.For those of us working on Nepalese society this is a MUST read.Liechty carefully explores the creation and impact of Middle Class in Nepal including media, kids, and consumerism.It's also a pleasant read that doesn't suffer from the usual rose-coloured glasses tone infecting far too much anthropological work on Nepalese society.I also have met the author and must say he's a knowledgeable person with a passion for Nepalese people and a passion for passing on his knowledge.I highly recommend this read. ... Read more

Book Description

This book presents discussions on the formation of complex society of Southeastern Mesoamerica throughout pre-Columbian times. These societies include ones from the Early Preclassic or Formative period to those encountered by the Spaniards when they arrived in the early 16th century. Diverse classes of data from archaeology, ethnography, and ethnohistory are utilized. The book provides wide spatial and temporal coverage, as well as a wide diversity of theoretical perspectives. Anyone interested in archeology or the evolution of prehistoric complex societies will find this book fascinating. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Comments from one of the contributors.
Although admittedly pricey, this is an excellent source of recent information on Early Formative cultures of Mesoamerica and southern Central America.Contributors are:Michael Blake, Marilyn Beaudry, John Clark, Arthur Demarest, Bill Fowler, John Hoopes, Gloria Lara Pinto, Mike Love, Skip Messenger, Mary Pye, Ed Schortman, Pat Urban, David Whitley, and Tony Wonderley. ... Read more

Book Description

A provocative look at the theological implications ofartificial intelligence—and the controversial questions raised by robotics about our verydefinition of humanity—from the founder of MIT’s God and Computers ProjectGet ready to meet two remarkable characters, Cog and Kismet. They both enjoy workingwith others, they’re very attentive, have excellent learning skills, and, according to theircolleagues, they’re very charming. And they’re both robots.

From Hollywood to the halls of NASA, robots loom large in the popular imagination. Butwhat feelings do these lifelike machines really provoke in us? In God in theMachine, Dr. Anne Foerst draws on her expertise as both a theologian and computerscientist to address the profound questions that robots such as Cog and Kismet raise forus all: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a soul? And what dorobots teach us about our relationship with God?

God in the Machine challenges many popular assumptions—about the Bible,about the meaning of community, and especially about the fundamental distinctionsbetween humanity and the "artificial" beings we create. Dr. Foerst shares intriguingobservations about the ways we define "human" versus "person" and asks what we mustdo in order for all humans to be treated as equal persons.

Original, controversial, and deeply insightful, God in the Machine illuminates theexciting and little-understood new terrain that lies at the intersection of technology andreligion, science and faith. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An interesting and bold narration
Those readers who have no religious beliefs but yet are interested in or working in the field of artificial intelligence may think that this book would not be very interesting or important, or possibly an apology for a particular religious worldview. When beginning the book this attitude will be reinforced somewhat, since it takes a while for the author to develop her main themes. Once she does however the book is fascinating, and her discussion of some of the issues in artificial intelligence is highly original and insightful. Considering the environment in which she worked it is refreshing to learn that the author was taken seriously, in spite of her overt expression of her religious beliefs. The only minus to the book is that the author concentrates her attention on robotics, which is a very narrow field of artificial intelligence at the present time. Machines can be intelligent to various degrees without looking like humanoids and without interacting with the environment in the manner that the author describes in great detail in the book. Indeed, these machines are more than just the "machines that sit on the desk" to quote the author. No, they cannot move in the world as humans do, but their abilities to perform tasks in a way that cannot be done by humans attests to their cognitive abilities.

Along with those who work in the field, the author has developed a deep appreciation of the magnificence of the human machine. She encapsulates her view of humanity not according to the usual classification, but according to human capabilities. Humans can tell stories ("homo narrans"), can stand upright ("homo erectus"), can use technology to change the world ("homo faber"), can engage in creativity ("homo ludens"), and can hold to religious beliefs ("homo religiosus"). There are of course other machines, biological and otherwise, that can do some of these things, but the human machine is unique in being able to do all of them, and then with a relatively low energy requirement. This of course does not make the human machine superior to the others, and in fact humans cannot compete at all with some of the machines of today in certain tasks. Those who build robots though insist on replicating the idiosyncrasies of the human machine, even though these robots may not be useful in any practical sense. The author's goal in the book is to try and understand why the building of these robots has been such an intense activity in the last half-century.

It is clear that many do not find the prospect of humanoid robots very pleasant at all. Hollywood movies, with their depiction of machines bent on the annihilation of humankind, are both an expression and cause of this anxiety.But stories of non-human entities possessing high degrees of intelligence have also pervaded our myths and stories long before the invention of film. As an example she describes the myth of the "golem" coming from Jewish mysticism. Interestingly, in some stories, golems are made from clay and constructed through words and numbers. Their purpose is to assist in the understanding of the world, a mythos or paradigm that definitely intersects with the one in artificial intelligence.

More interesting in her discussion of "rebuilding ourselves" is the reminder of a peculiar phenomenon that takes place in the artificial intelligence community, indeed in the scientific research community as a whole. This regards the "demystification" or diminishing of awe when a scientific explanation is found for a particular human capability. Indeed, it seems that every time an advance is made in artificial intelligence, such as a machine beating the best backgammon or chess player in the world, it eventually gets dismissed as being merely the result of a sophisticated program, and not as an example of true intelligence.

The author of course is not free of biases, as no one can be, whether they are in the scientific profession or not. Her intellectual honesty though is refreshing, and she is unashamed of her devout religious beliefs. She correctly recognizes that there are many in the scientific community who occupy both laboratories and churches, and make significant contributions to science. Whether they are scientists who sometimes practice religion or religionists who sometimes engage in scientific research is perhaps left to debate. But the author believes that these individuals, along with all the rest of humanity, clearly benefit and learn from social interactions, and that such interactions are even absolutely necessary for true intelligence to arise. Sometimes though these interactions go awry, and result in devastating conflict, this occurring primarily because of a diminution in respect for differences or of parties not being in the same physical space. The acceptance of humanoid robots she argues will therefore depend on whether their differences can be respected and whether they can interact with us in the same physical space. These robots can be viewed therefore as a gauge on how far we have advanced in our acceptance and respect for others. Certainly this is a good reason for the creation of these machines if none other can be found. But many other reasons can be found.....

Superficial, trendy
Easy reading with God in the title and a hook to science. I guess everyone is entitled to an opinion, and if one bothers to write a book, of course one would want it to sell well and get a buzz in the popular press. I confess that I suspect this is another example of an ambitious young person in the humanities needing a gimmick to get exposure. The many references to prestigious people and institutions at the beginning are a good tip-off to this sort of thing. Why spend time reading fluff, when there are so many good books out there? I gave it two stars instead of one because it isn't contentious or offensive in tone.

Between Religion and Science
Does artificial intelligence come with an artificial soul? Most robots are simple devices that can only do simple tasks, run a weld in a car body, spray paint in a pre-programmed path or something like that. But in the advanced labs, research is advancing the capabilities of robots to get closer to what you see in the movies.

Anne Foerst, a theologian and a research scientist, shares her discoveries from her days acting as an informal liaison between the Harvard Divinity School and MIT. She was struck by the similarities between the religious community as it struggled to comprehend God's will and obey divine laws, and the work of scientists struggling to understand how intelligence can be replicated and how self-aware machines can be constructed.

If Western religions claim that mankind was created in the divine image, then Dr. Foerst ask what it means for humans to be continuing the process, creating a new kind of life in their own likeness.
... Read more

Book Description

Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Life, is our guide on a fascinating intellectual exploration of lifetime learning from experience and encountering the unfamiliar. Peripheral Visions begins with a sacrifice in a Persian garden, moving on to a Philippine village and then to the Sinai desert, and concludes with a description of a tour bus full of Tibetan monks. Bateson's reflections bring theses narratives homes, proposing surprising new vision of our own diverse and changing society and offering us the courage to participate even as we are still learning. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

deep ideas proffered like cookies with afternoon tea
The utter simplicity of this book is deceptive.The ideas go very deep and are shattering in their implications.Yet they are proffered like cookies with afternoon tea.

Mary Catherine Bateson presents learning as something directly related to the capacity to enjoy life; learning as an activity pursued throughout life, having only a tenuous connection with school as such.The quotes below give you a flavor of the depth of her reflections and of the pithyness of her expression.

"Increasingly, we will cease to focus on learning as preliminary and see it threaded through other layers of experience, offering one of life's great pleasures."

"The capacity to enjoy, to value one experience over another, is the precondition of the capacity to learn."

"Looking, listening and learning offer the modern equivalent of moving through life as a pilgrimage."

"It is hard to think of learning more fundamental to the shape of society than learning whether to trust or distrust others."

"Human beings construct meaning as spiders make webs."

"The solution is to take responsibility for the choice of metaphors, to savor them and ponder their suggestions, above all to live with many and take no one metaphor as absolute."

"School casts a shadow on all subsequent learning.Trying to understand learning by studying schooling is rather like trying to understand sexuality by studying bordellos."

"Not only don't we know what we know, we don't know what we teach."

"Most of the learning of a lifetime, including much of what is learned in school, never shows up in a curriculum."

Lifelong Learning as a Process of Seeing Unity in Difference
This book deserves more than five stars.It is an effective and eloquent statement of how to create personal growth through lifelong learning.The writing style of the book exemplifies the author's thesis in an effective and satisfying way.

Try this experiment.Ask someone to concentrate on everything that is red in the room for 60 seconds.Then ask the person to close her or his eyes.Then ask the person to tell you everything in the room that is yellow.He or she will struggle.

Focus helps us to see what we focus on, but causes us to miss most of the rest.Focus comes from our cultural preferences, our sense of attractiveness, and our expectations.Professor Bateson effectively shows us how to unfocus so that our peripheral vision becomes our primary way of sensing the visual and mental worlds around us.

Peripheral vision has several advantages.It can capture more than one event at the same time.It also covers a wider field of range.And biologically, we know that our eyes perceive images better at the periphery than at the center (thus, why the reading lenses in bifocals are at the bottom of the glasses).

Mentally, the same thing happens.A further advantage is that we are more likely to liberate the processes of the unconscious mind by considering things more obliquely.Walking away from issues to let them stew is a good example.

The book gently leads the reader into this perception through a series of examples that spiral and recur onto one another, until Professor Bateson's examples become our own.These experiences begin with her taking her young daughter to a ritual slaughtering of a sheep in Iran, connect to her high school years as a gentile in Israel, touch on her research in the rural parts of the Philippines, and run through her two months at an artists' colony in New Hampshire.

Professor Bateson (and we, as her invited guests) become outsiders in these circumstances, but with a guide to help us see the alternative perceptions of the same events.Then, she follows a winding path (like the spiral of a Nautilus shell) back into the center of what all this means.

Continuing to consider sight, she also helps us to see that we are blind when we have only one perspective.Yet it is difficult to overcome that pespective on our own, so we are likely to remain blind.The cure:experience events as people from other cultures do in a nonjudgmental way.This is a sort of psychological "monkey see, monkey do" type of learning, and I agree that the jolt of this fresh vision should work.

My main concern after reading this book is how I can hope to become such an acute observer without being a trained anthropologist born into a family of two genius parents.I suppose I'll just have to work at it harder.Certainly, I came away with the concept that I need to immerse myself in other cultures rather than just live like an American when I travel around.In the same way that half of my reading each year is outside of my fields of expertise, it sounds like I need to get a high percentage of my life experiences in environments dominated by people with different assumptions and perceptions than my own.Hmmmm.Sounds like fun!

Now that I've got the basic concept, I do wish she had provided a few more guideposts for the individual learner.The ones she does provide are very helpful, addressing sex-based, religion-based, geography-based, and culture-based differences.I wonder what other ones there are.

For those who are interested in what multiculturalism should mean, there is a fine discussion of the roles of multicultural experience that emphasizes the potential for learning rather than merely creating self-confidence.I also liked that she doesn't believe the term is a good one, and does some definitional work on the subject.

The book comes from her personal perspective in many places, and you may not agree with her.Rather than having that repulse you, I suggest that you go with the spirit of the book and try to fit inside her perspective and see what you can learn from it.

After enjoying this wonderful book, I suggest that you plan a vacation where you can experience first-hand a culture much different than your own or one that you have experienced before.Perhaps you should do what Henry James suggested, and simply travel to an uncertain destination until you can go no more and stop there.Then live as the people there live.And use Professor Bateson's example to see and think as the people there do.Then, come back to your own culture and see it in two ways now.Then add a third perspective, and so on.Eventually, the overlap of these perspectives will provide you with a new focus on the core of what is important and real.

Overcome your own blinders to truly see all the potential around and within you!

Seeing the world through peripheral visions...
Once again Mary Catherine Bateson, daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, writes a book that makes the reader look at people, cultures, and society through a different set of glasses.In this book, Bateson islooking at cultural norms of countries such as the Philippines and Iran asthey compare to US culture whether it be on the issues of life, death,courtship, or parental roles.Bateson provides a thoughtful framework forengaging the reader in realizing that one culture/perspective is not theonly way but we can expand our thoughts/feelings through opening our eyesto differences. ... Read more

Book Description

Brief and highly engaging, this introduction to the fundamental principles of method and theory in archaeology begins with the goals of archaeology, then goes on to consider the basic concepts of culture, time, and space, and the finding and excavation of archaeological sites.The volume provides an introduction to archaeology and prehistory and puts culture, space and time, the present and the past, settlement and trade in an archaeological context. It also addresses finding archaeological sites, excavation, classification and technology, ancient climate and environment and the archaeology of society.For those interested in a thorough presentation of how archaeologists study human behavior in the past. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Better than a textbook
Have you ever wondered how pieces of long lost civilizations find a home in museums?Perhaps a dashing hero discovered them while escaping enemies?No.Real archaeologists spend countless hours researching information on a particular subject and only then does on-site excavation begin.

This book is for those that want to know more.Brain Fagan takes a subject that many are interested in and actually puts it into perspective.Most people don't understand the numerous factors that are involoved in archaeology.The book provides a wonderful introduction to those willing to get their feet wet.

I highly recommend this book to the armchair archaeologists that want to know more about the craft and science.This is a great pre-requisite to The Oxford Companion to Archaeology (a book edited by Fagan as well). ... Read more

Book Description

One of the most influential and creative scholars inmedicalanthropology takes stock of his recent intellectual odysseys in thiscollectionof essays. Arthur Kleinman, an anthropologist and psychiatrist who hasstudiedin Taiwan, China, and North America since 1968, draws upon hisbicultural,multidisciplinary background to propose alternative strategies forthinkingabout how, in the postmodern world, the social and medical relate. Writing at the Margin explores the border between medical and socialproblems,the boundary between health and social change. Kleinman studies the bodyas themediator between individual and collective experience, finding that manyhealthproblemsfor example the trauma of violence or depression in the courseofchronic painare less individual medical problems than interpersonalexperiencesof social suffering. He argues for an ethnographic approach to moralpractice inmedicine, one that embraces the infrapolitical context of illness, theresponsesto it, the social institutions relating to it, and the way it isconfigured inmedical ethics. Previously published in various journals, these essays have beenrevised,updated, and brought together with an introduction, an essay on violenceand thepolitics of post-traumatic stress disorder, and a new chapter thatexamines thecontemporary ethnographic literature of medical anthropology. ... Read more

Book Description

In a sweeping work tracing the idea of race for more than three centuries, Audrey Smedley shows that "race" is a cultural invention that has been used variously and opportunistically since the eighteenth century. Race was not a product of science but a folk classification reflecting a new form of social stratification and a rationalization for inequality among the peoples of North America. This second edition adds new materials to some early chapters and expands its coverage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with additional analyses of science's role in the preservation of race ideology through IQ tests, the rise of Nazi race ideology, and the beginning disintegration of the racial worldview after World War II. The first edition was named a 1994 Outstanding Book on Human Rights in North America by the Gustavus Myers Center. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Socio-Cultural view of racism and it's origins
Dr. Smedley is not only a wonderful teacher- but an excellent writer aswell! In this book she summarizes the evolution of racism and traces itthrough the bonds of culture to how we percieve it today. It is veryinteresting, eye opening, though provoking reading! Excellent!! ... Read more

Book Description

This volume utilizes the cross-cultural, historical and ethnographic perspective of anthropology to illuminate the intrinsic connections of race, class and gender. The author begins by discussing the manner in which her experience as a participant observer led her to research and write about various aspects of African-American women's experiences. She goes on to provide a critical analysis of the new scholarship on African-American women, and explores issues of race, class and gender in the arenas of work, kinship and resistance. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An excellent, well documented book on Black women
Leith Mullings sheds the light on work-related and environmental hazards to Blacks and especially Black women.If you think racism and sexism arethings of the past Mullings will show you what's not so new about themillenium. ... Read more

Book Description

A major accomplishment of synthesis and distillation! Is the difference in men's and women's behavior the result of the human species' long evolutionary struggle for survival, or is it due to society's child-rearing practices and cultural mythologies? Is the exclusion of women from the highest positions of power and authority a universal trait of human societies, or does women's access to such positions depend on how a society is organized?Gender and Anthropology focuses on the central questions that have concerned anthropologists interested in the nature and determinants of gender roles and gender inequality. This concise treatment clearly traces how anthropologists have used different theoretical orientations to examine such questions and how these approaches have changed over time in relation to changing social and political conditions. Ranging from work in the nineteenth century to contemporary anthropological studies, this work analyzes evolutionary, psychological, materialist, Foucauldian, structuralist, sociolinguistic, and reflexive approaches to understanding gender behavior and gender stratification. Gender and Anthropology explores how anthropological data from around the world are crucial for questioning unproven but widely held assumptions about men and women in contemporary societies. A major accomplishment--a succinct presentation that unfolds our culture's view of women! ... Read more

Book Description

This book challenges conventional theories about literacy, and the practices which often arise from them. It attempts to provide a new perspective through which the variety of literacy practices across different cultures can be viewed and from which the practical issues that arise in specific literacy campaigns and programmes can be approached. Dr Street first examines the explicit theories developed about literacy within different academic disciplines, on the premise that these underlie statements about literacy within development campaigns and in everyday usage. He analyses in detail arguments about the 'technical' and 'neutral' nature of literacy and its supposed 'cognitive' consequences in the work of some psychologists, linguists and social anthropologists. He claims that these amount to a coherent but flawed model that he terms the 'autonomous' model of literacy. Against this he poses an 'ideological' model, one which pays greater attention to the social structure. He attempts to bring together recent shifts in this direction in writings on literacy and to construct a coherent model for further work. ... Read more

Book Description

In the essays collected here, Abbas Milani uses an impressive array of cross-disciplinary Western and Iranian theories and texts to investigate the crucial question of modernity in Iran today. He offers a wealth of new insights into the thousand-year-old conflict in Iran between the search for modernity and the forces of religious obscurantism. The essays trace the roots of Shiite Islamic fundamentalism and offer illuminating accounts of the work of Iranian intellectuals—both men and women—and their artistic movements as they struggle to find a new path toward a genuine modernity in Iran that is congruent with Iran’s rich cultural heritage.

Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran challenges the hitherto accepted theory that modernity and its related concepts of democracy and freedom are Western in essence. It also demonstrates that Iran and the West have more that brings them together than separates them in their search for such modern ideals as rationalism, the rule of law, and democracy.

These essays will reward the scholar and the general reader alike, and will go far toward explaining the enigma that is Iran today. ... Read more

Book Description

This authoritative introduction to the study of human beings and their cultural institutions in cities offers twenty-six readings more than one-half new or revised for the Fourth Edition that form a rich blend of classic studies of enduring interest and important new research. Impressive in scope, the latest edition offers an entirely new section on globalization and transnationalism. ... Read more

Book Description

A highly comprehensive and illustrated account of what makes us what we are: how we evolved, how our bodies work and develop, and how we think and behave, this unbelievable reference examines the qualities all humans share but also highlights the diversity of human society and culture. Profiling more than 250 peoples who inhabit the world and examining fascinating facts - from environmental and health issues to beliefs and customs - Human is the definitive illustrated guide to our species. ... Read more

Book Description

This popular introduction to anthropology integrates a historical, biological, archeological, and global approach with the ethnographic data available from around the world. Drawing on both classic and recent research in the field, it reflects the current state-of-the-art understanding of social and cultural changes based on the relationships among different types of societies. It demonstrates the diversity of different societies and cultural patterns, but also shows how humans everywhere are fundamentally similar.Chapter topics include evolution; primates; hominid evolution; human variation; Paleolithic cultures; the origins of domestication and settled life; the enculturation process; anthropological explanations; analyzing society and culture; tribes and chiefdoms; agricultural and industrial states; consequences of globalization; and contemporary global trends.For individuals interested in the study of anthropology and the advent of new solutions for the quality of life in the future of humankind. d. ... Read more

Book Description

An interdisciplinary investigation of the phenomenon of terrorism in its political, social, and economic context as it has occurred throughout the world from the nineteenth century to the present.

Acts of violence committed by terrorists have become a staple of news reports in modern times, from hijackings to bombings, kidnappings to assassinations. How are we to understand both the causes and the consequences of these disturbing events?The key, this volume of original essays shows, lies in linking terrorism to the different contexts—historical, political, social, and economic—in which it occurs.

The fourteen contributors to this volume—historians, political scientists, and sociologists—provide the expertise to explain the continuities and discontinuities in the development of this form of violent political action in a variety of contexts.They link terrorism to the pattern of relations between state and society and between governments and oppositions.Their studies range from the early manifestations of terrorism in revolutionary Russia and the anarchist movements of Western Europe and the United States in the late nineteenth century up to the terrorism still ongoing in Latin America and the Middle East. A section on left-wing terrorism covers the activities of the Italian Red Brigades and German Red Army Faction in the l960s and l970s, the urban guerilla warfare in Argentina in the 1970s, and the rise ofSendero Luminoso in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s. Another section deals with terrorism arising from conflicts in divided societies—byBasques in Spain, the IR! A in Northern Ireland, and Sihks in India. The last major section considers terrorism as it has been linked to the establishment of nation-states in Algeria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the effort of Iran to export its Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East.

The Introduction sets the stage for the individual case studies by outlining an approach to analyzing terrorism in different historical contexts, and the Conclusion by French sociologist Michel Wieviorka highlights some of the common themes that emerge from the case studies and addresses their implications for further research. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the few case studies of undocumented immigrants available, this insightful anthropological analysis humanizes a group of people too often reduced to statistics and stereotypes.The hardships of Hispanic migration are conveyed in the immigrants' own voices while the author's voice raises questions about power, stereotypes, settlement, and incorporation into American society. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A case study of human survial
Chavez provides a clear unbiased look at the harsh and often dangerous life of undocumented immigrants mainly in Southern California. Chavez engages the reader through accurate portrayals of people who remain on the fringes of American society for fear of deportation. Their stories are moving; their tenacity amazing. North American readers will be reminded of just how protected and sheltered they are by the virture of living in America. A must read for anyone trying to understand the complexities of illegal immigration or in the postion to make policy on the topic. ... Read more