We are delighted to present a selection of our newly published October titles from our core subjects of Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, History, Medical Anthropology, and Socio-Legal Studies along with a selection of our New in Paperback titles.
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ANTHROPOLOGY NOW AND NEXT
Essays in Honor of Ulf Hannerz
Edited by Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Christina Garsten and Shalini Randeria
The scholarship of Ulf Hannerz is characterized by its extraordinary breadth and visionary nature. He has contributed to the understanding of urban life and transnational networks, and the role of media, paradoxes of identity and new forms of community, suggesting to see culture in terms of flows rather than as bounded entities. Contributions honor Hannerz’ legacy by addressing theoretical, epistemological, ethical and methodological challenges facing anthropological inquiry on topics from cultural diversity policies in Europe to transnational networks in Yemen, and from pottery and literature to multinational corporations.
WHOSE COSMOPOLITANISM?
Critical Perspectives, Relationalities and Discontents
Edited by Nina Glick Schiller and Andrew Irving
The term cosmopolitan is increasingly used within different social, cultural and political settings, including academia, popular media and national politics. However those who invoke the cosmopolitan project rarely ask whose experience, understanding, or vision of cosmopolitanism is being described and for whose purposes? In response, this volume assembles contributors from different disciplines and theoretical backgrounds to examine cosmopolitanism’s possibilities, aspirations and applications—as well as its tensions, contradictions, and discontents—so as to offer a critical commentary on the vital but often neglected question: whose cosmopolitanism? The book investigates when, where, and how cosmopolitanism emerges as a contemporary social process, global aspiration or emancipatory political project and asks whether it can serve as a political or methodological framework for action in a world of conflict and difference.
HUNTERS, PREDATORS AND PREY
Inuit Perceptions of Animals
Frédéric Laugrand and Jarich Oosten
Inuit hunting traditions are rich in perceptions, practices and stories relating to animals and human beings. The authors examine key figures such as the raven, an animal that has a central place in Inuit culture as a creator and a trickster, and qupirruit, a category consisting of insects and other small life forms. After these non-social and inedible animals, they discuss the dog, the companion of the hunter, and the fellow hunter, the bear, considered to resemble a human being. A discussion of the renewal of whale hunting accompanies the chapters about animals considered ‘prey par excellence’: the caribou, the seals and the whale, symbol of the whole. By giving precedence to Inuit categories such as ‘inua’ (owner) and ‘tarniq’ (shade) over European concepts such as ‘spirit ‘and ‘soul’, the book compares and contrasts human beings and animals to provide a better understanding of human-animal relationships in a hunting society.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND NOSTALGIA
Edited by Olivia Angé and David Berliner
Nostalgia is intimately connected to the history of the social sciences in general and anthropology in particular, though finely grained ethnographies of nostalgia and loss are still scarce. Today, anthropologists have realized that nostalgia constitutes a fascinating object of study for exploring contemporary issues of the formation of identity in politics and history. Contributors to this volume consider the fabric of nostalgia in the fields of heritage and tourism, exile and diasporas, postcolonialism and postsocialism, business and economic exchange, social, ecological and religious movements, and nation building. They contribute to a better understanding of how individuals and groups commemorate their pasts, and how nostalgia plays a role in the process of remembering.
THE POWER OF DEATH
Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society
Edited by Maria-José Blanco and Ricarda Vidal
The social and cultural changes of the last century have transformed death from an everyday fact to something hidden from view. Shifting between the practical and the theoretical, the professional and the intimate, the real and the fictitious, this collection of essays explores the continued power of death over our lives. It examines the idea and experience of death from an interdisciplinary perspective, including studies of changing burial customs throughout Europe; an account of a“dying party” in the Netherlands; examinations of the fascination with violent death in crime fiction and the phenomenon of serial killer art; analyses of death and bereavement in poetry, fiction, and autobiography; and a look at audience reactions to depictions of death on screen. By studying and considering how death is thought about in the contemporary era, we might restore the natural place it has in our lives.
GLOBALIZED FATHERHOOD
Edited by Marcia C. Inhorn, Wendy Chavkin & José-Alberto Navarro
Using an entirely new conceptual vocabulary through which to understand men’s experiences and expectations at the dawn of the twenty-first century, this path-breaking volume focuses on fatherhood around the globe, including transformations in fathering, fatherhood, and family life. It includes new work by anthropologists, sociologists, and cultural geographers, working in settings from Peru to India to Vietnam. Each chapter suggests that men are responding to globalization as fathers in creative and unprecedented ways, not only in the West, but also in numerous global locations.
PEOPLE, MONEY AND POWER IN THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
Perspectives from the Global South
Edited by Keith Hart and John Sharp
The Cold War was fought between “state socialism” and “the free market.” That fluctuating relationship between public power and private money continues today, unfolding in new and unforeseen ways during the economic crisis. Nine case studies — from Southern Africa, South Asia, Brazil, and Atlantic Africa – examine economic life from the perspective of ordinary people in places that are normally marginal to global discourse, covering a range of class positions from the bottom to the top of society. The authors of these case studies examine people’s concrete economic activities and aspirations. By looking at how people insert themselves into the actual, unequal economy, they seek to reflect human unity and diversity more fully than the narrow vision of conventional economics.
THE FORGOTTEN MAJORITY
German Merchants in London, Naturalization, and Global Trade 1660-1815
Margrit Schulte Beerbühl
Translated from the German by Cynthia Klohr
The “forgotten majority” of German merchants in London between the end of the Hanseatic League and the end of the Napoleonic Wars became the largest mercantile Christian immigrant group in the eighteenth century. Using previously neglected and little used evidence, this book assesses the causes of their migration, the establishment of their businesses in the capital, and the global reach of the enterprises. As the acquisition of British nationality was the admission ticket to Britain’s commercial empire, it investigates the commercial function of British naturalization policy in the early modern period, while also considering the risks of failure and chance for a new beginning in a foreign environment. As more German merchants integrated into British commercial society, they contributed to London becoming the leading place of exchange between the European continent, Russia, and the New World.
NIGHTTIME BREASTFEEDING
An American Cultural Dilemma
Cecília Tomori
Nighttime for many new parents in the United States is fraught with the intense challenges of learning to breastfeed and helping their babies sleep so they can get rest themselves. Through careful ethnographic study of the dilemmas raised by nighttime breastfeeding, and their examination in the context of anthropological, historical, and feminist studies, this volume unravels the cultural tensions that underlie these difficulties. As parents negotiate these dilemmas, they not only confront conflicting medical guidelines about breastfeeding and solitary infant sleep, but also larger questions about cultural and moral expectations for children and parents, and their relationship with one another.
WRITING DEMOCRACY
The Norwegian Constitution 1814-2014
Edited by Karen Gammelgaard and Eirik Holmøyvik
The Norwegian Constitution is the oldest functioning constitution in Europe. Its bicentenary in 2014 has inspired the analyses in this volume, where contributors focus on the Constitution as a text to explore new ways of analyzing democratic development. This volume examines the framing of the Norwegian Constitution, its transformations, and its interpretations during the last two centuries. The textual focus enables new understandings of the framers’ negotiations and decisions on a democratic micro level and opens new international and historical contexts to understanding the Norwegian Constitution. By synthesizing knowledge from different realms – law, social sciences, and the humanities – Writing Democracy provides a model for examining the distinct textual qualities of constitutional documents.
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New in Paperback:
ETHICAL CONSUMPTION
Social Value and Economic Practice
Edited by James G. Carrier and Peter G. Luetchford
“This edited volume brilliantly shows that ethical consumption is a process of socializing (and fetishizing) goods on the consumption side, as well as a process of economizing social values on the production side.” · Sociologus
AMBIGUOUS PLEASURES
Sexuality and Middle Class Self-Perceptions in Nairobi
Rachel Spronk
“…an interesting and well-written book… a strong contribution to the scholarship of African sexualities and gender, due not least to its clear focus and methodological approach…I would recommend it to anyone interested in gender and sexualities in the African context.” · African Affairs
POST-COSMOPOLITAN CITIES
Explorations of Urban Coexistence
Edited by Caroline Humphrey and Vera Skvirskaja
“What emerges as common features of these cities mark their unique contribution to an understanding of cosmopolitanism as ideal and practice, raising crucial questions about who is or can be cosmopolitan and where cosmopolitanism is in the world. Loosely connected by their orientation to both Europe and Asia, the shifting valences of this outlook over time have important consequences for the cities’ respective cosmopolitan-ness, as well as the meaning and nature of cosmopolitanism.” · Urban History
THE SCOPE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Maurice Godelier’s Work in Context
Edited by Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkézoff
“This is an extremely welcome addition to the literature — unfortunately, too many English-speakers today think of Godelier as a footnote in the history of Marxist anthropology. This volume helps us remember the importance of Godelier as a thinker of the first order and a major bridge between the Anglophone and Francophone anthropology.” · Alex Golub, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
THE MAKING OF THE PENTECOSTAL MELODRAMA
Religion, Media and Gender in Kinshasa
Katrien Pype
“This book is… an exemplary combination of detailed ethnography and anthropological theory that is rare in the study of Pentecostalism. Pype’s writing is flawless and engaging. She also allows immediate access to some of the film material through the publisher’s website. Moreover, Pype’s reflections of her own role as researcher provide transparent insights into the dynamics of her fieldwork. This dimension also makes the book a reference-point for those interested in participant observation among Pentecostals.” · Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute