States of imitation

Total atheism

Local science vs global science

While science has achieved a remarkable understanding of nature, affording humans an astonishing technological capability, it has led, through Euro-American global domination, to the muting of other cultural views and values, even threatening their continued existence. There is a growing realiz...

The cultural politics of reproduction

Offers a detailed analysis of the social and cultural experiences of migrant communities Explores arguments seated at the heart of the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences Provides a comparative study of identity and a cultural understanding of the health care system, demonstra...

Remembering violence

Psychologists have done a great deal of research on the effects of trauma on the individual, revealing the paradox that violent experiences are often secreted away beyond easy accessibility, becoming impossible to verbalize explicitly. However, comparatively little research has been done on the...

Where are all our sheep?

Describes the path of economic and political liberalization chosen by post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and its eventual dependence on the outside world, particularly on international aid. Explains how the Kyrgyz have turned this economic “opening up” into a subtle strategy to capture all manner of...

Fault lines

Explores plans for urban development in Sicily prior to 2 earthquakes, in 1908 and 1968, and compares them with the urbanism which materialised from the ruins. Provides an insight into the role of environmental forces in the history of human habitats.

Screening nostalgia

"In this fascinating in-depth study of the impact of nostalgia on contemporary American cinema, Christine Sprengler unpicks the history of the concept and explores its significance in theory and practice. She offers a lucid analysis of the development of nostalgia in American society and cultur...

Cousin marriages

Engaging and multi-disciplinary (sociological, historical, clinical, political) reflection on cousin marriages. Offers a cross-cultural exploration of kinship and the social and ethical issues raised. Explores the impact of new genetic understandings and potential health risks. R...

Tropics of vienna

Blends literary criticism, cultural theory, and historical analysis. Demonstrates how Vienna was linked with its eastern periphery in a quasi-colonial arrangement that shaped the cultural and intellectual life of the Habsburg Empire. Reveals a shared longing for alternative social an...

Legal dissonance

Describes how Papua New Guinea's two most powerful legal orders - customary and state law - undermine each other in criminal matters. Explains how a lack of co-ordination in the punishing of wrong behaviour is problematic for legal orders and for those who are subject to such a legal phe...

Embers of empire

Examines how political elites and ordinary people processed the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and its familiar governing structures in 1918 Explores the diverse and important ways in which the Empire’s successor states drew upon its practices and traditions Discusses continuities...

German railroads, jewish souls

This book centers around preeminent Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg’s landmark study of Nazi railways and their roles within the Jewish genocide. Supplemented with additional writings from Hilberg, primary source materials, and a comprehensive historical survey from leading scholars Christopher ...

Moral economy at work

The idea of a moral economy has been explored and assessed in numerous disciplines. The anthropological studies in this volume provide a new perspective to this idea by showing how the relations of workers, employees and employers, and of firms, families and households are interwoven with local...

Neubau atmospheres

An incisive analysis of East German cinematic, literary, and architectural case studies from the 1960s to the 1980s, Neubau Atmospheres examines the creative role the urban, built environment played in mediating the emotional and social experience of its residents, highlighting how this engagem...

Translocal care across kosovo’s borders

By tracing long-distant family relations with a special focus on cross-border marriages, this study looks at the reconfiguration of care relations, gender and generational roles among kin-members of Kosovo, who now live in different European states.

Small town and village in bavaria

At the center of this investigation is the great modernization effort of a West German state, Bavaria, in the 1970s and 1980s, by means of a reform of the smaller units of local government. The reforms were meant to abolish all autonomous local governments serving populations of fewer than 3,00...

Pious pursuits

Recent work on the history of migration and the Atlantic World has underscored the importance of the political economies of Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the eighteenth century, emphasizing the impact of these exchanges on political relations and state-building, and on economic structures...

Bureaucracy, work and violence

Sacral kingship between disenchantment and re-enchantment

A major contribution to the study of early modern monarchy A well organised study focusing on the interaction between ideas of monarchy and images of power in France and England A new perspective on the sacred role that churches and religion bestowed on monarchs

Ritual

Designed for both academic and lay audiences, this book identifies the characteristics of ritual and, via multiple examples, details how ritual works on the human body and brain to produce its often profound effects. These include enhancing courage, effecting healing, and generating group cohes...

Tourism, magic and modernity

A comprehensive ethnographic study of tourism and tourism development An innovative re-reading of different uses of concepts of magic in the contemporary world An approach of tourism to study the ideological underpinnings of modernity A uniquely accessible writing style based on ...

The living ancestors

Original work both in terms of author’s chosen theoretical framework (phenomenology-holography) and the empirical richness of ethnographic detail through which the former is executed. Captivating and original ethnographic content and its articulation through conceptual and interpretive i...

Forging architectural tradition

During the nineteenth century, a change developed in the way architectural objects from the distant past were viewed by contemporaries. Architectural heritage often was (and still is) an important element of nation building. Authors address the process of building national myths around certain ...

Intersected identities

There has always been an important visual element to the construction and questioning of national identity in post-Independence Mexico, though one that has not always been given its due, outside of the celebrated and much-studied muralists. Ranging from the early nineteenth century to the prese...

Invisible faces and hidden stories

Dealing with narratives of vulnerable populations, this book looks at how they deal with dimensions of their social life, especially in regards to health. It reflects the socio-political ecologies like public hostility and stereotyping, neglect of their unique health needs, their courage to ove...

The golden chain

Offers historical perspectives on the role of families in the processes of a liberal and democratic civil society Discusses the question of the boundaries of the private and public domains Analyses the interventions of state institutions

After the cult

Offers comparison of indigenous and anthropological perceptions of other and self Examines mutual influencing between indigenous and Western perceptions as well as the relation between anthropological “predecessors” and “successors” Investigates cultural perceptions of other and self...

Understanding business offenders

Focusing on understanding business offenders through an exploration of workplace deviance and crime, this book closely examines a number of illustrative contemporary case studies and underpins the analysis of original comparative fieldwork, with an interdisciplinary approach, which informs, dev...

Europe after maastricht

During the era following the Second World War world peace was largely assured through American-European cooperation on the political, military, and economic level. This status quo was upset by the ratification of the Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht Treaty) which will, whatever obstacle...

Liquid bread

brings cross-disciplinary perspectives on beer and brewing together brings cross-cultural ethnographies, archaeology, etc. to those who pick up the book because of their interest in beer and brewing introduces modern brewing technology and marketing techniques to those interested in ...

Headlines of nation, subtexts of class

Since 1989 neo-nationalism has grown as a volatile political force in almost all European societies in tandem with the formation of a neoliberal European Union and wider capitalist globalizations. Focusing on working classes situated in long-run localized processes of social change, including p...

Masks and staffs

It’s the first in-depth study on Cameroon that integrates the three ethnic groups (Grassfields societies, Mbororo and Hausa) in its historical and contemporary analyses. The book stands out by its methodological approach of integrating performative and narrative dimensions in its analyse...

Self in the world

The eminent anthropologist Keith Hart reflects on a life of learning, sharing and remembering to offer readers the means of connecting life’s extremes – individual and society, local and global, personal and impersonal dimensions of existence and explores what it is that makes us fully human.

Ethno-baroque

A masterful work of ethnographic research and deep theoretical analysis Combines explorations of ethnicity, class, status, gender, and consumption in post-1991 Macedonia Uses the Baroque style to frame an examination of the link between aesthetics and politics and how ethno-national ...

Imperial germany revisited

International selection of Authors, all leading experts in the field of the history of the German Empire Gives good overview of the “state of the art” and raises important questions for future research Volume shows a much more “modern” and pluralistic picture of Imperial Germany than...

Vanquished and victorious

Innovatively providing a comparative investigation of Austria and Czechoslovakia as key ‘successor states’ of the Habsburg Empire, Vanquished and Victorious reviews the considerable gaps in our understanding of the role veterans played.

The german-american encounter

While Germans, the largest immigration group in the United States, contributed to the shaping of American society and left their mark on many areas from religion and education to food, farming, political and intellectual life, Americans have been instrumental in shaping German democracy after W...

Managing the unknown

Argues that deficient knowledge of the environment is a far more pervasive challenge in resource history than conventional readings suggest Makes significant contribution to the inter-disciplinary debate about the production and resilience of ignorance Combines insights from differen...

Crises in european integration

While the major trends in European integration have been well researched and constitute key elements of narratives about its value and purpose, the crises of integration and their effects have not yet attracted sufficient attention. This volume, with original contributions by leading German sch...

The domain of constant excess

The Sri Lankan ethnic conflict that has occurred largely between Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus is marked by a degree of religious tolerance that sees both communities worshiping together. This study describes one important site of such worship, the ancient Hindu temple complex of Munnesvar...

Anthropology and political science

Compares concepts and methodologies of the two disciplines Highlights the contributions of each discipline for the other Discusses previous troubled relationship Demonstrates "added value" of a convergent approach

Years of conflict

Recent years have witnessed a significant growth of interest in the consequences of political violence and displacement for the young. However, when speaking of “children” commentators have often taken the situation of those in early and middle childhood as representative of all young people un...

Civil society and gender justice

Civil society and civic engagement have increasingly become topics of discussion at the national and international level. The editors of this volume ask, does the concept of “civil society” include gender equality and gender justice? Or, to frame the question differently, is civil society a fem...