Stories make the world

Today, at a time when we are seeking to orient ourselves within a flood of raw information and conflicting narratives, an understanding of storytelling is of vital importance for making sense of the world. In this book, award-winning screenwriter Stephen Most offers a captivating, refreshingly ...

Skilled visions

Most arguments for a rediscovery of the body and the senses hinge on a critique of “visualism” in our globalized, technified society. This approach has led to a lack of actual research on the processes of visual “enskillment.” Providing a comprehensive spectrum of case studies in relevant conte...

In the best interests of the child

Introducing Ophir’s moral philosophy into the field of adoption by applying the distinction made by him between damage and loss.The book presents the distinction between the conceptualization of adoption as compensation for the damage inflicted on the child by removing him from his birth par...

A taste for oppression

Very few up-to-date qualitative studies are available on locked societies (such as north Korea or Belarus), thus this book fills an important gap in our understanding of existing authoritarian regimes. An inside look at daily lives of people in a country that is often referred to as “the...

Negotiating identity in scandinavia

Focuses on immigration and the concept of diaspora through the experiences of women living in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Examines the novel ways in which diasporic communities create gendered forms of belonging that transcend the nation state. The multifaceted nature of the interac...

European anthropologies

By assessing the diversity of European intellectual histories within sociocultural anthropology, this volume aims to sketch its intellectual and institutional portrait. It will be a useful reading for the students of anthropology, ethnology, history and philosophy of science, research and scien...

Nursing stories

At a time, when the section of the older population is increasing in all western societies, more and more attention needs to be paid to the growing number of people who live with and die of drawn-out terminal illnesses, cancer being one of the most common ones. This study focuses on terminally ...

Visions of humanity

Visions of Humanity focuses on the promises and problems, the successes and the failures of “humanity” as an idea since the 19th century. Through an international set of contributions, the volume examines the hopes and ambiguities involved in constructing, invoking, and instrumentalizing the “w...

Crown, church and constitution

Studies popular conservatism prior to 1867; analyses political attitudes of non-voters in a time where popular conservatism is often thought of as non-existing. Links debates on popular loyalism in the late 18th century with debates on popular conservatism in the late 19th century; and c...

The world of children

In an era of technological advances and rapidly increasing international exchange, how did young Germans come to understand the world beyond their doorstep? Bringing together contributions from specialists in historical, literary, and cultural studies, this is a fascinating kaleidoscopic explor...

Civil society in the age of monitory democracy

seeks to compare and reassess the role of civil society in the rich West, the poorer South, and East in the context of the twenty-first century’s challenges addresses political activism and the state and nature of contemporary democracy in various different contexts presents a novel ...

Recollections of france

Since the 1980s, France has experienced a vigorous revival of interest in its past and cultural heritage. This has been expressed as part of a movement of remembering through museums and festivals as well as via elaborate commemorations, most notably those held to celebrate the bi-centenary of ...

Fate calculation experts

Reveal the fault-lines of contemporary politics and the types of anxieties that are generated in a society that is rapidly modernizing while reinventing strict codes of hierarchy, Given the popularity of divination in many modern societies, and the lack of anthropological studies on the ...

The french exception

The notion of French exceptionalism is deeply embedded in the nation's self-image and in a range of political and academic discourses. Recently, the debate about whether France really is "exceptional" has acquired a critical edge. Against the background of introspection about the nature of "nat...

Latin america facing china

The last quarter of the twentieth century was a period of economic crises, increasing indebtedness as well as financial instability for Latin America and most other developing countries; in contrast, China showed amazingly high growth rates during this time and has since become the third larges...

Brewing socialism

Taking an uncommonly focused lens against the deep and active role coffee had in connecting East Germans to a global market, Brewing Socialism uncovers the significance of East German efforts to democratize coffee and how that focus on material cultural informed the everyday life of the Social ...

The unhcr and the afghan crisis

Today the UNHCR is present in more than 130 countries and takes care of some 90 million people. This book looks at how it is deployed and who its agents are. By taking the reader through the offices in charge of the Afghan refugee crisis during the 2000s, in Geneva and in Kabul, the book shows ...

Universities remembering europe

Higher education plays a vital role in the sharing of the identity and culture of Europe and therefore receives considerable attention from scholars and policy makers. This volume is different in that it brings a philosophical perspective to the debate on higher education in Europe. As a work o...

The power of death

Multidisciplinary: humanities + social sciences. Death is analysed as a cultural event. Includes creative responses to death as well as academic essays.

Bulldozer capitalism

Set in the resource frontier of northeastern Turkey, Bulldozer Capitalism studies the rise and decline of an anti-dam/anti-displacement campaign and the political responses to other extractive projects that it helped to shape in its aftermath.

On the order of chaos

Over the past two decades, “chaos theory” – the perception of order previously hidden in phenomena of apparent randomness and disorder – has fundamentally transformed the natural sciences. In recent years, numerous scholars in the social sciences and humanities have attempted to adapt the insig...

Lives in limbo

Lives in Limbo gives voice to the dreams of Syrian youth who have little hope of returning to their devastated homeland and explains why this generation’s future will shape how the region will develop. It explores how refugee youth create futures from the liminality of exile.

The politics of egalitarianism

The essays assembled in this book exemplify the way political anthropologists address a range of problems that deeply affect people throughout the world. The authors draw their inspiration from the work of Canadian anthropologist Richard B. Lee, and, like him, they are concerned with understand...

Lullabies and battle cries

No extensive studies published to date on republican parading or republican bands in Northern Ireland Very little published on republican culture and commemorations in Northern Ireland This book offers a unique perspective of parading in Northern Ireland that remains a mystery to mos...

Pacific futures

Seeks to understand social life and culture the Pacific region in terms of the future, rather than reproducing cultural traditions of the past. Considers different aspects of Pacific culture from Christianity, marriage, and reflections on childhood fishing trips to military coups, gambli...

Foucault's orient

Method: The book uses archival research supplemented by interviews Novelty of topic: Foucault’s view of the non-Western cultures has not been studied before. Range: The book covers three different countries. There were studies of Foucault’s view of Iran, but no book covers Iran, ...

Alfred cort haddon

Using previously overlooked, primary sources Ciarán Walsh argues that Haddon, the grandson of anti-slavery activists, set out to revolutionize anthropology in the 1890s in association with a network of anarcho-utopian activists and philosophers. His book regards most of what has been written ab...

Collective and state violence in turkey

Collective and State Violence in Turkey provides a wide range of case studies and historiographical reflections on the alarming recurrence of violence in Turkish history, as atrocities against varied ethnic-religious groups from the nineteenth century to today have propelled the nation’s very s...

Bali and beyond

Based on field research carried out over two decades, the author surveys the development of the anthropology of tourism and its significance, using case studies drawn from Indonesia, New Guinea and Japan. He argues that tourism, once seen as rather peripheral by anthropologists, has to be treat...

Of jaguars and butterflies

Jointly authored by an anthropologist and a philosopher, this book investigates some of the most puzzling ideas and practices reported in modern ethnography and ancient philosophy concerning topics such as humans, animals, persons, spirits, agency, selfhood, consciousness, nature, life, death, ...

Le malaise creole

How does one explain the poverty and marginalization of a group that lives in a remarkably successful economy and peaceful society? A native anthropologist, the author provides critical insight into the dynamics of contemporary Mauritian society. In her meticulously researched study of ethnic, ...

Space, place and identity

Known as highly mobile cattle nomads, the Wodaabe in Niger are today increasingly engaged in a transformation process towards a more diversified livelihood based primarily on agro-pastoralism and urban work migration. This book examines recent transformations in spatial patterns, notably in the...

Memory unbound

Studies memory as complex social, cultural, and medial processes. The first book to explore the transcultural, transgenerational, transmedial, and transdisciplinary dimensions of memory in an integrated way . Places leading researchers in conversation with emerging voices to reshape...

Weimar publics/weimar subjects

Interdisciplinary: features essays by scholars in the fields of Art History, German Literature, Film Studies, and History. Examines the important connections between political and cultural change during the Weimar era when politics were mediated increasingly through culture and when new ...

Environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia

Contributions from scholar-activists and activist-practitioners Covers seldom examined dialogue around 3 main areas: Bioregionalism, Permaculture and Ecovillages Advocates a re-orientation of environmental anthropology from a problem-oriented towards a solutions-focused endeavour

Coping with distances

The Nordic Atlantic area has seen remarkable examples of social formations in areas that many would perceive as too remote to allow the construction of functioning communities. But through innovations, networking and the formation of identities people have coped with distances, thus continuousl...

Animism in rainforest and tundra

Unique comparative study of native peoples of Amazonia and Siberia Important contribution to the study of animism Major contribution to the ethnography of shamanism and shamanic societies

Honour and violence

Examines the central position of karo kari in the social, political and juridical structures in Upper Sindh, Pakistan. An exploration of how the state justice system and informal mediations inform each other in state responses to karo kari. An explanation of how modern law is implica...

‘i am here’, abraham said

One of the most significant philosophical voices of the twentieth century – the philosopher of ‘the Other’ – Emmanuel Levinas’s work offers a challenge to the discipline of anthropology that claims knowledge of the human. This book endeavours to take Levinasian and anthropological precepts on ‘...

Challenging norms

An enlightening and geographically wide-ranging re-examination of family planning in twentieth-century Eastern Europe, Challenging Norms interrogates the correlation between social attitudes to family planning and social, economic, and political modernization. In doing so, this volume highlight...

Reproductive disruptions

Nominated for the 2007 Book Prize by the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (AAA) Reproductive disruptions, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption, and childhood disability, are among the most distressing experiences in people’s lives. Based on research by leading medical anthrop...

Prophetic histories

On Malaita in Solomon Islands, an evangelical Israelite-inspired movement centers on a distinctive time-consciousness that reads the historical past and present as prophetic signs of an imminent future. This book examines how these ‘prophetic histories’ interweave biblical narrative, theologica...

Unexpected encounters

Exploring different dimensions of the intersection of migration and tourism in the Mediterranean, this book is the result of extensive ethnographic research carried out over a decade in the Mediterranean region. It shows how migration and tourism play complementary roles in boosting the global ...

Dictatorship as experience

A decade after the collapse of communism, this volume presents a historical reflection on the perplexing nature of the East German dictatorship. In contrast to most political rhetoric, it seeks to establish a middle ground between totalitarianism theory, stressing the repressive features of the...

Migrations in the german lands, 1500-2000

A collection of essays reconstructing the experiences of vagrants, laborers, religious exiles, refugees, and other migrants to, from and within German-speaking lands during the last five hundred years. The volume identifies revealing commonalities shared by different eras while also plac...

A u-turn to the future

Unsustainable practices since the Industrial Revolution still impact our everyday lives. This book looks at how we can achieve sustainable urban mobility now and in the future by tapping into our knowledge of the historical trajectories leading up to the features of modern mobility in cities to...

Artisanal and small-scale mining formalization in ghana

The main key benefit of this book is its use of decoloniality in the examination of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) formalization. While there have been many cross-disciplinary explorations of formalization as a concept, the originality of this book lies not only in its interpretation...

Japan and germany in the modern world

First study of the fascinating parallelism that characterizes developments in Japan and Germany by one of Germany's leading Japan specialists. With the founding of their respective national states, the Meiji Empire in 1869 and the German Reich in 1871, Japan and Germany entered world politics...

The man from the third row

The first book in English about Hasse Ekman. Discusses 1940s Swedish cinema, which has previously been overlooked outside of Sweden. The first book, in any language, that discusses the whole of Ekman’s career and places it in a social and political context.

Creation and creativity in indigenous lowland south america

Investigating local Indigenous processes of creation and creativity, this book uses ethnographic and comparative anthropological perspectives to enquire about creative transformative practices in lowland South America.

The end of the refugee cycle?

At the start of the 1990s, there was great optimism that the end of the Cold War might also mean the end of the "refugee cycle" - both a breaking of the cycle of violence, persecution and flight, and the completion of the cycle for those able to return to their homes. The 1990s, it was hoped, w...

An archaeology of unchecked capitalism

By drawing parallels between the past and present – for example, the coal mines of the nineteenth-century northeastern Pennsylvania and the sweatshops of the twenty-first century in Bangladesh – we can have difficult conversations about the past and advance our commitment to address social just...

Encounter, transformation, and identity

Bringing together key historical and innovative ethnographic materials on the peoples of the South-West Province of Cameroon and the Nigerian borderlands, this volume presents critical and analytical approaches to the production of ethnic, political, religious, and gendered identities in the re...

Refugees welcome?

Situates the 2015-16 ‘refugee crisis’ in Germany within the wider German history of responding politically to difference and diversity.

Politics of the dunes

Politics of the Dunes explores the ways in which the Open City’s architectural and urban practice is devoted to keeping open the utopian possibility for multiplicity, pluralism, and democratization in the face of authoritarianism, a powerful mode of postcolonial environmental urbanism that can ...

Sound matters

The sounds of music and the German language have played a significant role in the developing symbolism of the German nation. In light of the historical division of Germany into many disparate political entities and regional groups, German artists and intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th cen...

In the shadow of auschwitz

An in-depth analysis of German massacres in Poland over the whole period of German occupation during the Second World War, this innovative study recounts the widely forgotten ethnic Polish civilian victims. Using both German and Polish sources, In the Shadow of Auschwitz uncovers for the first ...

Out of place

The Kakoli of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), the focus of this study, did not traditionally have a concept of mental illness. They classified madness according to social behaviour, not mental pathology. Moreover, their conception of the person did not recognise the same physic...

At home in a nursing home

Focusing on contemporary ideas about how aged care is provided, this book poses the question: How can people who are aged and frail live out the final phase of their lives with dignity? In seeking answers, the author examines what it means to be ‘at home’ in residential care in a novel and comp...

Dust inside

Toxic production, disrupted lives and contaminated bodies. Care for unacknowledged suffering, incurable cancers, and immeasurable losses. This book bears witness to the invisible disasters provoked by the asbestos market worldwide and gives a voice to the communities of survivors who struggle d...

Samizdat, tamizdat, and beyond

Comparative history of samizdat and tamizdat Multi-disciplinary approach to to dissident media, including art, music and film First scholarly treatment of cultural cross-border activities during the Cold War Comparative framework of socialist and post-socialist media in Eastern E...

'aryanisation' in hamburg

Much has been written about Nazi anti-Jewish policies, about atrocities of the Wehrmacht, and about the life of the Jews during the Third Reich. However, relatively little is known about the behavior of non-Jewish Germans. This book, published to wide acclaim in its original edition, shows how ...

The origins of prejudice

The series layout provides an accessible and overarching approach to some complex topics which may appeal to the more general reader. This series is designed to demonstrate how S.T.E.M. education must include the social sciences if we are to deal successfully with the risks and uncertain...

The attempt to stay

The construction of the Merowe Dam along the Nile in northern Sudan flooded local villages and forced thousands of inhabitants to flee to higher ground. This book follows the Manasir people’s attempts to resist state-run resettlement schemes, preserve their homeland, and try out meaningful ways...

Basic and applied research

The book applies conceptual history to the analysis of science policy and public discourses on science, technology and innovation. The book demonstrates that and how concepts determine the conceptual space of science policy around the globe. The book is a unique contribution to both ...

Amnesia remembered

As an introduction to studying and reverse engineering a digital artifact, this volume is intended for nontechnical audiences wanting to learn how to conduct their own similar research on computer software. While presented through an archaeological lens, it is also suitable for readers in histo...

A matter of belief

Explores Christian Conversion and Healing Examines the interplay of personal and communal ritual Describes religious resistance and nationalism among the Naga in North-Eastern India A focus on British colonialism and American Baptist missionaries

Responsible history

“I can warmly recommend Responsible History to any concerned historian in need of a reliable compass for responsible conduct. I endorse Voltaire’s words quoted in this book: ‘Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.’ Responsible conduct is necessary because ir...

Beyond inclusion and exclusion

Moves away from the notion of a singular Jewish war experience, and examines the diverse experiences of Jewish men and women during World War I. Broadens the approach to central European Jewish history by highlighting complex interactions between ordinary Jewish and non-Jewish soldiers a...

From weimar to hitler

This is the first edited volume on the Nazi seizure of power that spans the entire period from the end of the Brüning chancellorship in the late spring of 1932 though the Nazi consolidation of power in the Röhm purge of June 30, 1934. The essays offer a multitude of different perspective...

Toward a global community of historians

Globalization presents major challenges to scholars of history. Different variants of global history and world history compete with, and transform, more traditional approaches of national, regional, and local scope, accompanied by new forms of international and transcultural cooperation. Howeve...

Delta life

Proposing a series of innovative steps towards better understanding human lives at the interstices of water and land, this volume includes eight ethnographies from deltas around the world. The book presents ‘delta life’ with intimate descriptions of the predicaments, imaginations and activities...

A long journey home

A Long Journey Home examines the experiences of those whose sense of home has been disrupted by decades of conflict and violence. It highlights the profound feelings of loss and the enduring struggle of living without a home – an experience that can last for years or even decades.

200 years of peace

In the wake of Sweden’s anniversary of 200 years of peace in 2014, this volume brings for the first time a targeted approach to the concept of claimed Swedish exceptionality. Taking on the nation’s policies of neutrality, 200 Years of Peace centers discussion around what it means for a nation t...

The ju/’hoan san of nyae nyae and namibian independence

Demonstrates how a group of former hunter-gatherers, speaking an exotic click language, formed a grassroots movement that led them to become a dynamic part of the new nation of Namibia Discredits the images and myths of the Ju/’hoan and other San (previously called “Bushmen”) as either n...

Cinema of choice

How movies engender closed-mindedness or optional thinking in viewers. Close analysis of branching narrative movies (Sliding Doors, Rashomon, etc.) An in-depth study of cognitive-affective engagement in movies.

Melanesian odysseys

Technologized images, technologized bodies

The modern world is saturated with images. Scientific knowledge of the human body (in all its variety) is highly dependent on the technological generation of visual data – brain and body scans, x-rays, diagrams, graphs and charts. New technologies afford scientists and medical experts new possi...

Food and the status quest

The use of food to negotiate status is found in all human societies. Here, for the first time, a single book brings together contributions from different disciplines to investigate, from ethological and anthropological perspectives, behavior that appears to have biological roots such as the ten...

How kinship systems change

Using some of his landmark publications on kinship, along with a new introduction, chapter and conclusion, Robert Parkin discusses here the changes in kinship terminologies and marriage practices, as well as the dialectics between them.

The jews and the expansion of europe to the west, 1450-1800

Jews and Judaism played a significant role in the history of the expansion of Europe to the west as well as in the history of the economic, social, and religious development of the New World. They played an important role in the discovery, colonization, and eventually exploitation of the resour...

Time work

Examining how people alter or customize various dimensions of their temporal experience, this volume discovers how we resist external sources of temporal constraint or structure. These ethnographic studies are international in scope and look at many different countries and continents.

Evidence and meaning

Comprehensive theory of historical studies, covering the whole field of metahistory, methodology of historical research, theory of historical culture and history didactics

Momentous mobilities

First in-depth (anthropological) discussion of various forms of contemporary mobilities. Coherent approach, with an introductory chapter and a conclusion. Agenda-setting volume for future research in mobility studies Experimental writing style, combining ethnography and memoir.

Profiles of anthropological praxis

The book Profiles of Anthropological Praxis is something of a sequel to Anthropological Praxis: Translating Knowledge into Action, published in 1987 (Westview Press).  As a casebook of anthropological projects, the new version shares a fascinating breadth of award-winning projects undertaken by...

Made in sheffield

In 1900, Sheffield was the tenth largest city in the world. Cutlery “made in Sheffield” was used across the globe, and the city built armored plate for the navy in the run-up to the First World War. Today, however, Sheffield’s derelict Victorian shop floors and industrial buildings are hidden b...

Gender politics in the expanding european union

In May 2004, after bringing their legislation into accordance with EU regulations, ten more countries joined the European Union. The contributors to this volume assess the impact of this historical development on gender relations in the new and old EU member states. Instead of focusing on eithe...

The girl in the pandemic

The early and critical stages of the pandemic presented exacerbated risks to the lives of girls and young women. The Girl in the Pandemic takes a diverse range of scholars across the world, particularly from the Global South, to document and contribute to a large narrative of what a post-pandem...

Protest in hitler's “national community”

Presents studies of public dissent inside the Third Reich. Examines circumstances under which “racial” Germans were motivated to protest, as well as the conditions determining the regime’s response.

Crisis of the state

Ecological nostalgias

Introducing the study of econostalgias through a variety of rich ethnographic cases, this volume argues that a strictly human centered approach does not account for contemporary longings triggered by ecosystem upheavals.

Maternalism reconsidered

Beginning in the late 19th century, competing ideas about motherhood had a profound impact on the development and implementation of social welfare policies. Calls for programmes aimed at assisting and directing mothers emanated from all quarters of the globe, advanced by states and voluntary or...

The social origins of thought

The Social Origins of Thought explores the Durkheim School’s ambitious critique of philosophical interpretations of the genesis and constitution of the categories of thought. With contributions from philosophy, sociology, anthropology, media studies, and sinology, this volume illustrates the in...

Public engagement and education

Public Engagement and Education shares effective approaches for engaging and educating learners of all ages about archaeology and how one can encourage them to become stewards of the past. Offered are applied examples that are not bound to specific geographies or cultures, but rather, are appro...

Cultures of exile

Exile is the dominant theme of our times. It can be found in the forced migration of populations but also in the temporal, cultural and physical alienation of the individual's experiences of the postmodern world. This is a world of unstable, shifting identities dominated, and perhaps most acute...

Selfishness and selflessness

We are said to be suffering a narcissism epidemic when the need for collective action seems more pressing than ever. Selfishness and selflessness address the ‘proper’ and ‘improper’ relationship between one’s self and others. The work they do during periods of social instability and cultural ch...

Heirs of the greek catastrophe

Since its first publication in 1989, this classic study has remained in demand. The third edition of Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe includes updated material with a new Preface, Epilogue, and map of the study area.

State collapse and reconstruction in the periphery

In the 1990s, Yugoslavia, which had once been a role model for development, became a symbol for state collapse, external intervention and post-war reconstruction. Today the region has two international protectorates, contested states and borders, severe ethnic polarization and minority concerns...

Morality, crisis and capitalism

With the growing numbers of displaced populations and the rise in the politics of fear and hate, we are facing challenges to our very ‘species-being’. Papers in the volume include ethnographic studies on the ‘refugee crisis’, the ‘financial crisis’ and the ‘rule of law’ crisis in the Mediterran...