Playing with languages

Playing with Languages is the first book-length exploration of everyday social interaction, language shift and revitalization, and children's play in Dominica The book offers much needed insight into Caribbean children's agency and their roles in cultural and linguistic transmission and ...

Creating the other

The historic myths of a people/nation usually play an important role in the creation and consolidation of the basic concepts from which the self-image of that nation derives. These concepts include not only images of the nation itself, but also images of other peoples. Although the construction...

Distributed objects

The first cross-disciplinary exploration of Art and Agency by leading scholars in their fields. Examines the reception and influence of a highly influential and still controversial theory 15 years after its publication. Includes a hitherto unpublished essay by Gell (‘The Network of S...

Changing properties of property

As an important contribution to debates on property theory and the role of law in creating, disputing, defining and refining property rights, this volume provides new theoretical material on property systems, as well as new empirically grounded case studies of the dynamics of property transform...

Territorial revisionism and the allies of germany in the second world war

The comprehensive approach to the German alliance system in WW2; The treatment of the competing goals pursued by the allies of Nazi Germany in the war, which attributed to its specific features; The autonomous relevance of ethno nationalism and territorial revisionism as main driving...

Blood and kinship

Attempt to follow the use of blood in mapping family and kinship relations in European culture from the ancient world to the present Explores how “Blood” has come and gone in European culture, just as kinship has constantly been reconfigured Questions the development of European unde...

From fidelity to history

Approaches “literature to film” debates in a new way, focusing upon the historical dimensions of adaptation. Considers historical adaptations as a special kind of reception. Offers rich case studies of historical and transnational film adaptations such as The Third Man (1949) and Sen...

Sugarlandia revisited

Sugar was the single most valuable bulk commodity traded internationally before oil became the world’s prime resource. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, cane sugar production was pre-eminent in the Atlantic Islands, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Subsequently, cane sugar industries in t...

Communities of complicity

A description of everyday life in contemporary rural China based on 18 months of observation, surveys, and interviews Illustrates how people construct their own senses of their lives and futures through their work, celebrating marriages and funerals , and building their houses Descri...

The death of the big men and the rise of the big shots

An important insight into the radical cultural changes following on from demographic change, land-conflicts and economic scarcity An analysis of how people re-make sociality in an era of post-colonial neo-liberalism  Contributes to the understanding of the problems of post-disaster r...

Transnational nomads

There is a tendency to consider all refugees as 'vulnerable victims': an attitude reinforced by the stream of images depicting refugees living in abject conditions. This groundbreaking study of Somalis in a Kenyan refugee camp reveals the inadequacy of such assumptions by describing the rich ...

Networks of nazi persecution

The persecution and mass-murder of the Jews during World War II would not have been possible without the modern organization of division of labor. Moreover, the perpetrators were dependent on human and organizational resources they could not always control by hierarchy and coercion. Instead, th...

Ethnography and the corporate encounter

Businesses and other organizations are increasingly hiring anthropologists and other ethnographically-oriented social scientists as employees, consultants, and advisors. The nature of such work, as described in this volume, raises crucial questions about potential implications to disciplines of...

Anthropologies of education

Only source of state-of-the art analyses on ethnography of education in different world regions, covering 5 continents Most chapters authored by senior scholars, leaders in their fields Compares perspectives from sociology of education (e.g., in France & West Africa) with anthrop...

Creole identity in postcolonial indonesia

Contributes to understanding of identity formation in ethnically and religiously diverse post-colonial societies Analyzes social, political and historical contexts of Creoleness at both grass-roots and State level Describes how different sections of society engage with creole identit...

Domesticating youth

Introduces the discussion about youth bulge into social anthropology Offers a social anthropological approach to demographic and political dynamics Suggests a new way of thinking about social change in youth bulge societies

The german right in the weimar republic

Examines a crucial episode in the demise of the Weimar Republic and the rise of National Socialism. Based upon extensive primary research in a wide range of archival collections. Employs a variety of methodological approaches in the study of the German Right. Approaches the issue...

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...

Ethics in the field

First-ever transdisciplinary comparison of ethical issues in anthropological field research Helps develop a transdisciplinary anthropology, but at the level of methods (very rare), not of theory (much more common) Up-to-date discussion of ethical concerns in social scientific field r...

Narrating victimhood

The only ethnographic analysis of right-wing nationalism in post-war Croatia Unique description of the pilgrimage site in the Dalmatian town of Sinj and the apparition site in Gala One of the first scholarly analyses of the situation of war veterans in post-war Croatia Descriptio...

The legacy of liberal judaism

It is the first study of Hannah Arendt’s interest in and indebtedness to the philosophy and political thought of Ernst Cassirer. It is the first comprehensive analysis of liberal Jewish thought and its legacyt in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. It is the first book to analy...

Fragmented fatherland

The only comparative studies of the internal development of different immigrant communities in the Federal Republic during the Cold War. Explores political conflict within various immigrant communities, and sets out a far more nuanced analysis of their internal development than most curr...

Socialist escapes

Examines Eastern Europeans as individuals who seized opportunities for enjoyment, agency and autonomy while living under repressive rulers. Explores destinations and diversions that provided ordinary and extraordinary breaks away from the monotony of work, school, ideological orthodoxies...

The mind of the nation

The first comprehensive study of the topic. Follows the reception and impact of Völkerpsychologie, both in Germany and abroad. Traces the genealogy of concepts currently used in the social sciences and humanities, e.g. ‘identity’, and explains the circumstances of their inception. ...

Dynamics of memory and identity in contemporary europe

Combines theoretical sophistication with penetrating case studies. One of the first books to tackle Europeanization dynamics as they pertain to collective memories. A pan-European approach with cases from all regions of the continent. Takes the study of collective memory forward ...

Elusive promises

Focuses on the idea of the promise as a way to understand planning through time. Ethnographic accounts from highly-regarded anthropologists on planning. Comparative study of planning.

Ordinary lives and grand schemes

The volume looks at the experience of religion in the intersection of existential ends and grand schemes in everyday practice. Focussing on different religious traditions around the world, the volume offers a comparative and global perspective to living with greater powers that looks bey...

United germany

Provides a balance sheet of successes and failures of German unification during the first quarter century after the fall of the Berlin Wall Broad inter-disciplinary mix of contributors Perspective derived from West Germany, East Germany and the United States The most up-to-date a...

Judging 'privileged' jews

The first study to focus directly on the issue of how ‘privileged’ Jews are judged and represented. Offers a multi-disciplinary examination of Holocaust representation across different media/genres. Explores seminal Holocaust texts (the writings of Primo Levi and Raul Hilberg, along ...

Dark trophies

The only comparative and historical study of the use of human body parts as trophies by military personnel in modern warfare Argues that these deviant practices represent important evidence of the power of metaphor in structuring human social behaviour An exploration of the close col...

From craftsmen to capitalists

Describes how the artisan class became one of the pillars of postwar stability in Germany. Explores how skilled tradesmen recast their historical traditions and forged alliances with former antagonists to help realize German democratization and recovery.

Staying at home

A migration study that focuses on those who do not migrate. Explains a malleability attaching to ethnicity through people’s daily lives. Disentangles the notion of diaspora from its inherent attachment to ‘homeland’. Combines a fertile mix of qualitative and quantitative approach...

Cosmos, gods and madmen

Introduction of cosmology into medical anthropology as a useful concept through which to examine mental illness and health, a concept that also bridges some of the divisions between what is considered ‘medical’ and ‘religious’. Range of ethnographic examples based on original research da...

The making of the greek genocide

Provides a much-needed analysis of the Greek genocide during and after World War 1 (when over one million Ottoman Greeks were expelled from Turkey) as cultural trauma. Sjöberg irecounts how it emerged as a meaningful but contested collective memory with both nationalist and cosmopolitan ...

Mortuary dialogues

Presents fresh perspectives on death and mourning across the Pacific Islands. Examines how funerals and death rituals give rise to discourse and debate about sustaining moral personhood and community amid modernity and its transformations. Describes the different genres of talk and e...

Centering the margin

In a completely new approach to borders and border crossing, this volume suggests a re-conceptualization of the nation in Southeast Asia. Choosing an actor approach, the individual chapters in this volume capture the narratives of minorities, migrants and refugees who inhabit and cross borders ...

Reproducing class

The neoliberal landscape and the rise of islamist capital in turkey

The contributors to this volume offer a detailed history on the Turkish economy and the rise of Islamist capitalism. This study explores the underlying tensions behind the Taksim Square conflicts. Argues that capitalism is the driving force behind the division of the Turkish Bourgeoi...

Landscapes beyond land

Goes beyond the theoretical dichotomy of structure and experience Focuses on routes, aesthetics and narratives Wide regional spread of ethnography Links British and French traditions of landscape study

Ogata-mura

The only intensive ethnographic study published in English of a farming settlement community founded upon reclaimed land within a lake The first English language ethnographic study of a single Japanese farming community to actually focus on production in the last 20 years. It concentrate...

Reconceiving the second sex

Extensive social science research, particularly by anthropologists, has explored women’s reproductive lives, their use of reproductive technologies, and their experiences as mothers and nurturers of children. Meanwhile, few if any volumes have explored men’s reproductive concerns or contributio...

Tourism imaginaries

First in-depth anthropological study of tourism imaginaries. Collection of the most innovative thinkers in the anthropology of tourism at the moment. Agenda-setting volume for future research in tourism studies. World-wide geographical coverage, especially ethnic/minority tourism...

Nazi labour camps in paris

First account on the three Paris labor camps that were lost from collective memory and nearly forgotten by historians An important chapter of the Holocaust in France Offers an authoritative account of a much neglected subject

The rise of market society in england, 1066-1800

A case study of one of the most successful market societies, carving out both the merits and limits of markets with respect to economic development and the development of civil society. Draws comparisons between the rise of a market society and modern capitalism in England and the circum...

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.

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 ...

The french right between the wars

Demonstrates the historiographical changes in scholarly understanding of the French right Examine various elements of the French right in their broader social, cultural and political contexts Reassesses the structures, mentalities and significance of various conservative and extremis...

The men with the movie camera

The second scholarly study in English to consider the creative role of the camera operator in the film-making process Represents the first scholarly study to offer a detailed analysis of the films of the Soviet avant-garde in their totality Crosses disciplinary boundaries and examine...

After the history of sexuality

Michel Foucault’s seminal The History of Sexuality (1976–1984) has since its publication provided a context for the emergence of critical historical studies of sexuality. This collection reassesses the state of the historiography on sexuality—a field in which the German case has been traditiona...