Joan Gregg - Böcker

This ethnographically based murder mystery is set within New York City's Indian community. A young Indian woman's arranged marriage brings her to the city to join her husband shortly after her wedding. The plot unfolds as the couple copes with joint family living, sexual and financial issues, and hostile neighbors. Central to the mystery are the cultural conflicts affecting both men and women negotiating the differences between American society and their own traditional upbringings. A major theme of the book is violence against women as this plays out both within domestic situations and through the gender inequalities of Indian and American society. Supportive characters such as an anthropology professor, an Indian detective and his American sidekick, a young, assimilated Indian neighbor, and an established family elder reveal various aspects of immigrant life. Through this rich, exciting and ethnographically detailed foray into one particular community, the reader learns about arranging a marriage, Hindu weddings and festivals, and the rich psychological motivations of culturally-patterned behavior of both immigrant men and women. The main principles of cultural anthropology and ethnographic method are woven into the novel, making it a compelling read in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses.

Assisted Dying is an ethnographically based murder mystery that uses the unexplained deaths of elderly people on Florida’s Gold Coast as a way of examining American cultural values. Diversity, immigration and the American Dream, aging, retirement, death, and dying are just some of the issues that are illuminated. Cultural anthropologist Julie Norman is drawn deeper into the mystery when her aunt becomes the latest victim. Julie’s ethnographic methodology and cultural perspectives, her previous involvement in a murder case recounted in The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder, along with the insights of Detective Mike Cardella and the Miami police department, all help to solve the mystery. Assisted Dying engages students as a supplementary text to apply concepts from the social sciences, literature, and communications to issues of current interest in the United States and beyond. The novel is part of a popular movement toward using alternative and creative forms to convey academic information and concepts in the classroom. To further this aim, the social and cultural content of each chapter is extended in a bibliographic essay and discussion questions. This book will be welcomed in courses on cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, sociology, gerontology, American studies, psychology, gender, ethnic studies, and other social sciences.