Virginia Kerns – författare

What does it mean to be a middle-aged woman, whether in tribal and peasant societies or in the industrialized world? Typically, according to contributors to this book, it means greater freedom, sometimes including greater sexual freedom, more authority, and opportunities for social recognition. A unique collection of articles about middle-aged women in different cultures around the world, this expanded and updated volume contains two new chapters.From reviews of the first edition"Punctures a myth which has become as pervasive as it is pernicious."-- Newsweek"In traditional cultures, some women benefit from aging."-- New York Times Magazine"The range and quality of data on middle-aged women presented in one volume make this book a treasure."-- Contemporary Sociology

This classic study of BlackCarib culture and its preservation through ancestral rituals organizedby older women now includes a foreword by Constance R. Sutton and an afterwordby the author."One of the outstandingstudies of this genre. . . . Refreshingly, the book has good photographs,as well as strong endnotes and bibliography, and very useful tables, figures,maps, and index." -- Choice"An outstanding contributionto the literature on female-centered bilateral kinship and residence."        -- Grant D. Jones, American Ethnologist"A richly detailed accountof a contemporary culture in which older women are important, valued,and self-respecting."-- Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly"A combination of competentresearch, interwoven themes, and an easily readable, sometimes beautifullyevocative, prose style." -- Heather Strange, The Gerontologist

Julian Steward (1902-72) is best remembered in American anthropology as the creator of cultural ecology, a theoretical approach that has influenced generations of archaeologists and cultural anthropologists. Virginia Kerns considers the intellectual and emotional influences of Steward's remarkable career, exploring his early life in the American West, his continued attachments to western landscapes and inhabitants, his research with Native Americans, and the writing of his classic work, Theory of Culture Change. With fluid prose and rich detail, the book captures the essence and breadth of Steward's career while carefully measuring the ways he reinforced the male-centered structure of mid-twentieth-century American anthropology.

If a religion cannot attract and instruct young people, it will struggle to survive, which is why recreational programs were second only to theological questions in the development of twentieth-century Mormonism. In this book, Richard Ian Kimball explores how Mormon leaders used recreational programs to ameliorate the problems of urbanization and industrialization and to inculcate morals and values in LDS youth. As well as promoting sports as a means of physical and spiritual excellence, Progressive Era Mormons established a variety of institutions such as the Deseret Gymnasium and camps for girls and boys, all designed to compete with more "worldly" attractions and to socialize adolescents into the faith. Kimball employs a wealth of source material including periodicals, diaries, journals, personal papers, and institutional records to illuminate this hitherto underexplored aspect of the LDS church. In addition to uncovering the historical roots of many Mormon institutions still visible today, Sports in Zion is a detailed look at the broader functions of recreation in society.

Journeys West traces journeys made during seven months of fieldwork in 1935 and 1936 by Julian Steward, a young anthropologist, and his wife, Jane. Virginia Kerns identifies the scores of Native elders whom they met throughout the Western desert, men and women previously known in print only by initials and thus largely invisible as primary sources of Steward's classic ethnography. Besides humanizing Steward's cultural informants—revealing them as distinct individuals and also as first-generation survivors of an ecological crisis caused by American settlement of their lands—Kerns shows how the elders worked with Steward. Each helped to construct an ethnographic portrait of life in a particular place in the high desert of the Great Basin.  The elders' memories of how they and their ancestors had lived by hunting and gathering—a sustainable way of life that endured for generations—richly illustrated what Steward termed cultural adaptation. It later became a key concept in anthropology and remains relevant today in an age of global environmental crisis.  Based on meticulous research, this book draws on an impressive array of evidence—from interviews and observations to census data, correspondence, and the field journals of the Stewards. Journeys West illuminates not only the elders who were Steward's guides but also the practice of ethnographic fieldwork: a research method that is both a journey and a distinctive way of looking, listening, and learning.