Altamira Press – serie

Marietta Stepaniants' introductory text allows a distinctively Eastern way of thinking to come forth. Four interpretive essays open the book showing how Indian, Chinese and Islamic traditions responded to these questions: How did philosophy arise? What is the origin of order in the universe? What is human nature? What is truth? A fifth, unique, essay shows how Eastern thought has dealt with Western contact in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the second half of the book, original writings—ancient and modern—are placed in their cultural context by the author and give access to the thinkers' specific arguments. Unlike any other text, Introduction to Eastern Thought includes Islamic philosophies alongside Indian and Chinese traditions. This broader sense of 'the East,' the combination of interpretive essays and original sources, the sense of Eastern philosophies as alive and ongoing, are unrivalled by any other textbook. Comparisons within and across traditions make Introduction to Eastern Thought an excellent text for students familiar with Western philosophy or beginning philosophy students.

Ancient Maya Political Economies examines variation in systems of economic production and exchange and how these systems supported the power networks that integrated Maya society. Chapters in this book take a hard look at existing models of elite exchange and tribute and address the difficult question of how the flow of utilitarian goods supported Maya kingdoms and their ruling classes. Using models originally developed by William L. Rathje, the authors explore core-periphery relations, the use of household analysis to reconstruct political economy, and evidence for market development. In doing so, they challenge the conventional wisdom of decentralized Maya political authority and replace it with a more complex view of the political economic foundations of Maya civilization.

Ancient Maya Political Economies examines variation in systems of economic production and exchange and how these systems supported the power networks that integrated Maya society. Chapters in this book take a hard look at existing models of elite exchange and tribute and address the difficult question of how the flow of utilitarian goods supported Maya kingdoms and their ruling classes. Using models originally developed by William L. Rathje, the authors explore core-periphery relations, the use of household analysis to reconstruct political economy, and evidence for market development. In doing so, they challenge the conventional wisdom of decentralized Maya political authority and replace it with a more complex view of the political economic foundations of Maya civilization.

The reflexive turn in qualitative research has transformed the process of doing life history research. No longer are research subjects examined through the lens of the all-knowing but supposedly invisible researcher. As Ardra Cole and Gary Knowles point out in this fresh introduction to conducting life history research, the process is now one of mutuality, empathy, sensitivity and caring. The authors carry the novice researcher through the steps of conducting life history research—from conceptualizing the project to the various means of presenting results—with an eye toward understanding the complex relationship between participant and researcher and how that shapes the project. In addition to examples from their own research, Cole and Knowles bring in the work of a dozen novice researchers who explain the challenges they faced in developing their own life history projects in a wide variety of settings. Well written, interesting, and pedagogically sound, Lives in Context is the ideal text for teaching life history research to students and an important reference for the bookshelf of all qualitative researchers.

Some field sites have hosted anthropologists for as long as half a century. Chronicling Cultures collects articles from principals of many of the longest and best-known anthropology projects from four continents—the Kung, Harvard Chiapas Project, Gwembe Valley, Tzintzuntzan, and Navajo among others. These projects have brought a new understanding of change and persistence in communities over time. They have forced researchers to develop methods of involving local communities in research, of using data over generations of scholars, and of resolving ethical issues of research versus advocacy. The projects range from individual scholars who return "home" year after year to large-scale institutionalized projects involving many researchers and numerous studies. This volume will be an important addition to the literature on fieldwork, on the history of ethnology, and on ethnographers' role in their host cultures.

Although W. E. B. Du Bois was one of the most significant educational thinkers of the twentieth century, many are still unaware of his relevance in this field. DuBois on Education corrects this oversight by collecting Du Bois's major writings on education in one volume. Together these selections powerfully demonstrate Du Bois's commitment to racial educational equality and his contributions to educational thought. Raised in poverty himself, Du Bois combined public education with determination to become the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard. Yet he saw that education could be used to keep down as well as raise up. Arguing against Booker T. Washington and his accommodationist Hampton model, Du Bois called for a radical vision where a 'Talented Tenth' of college educated blacks would lead African-Americans to their highest possibilities. Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. in detailed introduction traces Du Bois's life as a student and teacher, plus his fights for educational equality throughout his life. He has also given each of the twenty-two selections included in this volume short introductions placing the pieces in their historical and critical contexts. Du Bois on Education is an important resource for classes in history, education, African-American studies, or for anyone wishing to understand the last 100 years of black American life and education.

Aunger proposes a solution to a fundamental debate in contemporary ethnography: the source of ethnographic authority. He advocates the method of reflexive analysis as a new way of doing ethnography and making it a more effective scientific endeavor. Reflexive Ethnographic Science constitutes a foil to those in cultural studies and related fields who deride the possibility of verifiable ethnographic representations. Aunger's new work promises to reinvigorate ethnographic research and methods by a unique combination of traditional and postmodern objectives, through the reflexive achievement of authority. He explains how reflexive analysis requires changes in standard ethnographic practice in terms of data collection, analysis, and presentation. Using this method, the author offers a case study of the food taboos in a multi-ethnic population in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which includes pygmy foragers and their horticulturalist Bantu neighbors. This book is a valuable tool for graduate level courses in ethnographic method and theory, and a key reference for researchers in the social sciences who employ interviewing, participant observation methods, and multivariate statistical models, including anthropology, sociology, and psychology.

Following the ordering of the Palestinian canon, The Inclusive Prophets includes the twelve minor prophets along with the Isaiah, Jeremiah and the historical books of Samuel and Kings. This second volume of the Inclusive Hebrew Scriptures follows the same commitment to inclusiveness, justice and readability as the other volumes in the Inclusive Bible. Together with Volume I: The Torah, and Volume III: The Writings, this Volume I: The Torah completes the whole of the The Inclusive Hebrew Scriptures. Together with Volume I: The Torah and Volume III: The Writings, this completes the whole of the Inclusive Hebrew Scriptures.

As the multiracial population in the United States continues to rise, new models for our understanding of mixed-race children and how their conception of racial identity must be developed. A wide divide between academics who research biracial identity, and the everyday world of parents and practitioners who raise and deal with mixed-race children exists. This book aims to fill this gap by providing an extensive synthesis of the existing research in the field, as well as a model for better understanding the unique process of racial identity development for mixed-race children. Raising Biracial Children provides parents, educators, social workers, and anyone interested in multiracial issues with an accessible framework for understanding healthy mixed-race identity development and to translate those findings into practical care-giving strategies.

The sacred and profane continue to interface, conflict, and intermingle in novel ways. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society provides a guide map for these developments. From succinct, brief notes to essay-length entries, this encyclopedia covers world religious leaders and scholars—past and present—in the United States and the world. This comprehensive volume is an essential reference for the study of the anthropology, psychology, politics, or sociology of religion.

One of anthropology's premier writers on fieldwork methodology looks at the essential elements that constitute the art of his discipline. In The Art of Fieldwork, Wolcott compares the fieldworker to the artist, while recognizing the inherent differences between the labors of each.

Sarah Milledge Nelson takes on the formidable task of attempting the first comprehensive feminist, theoretical synthesis of the flood of archaeological work on gender. She examines the roles of women and men in such areas as human origins, the sexual division of labor, kinship and other social formations, state development, and ideology. Nelson provides examples from gender-specific archaeological studies worldwide to examine such traditional myths as woman the gatherer, the goddess hypothesis, and the Amazon warriors, replacing them with a more nuanced, informed treatment of gender based on the latest research. She also examines the structure of the archaeological discipline in her attempt to understand and change a discipline that has made women all but invisible both as researchers and objects of research. Nelson's book is a benchmark work for all archaeologists working on or interested in gender and points the way toward fruitful avenues for further research.