A selection of books published by members of department
Action Research
Davydd J. Greenwood (Editor)
This book includes theoretical and historical overviews of action research, reflections on the writing process, narratives about the design and difficult internal processes of ACRES, and a selection of the participants’ writings.
Cage of Freedom
Andrew C. Willford
Andrew C. Willford shows how contemporary Tamil Hindu subjectivity in Malaysia has a distinct historical trajectory, and argues that the figure of the “Indian” (Tamil) is one of the missing keys in understanding a broader pattern of ethnic relations and nationalism in this country.
Callaloo or Tossed Salad?
Viranjini Munasinghe
Callaloo or Tossed Salad? is a historical and ethnographic case study of the politics of cultural struggle between two traditionally subordinate ancestral groups in Trinidad, those claiming African and Indian descent. Viranjini Munasinghe argues that East Indians in Trinidad seek to become a legitimate part of the nation by redefining what it means to be Trinidadian, not by changing what it means to be Indian.
Celebrating a Century of the American Anthropological Association
Frederic W. Gleach (Editor)
This volume contains the memorable stories of the seventy-seven men and women who have led the AAA during the past century, cumulatively reflecting the trends in interpretive thought and fieldwork methodology that have emerged during the past ten decades.
Documents: Artifacts of Modern Knowledge
Annelise Riles (Editor)
Capping off a generation of reflection and critique about the promises and pitfalls of ethnographic methods, the contributors explore how ethnographers conceive, grasp, appreciate, and see patterns, demonstrating that the core of the ethnographic method now lies in the way ethnographers respond to, and increasingly share the professional passions and problems of, their subjects.
If Each Come Halfway
Kathryn S. March
March shows the process by which she and Tamang women reached across their cultural differences to find common ground. March allows the women's own words to paint a vivid portrait of their highland home. Each book includes a CD of traditional songs not recorded elsewhere.
Powhatan's World and Colonial Virginia
Frederic W. Gleach
Frederic W. Gleach offers the most balanced and complete accounting of the early years of the Jamestown colony to date. When English colonists established their first permanent settlement at Jamestown in 1607, they confronted a powerful and growing Native chiefdom consisting of over thirty tribes under one paramount chief, Powhatan. For the next half-century, a portion of the Middle Atlantic coastal plain became a charged and often violent meeting ground between two very different worlds.
The Network Inside Out
Annelise Riles
"Networks" and other artifacts of institutional life, such as documents, funding proposals, newsletters, and organizational charts, are such ubiquitous aspects of the information age that they go unnoticed to most observers of late modern society. In this new kind of work in the ethnography of legality, Annelise Riles takes a sophisticated theoretical approach to the aesthetics of such artifacts by analyzing the experiences of a group of Fijian bureaucrats and activists preparing for and participating in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.
The World of the Ancient Maya
John S. Henderson
The World of the Ancient Maya has is as an extraordinarily accomplished—comprehensive, elegantly written, and concise—introduction to the rich Maya culture.
They Make Themselves
Jane Fajans
In this work, Jane Fajans argues that the Baining of Papua New Guinea define themselves not through intricate cosmologies or social networks, but through the meanings generated by their own productive and reproductive work.
Unrewarding Wealth
Davydd J. Greenwood
Davydd Greenwood carefully examines the relationships between workers of economic gain and the institutional and cultural aspects of human behaviour in a Spanish Basque town where the farmers changed their subsistence farms into highly profitable commercial enterprises in response to demand created by tourism and industrialisation.