Drawing on a body of empirical, qualitative work spanning three decades, this unique text traces the significance of critical social research and critical analyses in understanding some of the most significant and controversial issues in contemporary society. Focusing on central debates in the UK and Ireland prison protests: inner-city uprisings: deaths in custody: womens imprisonment: transiti…

Language, our primary tool of thought and perception, is at the heart of who we are as individuals. Languages are constantly changing, sometimes into entirely new varieties of speech, leading to subtle differences in how we present ourselves to others. This revealing account brings together eleven leading specialists from the fields of linguistics, anthropology, philosophy and psychology, to ex…

What does creativity mean - and does it have both a political and a cultural dimension? The contributors to this volume reexamine the interconnectedness of culture and creativity in an increasingly hybrid world. They argue that while many of the old certainties about high culture and artistic canons may now be disintegrating, culture and creativity themselves are still very much a reflection of…

The relationship between human beings and their gods lies at the center of all questions of identity, individual and collective. Nadia Lovell examines how religious feelings reflect notions of personhood and belonging, and how religious involvement can transform gender relations by focusing on cults of Vodhun (voodoo) possession among the Watchi in Southern Togo. Using this detailed ethnographi…

Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology. Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation.

This unique dictionary of global environmental governance (GEG), written and compiled by two veterans of the international stage, provides a compilation of over 5000 terms, organizations, and acronyms drawn from hundreds of official sources. An introductory essay frames the major issues in global environmental governance and outlines the pitfalls of talking past one another when discussing the …

Two classic topics in social anthropology are combined in this work--the study of witchcraft and sorcery and the study of rumors and gossip. After revealing the importance of rumor and gossip as catalysts for accusations of witchcraft and sorcery, it demonstrates their role in the genesis of social and political violence, as seen in peasant rebellions, as well as witch-hunts. The study draws up…

What is terror? What are its roots and its results -- and what part does it play in human experience and history? This volume offers a number of timely and original anthropological insights into the ways in which acts of terror -- and reactions to those acts -- impact on the lives of virtually everyone in the world today, as perpetrators, victims or witnesses. As the contributors to this volume…

Demonstrating how practitioners in the emerging field of cultural epidemiology describe human health, communicate with diverse audiences, and intervene to improve health and prevent disease, this book uses textual and statistical portraits of disease to describe interdisciplinary collaborations. Interpreting epidemiology as a cultural practice helps to reveal the ways in which measurement, caus…

Biological anthropologists face an array of ethical issues as they engage in fieldwork around the world. In this volume human biologists, geneticists, paleontologists, and primatologists confront their involvement with, and obligations to, their research subjects, their discipline, society, and the environment. Those working with human populations explore such issues as who speaks for a group, …