Search

Presents a list of several books related to anthropology. "Beyond Lines of Control: Performance and Politics on the Disputed Borders of Ladakh, India"; "Creole Economics: Caribbean Cunning Under the French Flag"; "Rethinking the Mediterranean"; "Landlords and Lodgers: Socio-Spatial Organization in an Accra Community."

Presents a bibliographies of books on anthropology, sociology and history.

This introduction places the papers of this Special Issue within the context of a brief overview of previous literature on the subject of masculinities in the Pacific, and especially of Melanesia. The particular focus on Melanesia is discussed in terms of the colloquia from which the papers originated and is also linked to a discussion of the regionalism of applied social science in Australia. In acknowledging the current link between academic research into gender and the aid and development industries, this introduction critically discusses how understandings of Pacific men and masculinities have presented a 'problem' to both of these areas. Indeed, while assessing particular instances in the changing situation of Pacific men's lives, the papers in this Issue also provide a timely critique of the shared dilemmas of anthropology and development within the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental anthropology is an expanding field in Australia. Extensive research on Aboriginal relationships to land and natural resources has provided the foundation for growing anthropological interest in the interactions of other Australians with the biophysical environments they inhabit. Australian-based anthropologists also continue to contribute to research on environmental beliefs and practices in other parts of the world. This paper provides a brief overview of previously explored themes in this field as a precursor to introducing new research and proposing additional areas of research. It is suggested that these could be usefully developed to enhance anthropological contributions to debates about environmental change in Australia and surrounding regions. We argue that there are roles for anthropologists as 'cultural translators' in cross-disciplinary engagements with environmental scientists and natural resource managers; as cultural theorists skilled at documenting and interpreting changing environmental attitudes; and as environmental advocates pursuing the knowledge needed to create more ecologically sustainable human communities. We also suggest that Australian anthropologies of the environment can make valuable theoretical and ethnographic contributions to this important international field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the Japanese inhabitants of a densely populated urban neighbourhood negotiate proximity and distance in their social relationships. Based on ethnography of a community salon in the city of Osaka, the paper explores how topics and styles of conversation, modes of interaction between salon‐goers, are constituted with respect to a pervasive concern for manners and for the emotions of others. Focusing on the importance of ‘form’ and its relevance for morality, I argue that formality serves as an enabling device for creating new relationships among older Japanese, preserving sociality while protecting oneself and others from the burdens of emotion and excessive proximity. By focusing on the ethics of ‘doing things properly’ (chanto suru) I explore the relationship of manners and care. By taking manners into account, I turn my attention in this article to those relationships crafted and maintained amongst those to whom one is not very close, and with whom one may not wish to become intimate. In this way I explore the question of how to treat well those towards whom one wishes to maintain distance: in other words, how to care for those who are not one's friends? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper replies to Porpora, King, and Varela's responses to my earlier paper “For Emergence”, focussing on the relationship between the concepts of social structure and social relations. It recognises the importance of identifying the mechanisms responsible whenever we make claims for the emergence of causal powers, and discusses the mechanism underlying one case of social structure: normative institutions. It also shows how critical realism reconciles the claims that both social structures and human individuals have emergent causal powers that combine to produce actual social events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has benefited greatly from the time that I have recently spent working on the Committee of Section H of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. I am particularly grateful to David Shankland and Malcolm Smith, both of whom have served as Recorders for Section H, for generously sharing their knowledge and reminiscences of the Section with me. The paper further benefited from comments received at the recent 2004 Festival of Science in Exeter at which I presented it in a session entitled‘Anthropology after Darwin: The role of the BA’. I also acknowledge the helpful comments of three anonymous reviewers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the paper of sociologist Serge Moscovici on social psychology. Moscovici believes that social psychology was once becoming an influential crossroads discipline, one that could shape and nurture other social sciences such as economics, anthropology and sociology. Moscovici's solution to the problem of how to become a powerful discipline seems to be along the lines of getting back to basics. Throughout his paper, Moscovici urges other social psychologists to consider the importance of creating rich descriptions garnered through careful, painstaking observations. In various ways an inductivist model of science within a positivist-empiricist framework informs Moscovici's views of the ideal social psychology. Moscovici seems to believe that the positivist-empiricist mode of scientific method is unchallenged within social psychology and sciences more generally. The author stresses the similarities between Moscovici's philosophy of science and that of the most traditional mainstream laboratory social psychologist.

This paper outlines the origins of the functionalist perspective as it was used by American social scientists to explain social inequality during the first four decades of the twentieth century. The author then argues against the assumption that the basis for development of the perspective is found in the work of Parsons and his students who applied Parsons' general framework to studies of social inequality in complex industrial society. Instead, it is suggested that the research of social anthropologists, such as Robert and Helen Lynd and W. Lloyd Warner, was equally important to the development of the functionalist perspective. The author further argues that early twentieth-century British social anthropology, with its strong ties to Durkheimian functionalism, greatly influenced the direction of studies on social inequality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the intellectual ancestries between these theoretical pioneers and Parsonians and offers an explanation why Parsons' work dominated sociology during a critical period of the discipline's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material objects call to us and structure our being. They are not passive, while we are active--rather, they embroil us in their lives as much as we engage them. Hence, sociality is not solely a human function but necessarily involves environments and artefacts. The notion of material poetics is, in this sense, a mutually shaping matrix that affects social life and thought. This philosophy is explored through an encounter with a Malay house. The house is in many ways liminal--a place in which thought and image dwells. It is traditional, yet unique; it holds and expresses history, yet that history is elsewhere and legendary; is Malay but with Chinese decorations, which articulate hybridity; is specifically local, yet involved in national and international flows. It embraces both oscillation and direction. The house is made of wood. This paper takes up this element, showing how the wood not only shelters, but also leads us to venture out to a garden of trees and a dream of jungles where encounters with things, stories and myths subvert our normal categories and expectations. The house leads us places and clears things for us, leading us into a new social field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a conceptual investigation into the notion of a network as a form of social organization for the production of excellent research. This metaphor has been particularly attractive to social scientists and managers of cooperative research, because it seems to connote what is organic, flexible and libratory in communication and in the philosophy of language. The paper criticizes this preconception. In particular, it shows that, while Wittgenstein's philosophy may indeed encapsulate the virtues that partisans for the networking trope admire, they are mistaken in thinking that they can claim his authority for the use they make of this figure. The thought that they can do so results from inattention to features of the development of his ideas about language, particularly his fervent anti-scientism. I conclude that an over-stretched use of the metaphor obscures its constraining signification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores objectification in science education, i.e., the way material is turned into an object of interest to scientists. Drawing on sociological and anthropological drama theory, it examines how objectification does and occur in class rooms and schools. To understand the role and relationship of the object to the scientist, look at current literature from the social studies of science concerning human and nonhuman objects as well as my own ethnographic work on the activism of politicized human research subjects. The paper concludes by how and why a more self-conscious focus on the object of science is important for those concerned with equity in science education, suggesting that such guinea pig pedagogies restore missing historical and ethical dimensions to science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay on how psychoanalysis stimulate anthropological thinking is presented. Topics covered include the similarities between psychoanalysis and anthropology; skepticism towards efforts to forge engagements between psychoanalysis and anthropology; and an overview of papers on how psychoanalytic tools were used to gain insights on subjectivity, society and culture.

Copyright of Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents information on the future planning of the editorial team of the journal "Area." The kind of short, argument-led articles that are published by the journal provides an invaluable insight into the new frontiers of geographical knowledge. However, this task is not merely to evidence diversity. "Area," is beginning to play an important role in drawing environmental and human geography into deeper dialogue. In 2004, 27.3% of the published papers were in physical and environmental geography, in 2003 the figure was 26.5%.

This paper examines the link between truth and sight, and the implications of this link for our understandings of the concept of evidence. I propose to give an example of precisely how we might attempt to generalize about a phenomenon such as the recurrence of the association between truth and sight without ignoring important anti-universalist points. In doing this, I hope to give one example of how anthropology, in the original sense of the term, is a still possible enterprise, in spite of the criticisms such an approach has had to face in the last thirty years. Résumé L'auteur examine le lien entre vérité et vision et ses implications pour notre compréhension du concept de preuve. Il propose un exemple de la manière dont nous pourrions tenter de généraliser un phénomène tel que la récurrence de l'association entre vérité et vision, sans négliger d'importants arguments anti-universalistes. Par la même occasion, l'auteur espère donner un exemple de la façon dont l'anthropologie, au sens originel du terme, est encore une entreprise possible malgré les critiques que cette approche a essuyées au cours des trente dernières années. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a systematic exposition of what Wittgenstein took to be the fundamental error committed by James George Frazer, author of the classic anthropological work The Golden Bough, in his account of ritual practices. By construing those rituals in scientific or rationalistic terms, as aimed at the production of certain effects, Frazer ignores, according to Wittgenstein, their expressive and symbolic dimension. It is, moreover, an error to try to explain the powerful emotions evoked even today by traditions such as fire festivals (which may once have involved human sacrifice) by searching for their causal origins in history or prehistory; the disquieting nature of such practices needs to be understood by attending to the inner meaning they already have in our human lives. Certain important general lessons are drawn about the necessarily limited power of scientific and causal explanations when it comes to alleviating many of our fundamental perplexities not just in the area of anthropology but in philosophy as well. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the presence of anthropological reports and data in the National Archives at Kew in England. Preservation of unpublished materials in the archive that provide some interesting sidelights on the history of anthropological studies in Great Britain; Proliferation of items relating to anthropology in the Colonial Office papers; Relationship between anthropologists and government officials in the country.

Ethnobiology has long featured both academic and practical aspects, with its component disciplines tending to favour one or the other, such that anthropology focuses on classificatory and cognitive issues whereas botany concentrates on issues of resource use. Current trends within development, notably interest in indigenous knowledge that has emerged with participatory approaches, to which ethnobiology has contributed significantly, promise a new synthesis of the academic and practical. This paper describes five ways in which we can think of applied ethnobiology in this context, and illustrates each with examples drawn from natural resources management. The first application is assistance in the introduction of exogenous technology, facilitating technical interventions that are central to many development programmes, enabling a better match to cultural tradition, and promoting meaningful participation. The second application is the facilitating of local solutions to development, advocating the use of local knowledge to further development, asking what insider knowledge may have to recommend in advancing development in the face of outside influences. The third application is the furthering of cultural diffusion, seeking to establish if knowledge and practices in one place have relevance elsewhere, offering an innovative approach to development by drawing upon anthropology's cross-cultural comparative tradition in new ways. The fourth application is the advancing of the commercial use of knowledge, conducting research to find intelligence that may be marketable, even new to science, such bio-prospecting relating to the contentious issue of protecting intellectual property rights. Finally, ethnobiology may be used to support alternative development, promote the formulation of alternative views, and critique development as a capitalist imposition; indigenous activism with respect to international conventions indicates the shape of alternative agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the AAA meeting in November 2003, in a panel on‘Anthropological evidence and its uses’, sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. My thanks to Jane Cowan, Nigel Rapport and an anonymous reviewer for their comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropology in Australia is at a critical juncture. This paper discusses the way in which the discipline has been challenged at the institutional level, in part due to pressures arising from economic rationalisation within universities. Anthropology, however, must take some responsibility for its condition. Psychology has established itself as the primary 'human' discipline to provide qualifications appropriate for professional employment. At a more scholarly level, anthropology's traditional zones of concern have been taken over by others, including history and cultural studies. Can we, and should we, demystify anthropology and its practices? Can we reposition anthropology with a broader vision of the human experience, and what will happen if we cannot? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological and ethnohistorical accounts of the Northwest Coast and Southeast Alaska have underemphasized the early and thorough industrialization of the area. This paper describes the transformation of Native fan. lies and community forms by small scale salmon-canning firms m the late 19th and early 20th century, beginning with the building of the first salmon cannery in Klawock, Alaska, in 1878. Attention to the unmaking of past forms of obligation and expectation leads to an understanding of the volatility of specifically local histories in Native villages. Totem poles and tricycle races are both locations of ambiguous cultural production that are tied to these histories in overlapping and complex ways, and as such, they serve as metaphors for the larger processes at work in these towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emile Durkheim has long been viewed as one of the founders of the so-called variables-oriented approach to sociological investigation. This view ignores his considerable achievements using the methodology of "case-based" historical analysis, most prominent among them, his lectures on the history of French education (The Evolution of Educational Thought). In this paper I first outline the intimate relationship that Durkheim envisioned between historical and sociological investigation. I then turn to his work on French education for substantive illustrations of his approach. Finally, I explore certain points of intersection between Durkheim's approach to history and present-day concerns, especially in regard to the role of culture in history and the opposition between prospective and retrospective ("teleological") strategies of historical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous theoretical and empirical research on economic sociology leaves much to be desired in terms of consistently defining the agenda and objectives of the discipline As a result, economic sociology often appears to lack a clearly defined mission and purpose This is epitomized by various failures to establish adequate epistemological relations of the proper realm of economic sociology with those of economics and sociology, and especially with the domain of rational choice theory This failure is compounded by a misplaced distinction between the subject matter of economic sociology and that of sociological economics, or socioeconomics. And some recent works in the discipline (including the ambitious Handbook of Economic Sociology) have not helped to remedy this situation In this paper, we try to address this situation by suggesting some reformulations of the subject matter of economic sociology in relation to those of related disciplines In addition, we attempt to redefine the field of the sociology of the market which is seen as the focal specialty of economic sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past five years interest has grown in the use of competence-based management development. Although this has not been without its critics few studies have attempted to critically evaluate its use. This paper evaluates the use of a competence-based management development programme, the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) Level 1. Initially the research was framed to reflect the debate surrounding the use and value of the MCI. However it soon became apparent that the context - the course was part of National Health Service reforms -. was having an effect on how it was being experienced by the programme participants. The paper outlines the MCI and the debate surrounding its use. This is followed by a description of NHS management reform, how this has affected the role of ward managers (the programme participants) and the response of the Training and Development Department at Hospital A. The research process is summarized and the themes which emerged in terms of competence development, identity and discourse and social anthropology are discussed. Implications for management development are then drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the General Anthropology Division (GAD) Distinguished Lecture delivered at the American Anthropological Association meeting held in 2014 on the production of anthropology, is presented. Topics include presentation of living cultural heritage, exhibition of material culture, and saving of endangered cultural heritage.

Since the late Qing dynasty, Chinese scholars have confronted the challenges of indigenisation: what are the limits of (Western) universalism, and how can social science, history, and anthropology become 'Chinese'? This article deals with a series of Chinese 'native anthropologies', from Republican‐era outlines of ethnology and anthropology, to current anthropologies of history, urban experience, and immorality. Rather than an assessment of the merits and flaws of indigenisation in these debates, I analyse the social practices of attention management that decided which scholars and texts became influential, and which ones were ignored. These practices of attention management include the grammars, media, and institutions, within which interaction networks were established and scholarly communities formed. What held the attention of many fellow anthropologists was the aura of the local conveyed: a sense of incommensurability based on the unlikely identification of the anthropologist with the subject of study and with the intended reader. The aura of the local, I argue, appeared precisely when new grammars (such as empiricism and social theory), media (e.g. academic journals, books), and institutions (universities, government offices) made it increasingly difficult for anthropologists to construct shared understandings with the people they studied and the readers they wrote for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development professionals spend a lot of time writing and the aid industry has a vast production of texts. The author argues here that anthropology of development needs to look anew at how these texts are being produced, circulated and the purposes they serve. I have briefly identified six features of development writing: 1. Institutional ownership, 2. multiple authorship, 3. impersonal style, 4. terminology, 5. Communicable simplifications and 6. temporality. The more general point is to call for a more sophisticated engagement with development texts. There might be more going on in these documents than immediately meets the eye. More than anything else, these texts grant legitimacy and presence to the actors involved in development. Writing development is more about the production process, the language and what it ultimately bring in terms of aid flows, rather than the substance of the text itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European conference on fieldwork for graduate students and junior researchers, will be held at the University of Oxford, from December 17-19, 2003. This conference on anthropological fieldwork organized by the Oxford University Anthropological Society and Anthropology Matters, drew over 70 postgraduate students from more than 25 British and European universities. There were 36 papers addressing a variety of issues and methodological problems, dominant among which were questions of place and ethical issues. Ethical issues were also raised in accounts of research in conflict situations. In her keynote lecture Judith Okely argued that textbooks and methodology courses often leave the people underprepared for the complexity of life and learning "in the field."

By and large, anthropology's reflections on the concept of evidence have been couched within other discussions – on truth, knowledge, and related concerns. This essay, which introduces the special issue, makes the case that evidence deserves more considered attention in its own right. Drawing on the small but growing body of literature in social and cultural anthropology that does address questions of evidence, I situate the articles here in relation to several anthropological conversations, suggesting in the process how an exploration of evidence can shed light on three key issues: anthropology's standards of judgement, the potentials within interdisciplinary collaboration, and the benefits of a public anthropology. Résumé De manière générale, les réflexions de l'anthropologie sur le concept de preuve ont été imbriquées dans d'autres discussions concernant la vérité, la connaissance et d'autres questions connexes. En ouverture de ce numéro spécial, le présent essai avance que la preuve mériterait une attention plus spécifique pour elle-même. À partir d'un corpus restreint mais grandissant d'études en anthropologie culturelle et sociale consacrées à la question de la preuve, l'auteur situe les articles réunis ici par rapport à plusieurs conversations anthropologiques, en suggérant comment une exploration de la preuve peut faire la lumière sur trois grandes questions : les critères de jugement de l'anthropologie, les possibilités offertes par une collaboration interdisciplinaire et les avantages d'une anthropologie publique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an anthropological reflection on the decision of the French government to ban the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols in state schools. The fundamentalism poses a challenge to anthropologists who pride themselves on being open to the truths of others. They respect the alternative points of view while putting forward the perspectives of minorities. They appear to share a distaste for the multicultural liberalism of English-speaking anthropologists who would rather slip under the safety blanket of cultural relativism than offer a critique of the discourse.

Research methods used in empirical research reported in Rural Sociology from 1936 to 1985 are examined. Trends in research procedures are reviewed for each of the five decades of the journal's existence. One major trend identified is the movement away from descriptive analyses of social phenomena toward more complex quantitative models. This movement has been accompanied by increased methodological homogeneity in sources of data, data collection techniques, and a focus on the individual as the unit of analysis to the neglect of social structures and social processes. Measurement, sampling, and analysis continue to be problematic areas, although new approaches to measurement and analysis appear promising. Implications of the trends for the development of substantive knowledge in the field are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents names of several books received by the 1972 issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." Names of the books include "The Human Arena: An Introduction to the Social Sciences," edited by Gilbert Abcarian and Monte Palmer, "The Netsilik Eskimo," by Asen Balikci, "Institutions in Agricultural Development," edited by Melvin G. Blase, "Cities Under Siege: An Anatomy of the Ghetto Riots, 1964-1968," edited by David Boesel and Peter H. Rossi, "Juvenile Delinquency," by Robert G. Caldwell and James A. Black, "The American Population Debate," edited by Daniel Callahan, "Reading in Evaluation Research," edited by Francis G. Caro, "The Cultural Context of Learning and Thinking: An Exploration in Experimental Anthropology," by Michael Cole, John Gay, Joseph A. Glick and Donald W. Sharp, "Resources for Social Change: Race in the United States," by James S. Coleman, "Radical Sociology," edited by J. David Colfax and Jack L. Roach, "Kinship and Class: A Midwestern Study," by Bernard Farber, and "Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order," by Erving Goffman.

Human interactions with other animals feature regularly in the pages of Anthropology Today, and academic research focusing on the human-animal relationship is undergoing something of a boom in the social sciences and humanities generally. This comment, prompted by Caplan's paper ‘Death on the farm’ in the last issue of AT, considers the place of human-animal interactions in anthropology through a discussion of the terminology and methodologies employed by scholars within this area. It is argued that such a discussion is instructive because, as the etymology of the term suggests, anthropology is ultimately concerned with ‘understanding humans’. The ways that we, as researchers, choose to distinguish between humans and other animals, and the ways that we choose to represent our informants' interactions with other animals, can provide considerable insight into how all concerned think about what it means to be human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Anthropologist is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of American Anthropologist is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the contributions made by seven Vietnamese medical anthropologists. Topics discussed include highlights of interviews with these researchers including how unconventional research ideas arise, how unconventional research ideas are received and how research results are received from research to practice.

The article discusses the highlights of the workshop "Anthropology of the Anthropocene: Structures, Theories, Practices" that explored what the Anthropocene means to anthropology conducted in May 2017. Topics discussed include the workshop as part of the larger Rivers of the Anthropocene project that brought together leading thinkers in cultural, visual, and environmental anthropology and the creation of "An Anthropocene Primer."

Focuses on the European Association of Social Anthropologists conference which addresses important issues about anthropology, revolving around issues of face, voice and responsibility. Challenges on individuals to go beyond an excessively socio-centric notion of alterity and to look at our own selves as others; Considerations on the neighbor, the stranger and the enemy as potentials for creative border crossing and transformation of identity; Advice on individuals to nurture ethical relationship between self and the other.

Abstract: Decolonial theory offers sociologists, especially critical race scholars, powerful theoretical and methodological tools to understand historical and contemporary injustice and resistance. As a revolutionary epistemology, decolonial theory and methods feature critical insights into knowledges from subaltern voices concerned with how the implementation of modern technologies shape colonial structures, inequalities, the daily lives of the colonized, and resistance strategies. However, decolonial studies have long been the purview of the humanities and remain marginal to the social sciences due, partially, to a dearth of foundational theorizing. Challenging scientific colonialism, historicism, and Eurocentric conceptions of civilization while simultaneously linking these phenomena to racialized exploitation of labor within a modern global capitalist system and resistance to it, W. E. B. Du Bois's sociological theories, methods, and advocacy offer insightful ways to begin decolonizing the discipline, theoretically and in practice, in scholarship and in the world. This article outlines Du Bois's theoretical and empirical contributions by putting him in dialogue with a century of decolonial scholarship before offering suggestions for how to mobilize Du Bois's decolonial theory and methods for a pluriversal decolonial sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A protracted struggle for women to gain admission to the University of Georgia took place in the context of major shifts in social, economic, and political conditions within the state from the 1890s to the early 1900s. This article reports the early development of home economics in Georgia and Mary E. Creswell's pivotal role. As a beneficiary of change as well as an agent of change, Creswell provided leadership for programs aimed at increasing women's educational and career opportunities and improving living conditions. This study illustrates the use of documentary research to explore the intersection of personal and public issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In his anthropological manifesto in this issue, Marshall Sahlins argues that our main theories of 'economic determinism' represent a self-consciousness of modern capitalist societies masquerading as the science of others. He suggests that, in the great majority of societies known to anthropology and history, power consists in the direct control of people, from which comes the ability to accumulate wealth, rather than control of their means of livelihood, of capital wealth, from which comes the control of people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Much of what anthropologists explore is discounted by other observers as obvious and as 'mere' detail. This perceived lack of importance, compounded by the inherent indistinctness of many of the processes anthropologists observe, suggests how invisibility serves the interests of power-of the big picture, in short, that the discipline's detractors accuse it of ignoring. The tiny details and palpable evasions that illuminate a group's collective cultural secrets also reveal the dynamic that makes them embarrassing by today's globalized but vaguely defined values. Drawing on fieldwork in Greece, Italy, and Thailand, I argue-in a modality inspired by the thought of Giambattista Vico-that it is this capacity to probe beyond the obvious structures of authority and to find alternative realities in detail that renders anthropology both threatening to the sources of power and a necessary vehicle for the recovery of knowledge about the human condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]