Bücher der Reihe New Departures in Anthropology

Rethinking social theory through a rich engagement with landscape and the history of geology, this book explores our human relationship with the timescale of geological formation and shows how social life becomes disconnected from the ecological and geological rhythms on which it depends.

Positing new questions and using innovative methods, this book discusses the future as a newly emerging field in anthropology. It will be welcomed by students and researchers in cultural and social anthropology, anthropological theory, history and philosophy.

Emotional Worlds is the first anthropological work in a generation to reconsider the nature of emotion, a preoccupation of our age. Adopting a narrative approach, it explores cultural worlds from the intimate perspective of the emotional life, showing how emotions tell a story, shaping lives, transforming situations and colouring experience.

A comprehensive exploration of historical and current debates about anthropological comparison. Addressed to anthropologists and to students of anthropology embarking upon their own comparative projects, it will also be of interest to students and scholars in other disciplines which rely on comparative methods.

Language is key to understanding human social action. This book questions long-held and widely accepted views of how social action works, and argues for a new theory of social action based on close observation of language in social interaction across cultures. It is ideal reading for anthropologists and linguists alike.

A controversial new orientation that resonates with wider developments in philosophy and social theory, the ontological turn and its implications for ethnographic fieldwork and anthropological analysis are the subject of vigorous debates. Drawing together these ongoing debates, this book provides the first anthropological exposition of this topic.

Offering a uniquely cross-cultural perspective, renowned economic anthropologist Stephen Gudeman presents a theory of economic crisis and lessons for its mitigation, in light of the recent global financial crash. This compelling book is richly illustrated with examples from 'strange' small-scale economies as well as developed market economies.

In this provocative new study the distinguished anthropologist Maurice Bloch argues for a return to a naturalist approach to social and cultural anthropology, proposing that subjects such as the self, kinship, memory and globalisation benefit from being simultaneously approached with the tools of social and cognitive science.

The anthropology of ethics has become an important and fast-growing field in recent years. This book argues that it represents not just a new subfield within anthropology but a conceptual renewal of the discipline as a whole. An ideal introduction for students and researchers in anthropology and related human sciences.

Ronald Niezen examines the processes by which cultural concepts are conceived and collective human rights are defended in international law. Niezen's discussion of the impact of public opinion on law provides fresh insights into the growing importance of legally-constructed identity and the changing pathways through which it is being shaped.

Through a critical revision of Foucault's investigation of ethics, Faubion develops an original program of empirical inquiry into the ethical domain. The result is a conceptual apparatus with genuinely anthropological scope, accommodating ethical pluralism and the limits of ethical variation, and providing a novel resolution of the problem of relativism.

Anthropologists argue that the growth of 'new genetics' has had far-reaching implications for human self-understanding, social relations and the development of biomedicine. Exploring a variety of issues including the widely-discussed Icelandic Health Sector Database, this book will be welcomed by graduate students and researchers in anthropology, human genetics and biotechnology.

What can texts - both written and oral - tell us about the societies that produce them? What role do texts play in shaping societies and individuals? Engaging and throught-provoking, this original study sets out to answer these questions, and will be welcomed by anyone interested in anthropology, literature and cultural studies.

This book combines the study of witchcraft and sorcery with the study of rumours and gossip, and explains the role of rumour and gossip in the genesis of social and political violence. Examples are drawn from Africa, Europe, India, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.

Kinship has historically been central to the discipline of anthropology but what sort of future does it have? Janet Carsten gives an approachable view of the past, present, and future of kinship in anthropology, which will be of interest not just to anthropologists but to social scientists generally.

In this powerful, but accessible new study, John Bowen draws on a full range of work in social anthropology to present Islam in ways that emphasise its constitutive practices, from praying and learning to judging and political organising. Starting at the heart of Islam - revelation and learning in Arabic lands - Bowen shows how Muslims have adapted Islamic texts and traditions to ideas and conditions in the societies in which they live. Returning to key case studies in Asia, Africa and Western Europe, to explore each major domain of Islamic religious and social life, Bowen also considers the theoretical advances in social anthropology that have come out of the study of Islam. A New Anthropology of Islam is essential reading for all those interested in the study of Islam and for those following new developments in the discipline of anthropology.

In recent years anthropology has rediscovered its interest in politics. Building on the findings of this research, this book, first published in 2007, analyses the relationship between culture and politics, with special attention to democracy, nationalism, the state and political violence. Beginning with scenes from an unruly early 1980s election campaign in Sri Lanka, it covers issues from rural policing in north India to slum housing in Delhi, presenting arguments about secularism and pluralism, and the ambiguous energies released by electoral democracy across the subcontinent. It ends by discussing feminist peace activists in Sri Lanka, struggling to sustain a window of shared humanity after two decades of war. Bringing together and linking the themes of democracy, identity and conflict, this important new study shows how anthropology can take a central role in understanding other people's politics, especially the issues that seem to have divided the world since 9/11.