Showing titles in Anthropology

Furs are the creative subculture of people who identify with animals. You can find them at furry conventions, furfests, around the world-tens of thousands of people donning their most elaborate fursuit. In costume, at conventions, with friends or alone, furries unleash the animal within, letting their inner beasts roar and their inner cats purr, aware of the power—and joy—to be found in bringing forward one's animal side and encouraging others to do the same.

This book explains why marriage and family are under attack in America and who is to gain from the popularity of the Socialist movement.

Human interaction is more important and more complex than ever before in this modern day. With the rapid advancement of tech, a lot of us sadly aren't taught as much as is necessary to not only analyze human behavior and communication, but protect ourselves against the bad actors in this world such as Narcissists, who are always looking for prey to pounce on.

Turf-roofed and wooden-built, offering fresh clean air, peace, isolation and the promise of a day's wood-chopping, hiking or snow-clearing amid landscapes of great beauty, the hytte - or wooden cabin home - is a crucial part of the national identity of every Norwegian. In 2016, Robert Ferguson and his wife bought a piece of land high up in the Hardangervidda, the plateau that dominates south-central Norway, and on it they built such a hytte. For Ferguson, the hytte represented the realisation of a dream that first brought him to Norway from England more than 30 years ago.

In Tracing Autism, Des Fitzgerald offers an up-close account of the search for a neurological explanation of autism. As autism has gained cultural prominence with more diagnoses and more controversy, its biological causes remain elusive. Through in-depth interviews with neuroscientists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, Fitzgerald examines what it means to do scientific research in the ambiguous terrain of autism research, a field marked by shifting horizons of uncertainty and ambivalence.

In his best-selling Darkest England, Idries Shah asserts that the English hail from a little-known place called "Hathaby", but their roots go back much farther, perhaps to the distant Asian realm of Sakasina. Once a nomadic tribe of warriors, the English fled westward, bringing with them epic tales, traditions, and an Oriental way of thought.

In a rare combination of comprehensive coverage and sustained critical focus, this book examines Japan's progress through its entire history to its current status as an economic, technological, and cultural superpower. A key factor is a pragmatic determination to succeed. Little-known facts are also brought to light, and the latest findings used.

Gli insegnamenti che arrivano dal Giappone sono più attuali che mai, anche in Occidente. Ma in cosa consiste esattamente lo spirito giapponese? Wa significa armonia, ma come tutte le parole giapponesi evoca molto di più. Wa è infatti tutto ciò che è mite, sereno e moderato, ma è anche tutto ciò che è giapponese. Wa è un prefisso, che come un sigillo si applica sulle cose e sui concetti. Tramite Wa, il Giappone ci insegna la sua più grande lezione: che la bellezza, la gioia e il senso civile si costruiscono con grande impegno.

When the 2010 earthquake struck Haiti, Raymond Joseph, the former Haitian ambassador to the United States, found himself rushing back to his beloved country. The earthquake ignited a passion in Joseph, inspiring him to run for president against great competition, including two well-known Haitian pop stars, his nephew Wyclef Jean and Michel Martelly. But he couldn't compete in a democratic system corrupt to the core.

We think we know cultural appropriation when we see it. Blackface or Native American headdresses as Halloween costumes—these clearly give offense. But what about Cardi B posing as the Hindu goddess Durga in a Reebok ad, AA's twelve-step invocation of God, or the earnest namaste you utter at the end of yoga class? Liz Bucar unpacks the ethical dilemmas of a messy form of cultural appropriation: the borrowing of religious doctrines, rituals, and dress for political, economic, and therapeutic reasons.

As recently as 11,000 years ago - "near time" to geologists - mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age.

A theory of change is a planning, participation, and evaluation process that companies, philanthropists, nonprofits, governments, and groups go through to promote social change. The term theory of change was coined by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book, The Practice of Management. He defined it as a form of management by objectives whereby organizations identify and follow high and low order goals in order to meet their objectives. But what is a theory of change exactly? How has the term and practice evolved? And what are its major setbacks and limitations?

In this best-selling book, Charles Pépin brings to light the strange alchemy that is self-confidence. Pépin examines the role confidence plays in the lives of our most respected public figures including the likes of Madonna, Mozart, Frieda Kahlo, Martin Luther King and Serena Williams and argues that above all, to live a life of confidence is to live a life of action.

Our modern conceptions of press and speech liberty, Dabhoiwala shows, were invented in Britain around 1700. The real history of freedom of expression is a story of countless fascinating men and women whose lives have shaped its principles and practices over the past 300 years – slaves and imperialists, poets and philosophers, plutocrats and revolutionaries. Ranging across Europe, North America and South Asia, and not neglecting other parts of the world, Dabhoiwala rejects celebratory platitudes about the past and present of free expression.

Traveling Heavy is a deeply moving, unconventional memoir by master storyteller and cultural anthropologist Ruth Behar. Through evocative stories she portrays her life as an immigrant child and later as an adult woman who loves to travel but is terrified of boarding a plane. With an open heart, she writes about her Yiddish-Sephardic-Cuban-American family as well as the strangers who show her kindness as she makes her way through the world.

In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how DNA testing is a powerful - and problematic - scientific process that is useful in determining close biological relatives. But tribal membership is a legal category that has developed in dependence on certain social understandings and historical contexts, a set of concepts that entangles genetic information in a web of family relations, reservation histories, tribal rules, and government regulations.

Robert Greene versteht es auf meisterhafte Weise, Weisheit und Philosophie der alten Denker für Millionen von Lesern auf der Suche nach Wissen, Macht und Selbstvervollkommnung zugänglich zu machen. In seinem neuen Buch ist er dem wichtigsten Thema überhaupt auf der Spur: Der Entschlüsselung menschlicher Antriebe und Motivationen, auch derer, die uns selbst nicht bewusst sind. Der Mensch ist ein Gesellschaftstier. Sein Leben hängt von der Beziehung zu Seinesgleichen ab.

The Bengalis are the third largest ethno-linguistic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and the Arabs. A quarter of a billion strong and growing, the community has produced three Nobel laureates, world-class scientists, legendary political leaders, iconic movie stars and directors and an unending stream of writers, philosophers, painters, poets and musicians of the first rank. But, bald facts aside, just who are the Bengalis? What is the community all about? In order to find the answers, the author delves deep into the culture, literature, history and social mores of the Bengalis.

A work of genuine social history, After the Black Death leads the listener into the villages and cities of European society. The book begins with an overview of family and community structure, social conflict, and religious beliefs. After describing the fundamental traits of both rural and urban society, it considers the elites, armed rebellion, poverty, criminality, sexual behavior, and marriage practices.

Hace 13.000 años la evolución de las distintas sociedades humanas comenzó a tomar rumbos diferentes. La temprana domesticación de animales y el cultivo de plantas silvestres en el Creciente Fértil, China, Mesoamérica y otras zonas geográficas otorgó una ventaja inicial a sus habitantes. Sin embargo, los orígenes localizados de la agricultura y la ganadería son solo una parte de la explicación de los diferentes destinos. Las sociedades que superaron esta fase de cazadores-recolectores se encontraron con más probabilidades de desarrollo, supervivencia y poder bélico.