Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute back issues from December 2004:
Incorporating incest: gamete, body and relation in assisted conception*.
Dec 01, 2004; ... By the end of the 1990s in the UK, there was a general idea, promoted partly by academic and professional commentators and disseminated largely through mass media, that 'the public' used to be anxious about technologies of assisted conception--things like artificial insemination (AI), ...
Property as legal knowledge: means and ends.
Dec 01, 2004; ... <Pre> Law is a means, a specific social means, not an end (Kelsen 1941: 80).Many lawyers and law professors view law as an instrument for controlling society and directing social change, but most anthropologists are concerned with law as a reflection of a particular social ...
The visibility and invisibility of production among Senegalese craftsmen.
Dec 01, 2004; ... This article takes its cue from an observation made by Geschiere and van Binsbergen on the 'opaque relation between consumption and production', and from the question that they pose: 'how to relate consumption, demand and "the politics of value" in a meaningful way to the relations or even ...
Capturing imagination: a cognitive approach to cultural complexity.
Dec 01, 2004; ... From a logical point of view, a theory can be either powerful (accounting for a limited number of features valid for a great number of cases) or expressive (accounting for a great number of features belonging to a limited number of cases). In other words, theories can be extensionally or ...
Impossible gifts: bodies, Buddhism and bioethics in contemporary Sri Lanka.
Dec 01, 2004; ... In his 1986 Malinowski lecture, Jonathan Parry (1986) made some insightful observations regarding Mauss's seminal account of the gift in human society. The first of these was Parry's suggestion of an intellectual archaeology in which Mauss's inspiration for the 'spirit of the gift' is ...
Envisioned, intentioned: a painter informs an anthropologist about social relations.(Biography)
Dec 01, 2004; ... <Pre> Conversationless our love poured and passed from us ... We were shiny- faced & glittereyed & unmindingly tossed the catch-ball of our love to each other. It went from us without a throw and came all over us without a catch .... We just make empty handed armless snatches in the ...
Manioc beer and meat: value, reproduction and cosmic substance among the Napo Runa of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Dec 01, 2004; ... Questions of value One afternoon during the initial months of my fieldwork in Ecuador's Amazonian region, I was helping to clear a garden with some Napo Runa men. After we had been working for some time, a woman came up to us with a large pot full of liquid and invited us to ...
'A little bit' ethnography.(COMMENT)
Dec 01, 2004; ... There are those who see anthropology as a quest for positive knowledge and those who view it as a critique of the West, especially in the form of a challenge to Western understandings; indeed, this seems to be the central rift within the discipline today. Robert Storrie's contribution ...
Reply to Shapiro.(COMMENT)(Critical Essay)
Dec 01, 2004; ... Anthropology is, at least (and at its best), an attempt to understand others, and other ways of being human. I accept that we all carry ideological baggage that must inevitably influence our work. Nevertheless, in our attempt to understand others, surely we must be prepared to try to ...
History after apartheid: visual culture and public memory in a democratic South Africa.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... COOMBES, ANNIE E. History after apartheid: visual culture and public memory in a democratic South Africa. xviii, 366 pp., plates, illus., bibliogr. London, Durham N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2003. [pounds sterling]21.50 (paper) History after apartheid analyses the political ...
A history of modern Yemen.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... DRESCH, PAUL. A history of modern Yemen. xviii, 304 pp., illus, bibliogr. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 2001. [pounds sterling]15.99 This book is not an historian's history, but that of an anthropologist with a rather strong sense of disciplinary allegiance, and thus to the metier's ...
The devil's book of culture: history, mushrooms, and caves in Southern Mexico.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... FEINBERG, BENJAMIN. The devil's book of culture: history, mushrooms, and caves in Southern Mexico. xi, 272 pp., maps, figs, illus., bibliogr. Austin: Univ. Texas Press, 2004. [pounds sterling]18.50 (paper) As I prepared to read The devil's book of culture, I thought, do we ...
Bringing the Empire home: race, class, and gender in Britain and colonial South Africa.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... MAGUBANE, ZINE. Bringing the Empire home: race, class, and gender in Britain and colonial South Africa. 222 pp., bibliogr. London, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2004. [pounds sterling]13.00 (paper) This book is a dextrous and innovative survey of the articulations between ...
La question identitaire en Asie du sud.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... RACINE, JEAN-LUC (ed.). La question identitaire en Asie du sud. 405 pp., maps, illus., bibliogrs. Paris: Editions EHESS, 2001. 196.77 FF, [euro]30 (paper) This volume is one of the last issues of a series brought out by the Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud in ...
Rum and axes: the rise of a Connecticut merchant family.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... SISKIND, JANET. Rum and axes: the rise of a Connecticut merchant family, 1795-1850. 191 pp., bibliogr. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2001. [pounds sterling]22.95 (cloth) This book is a study in American class formation as shown through historical documentation. Drawing on ...
The social context of innovation: bureaucrats, families and heroes in the early industrial revolution.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... WALLACE, ANTHONY F.C. The social context of innovation: bureaucrats, families and heroes in the early industrial revolution. (Second edition). xvii, 175 pp., tables, figs, bibliogr. London, Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska Press, 2004. [pounds sterling]22.95 (paper) Wallace's book is a ...
Uprootings/regroundings: questions of home and migration.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... AHMED, SARA, CLAUDIA CASTANEDA, ANNE-MARIE FORTIER & MIMI SHELLER (eds). Uprootings/regroundings: questions of home and migration. xiv, 304 pp., illus, bibliogrs. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers. 2003. [pounds sterling]55.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]17.99 (paper) This is an ...
Key themes in qualitative research: continuities and change.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... ATKINSON, PAUL, AMANDA COFFEY & SARA DELAMONT. Key themes in qualitative research: continuities and change. xiv, 232 pp., bibliogr. Oxford, New York: Altamira Press, 2003. [pounds sterling]53.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]18.95 (paper) This is an important book, a manifesto ...
Quadratura americana: essai d'anthropologie levi-straussienne.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... DESVEAUX, EMMANUEL. Quadratura americana: essai d'anthropologie levi-straussienne. 641 pp., figs, illus, bibliogr. Geneva: Georg editeur, 2001. CHF 52.00, [euro]30.50 (paper) More than thirty years after the publication of Les mythologiques' last volume, Desveaux claims for ...
Culture and customs of Peru.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... FERREIRA, CESAR & EDUARDO DARGENT-CHAMOT. Culture and customs of Peru. xx, 163 pp., map, illus., bibliogrs. London, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. $45.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]25.99 (paper) Although it does not fully live up to the scope suggested by its ambitious ...
The Indians and Brazil.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... GOMES, MERCIO P. (Trans. John W. Moon). The Indians and Brazil. xvi, 300 pp., maps, tables, bibliogr. Gainesville; Univ. Press of Florida, 2000, $49.95 (cloth) When I read this English version of Mercio Gomes's book, I had a feeling of misplacement, as if this were a different ...
The postsocialist agrarian question: property relations and the rural condition.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... HANN, CHRIS & THE 'PROPERTY RELATIONS' GROUP. The postsocialist agrarian question: property relations and the rural condition. x, 472 pp., maps, tables, bibliogrs. Munnster: LIT Verlag, 2003, [euro]30.90 (paper) This impressive volume is the first in a projected series of Halle ...
Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... HOFFMAN, SUSANNA M. & ANTHONY OLIVER-SMITH (eds). Catastrophe and culture: the anthropology of disaster. xii, 312 pp., maps, figs, tables, bibliogr. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press/Oxford: James Currey Publishers, 2002, [pounds sterling]45.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]16.95 ...
Material culture and sacred landscape: the anthropology of the Siberian Khanty.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... JORDAN, PETER. Material culture and sacred landscape: the anthropology of the Siberian Khanty. xxiii, 309 pp., maps, tables, figs, illus., bibliogr. Oxford, New York: Altamira Press, 2003, $80.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paper) Peter Jordan significantly enriches the ethnographic ...
Wildlife in Asia: Cultural Perspectives.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... KNIGHT, JOHN (ed.). Wildlife in Asia: cultural perspectives. xii, 258 pp., table, illus., bibliogrs. London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. [pounds sterling]65.00 (cloth) As John Knight says in his introduction: 'Wildlife in Asia appears to be in a state of crisis' (p. 3) ....
An invitation to anthropology: the structure, evolution and cultural identity of human societies.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... LLOBERA, JOSEP R. An invitation to anthropology: the structure, evolution and cultural identity of human societies. ix, 262 pp., tables, bibliogrs. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, 2003. $75.00 (cloth), $25.00 (paper) This introduction to anthropology for undergraduate reflects ...
Anthropology in practice: building a career outside the academy.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... NOLAN, RIALI W. Anthropology in practice: building a career outside the academy. xi, 213 pp., tables, figs, bibliogr. London, Boulder, Colo.; Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003, [pounds sterling]16.50 (paper) Riall Nolan announces that '[t]his is a book for anthropology students who ...
Surrealism and the Exotic.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... TYTHACOTT, LOUISE. Surrealism and the exotic. xii, 260 pp., illus, bibliogr. London, New York: Routledge, 2003, [pounds sterling]55.00 (cloth) Surrealism originated in the carnage of the First World War when the young Andre Breton and others experienced the shock and trauma of ...
A Moral Critique of Development: In Search of Global Responsibilities.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... VAN UFFORD, PHILIP QUARLES & ANANTA KUMAR GIRI (eds). A moral critique of development: in search of global responsibilities. xiii, 309 pp. bibliogrs. London, New York: Routledge, 2003. [pounds sterling]19.99 (paper) When I set out to read this collection I was slightly ...
Race, nature and culture: an anthropological perspective.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... WADE, PETER. Race, nature and culture: an anthropological perspective. vi, 150 pp., bibliogr. London, Sterling, Va.: Pluto Press, 2002. [pounds sterling]13.99 (paper) The late Sir Edmund Leach began his book Social anthropology (1976) with this abstraction: take any real binary ...
Language and sexuality.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... CAMERON, DEBORAH & DON KULICK. Language and sexuality. xvi, 176 pp., bibliogr. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 2003. [pounds sterling]42.50 (cloth), [pounds sterling]15.95 (paper) Sexuality has recently gained analytic attention within sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. In ...
Language evolution.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... CHRISTIANSEN, MORTEN H. & SIMON KIRBY (eds). Language evolution. xvii, 395 pp., figs, tables, bibliogr. Oxford: Univ. Press, 2003. [pounds sterling]60.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]17.99 (paper) Despite its title, this volume is not concerned with how languages evolve. Its topic ...
Between anthropology and literature: interdisciplinary discourse.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... DE ANGELIS, ROSE (ed.) Between anthropology and literature: interdisciplinary discourse. x, 180 pp., bibliogrs. London, New York: Routledge Harwood, 2002. [pounds sterling]50.00 (cloth) As Rose De Angelis writes, the purpose of the book is to question the validity of a strict ...
The language, ethnicity and race reader.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... HARRIS, ROXY & BEN RAMPTON (eds). The language, ethnicity and race reader. x, 357 pp., tables, bibliogrs. London, New York: Routledge, 2003. [pounds sterling]18.99 (paper) British anthropologists don't 'do' language. That might seem an odd claim, though it is not new. Whereas ...
Contesting 'good' governance: crosscultural perspectives on representation, accountability and public space.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... POLUHA, EVE & MONA ROSENDAHL (eds). Contesting 'good' governance: crosscultural perspectives on representation, accountability and public space. viii, 276 pp., bibliogr. London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. [pounds sterling]55.00 (cloth) This is an interesting collection of ...
Banana Wars: Power, Production, and History in the Americas.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... STRIFFLER, STEVE & MARK MOBERG (eds). Banana wars: power, production and history in the Americas. viii, 364 pp., maps, tables, figs, illus., bibliogr. London, Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2004. [pounds sterling]69.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]17.50 (paper) The metaphor of the ...
Transparency and conspiracy: ethnographies of suspicion in the new world order.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... WEST, HARRY G. & TODD SANDERS (eds). Transparency and conspiracy: ethnographies of suspicion in the new world order. 316 pp., bibliogrs. London, Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2003. [pounds sterling]16.95 (paper) With twelve contributors and an epilogue by the Comaroffs, this ...
Sacrifice in religious experience.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... BAUMGARTEN, ALBERT I. (ed.). Sacrifice in religious experience. 329 pp., bibliogrs. Leiden: Brill, 2002. [euro]90, $105.00 (cloth) 'Sacrifice is a central part of every religion'. This is the general conviction informing this collection of papers from two conferences organized ...
Ritual sacrifice in ancient Peru.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... BENSON, ELIZABETH P. & ANITA G. COOK (eds). Ritual sacrifice in ancient Peru. xii, 211 pp., maps, table, figs, illus, bibliogr. Austin: Univ. Texas Press, 2001. $45.00 (cloth), $19.95 (paper) This study of archaeological, iconographic, and osteological evidence related to ritual ...
Standing ground: Yurok Indian spirituality, 1850-1990.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... BUCKLEY, THOMAS. Standing ground: Yurok Indian spirituality, 1850-1990. xii, 325 pp., table, bibliogr. London, Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 2002. [pounds sterling]35.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]13.95 (paper) Buckley's brilliant and sensitive ethnography of Yurok ...
Ambivalent Europeans: Ritual, Memory and the Public Sphere in Malta.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... MIICHELL, JON P. Ambivalent Europeans: ritual, memory and the public sphere in Malta. xiii, 275 pp., maps, illus., figs, bibliogr. London, New York: Routledge, 2002. [pounds sterling]19.99 (paper) With a relative dearth of ethnographic studies of Malta, Mitchell's Ambivalent ...
I am Tsunki: gender and shamanism among the Shuar of Western Amazonia.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... PERRUCHON, MARIE. I am Tsunki: gender and shamanism among the Shuar of Western Amazonia. x, 386 pp., maps, figs, illus., bibliogr. Uppsala: Univ. Press, 2003. $62.50 (paper) This book addresses a little-known and captivating topic, namely the existence of powerful female shamans ...
Religious conversion in India: modes, motivations, and meanings.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... ROBINSON, ROWENA & SATHIANATHAN CLARKE (eds). Religious conversion in India: modes, motivations, and meanings. xv, 420 pp., bibliogrs. Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003, [pounds sterling]30.00 (cloth) Anthropologists are familiar with the idea that changes of religious identity, ...
Seeds of play, words of power: an ethnographic study of Iban shamanic chants.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... SATHER, CLIFFORD, Seeds of play, words of power: an ethnographic study of Iban shamanic chants. xviii, 753 pp., maps, tables, illus., bibliogr. Kuala Lumpur: Ampang Press, 2001. RM 120 (cloth), RM 95 (paper) This book is based on a study among the Iban living in the Betong and ...
Blood and voice: Navajo women ceremonial practitioners.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... SCHWARZ, MAUREEN TRUDELLE. Blood and voice: Navajo women ceremonial practitioners. xii, 186 pp., bibliogr. Tucson: Univ. Arizona Press, 2003. $50.00 (cloth), $24.95 (paper) This ethnography of gendered constructions of ritual healing among the Navajo, with particular focus upon ...
Sport, Dance and Embodied Identities.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... DYCK, NOEL & EDUARDO P. ARCHETTI (eds). Sport, dance and embodied identities. ix, 253 pp., diagr., bibliogrs. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers, 2003. [pounds sterling]50.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]15.99 (paper) Sport, dance and embodied identities, a collection of ...
New technologies at work: people, screens and social virtuality.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... GARSTEN, CHRISTINA & HELENA WULEF (eds). New technologies at work: people, screens and social virtuality. xii, 250 pp., bibliogrs. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers, 2003. [pounds sterling]50,00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]15.99 (paper) This book is a collection of recent ...
Inside organizations: anthropologists at work.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... GELLNER, DAVID N. & ERIC HIRSCH (eds). Inside organizations: anthropologists at work. xi, 271 pp., figs, bibliogrs. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers, 2001. [pounds sterling]42.99 (cloth), [pounds sterling]14.99 (paper) This well-written and coherently edited volume presents an ...
Divided in unity: identity, Germany, and the Berlin police.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... GLAESER, ANDREAS. Divided in unity: identity, Germany, and the Berlin police. xvi, 383 pp., illus., bibliogr. London, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2000. [pounds sterling]27.50 (cloth) Some argue that it is 'too soon' to begin a critical appraisal of the legacies of the fall of ...
Laughter out of place: race, class, violence, and sexuality in a Rio shantytown.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... GOLDSTEIN, DONNA M. Laughter out of place: race, class, violence, and sexuality in a Rio shantytown. xxiii, 349 pp., maps, illus., bibliogr. London, Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 2003. [pounds sterling]39.95 (cloth), [pounds sterling]16.95 (paper) Laughter out of place is a ...
Zapotec science: farming and food in the northern Sierra of Oaxaca.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... GONZALEZ, ROBERTO J. Zapotec science: farming and food in the northern Sierra of Oaxaca. xii, 328 pp., map, figs, tables, illus., bibliogr. Austin: Univ. Texas Press, 2001. $24.95 (paper) Roberto Gonzalez knits together several traditions in anthropology to create a powerful and ...
The essential Edmund Leach, vol. 1: anthropology and society.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... HUGH-JONES, STEPHEN & JAMES LAIDLAW (eds). The essential Edmund Leach, vol. 1: anthropology and society. x, 406 pp., figs, tables, illus., bibliogr. London, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2001. [pounds sterling]30.00 (cloth); The essential Edmund Leach, vol. 2: culture and human nature, 420 ...
At play in Belfast: children's folklore and identities in Northern Ireland.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... LANCLOS, DONNA M. At play in Belfast: children's folklore and identities in Northern Ireland. xi, 208 pp., bibliogr. London, Piscataway. N.J.: Rutgers Univ, Press, 2003. $60.00 (cloth), $21.95 (paper) Although much anxious attention is paid to the influence of conflict on ...
Lost visions and new uncertainties: Sandinista 'profesionales' in northern Nicaragua.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... LUNDGREN, INGER. Lost visions and new uncertainties: Sandinista 'profesionales' in northern Nicaragua (Stockholm studs, in soc. anth.) xi, 258 pp., bibliogr. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2000. SEK 200.00 (paper) Inger Lundgren did fieldwork among professionals in ...
Global Divas: Flipino Gay Men in the Diaspora.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... MANALANSAN, MARTIN F. Global divas: Filipino gay men in the diaspora. xvi, 221 pp., bibliogr. London, Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2004. [pounds sterling]16.95 (paper) Martin Manalansan's ethnography shows some of the complexities of globalization and hybridization in ...
A Sealed and Secret Kinship: The Culture of Policies and Practices in American Adoption.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... MODELL, JUDITH S. A sealed and secret kinship: the culture of policies and practices in American adoption. viii, 220 pp., bibliogr. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, 2002. [pounds sterling]13.00 (paper) The study of kinship has hitherto drawn upon a threefold classification of ...
Village on the edge: changing times in Papua New Guinea.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... SMITH, MICHAEL FRENCH. Village on the edge: changing times in Papua New Guinea. xviii, 214 pp., maps, illus., bibliogr. Honolulu: Univ. Hawaii Press, 2002. [pounds sterling]17.95 (paper) In Village on the edge, Michael French Smith has accomplished a second tour de force of ...
Working out in Japan: shaping the female body in Tokyo fitness clubs.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... SPIELVOGEL, LAURA. Working out in Japan: shaping the female body in Tokyo fitness clubs. xii, 250 pp., illus., bibliogr. London, Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2003. [pounds sterling]15.95 (paper) Anthropological (and certainly sociological) studies of the body have ...
Remaking the world: myth, mining, and ritual change among the Duna of Papua New Guinea.(Book Review)
Dec 01, 2004; ... STEWART, PAMELA J. & ANDREW STRATHERN. Remaking the world: myth, mining, and ritual change among the Duna of Papua New Guinea. xvi, 219 pp., maps, illus., bibliogr. London, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002, $45.00 (cloth) Papua New Guinca has unfailingly ...
Books received.(Directory)
Dec 01, 2004 ... AIJMER, GORAN. New Year celebrations in Central China in late imperial times. viii, 180 pp., fig., table, bibliogr. Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, 2004. (paper) ANDERSON, CLAIRE. Legible bodies: race, criminality and colonialism in South Asia. viii, 245 pp., maps, illus., ...
Correction.(Correction Notice)
Dec 01, 2004 ... We regret that due to an error on our part the wrong institutional affiliation was printed at the bottom of Charles M. Mather's review of Ann B. Stahl's book Making history in ...