This account of an East African religion as it was during the 1950s discusses a variety of issues in the study of religion within the context of case materials and other field data. The Taita people of southern Kenya called their religion Butasi after its central act w... Lees meer.

This edited collection attempts to revive a unified anthropological approach to the study of sex and gender hierarchies. Seventeen distinguished contributors - from cultural anthropology physical anthropology archaeology and anthropological linguistics - have produce... Lees meer.

For people who live in small communities transformed by powerful outside forces narrative accounts of culture contact and change create images of collective identity through the idiom of shared history. How may we understand the processes that make such accounts compel... Lees meer.

Every year there are over 1.6 million violent deaths worldwide making violence one of the leading public health issues of our time. And with the 20th century just behind us it s hard to forget that 191 million people lost their lives directly or indirectly through co... Lees meer.

When Ladislav Holy precipitately left Czechoslovakia for the UK in 1968 he was already one of the leading anthropologists in Central Europe. In the following decades he made important field studies in Africa. Since 1986 he has been engaged in research in the Czech Repub... Lees meer.

Now reissued in paperback with a new preface. The Highlands societies of Papua New Guinea which have been studied intensively by numerous anthropologists since the 1950s have been widely described as egalitarian and as characterised by achieved leadership. The Melanes... Lees meer.

The dwarf and mouse lemurs of Madagascar are two very species-rich lemur genera yet there is a relative paucity of information on this primate family in published literature. In this first ever treatment of the Cheirogaleidae international experts are brought together... Lees meer.

Human behavioral ecology HBE applies the principles of evolutionary theory and optimisation to the study of human behavioural and cultural diversity. Among other things HBE attempts to explain variation in behaviour as adaptive solutions to the competing life-history... Lees meer.

When Ladislav Holy precipitately left Czechoslovakia for the UK in 1968 he was already one of the leading anthropologists in Central Europe. In the following decades he made important field studies in Africa. Since 1986 he has been engaged in research in the Czech Repub... Lees meer.

In the Mount Hagen area of central New Guinea warfare has been replaced since the arrival of the Europeans by a vigorous development of moka a competitive ceremonial exchange of wealth objects. The exchanges of pigs shells and other valuables are interpreted as actin... Lees meer.

Plasticity refers to the ability of many organisms to change their biology or behaviour to respond to changes in the environment particularly when these are stressful. Humans are perhaps the most plastic of all species and hence the most variable. This book reflects... Lees meer.

This original study deals with a specific set of institutions in nineteenth century Athens. Relying on matrimonial contracts travellers accounts memoirs and popular literature the author shows how the distinctive forms of marriage kinship and property transmission... Lees meer.

An innovative study of the Nuaulu classificatory system of animal knowledge. It demonstrates how the classification system reflects an interaction between culture cognitive processes and the material world. Ethnobiology is concerned with the social and cultural tra... Lees meer.

Ron Brunton revives a problem posed by the great anthropologist W. H. R. Rivers in History of Melanesian Society 1914 . how to explain the strange geographical distribution of kava a narcotic drink once widely consumed by south-west Pacific islanders. Rivers believed... Lees meer.

In her study of domestic organization in Gonja a formerly important West African state now part of Ghana Esther Goody has concentrated on tracing the interrelationships between political and domestic institutions in a bilateral kinship system untypical of the area.... Lees meer.