Fat in Four Cultures: A Global Ethnography of Weight
By Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Alexandra Brewis, Jessica Hardin, Sarah Trainer, and Amber Wutich | June 2021 | Paperback | 236 pages
Fat in Four Cultures is a comparative ethnography that reveals the shared struggles and local distinctions of how people across the globe experience “being fat” while also considering what insights can be gained through systematic, cross-cultural comparison.
Esperanza Speaks: Confronting a Century of Global Change in Rural Panama
By Gloria Rudolf | April 2021| Paperback | 224 pages
Esperanza Speaks examines a century-long process of socioeconomic change in rural Panama through the experiences of one woman, Esperanza Ruiz, and four generations of her family, providing an intimate narrative that is the result of a dedicated anthropologist’s long-term engagement with the individuals of a single community, and a beautiful example of ethnographic storytelling.
The Living Inca Town: Tourist Encounters in the Peruvian Andes
By Karoline Guelke | March 2021| Paperback | 204 pages
The Living Inca Town presents a rich case study of tourism in Ollantaytambo, a rapidly developing destination in the southern Peruvian Andes and the starting point for many popular treks to Machu Picchu, vividly illustrating how tourism can perpetuate gendered and global inequalities, while also exploring new avenues to challenge and renegotiate these roles.
Collective Care: Indigenous Motherhood, Family, and HIV/AIDS
By Pamela J. Downe | January 2021| Paperback | 176 pages
Collective Care is based on a five-year study with AIDS Saskatoon and provides an ethnographic account of urban Indigenous life and caregiving practices in the face of Saskatchewan’s HIV epidemic, focusing on the contrast between Indigenous values of collective kin-care and non-Indigenous models of intensive maternal care, with the overall aim of humanizing those affected by HIV in western Canada and beyond.
I Was Never Alone, or Oporniki: An Ethnographic Play on Disability in Russia
By Cassandra Hartblay | October 2020| Paperback | 218 pages
I Was Never Alone, or Oporniki presents an original ethnographic stage play based on fieldwork conducted in Russia with adults with disabilities, accompanied by a description of the script development process – from the research in the field to rehearsals for public performances – and a supporting essay that explores the practices of ethnography and theatre.
Millennial Movements: Positive Social Change in Urban Costa Rica
By Karen Stocker | August 2020| Paperback | 136 pages
Millennial Movements presents case studies of Costa Rican millennial leaders to show how youth activists in San José draw from grassroots and global solutions to create positive social change in their communities, tackling growing concerns including environmental sustainability, freedom from sexual assault, food security, LGBTQ+ rights, and more.
From Water to Wine: Becoming Middle Class in Angola
By Jess Auerbach | February 2020| Paperback | 256 pages
From Water to Wine explores how Angola has changed since the end of its civil war in 2002, with a focus on the middle class – their consumption, aspirations, and hopes for their families – and a deliberate choice to give attention to beauty and happiness in everyday life in a country that has had an unusually troubled history.
Deeply Rooted in the Present: Heritage, Memory, and Identity in Brazilian Quilombos
By Mary Lorena Kenny | May 2018| Paperback | 192 pages
Deeply Rooted in the Present is a brief and engaging ethnography that illustrates the ways in which memories, knowledge, and experience are transformed into cultural heritage.
Truth and Indignation: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools, Second Edition
By Ronald Niezen | November 2017 | Paperback | 208 pages
Truth and Indignation is a valuable text for understanding transitional justice, colonialism and redress, public anthropology, and human rights.
Long Night at the Vepsian Museum: The Forest Folk of Northern Russia and the Struggle for Cultural Survival
By Veronica Davidov | November 2017 | Paperback | 160 pages
Long Night at the Vepsian Museum is based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research that takes readers to the village of Sheltozero in northern Russia, using a tour of the local museum to introduce a cast of human and non-human characters from traditional Vepsian culture, and to explore various time periods under Russian, Finnish, Soviet, and post-Soviet rule.
Ancestral Lines: The Maisin of Papua New Guinea and the Fate of the Rainforest, Second Edition
By John Barker | April 2016 | Paperback | 256 pages
Ancestral Lines is a triumph of ethnographic writing that uses the various stages of tapa cloth production to frame a broader discussion of cultural changes and continuities. The story of how the Maisin came to reject commercial logging on their traditional lands challenges the stereotype of Indigenous peoples as passive victims of globalization.
Merchants in the City of Art: Work, Identity, and Change in a Florentine Neighborhood
By Anne Schiller | April 2016 | Paperback | 144 pages
Merchants in the City of Art is a lively and engaging ethnography that uses the experiences and perspectives of a set of long-time market vendors to explore how cultural identities are formed, and how those identities are negotiated during periods of profound social and economic change.
Love Stories: Language, Private Love, and Public Romance in Georgia
By Paul Manning | May 2015 | Paperback | 192 pages
Love Stories looks at personal expressions of love and the circulation of these narratives at the broader public level of the modern nation, offering an ethnography of language and desire that doubles as an introduction to key linguistic genres and to the interplay of language and culture.
Culturing Bioscience: A Case Study in the Anthropology of Science
By Udo Krautwurst | August 2014 | Paperback | 224 pages
Culturing Bioscience charts the rise and fall of an experimental biomedical facility at a North American university, offering a fascinating glimpse into scientific culture and the social and political context in which that culture operates.
Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism, and the Global Bazaar
By Andrew Walsh | October 2012 | Paperback | 128 pages
Made in Madagascar is an innovative ethnography that explores the tensions and negotiations between locals and foreigners with sensitivity and a critical eye.
Fields of Play: An Ethnography of Children’s Sports
By Noel Dyck | October 2012 | Paperback | 224 pages
Fields of Play is based on nearly two decades of ethnographic field research into the dynamics of children’s sporting activities, providing valuable insight into issues of contemporary family and community, as well as the shaping of childhood, youth, and adulthood.
Red Flags and Lace Coiffes: Identity and Survival in a Breton Village
By Charles R. Menzies | August 2011 | Paperback | 176 pages
Red Flags and Lace Coiffes is an engaging ethnography that explores how and why family-based fishing enterprises continue in the face of what seem to be overwhelming odds.
Rites of the Republic: Citizens’ Theatre and the Politics of Culture in Southern France
By Mark Ingram | February 2011 | Paperback | 240 pages
Rites of the Republic is a fascinating exploration of citizenship and the politics of culture in contemporary France, examining two theatre troupes in Provence: one group based in a small town in the rural part of the Vaucluse region, and an urban project in Marseilles, France’s most culturally diverse city.
Maya or Mestizo?: Nationalism, Modernity, and its Discontents
By Ronald Loewe | September 2010 | Paperback | 208 pages
Maya or Mestizo? offers a contemporary look at a Maya community caught between tradition and modernity, skillfully weaving the history of Mexico and this particular community into the analysis.
White Lies about the Inuit
By John Steckley | December 2007 | Paperback | 168 pages
White Lies about the Inuit is a lively book that unpacks a series of popular myths about the Inuit that have been perpetuated by anthropologists, textbooks, and the media.
Contested Representations: Revisiting “Into the Heart of Africa”
By Shelley Ruth Butler | September 2007 | Paperback | 144 pages
Contested Representations is an examination of the controversy surrounding the “Into the Heart of Africa” exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in the 1990s, offering students and instructors an opportunity to discuss the important issues of race, postmodernism, colonialism, community activism, and museum practices.
Hidden Heads of Households: Child Labor in Urban Northeast Brazil
By Mary Lorena Kenny | January 2007 | Paperback | 144 pages
Hidden Heads of Households examines how children navigate the spaces of extreme urban poverty, manage tasks of household production, and develop strategies of survival.
Waiting for Macedonia: Identity in a Changing World
By Ilka Thiessen | October 2006 | Paperback | 206 pages
Waiting for Macedonia gives insight into one of the most moving moments in post-war European history: the hope for a new Europe in the years following the collapse of communism.
The Person in Dementia: A Study of Nursing Home Care in the US
By Athena McLean | October 2006 | Paperback | 312 pages
The Person in Dementia is based on two years of intensive comparative ethnographic study in a nursing home in a Northeastern American city and dramatically contrasts the outcomes of two approaches to dementia care for elders with severely disturbed behaviors.
Back Door Java: State Formation and the Domestic in Working Class Java
By Jan Newberry | April 2006 | Paperback | 200 pages
Back Door Java explores the everyday lives of ordinary urban Javanese from a new perspective on domestic space and the state.
StreetCities: Rehousing the Homeless
By Rae Bridgman | December 2005 | Paperback | 219 pages
StreetCities charts the development of an alternative communal housing model for chronically homeless men and women in downtown Toronto.
Svinia in Black and White: Slovak Roma and their Neighbours
By David Z. Scheffel | April 2005 | Paperback | 244 pages
Svinia in Black and White offers a detailed ethnographic account of the social, cultural, and historical circumstances that have encouraged and supported inter-ethnic inequality in a Romani settlement in eastern Slovakia.
Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry
By Vincent Lyon-Callo | October 2004 | Paperback | 191 pages
Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance draws upon five years of ethnographic fieldwork in a homeless shelter in Northampton, Massachusetts, to argue that homelessness must be understood within the context of increasing neoliberal policies, practices, and discourses.
Between History and Tomorrow: Making and Breaking Everyday Life in Rural Newfoundland
By Gerald Sider | September 2003 | Paperback | 344 pages
Between History and Tomorrow is a classic ethnography that provides a chance to see history happening, exploring the spaces that have developed between those who are and those who are not “making it” since the demise of the cod fishery.
Over the Next Hill: An Ethnography of RVing Seniors in North America, Second Edition
By David R. Counts and Dorothy Ayers Counts | May 2001 | Paperback | 347 pages
Over the Next Hill tells the authors’ story of their research living the life of RVing seniors in trailer parks, “boondocking” sites on government land, laundromats, and other meeting places across North America.
Life Among the Yanomami
By John F. Peters | June 1998 | Paperback | 292 pages
Life Among the Yanomami builds on literature and the author’s personal experience of the northern Brazil people, the Mucajai Yanomami, with whom he lived from 1958 to 1967 and whom he has since frequently visited.
Women’s Voices, Women’s Power: Dialogues of Resistance from East Africa
By Judith Abwunza | February 1997 | Paperback | 224 pages
Women’s Voices, Women’s Power provides in this ethnography both the fruit of her research into the lives of Logoli women of Western Kenya and substantial transcripts giving the women’s own description and analysis of their situation.
Living on the Land: Change Among the Inuit of Baffin Island
By John S. Matthiasson | October 1992 | Paperback | 172 pages
Living on the Land offers both a vivid picture of Inuit society as it was and an illuminating look at the nature and the extent of the enormous changes of the past thirty years.
The Pacaa Nova: Clash of Cultures on the Brazilian Frontier
By Bernard von Graeve | October 1991 | Paperback | 160 pages
The Pacaa Nova tells a tragic story, but an entirely fascinating one, presented by the author in enormously readable fashion, with first-hand descriptions that bring the culture to life for students.
In the Shadow of Antichrist: The Old Believers of Alberta
By David Z. Scheffel | March 1991 | Paperback | 252 pages
In the Shadow of Antichrist provides both a brief history of a remarkable sect and a detailed account and analysis of the manner in which their traditional life style is kept up in three Alberta communities.
