Anthropology (41)

• Anthropology
• Education
• Politics and Sociology

Make/Unmake: Play at the Centre of Culture Change

• Anna Beresin

Anna Beresin’s 'Make/Unmake' is an engaging and deeply original exploration of children’s play as a powerful cultural force. Drawing on ethnographic research and vivid travel writing, the author journeys to the Midlands region of England to observe three remarkable play-based programs: the Maker{Futures} Mobile Makerspace, the Pitsmoor Adventure Playground, and the GLUE Collective. She captures the voices of playworkers, teachers, and artists and documents the ingenuity of children turning objects into tools of imagination and change.

• Anthropology
• Digital Humanities
• Material Culture

Польові зйомки: Оцифрування документальної спадщини у складних умовах

• Джоді Баттерворт
• Ендрю Пірсон
• Патрік Сазерленд
• Адам Фаркухар

Цей посібник обов'язково треба прочитати, якщо ви плануєте розпочати науковий проект з оцифрування. Посібник відповідає специфікаціям проєктів EAP (Програма збереження архівів, що перебувають під загрозою зникнення) Британської бібліотеки, він наповнений хорошими практичними рекомендаціями щодо планування та реалізації успішного проекту з оцифрування в потенційно складних умовах.

• Anthropology
• Asian Studies
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature
• Other languages

Careful Village and Other 'Khashag' from Tibet: The Amdo Comedies of Menla Jyab

• Menla Jyab
• Timothy Thurston
• Tsering Samdrup
• Timothy Thurston
• Tsering Samdrup

This volume offers a unique glimpse into the world of khashag, a vibrant genre of Tibetan spoken comic dialogues from the area Tibetans call Amdo, with the first ever publication of 11 annotated translations of scripts by its leading performer, Menla Jyab. Emerging in the 1980s during a period of cultural revival in Tibetan communities, khashag fused traditional Tibetan expression with influences from Han Chinese xiangsheng (crosstalk), evolving into a medium of sharp societal critique and joyous entertainment. Menla Jyab, a pioneering performer, used his platform in radio, television, to craft comedies described as ‘having meaning in every line’.

• Anthropology
• Architecture
• European Studies: English and Irish Studies
• History
• Politics and Sociology

City of Capital and Labour: The Making and Transformation of Industrial Manchester

• Tom Saunders

This compelling book explores the evolution of industrial Manchester, offering a fresh perspective on its built environment through the lens of architecture, archaeology, and social history. Richly illustrated and designed for both academic and general audiences, it sheds new light on Manchester’s transformation during the Industrial Revolution, highlighting how the city’s physical form shaped and was shaped by its socio-economic and cultural dynamics.

• Anthropology
• Economics
• Health
• Psychology and Psychoanalysis
• Psychology and Psychoanalysis

The Economics of Cultural Loss: Harm and Resilience in North American Indigenous Communities

• Mukesh Eswaran
• Ronald L. Trosper

Why do North American Indigenous Peoples face such grave conditions in health, poverty, and mortality—including alarmingly high rates of suicide, alcoholism, and drug abuse? In this groundbreaking book, Mukesh Eswaran confronts these urgent questions through the lens of economics, focusing deeply on an underexplored aspect: the erosion of Indigenous culture. While empirical studies have shed some light on Indigenous struggles, Eswaran argues that mainstream economic theory fails to grasp the unique realities of Indigenous communities. His work introduces innovative models that incorporate cultural and communal values—particularly the sacredness of land and the importance of extended family and communal life—as foundational components of Indigenous well-being.

• Anthropology
• Architecture
• History
• Politics and Sociology

Housing, Heritage and Urbanisation in the Middle East and North Africa

• Lilia Makhloufi

This book explores the interconnection between housing, heritage and urbanisation. Bringing together architects, archaeologists, urban sociologists, urban designers, urban planners and landscape architects, this multi-authored and interdisciplinary volume presents diverse case studies from the Middle East and North Africa, shedding light on the past, present and future of residential spaces.

• Anthropology
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature

Oral Poetry

• Ruth Finnegan

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the vast field of 'oral poetry,' encompassing everything from American folksongs, contemporary pop songs, and Inuit lyrics, to the heroic epics of Homer, biblical psalms, and epic traditions in Asia and the Pacific. Taking a broad comparative approach, it explores oral poetry across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas. Drawing on global research, Ruth Finnegan, the author of the seminal Oral Literature in Africa, sheds light on key debates such as the nature of oral tradition, the relationship between poetry and society, the differences between oral and written forms, and the role of poets in predominantly non-literate contexts.

• Anthropology
• Education
• Politics and Sociology
• Psychology and Psychoanalysis

A Field Guide to Cross-Cultural Research on Childhood Learning: Theoretical, Methodological, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for an Interdisciplinary Field

• Sheina Lew-Levy
• Stephen Asatsa

This volume addresses the critical gaps in developmental research on childhood learning by advocating for a more inclusive and cross-cultural approach. Recent studies highlight a concerning over-reliance on data from post-industrialized western countries, raising questions about the broader applicability of findings. This book seeks to provide a comprehensive solution, bridging the gap between theory and practice.

• Anthropology
• Asian Studies

Humans, Dogs and Other Beings: Myths, Stories, and History in the Land of Genghis Khan

• Baasanjav Terbish

Step into the windswept steppes of Mongolia and explore a world where humans and animals have coexisted for centuries in a delicate, profound dance. This groundbreaking book examines the complex relationships between the Mongols and four animals—dogs, marmots, cats, and camels—shedding light on a nomadic culture that is deeply intertwined with its natural environment. Drawing from rich ethnographic accounts, historical records, and personal memoir, the author, of Mongol origin, offers a vivid narrative that intertwines cultural insights with intimate reflections.

• Anthropology
• Environmental Studies
• Politics and Sociology
• Science: Applied Science

The Field Guide to Mixing Social and Biophysical Methods in Environmental Research

• Rebecca Lave
• Stuart Lane

Despite ongoing debates about its origins, the Anthropocene—a new epoch characterized by significant human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystems—is widely acknowledged. Our environment is increasingly a product of interacting biophysical and social forces, shaped by climate change, colonial legacies, gender norms, hydrological processes, and more. Understanding these intricate interactions requires a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative, biophysical and social research.

• Anthropology
• Architecture
• History
• Politics and Sociology

Urban Heritage and Sustainability in the Age of Globalisation

• Lilia Makhloufi

This book offers a deep exploration of architectural and urban heritage, using interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches to assess how historical, social, economic and political factors have impacted heritage development and its sustainability. It sheds light on the stakes of heritage conservation, management and maintenance in today’s globalised world.

• Anthropology
• Politics and Sociology
• Science: History of Science

The Diagrammatics of ‘Race’: Visualizing Human Relatedness in the History of Physical, Evolutionary, and Genetic Anthropology, ca. 1770-2020

• Marianne Sommer

This is the first book that engages with the history of diagrams in physical, evolutionary, and genetic anthropology. Since their establishment as scientific tools for classification in the eighteenth century, diagrams have been used to determine but also to deny kinship between human groups. In nineteenth-century craniometry, they were omnipresent in attempts to standardize measurements on skulls for hierarchical categorization. In particular the ’human family tree’ was central for evolutionary understandings of human diversity, being used on both sides of debates about whether humans constitute different species well into the twentieth century. With recent advances in (ancient) DNA analyses, the tree diagram has become more contested than ever―does human relatedness take the shape of a network? Are human individual genomes mosaics made up of different ancestries? Sommer examines the epistemic and political role of these visual representations in the history of ‘race’ as an anthropological category. How do such diagrams relate to imperial and (post-)colonial practices and ideologies but also to liberal and humanist concerns?

• Anthropology
• Architecture
• History
• Politics and Sociology

Tangible and Intangible Heritage in the Age of Globalisation

• Lilia Makhloufi

Tangible and Intangible Heritage in the Age of Globalisation offers a rich collection of perspectives on the complex interplay between tangible and intangible heritage. These essays illustrate the need to redefine heritage as an interdisciplinary and intercultural concept. They interrogate heritage paradigms while also providing concrete recommendations to promote the preservation of physical heritage spaces, and the cultural practices and social relationships that depend on them.

• Anthropology
• Asian Studies
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Linguistics
• Literature

Shépa: The Tibetan Oral Tradition in Choné

• Bendi Tso
• Marnyi Gyatso
• Naljor Tsering
• Mark Turin
• Members of the Choné Tibetan Community

This book contains a unique collection of Tibetan oral narrations and songs known as Shépa, as these have been performed, recorded and shared between generations of Choné Tibetans from Amdo living in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Presented in trilingual format — in Tibetan, Chinese and English — the book reflects a sustained collaboration with and between members of the local community, including narrators, monks, and scholars, calling attention to the diversity inherent in all oral traditions, and the mutability of Shépa in particular.

• African Studies
• Anthropology
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature
• Other languages

Folktales of Mayotte, an African Island

• Lee Haring

The book uncovers the versatility and literary skills of oral narrators in a small African island. Relying on the researches of three French ethnographers who interviewed storytellers in the 1970s-80s, Lee Haring shows a once-colonised people using verbal art to preserve ancient values in the postcolonial world, when the island of Mayotte was transforming itself from a neglected colony to an overseas department of France.

• Anthropology
• Education
• Politics and Sociology

Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation

• Anna Beresin
• Julia Bishop

During the international coronavirus lockdowns of 2020–2021, millions of children, youth, and adults found their usual play areas out of bounds and their friends out of reach. How did the pandemic restrict everyday play and how did the pandemic offer new spaces and new content? This unique collection of essays documents the ways in which communities around the world harnessed play within the limiting frame of Covid-19.

• Anthropology
• Politics and Sociology

Anthropology of Transformation: From Europe to Asia and Back

• Juraj Buzalka
• Agnieszka Pasieka

This collection of essays is the result of the joint efforts of colleagues and students of the leading social anthropology and post-socialism theorist, Professor Chris Hann. With the thirtieth anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 2019 as their catalyst, the authors reflect upon Chris Hann’s lifelong fieldwork in the discipline, spanning regions as diverse as East Central Europe, Turkey, and the Chinese north-west.

• Anthropology
• Politics and Sociology

Human Cultures through the Scientific Lens: Essays in Evolutionary Cognitive Anthropology

• Pascal Boyer

This volume brings together a collection of seven articles previously published by the author, with a new introduction reframing the articles in the context of past and present questions in anthropology, psychology and human evolution. It promotes the perspective of ‘integrated’ social science, in which social science questions are addressed in a deliberately eclectic manner, combining results and models from evolutionary biology, experimental psychology, economics, anthropology and history.

• Anthropology
• Environmental Studies

Right Research: Modelling Sustainable Research Practices in the Anthropocene

• Chelsea Miya
• Oliver Rossier
• Geoffrey Rockwell

The essays in this volume critically examine scholarly research practices in the age of the Anthropocene, and ask what accountability educators and researchers have in ‘righting’ their relationship to the environment.

• Anthropology
• Environmental Studies
• Politics and Sociology

Living Earth Community: Multiple Ways of Being and Knowing

• Sam Mickey
• Mary Evelyn Tucker
• John Grim

Living Earth Community: Multiple Ways of Being and Knowing is a celebration of the diversity of ways in which humans can relate to the world around them, and an invitation to its readers to partake in planetary coexistence. Innovative, informative, and highly accessible, this interdisciplinary anthology of essays brings together scholars, writers and educators across the sciences and humanities, in a collaborative effort to illuminate the different ways of being in the world and the different kinds of knowledge they entail – from the ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities, to the scientific knowledge of a biologist and the embodied knowledge communicated through storytelling.

• Anthropology
• Politics and Sociology

Lifestyle in Siberia and the Russian North

• Joachim Otto Habeck

Lifestyle in Siberia and the Russian North breaks new ground by exploring the concept of lifestyle from a distinctly anthropological perspective. Showcasing the collective work of ten experienced scholars in the field, the book goes beyond concepts of tradition that have often been the focus of previous research, to explain how political, economic and technological changes in Russia have created a wide range of new possibilities and constraints in the pursuit of different ways of life.

• Anthropology
• Linguistics

The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya

• Selma K. Sonntag
• Mark Turin

This highly original and timely collection brings together case studies from salient areas of the Himalayan region to explore the politics of language contact. Promoting a linguistically and historically grounded perspective, The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya offers nuanced insights into language and its relation to power in this geopolitically complex region.

• Anthropology
• European Studies
• European Studies: Eastern European Studies

Life Histories of Etnos Theory in Russia and Beyond

• David G. Anderson
• Dmitry V Arzyutov
• Sergei S. Alymov

Life Histories of Etnos Theory in Russia and Beyond makes a powerful argument for reconsidering the importance of etnos in our understanding of ethnicity and national identity across Eurasia. The collection brings to life a rich archive of previously unpublished letters, fieldnotes, and photographic collections of the theory’s early proponents.

• Anthropology
• Asian Studies
• Literature
• Other languages

Tales of Darkness and Light: Soso Tham's The Old Days of the Khasis

• Soso Tham
• Janet Hujon

Poet of landscape, myth and memory, Soso Tham paid rich and poignant tribute to his tribe in his masterpiece The Old Days of the Khasis. Janet Hujon’s vibrant new translation presents the English reader with Tham’s long poem, which keeps a rich cultural tradition of the Khasi people alive through its retelling of old narratives and acts as a cultural signpost for their literary identity.

• Anthropology
• History
• History: International Relations
• Politics and Sociology

Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus

• Manja Stephan-Emmrich
• Philipp Schröder

This collection brings together a variety of anthropological, historical and sociological case studies from Central Asia and the Caucasus to examine the concept of translocality. The chapters scrutinize the capacity of translocality to describe, in new ways, the multiple mobilities, exchange practices and globalizing processes that link places, people and institutions in Central Asia and the Caucasus with others in Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates.

• Anthropology
• Digital Humanities
• Material Culture

Remote Capture: Digitising Documentary Heritage in Challenging Locations

• Patrick Sutherland
• Adam Farquhar
• Jody Butterworth
• Andrew Pearson

This is a must-read how-to guide if you are planning to embark on a scholarly digitisation project. Tailored to the specifications of the British Library’s EAP (Endangered Archives Programme) projects, it is full of sound, practical advice about planning and carrying out a successful digitisation project in potentially challenging conditions.

• Anthropology
• Asian Studies
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature
• Other languages

Long Narrative Songs from the Mongghul of Northeast Tibet: Texts in Mongghul, Chinese, and English

• Li Dechun
• Gerald Roche

Containing ballads of martial heroism, tales of tragic lovers and visions of the nature of the world, Long Narrative Songs from the Mongghul of Northeast Tibet: Texts in Mongghul, Chinese, and English is a rich repository of songs collected amongst the Mongghul of the Seven Valleys, on the northeast Tibetan Plateau in western China.

• Anthropology
• History
• History: International Relations
• Politics and Sociology

Warlike and Peaceful Societies: The Interaction of Genes and Culture

• Agner Fog

Are humans violent or peaceful by nature? We are both. In this ambitious and wide-ranging book, Agner Fog presents a ground-breaking new argument that explains the existence of differently organised societies using evolutionary theory. It combines natural sciences and social sciences in a way that is rarely seen.

• African Studies
• Anthropology
• Digital Humanities
• Material Culture

Searching for Sharing: Heritage and Multimedia in Africa

• Daniela Merolla
• Mark Turin

In a world where new technologies are being developed at a dizzying pace, how can we best approach oral genres that represent heritage? Taking an innovative and interdisciplinary approach, this volume explores the idea of sharing as a model to construct and disseminate the knowledge of literary heritage with the people who are represented by and in it.

• Anthropology
• Science
• Science: Applied Science

Behaviour, Development and Evolution

• Patrick Bateson

The role of parents in shaping the characters of their children, the causes of violence and crime, and the roots of personal unhappiness are central to humanity. Like so many fundamental questions about human existence, these issues all relate to behavioural development. In this lucid and accessible book, eminent biologist Professor Sir Patrick Bateson suggests that the nature/nurture dichotomy we often use to think about questions of development in both humans and animals is misleading. Instead, he argues that we should pay attention to whole systems, rather than to simple causes, when trying to understand the complexity of development.

• Anthropology
• European Studies
• History
• Science
• Science: History of Science

Measuring the Master Race: Physical Anthropology in Norway 1890-1945

• Jon Røyne Kyllingstad

This book investigates the role played by Scandinavian scholars in inventing this so-called superior race, and discusses how this concept put its stamp on Norwegian physical anthropology, prehistory, national identity, and on the Norwegian eugenics movement. It also explores the decline and scientific disputation of these ideas in the 1930s as they came to be associated with the ‘genetic cleansing’ of Nazi Germany. This is the first comprehensive study on Norwegian physical anthropology, and its findings shed new light on current political and scientific debates about race across the globe.

• American and Latin American Studies
• Anthropology
• Archaeology and Religion

God's Babies: Natalism and Bible Interpretation in Modern America

• John McKeown

The human population's annual total consumption is not sustainable by one planet. Many observers assume that Christianity is inevitably part of this problem because it promotes "family values" and statistically, in America and elsewhere, has a higher birthrate than nonreligious people. Challenging the assumption that religion normally promotes fecundity, the book finds surprising exceptions among early Christians (with a special focus on Saint Augustine) since they advocated spiritual fecundity in preference to biological fecundity. Finally the book uses a hermeneutic lens derived from Genesis 1, and prioritising the modern problem of biodiversity, to provide ecological interpretations of the Bible's "fruitful" verses.

• American and Latin American Studies
• Anthropology
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature
• Other languages

Stories from Quechan Oral Literature

• A.M. Halpern
• Amy Miller

This book makes a long-awaited contribution to the oral literature and mythology of the American Southwest, and its format and organization are of special interest. Narratives are presented in the original language and in the storytellers’ own words. Facing-page English translation provides a key to the original Quechan for the benefit of language learners. In presenting not just stories but story complexes, this volume captures the art of storytelling and illuminates the complexity and interconnectedness of an important body of oral literature.

• American and Latin American Studies
• Anthropology
• Other languages

Xiipúktan (First of All): Three Views of the Origins of the Quechan People

• George Bryant
• Amy Miller

Creation myths form the backdrop against which much of the Quechan tribe’s oral literature may be understood. At one time there were almost as many versions of the Quechan creation story as there were Quechan families. Now few people remember them. This volume, presented in the Quechan language with facing-column translation, provides three views of the origins of the Quechan people. This collection is for the Quechan people and will also interest linguists, anthropologists, oral literature specialists, and anyone curious about Native American culture.

• African Studies
• Anthropology
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature
• Other languages

How to Read a Folktale: The 'Ibonia' Epic from Madagascar

• Lee Haring

This book offers an English translation of Ibonia, a spellbinding tale of old Madagascar. Recorded when the Malagasy people were first experiencing European contact, Ibonia proclaims the power of the ancestors against the foreigner. Its fairytale elements link it with European folktales, but the story is nonetheless very much a product of Madagascar. Inflating the folktale form to epic proportions, it combines African-style praise poetry with Indonesian-style riddles and poems. Through Ibonia, Lee Haring expertly helps readers to understand the very nature of folktales, connecting this exotic narrative with fundamental questions not only of anthropology but also of literary criticism.

• African Studies
• Anthropology
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature
• Other languages

Storytelling in Northern Zambia: Theory, Method, Practice and Other Necessary Fictions

• Robert Cancel

A collection and analysis of the oral narrative traditions of northern Zambia, this innovative book integrates audio and video recordings into the text. Robert Cancel’s critical interpretation, meanwhile, makes his work a much-needed addition to the slender corpus of African folklore studies dealing with storytelling performance. Cancel threads his way between the complex demands of African fieldwork studies, folklore theory, narrative modes, reflexive description and documentation, and brings to the reader a vivid, varied and instructive array of performances. His study tells us not only about storytelling but sheds light on the study of oral literatures throughout Africa and beyond.

• Anthropology
• Asian Studies

Feeding the City: Work and Food Culture of the Mumbai Dabbawalas

• Sara Roncaglia
• Angela Arnone

Every day in Mumbai 5,000 dabbawalas distribute 200,000 home-cooked lunchboxes across the city. Giving employment and status to thousands of largely illiterate villagers, this co-operative provides one of the most efficient delivery networks in the world. This book is an ethnographic study of the fascinating inner workings of Mumbai’s dabbawalas. Sara Roncaglia explains how they cater to the dietary requirements of a diverse and increasingly global city, where food preparation and consumption is pervaded with religious and cultural significance. Developing the idea of ‘gastrosemantics’, Roncaglia’s study helps us to rethink our relationship to food at a local and global level.

• African Studies
• Anthropology
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Literature
• Other languages

Oral Literature in Africa

• Ruth Finnegan

Ruth Finnegan’s Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan’s ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, ‘drum language’ and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa.

• Anthropology
• Asian Studies
• Folklore and Ethnology
• History
• History: International Relations
• Politics and Sociology

Frontier Encounters: Knowledge and Practice at the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian Border

• Franck Billé
• Grégory Delaplace
• Caroline Humphrey

China, Russia and Mongolia share thousands of miles of border, but their traditions, languages and worldviews are remarkably different. Presenting varied perspectives on how the borders between these unique countries are enacted, produced and crossed, this book illuminates global uncertainties: China’s search for energy resources and the employment of its huge population, Russia’s fear of Chinese migration, and the precarious economic independence of Mongolia as its neighbours negotiate to extract its plentiful resources. Bringing together anthropologists, sociologists and economists, this timely collection of essays offers new perspectives on an area that is currently of enormous economic, strategic and geo-political relevance.

• Anthropology
• Linguistics

Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Quotation

• Ruth Finnegan

This book combines a down-to-earth account of contemporary quoting with an examination of its comparative and historical background. Drawing from anthropology, cultural history, folklore, cultural studies, sociolinguistics, literary studies and the ethnography of speaking, Ruth Finnegan’s fascinating study sets our present conventions in cross-cultural and historical perspective. She traces the curious history of quotation marks, examines the long tradition of quotation collections, and explores the uses of quotation in literary, visual and oral traditions. By tracking the changing definitions and control of quoting over the millennia, Finnegan sheds new light on ideas such as ‘imitation’, ‘allusion’, ‘authorship’, ‘originality’ and ‘plagiarism’.

• Anthropology
• European Studies
• European Studies: English and Irish Studies
• European Studies: French Studies
• European Studies: German Studies
• History

The American Archipelago: A New Edition of Oscar Handlin’s Classic Anthology, 'This Was America'

• Oscar Handlin
• Kenneth Weisbrode

FORTHCOMING

The collection at hand, Handlin’s classic anthology 'This Was America', first published in 1949, gathers Europeans’ travel accounts and perspectives on America from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Rather than presenting a single narrative, Handlin emphasizes variety: contrasting impressions of liberty and inequality, restlessness and rootedness, optimism and critique by people arriving from diverse European backgrounds. His free translations and selective introductions guide readers subtly but leave interpretation open. Over time, these essays shift meaning depending on context—once read as a celebration of American life, they now invite more critical reflection. This new edition reimagines America not as a singular whole but as an “archipelago”: a collection of diverse experiences, perceptions, and contradictions. The metaphor underscores the interplay between unity and multiplicity in American identity.