Subject: Anthropology. Ethnography

Ancient Asia

Divinity and Diversity: A Hindu Revitalization Movement in Malaysia

Alexandra Kent 2005 A timely and relevant study in this age of concern about trans-national ’religious’ networks where powerful use of ethnographic date illuminates an original and striking thesis on the ambiguous nature of the Sai Baba movement. What makes this work outstanding is how the author places her material against the complex ethnic, political […]

Harvesting Development: The Construction of Fresh Food Markets in Papua New Guinea

**Karl Benediktsson*’ 2002 This book addresses the global–local tension evident in much work on development issues, through the example of fresh food markets in Papua New Guinea. A key feature is the author’s skilful and inventive interweaving of theoretical constructs with a detailed ethnography of marketing networks, at the rural village and the urban market-place, […]

Kinship and Food in South East Asia

Monica Janowski & Fiona Kerlogue (eds) 2011 Food has an important role in establishing and structuring social and kin relations in Southeast Asian societies. For this reason, there is growing interest within anthropology in understanding how the production, processing and consumption of food is one important basis for the construction of ties of relatedness, so-called […]

Mongols From Country to City: loating Boundaries, Pastoralism and City Life in the Mongol Lands

Ole Bruun & Li Narangoa (eds) 2011 This volume examines the process of cultural change in Mongol societies since the early 20th century by considering the interaction of the basic structural features of pastoral nomadism in Mongolia with larger economies, both communist and capitalist; the effect of deliberate cultural reconstruction (ranging from changes to the […]

Commoners and Nobles: Hereditary Divisions in Tibet

Heidi Fjeld 2005 Written by one of the few scholars who has been able to conduct long-term fieldwork in the TAR, this study explores how Tibetans manoeuvre within two contradictory value systems – those of old Tibet and the new PRC – balancing between ideals and pragmatism. More specifically, it asks how and why it […]

Fengshui in China: Geomantic Divination Between State Orthodoxy and Popular Religion

Ole Bruun 2011 Contrary to popular manuals, this book approaches fengshui from an academic angle, focusing on its significance in China, but also depicting the recent history of its reinterpretation in the West. It includes a historical account of fengshui over the last 150 years with anthropological fieldwork on contemporary practices in two Chinese rural […]

Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Burma

Mikael Gravers (ed) 2006 While the image of modern Myanmar/Burma tends to be couched in human rights terms – and especially of a heroic Aung San Suu Kyi opposing an oppressive military regime – in reality there are several conflicts with ethnic and religious dimensions, as well as political and ideological differences between the opposition […]

Doing Fieldwork in China

Maria Heimer & Stig Thøgersen (eds) 2006 Doing fieldwork inside the PRC is an eye-opening but sometimes also deeply frustrating experience. Fieldwork-based studies form the foundation for our understanding of Chinese politics and society, but there are conspicuously few detailed descriptions in the China literature of how people actually do their fieldwork, and of the […]

Beyond the Green Myth: Borneo’s Hunter-Gatherers in the Twenty-First Century

Peter Sercombe & Bernard Sellato (eds) 2006 Covering all those parts of Borneo where nomads (called Penan, Punan or by various other names) are or were known to exist, this book provides a comparative historical-ecological study of these groups. The study is primarily concerned with issues of modernization (the monetary economy, formalized institutions, centralized power […]