Month: April 2015

International Dance Day

First introduced in 1982 by the International Dance Council and now celebrated yearly on April 29th, the International Dance Day brings attention to the art of dance. It revels the universality of this art form that crosses all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and brings people together with a common language – Dance!

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“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” – Voltaire

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To celebrate the Dance Day we invite you to browse Dance & Performance Studies series. Visit series webpage and use code DPS15 at checkout to receive 25% discount on all titles within the series (valid for the next 30 days). Grounded in ethnography, this series explores dance, music and bodily movement in cultural contexts at the juncture of history, ritual and performance in an interconnected world.

 

LEARNING SENEGALESE SABAR
Dancers and Embodiment in New York and Dakar
Eleni Bizas Continue reading “International Dance Day” →

Observing 102nd Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

 

April 24 marks the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and tens of thousands are expected to march to commemorate the event.

In recognizing the significance of the occasion we would like to bring to your attention a small but select number of titles which deliver scholarly expertise and informed opinion around the subject.

 

Continue reading “Observing 102nd Anniversary of Armenian Genocide” →

Association for the Study of Nationalities Conference

Screen shot 2015-04-24 at 10.56.57 AMWe are delighted to inform you that we will be attending the 20th Annual Association for the Study of Nationalities World Convention (23-25 April 2015) at Columbia University in New York City. Berghahn will be exhibiting for one day only! Please stop by our stand on Friday April 24th, and don’t miss your chance to browse our selection of books and pick up FREE journal samples!

  

For more info about the Association for the Study of Nationalities, click here.

 
 

If you are unable to attend, we would like to provide you with a special discount offer. For the next 30 days, receive a 25% discount on any of the titles listed below. Simply enter the code ASN15 at checkout. Visit our website­ for a complete listing of all published and forthcoming titles.

  
 

Continue reading “Association for the Study of Nationalities Conference” →

Earth Day

Each year, Earth Day — April 22 — marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center. The very first Earth day celebration brought 20 million Americans to the streets to peacefully demonstrate for environmental protection. The day finally united groups that shared common values and have been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife. It is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people. Get involved to build a better future!

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In celebration of Earth Day, we are delighted to offer free access to a special virtual issue that focuses on Climate Change and features articles from a range of history, politics, and anthropology journals. http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/Climate_Change_VI.pdf

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Happy Earth Day from Berghahn! Visit our web and for the next 30 days use code AAG15 at checkout to receive 25% discount on our Environmental Studies titles.

 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
An Appraisal from the Gulf Region
Edited by Paul Sillitoe

Continue reading “Earth Day” →

‘More than the Sum of Our Isolated Parts’: Reflections of a Co-Author

From Virtue to Vice: Negotiating Anorexia is the result of creative and academic collaboration between Penny Van Esterik and Richard A. O’Connor. In the following post, Van Esterik reflects on the collaboration of this  pair—Van Esterik, an expert on breastfeeding, and O’Connor, an anthropologist who watched someone close suffer with anorexia—and how their book was made much stronger through their unique vantage points.

 

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Like most academics, I am a lone wolf writer, needing the silence to propel my thoughts on to screens and paper. But sometimes we become more than the sum of our isolated parts when we work together. Richard’s voice as an anthropologist was already in my work long before we began formal collaboration on From Virtue to Vice and ongoing in The Dance of Nurture [their next co-written book on breastfeeding].

Continue reading “‘More than the Sum of Our Isolated Parts’: Reflections of a Co-Author” →

Tradition Taboo: Disagreements between Common Practice and Public Discourse

Hans Steinmüller’s Communities of Complicity: Everyday Ethics in Rural China is now available in paperback. The ethnography explores the moral uncertainties experienced by the people of the village of Zhongba in Central China as they navigate and balance the expectations of capitalism and their traditional culture. The author offers a reflection on his fieldwork in rural China and insights into Chinese culture in the following post.

 

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The main idea of ‘Communities of Complicity’ has to do with the delicate relationship between vernacular practices and official discourse in rural China. In regards to geomancy (fengshui), rituals, gifting, and corruption discourse, for instance, official representations are often inconsistent with local practice. While it is very common to invite ritual masters for family celebrations and to give money gifts at such occasions, these practices are often described in public discourse as backwards and corrupt.

Continue reading “Tradition Taboo: Disagreements between Common Practice and Public Discourse” →

Hot Off the Presses – New Journal Issues Published in March

 

French Politics, Culture & Society
Volume 33, Issue 1
The contributions in this special issue represent a new wave of scholarship that brings the insights of recent post-Revolutionary historiography to the process of colonial transition.

 

Critical Survey
Volume 26, Issue 2
This features articles which explore topics related to the many works of William Shakespeare and ends with an interview with poet and critic Ruth O’Callaghan.

 

Social Analysis
Volume 59, Issue 1
This special issue is titled “Stategraphy: Toward a Relational Anthropology of the State” and is based in part on papers presented at the conference “Local State and Social Security: Negotiating Deservingness and Avenues to Resources in Rural Areas,” which took place in Halle from 30 June to 2 July 2011.

 

Helping without Harming and Minding the Balance

Author Emma Kowal explores the “good” that well-meaning White Australians are doing for Indigenous Australians. This path to help is charted in Trapped in the Gap: Doing Good in Indigenous Australia, a recently published book that asks the question: How can one help without harming? Following, Kowal explains the origins and reception of her work studying this group of “White anti-racists.”

 

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‘You’re an anthropologist and you study… White people?’ I regularly receive a puzzled look from people when I tell them what I do. Anthropologists are supposed to study Indigenous tribes in remote locations, aren’t they? Or at least something exciting, like drug addicts or slum dwellers.

 

Continue reading “Helping without Harming and Minding the Balance” →

Simulated Shelves: Browse March 2015 New Books

 

We are delighted to present a selection of our newly published March 2015 titles from our core subjects of Anthropology, Colonialism, Education, Global Health, History, Medical Anthropology, Politics, Theory & Methodology in Anthropology, and Urban Studies, along with a selection of our New in Paperback titles.

 

We are especially excited to announce the publication of the paperback edition of CIVILIZING NATURE edited by Bernhard Gissibl, Sabine Höhler and Patrick Kupper.

“This book makes a unique contribution to the conservation literature by enhancing one’s understanding and appreciation of the cultural meaning of nature conservation through the lens of national park development. […] Highly recommended.” · Choice

 

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NIMBY IS BEAUTIFUL
Cases of Local Activism and Environmental Innovation Around the World
Edited by Carol Hager and Mary Alice Haddad

Continue reading “Simulated Shelves: Browse March 2015 New Books” →