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Bracken, Christopher. xii, 276 pp., illus., maps, bibliogr. Chicago, London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1997. £31.95 (cloth), £13.50 (paper) The potlatch has never ceased to fascinate outsiders, who for more [...]

BOYD, ROBERT. (Stud. Anthrop. N. Am. Ind.). xii, 396 pp., illus., bibliogr. Nebraska: Univ. Press; London: Academic & Univ. Publishers Group, 1996. £47.50 This is a volume in the University [...]

Marcel Mauss, in two of his most influential papers, proposed conflicting perspectives on the status relationship between gods and human beings. In an earlier study (1888), written in collaboration with Henri Hubert, he contended that the gifts given in ritual sacrifice by human beings to divinity are important, even necessary, for the existence of their gods. Hence the status relationship between the divine and human contains some degree of parity. In his later paper, 'Essai sur le don', however, Mauss emphasized the superiority of divinity, so much so that human beings were now decisively relegated to a condition of subordination. This article argues in support of Mauss's (and Hubert's) original thesis by adducing as evidence a set of five oral narratives from Timor that suggest human beings may in certain circumstances gain a measure of superiority over the divine, and demonstrates that in each narrative the agents by which this superiority is accomplished are the younger brother and a fishing hook or equivalent artefact which intrude from the quotidian world into the realm of spirit. Its findings suggest that recent propositions arguing for the interactive influence of material artefacts on human values are tenable and that the role of narrative as a medium of communication be reaffirmed as a prime forum for religious reflexivity. Dans deux de ses articles les plus influents, Marcel Mauss a propose des points de vues contradictoires sur les relations de statut entre les dieux et les etres humains. Dans une premiere etude (1899), ecrite en collaboration avec Henri Hubert, il affirme que les dons remis par les hommes aux dieux dans le cadre des sacrifices rituels sont importants, voire necessaires, pour l'existence des dieux. De ce fait, la relation de statut entre le divin et l'humain contiendrait une certaine mesure de parite. Par la suite cependant, dans son <> Mauss souligne la superiorite de la divinite et relegue plus ou moins les etres humains a un etat de subordination. L'auteur du present article prend le parti de la these originale de Mauss (et d'Hubert), sur la base de cinq recits de tradition orale de Timor qui suggerent que les etres humains peuvent, dans certaines circonstances, acquerir une certaine superiorite sur les dieux. Il demontre que dans chaque recit, les agents par lesquels cette superiorite est obtenue sont le petit frere et un hamecon ou un artefact equivalent, qui introduisent le monde quotidien dans le royaume des esprits. A partir de ses constatations, l'auteur suggere que les recentes propositions en faveur de l'influence interactive des objets materiels sur les valeurs humaines sont justifiables, et que le role de la narration comme moyen de communication doit etre reaffirme en tant que scene majeure de la reflexivite religieuse., In two of his most influential essays Marcel Mauss proposes contradictory perspectives on the status relationship between gods and human beings. In the earlier study, written in collaboration with his [...]

CHACKO, PARIYARAM M. (ed.). Tribal communities and social change. 258 pp., tables, bibliogrs. London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005. £35.00 (cloth), £14.99 (paper) This is a collection of twelve papers [...]

ADAMS, KATHLEEN M. Art as politics: re-crafting identities, tourism, and power in Tana Toraja, Indonesia. xii, 286 pp., maps, plates, illus., bibliogr. Honolulu: Univ. Hawai'i Press, 2006. £25.00 (paper) AHMED, [...]

ALLISON, ANNE. Millennial monsters: Japanese toys and the global imagination. xxii, 332 pp., illus., bibliogr. London, Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 2006. £15.95 (paper) AMIT, VERED & NOEL DYCK (eds). Claiming [...]

ABU-LUGHOD, LILA. Dramas of nationhood: the politics of television in Egypt. xvii, 319 pp. illus., bibliogr. London, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2004. £15.50 (paper) ALTER, JOSEPH S. Yoga in modern [...]

AIJMER, GORAN. New Year celebrations in Central China in late imperial times. viii, 180 pp., fig., table, bibliogr. Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, 2004. (paper) ANDERSON, CLAIRE. Legible bodies: race, [...]

GUPTA, AKHIL & JAMES FERGUSON (eds). viii, 361 pp., bibliogr. Durham, NC, London: Duke Univ. Press, 1997. £52.50 (cloth), £16.95 (paper) This is a collection of papers that explores how [...]

ABLEY, MARK. Spoken here: travels among threatened languages. 322 pp., bibliogr. London: William Heinemann, 2004. £14.99 (paper) AHMED, SARA, CLAUDIA CASTANEDA, ANNE-MARIE FORTIER & MIMI SHELLER (eds). Uprooting/regroundings: questions of [...]

CAPLAN, PAT (ed.). xii, 280 pp, illus., bibliogr. London, New York: Routledge, 1997. £15.99 (paper) This book contains a diverse selection of papers linked by their common concern with food [...]

ABUSHARAF, ROGAIA MUSTAFA. Wanderings: Sudanese migrants and exiles in North America. xii, 189 pp., map, illus., bibliogr. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 2002. 26.95 £ (cloth), 11.50 £ (paper) AFFERGAN, [...]

ABU EL-HAJ, NADIA. Facts on the ground: archaeological practice and territorial self-fashioning in Israeli society. xi, 352 pp., illus., bibliogr. London, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2002. $50.00 (cloth), $20.00 (paper) [...]

This article proposes that we rethink the concept of 'personal property', and it uses the example of Mongolian rituals of death in the socialist 1980s as a context for exploring this idea. These rituals are not the occasion for dividing up property amongst inheritors (this has usually been agreed upon long before death) but involve a series of actions that specify the deceased's relations with material things. Objects become personal property through prolonged use and physical interaction. The rites are concerned with the deceased's relations with such things, focused on desire, relinquishment, dependence, and other emotions. The article thus shifts attention back to the 'person-thing' aspect of property. It also discusses the socio-political contexts in which such a relation becomes important and argues that socialist society did not eliminate but rather opened up contexts in which such personalization could occur. It is argued more generally that personal property so situated is quite different from the 'pr ivate property' that is so prominent in capitalist society. This in turn requires us to rethink the way that 'possession' may be imagined, and to consider forms of property that are conceptualized more in terms of human attachment to objects than as exclusionary relations vis-d-vis other owners. The Mongolian ethnography suggests that, just as people alter material things by long and intensive interaction with them, there are categories of personal property that also change their owners, since actions of using, giving up, donation, and so forth are ethical matters that transform the person. Rituels mortuaires comme contexte pour la comprehension de la propriete personnelle en Mongolie socialiste Cet article propose une nouvelle consideration du concept de 'propriete personnelle' et il prend l'exemple des rituels mortuaires mongoliens dans le cadre du socialisme des aonees 80 pour explorer cette idee. Ces rituels ne fournissent pas l'occasion de diviser les proprietes entre les heritiers (cela a generalement ete decide longtemps avant la mort) mais ils comprennent une serie d'actions qui rendent plus specifiques les rapports des defunts avec les possessions materielles. Les objets deviennent des proprietes personnelles par suite de l'usage prolonge et de l'interaction physique. Les rituels portent sur les relations des defunts avec ces objets, concentrees sur le desir, la renonciation, la dependance et autres emotions. De ce fait, cet article replace l'attention sur le cote 'personne-chose' de La notion de propriete. 11 discute aussi les contextes socio-politiques dans lesquels cette relation prend de l'importance et soutient que la societe socialiste n'elimina pas mais au contraire ouvrit des contex tes dans lesquels une telle personnalisation pouvait se manifester. Il est avance plus generalement que la propriete personnelle, ainsi situee, differe considerablement de la notion de 'propriete privee qui est si eminente dans la societe capitaliste. Cette difference exige des lors que nous repensions la facon dont la possession peut etre imaginee et que nous donnions une consideration nouvelle aux formes de propriete qui sont conceptualisees plus en termes d'at- tachement humain des objets qu'en termes de relations exelusives vis-a-vis d'autres proprietaires. L'ethnographie mongolienne suggere que, tout comme les gens changent les choses materielles par une interaction longue et intensive avec elles, il y a des categories de propriete personnelle qui changent elles aussi leurs proprietaires, du fait que les actions d'utiliser, d'abandonner, de donner et autres sont des affaires morales qui transforment la personne. Dept. of Social Anthropology, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF, UK. ch10001@hermes.cam.ac.uk, Introduction This paper explores Mongolian rituals of death in the 1980s as a site for understanding how concepts of the person and individual character may be represented through the medium [...]

NORDSTROM, CAROLYN & ANTONIUS C.G.M. ROBBEN (eds). vi, 300 pp., illus., bibliogrs. Berkeley, London: Univ. of California Press, 1995. £32.00 (cloth), £11.95 (paper) This collection of papers on the ethnography [...]

Kertzer, David I. & Peter Laslett (eds). xiv, 408 pp., illus., tables, bibliogrs. Berkeley, London: Univ. of California Press, 1995. $50.00 (cloth), $18.00 (paper) Most of the papers included in [...]

This book contains papers that have to do with questions of accelerating social change and history; papers that comprise interesting insights on Turkey and Paul Stirling's long-term fieldwork there; and [...]

This collection of papers was aimed initially to show the development of ethnographic film in Nordic countries with reference to papers given at the 1987 conference of the Nordic Anthropological [...]

Sedentarization has been implicated in the reduction of gender equality in some spheres of formerly nomadic Ju/'hoansi (!Kung) and Nharo Basarwa (Bushmen) life. Concomitant with the shift to sedentism, both the Ju/'hoansi and Nharo have undergone significant economic transformations, and these have been accompanied by changes in attitudes towards gender. Gender equality is examined among the Central Kalahari Basarwa who inhabit Kutse, a sedentary community in which economic change and the adoption of neighbouring people's attitudes have not been as widespread as elsewhere. Qualitative and quantitative studies show that gender egalitarianism is still quite strong at Kutse. It is suggested that not all foragers who become sedentary also become less egalitarian. Instead, the adoption of the economics and attitudes towards gender from non-foraging neighbours facilitates the emergence of gender inequality in those Basarwa societies formerly noted for their egalitarianism. Some current development programmes designed by Westerners exclude women and contribute to the increase in gender inequality which is emerging in these societies., In a number of seminal papers, Pat Draper describes a general loss of autonomy and status among formerly nomadic, now sedentary, female Ju/'hoansi (!Kung) Basarwa (San or Bushmen) from Ngamiland, [...]

RIBEIRO, GUSTAVO LINS & ARTURO ESCOBAR (eds). World anthropologies: disciplinary transformations within systems of power. x, 341 pp., bibliogr. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers, 2006. £55.00 (cloth), £17.99 (paper) This [...]

INDA, JONATHAN XAVIER. Targeting immigrants: government, technology, and ethics. vii, 216 pp., maps, bibliogr. Oxford, Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. £50.00 (cloth), £24.99 (paper) Targeting immigrants, as its subtitle would [...]

SEGAL, DANIEL A. & SYLVIA J. YANAGISAKO (eds). Unwrapping the sacred bundle: reflections on the disciplining of anthropology. 173 pp., bibliogr. London, Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2005. £12.95 (paper) [...]

ROBINS, STEVEN L. (ed.). Limits to liberation after apartheid: citizenship, governance and culture. x, 246 pp., illus., bibliogrs. Oxford: James Currey Publishers, 2005. £50.00 (cloth), £18.95 (paper) The thirteen chapters [...]

BERTHOLET, DENIS. Claude Levi-Strauss. 465 pp., bibliogr. Paris: Plon, 2003. Price: €25.00 (paper) This account of Levi-Strauss's life and work is probably one of the most comprehensive currently available in [...]

VAN HOLLEN, CECILIA. Birth on the threshold: childbirth and modernity in South India. xv, 295 pp., maps, bibliogr. London, Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 2003, £39.95 (cloth), £16.95 (paper) Little ethnographic [...]

GOODWIN, GRENVILLE & NEIL GOODWIN. The Apache diaries: a father-son journey. 284 pp., illus., bibliogr. London, Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska Press, 2000. $16.95 (paper) GOODWIN, NEIL. Like a brother: Grenville Goodwin's [...]

HALLPIKE, C.R. The evolution of moral understanding. 427 pp., bibliogr. Alton: Prometheus Research Group, 2004. £20.00 (paper) The very theme of evolution of moral understanding poses a great challenge. If [...]

MAZZARELLA, WILLIAM. Shovelling smoke: advertising and globalization in contemporary India. xi, 364 pp., illus., bibliogr. London, Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2003. £69.00 (cloth), £17.50 (paper) In Shovelling smoke, William [...]

DAVIS, RICHARD (ed.). Woven histories, dancing lives: Torres Strait Islander identity, culture and history. xvii, 313 pp., maps, figs, tables, illus., bibliogr. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2004. $39.95 (paper) This [...]

DOMBROWSKI, KIRK. Against culture: development, politics, and religion in Indian Alaska. xxii, 247 pp., map, illus., bibliogr. London, Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska Press, 2001. £39.00 (cloth), £14.50 (paper) Two issues centre [...]

ALEXANDER, JEFFREY C. et al. Cultural trauma and collective identity. ix, 314 pp. fig., table, bibliogr. London, Los Angeles: Univ. California Press, 2004. £42.95 (cloth), £16.95 (paper) ALI, SUKI. Mixed-race, [...]

BYRNES, DOLORES M. Driving the state: families and public policy in Central Mexico. x, 219 pp. bibliogr. London, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2003. £25.00 (cloth), £11.50 (paper) This is [...]

COLCHESTER, CHLOE (ed.). Clothing the Pacific. xvi, 215 pp., figs., illus., bibliogrs. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers, 2003. £50.00 (cloth), £15.99 (paper) This is the first collection of essays to [...]

LULING, VIRGINIA. Somali sultanate: the Geledi city-state over 150 years, xiv, 296 pp., maps, illus., figs., bibliogr. London, N.J.: Haan/Transaction Publishers, 2002. £45.00 (cloth), £25.00 (paper) In its methodology, Luling's [...]

MCALISTER, ELIZABETH. Rara! vondou, power, and performance in Haiti and its diaspora. xviii, 259 pp., illus., CD, bibliogr. London, Los Angeles: Univ. California Press, 2002. £40.00 (cloth), £17.95 (paper) Rara [...]

ROWE, MICHAEL. Crossing the border: encounters between homeless people and outreach workers. xiii, 193 pp., bibliogr. London, Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1999. £35.00 (cloth), £13.95 (paper) This book is a [...]

METCALF, PETER. They lie, we lie: getting on with anthropology. viii, 155 pp., illus., bibliogr. London, New York: Routledge, 2001. £12.99 (paper) A 1950s studio portrait shows a serious, elegant [...]

KURTZ, DONALD V. Political anthropology; paradigms and power. ix, 251 pp., figs., bibliogr. Oxford, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2001. £16.99 (paper) If we accept -- with Donald Kurtz -- that [...]

DURANTI, ALESSANDRO (ed.). Linguistic authropology: a reader. ix, 493 pp., bibliogrs. Oxford, Maiden, Mass. Blackwell Publishers, 2000. 1260.00 (cloth), £17.99 (paper) Duranti's reader adds to recent collections in linguistic anthropology [...]

REYNA, S.P. & R.E. DOWNS (eds.). Deadly developments: capitalism, states and war. x, 282 pp.' maps, tables, bibliogrs. Amsterdam: Gordon & Breach Publishers, 1999. $25.00 (paper) This book consists of [...]

SALAMON, HAGAR. The hyena people: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia. xi, 157 pp., map, photos, bibliogr. London, Berkeley, Los Angeles: Univ. California Press, 1999. $48.00 (cloth), $17.95 (paper) This book [...]

YALOURI, ELEANA. The Acropolis: global fame, local claim. xix, 238 pp., illus., bibliogr. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers, 2001. £42.99 (cloth), £14.99 (paper) One limited and reductive way of describing [...]

MACDONALD, SHARON. Behind the scenes at the Science Museum. xiii, 293 pp.' figs., illus., bibliogr. Oxford, New York: Berg Publishers, 2002. £44.99 (cloth), £14.99 (paper) If I had a time [...]

JAARSMA, SJOERD R. (ed.). Handle with care: ownership and control of ethnographic materials. x, 264 pp., maps, illus., bibliogr. Pittsburgh: Univ. Pittsburgh Press, 2002. £19.50 (paper) Anthropologists are beginning to [...]

VAN BREUGEL, J.W.M. (MARTIN OTT, ed.). Chewa traditional religion. 285 pp., illus., bibliogr. Blantyre, Malawi: CLAIM, 2001. £12.95 (paper) In December 1976, J. van Breugel submitted his Ph.D. thesis in [...]

MARTIN, DAVID,. Pentecostalism: the world their parish. xviii, 197 pp., bibliogr. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. £50.00 (cloth), £14.99 (paper) Pentecostalism, the version of Christianity that emphasizes gifts of the Holy [...]

GILL, SAM D. Storytracking: texts, stories, and histories in central Australia. xiv, 276 pp., tables, bibliogr. Oxford, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998. £15.50 (paper) Sam Gill's book Storytracking might [...]

ENGLUND, HARRI. From war to peace on the Mozambique-Malawi borderland. x, 217 pp., maps, figs., bibliogr. Edinburgh: Univ. Press, 2002. £16.99 (paper) Even before celebrations of Mozambican independence ended in [...]

BARGACH, JAMILA. Orphans of Islam: family, abandonment, and secret adoption in Morocco. xvii, 290 pp., tables. Oxford, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. (paper) BAUMGARTEN, ALBERT I. (ed.). Sacrifice in [...]

EHITEHOUSE, HARVEY. Arguments and icons: divergent modes of religiosity. x, 204 pp., maps, diagr., bibliogr. Oxford: Univ. Press, 2000. £40.00 (cloth), £17.99 (paper) This is a clearly written text with [...]