In 1931 Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote his famous Remarks on Frazer's “Golden Bough.". At that time, anthropology and philosophy were in close contact—continental thinkers drew heavily on anthropology's theoretical terms, like mana, taboo, and potlatch, in order to help them explore the limits of human belief and imagination. Now the book receives its first translation by an anthropolog…
Trust occupies a unique place in contemporary discourse. Seen as both necessary and good, it is variously depicted as enhancing the social fabric, lowering crime rates, increasing happiness, and generating prosperity. It allows for complex political systems, permits human communication, underpins financial instruments and economic institutions, and holds society itself together. There is scant …
In this long-awaited sequel to The Invention of Culture, Roy Wagner tackles the logic and motives that underlie cultural invention. Could there be a single, logical factor that makes the invention of the distinction between self and other possible, much as specific human genes allow for language? Wagner explores what he calls “the reciprocity of perspectivesâ€_x009d_ through a journey …
Fakes, forgery, counterfeits, hoaxes, bullshit, frauds, knock offs—such terms speak, ostensibly, to the inverse of truth or the obverse of authenticity and sincerity. But what does the modern human obsession with fabrications and frauds tell us about ourselves? And what can anthropology tell us about this obsession? This timely book is the product of the first Annual Debate of Anthropological…
With forced marriage, as with so many human rights issues, the sensationalized hides the mundane, and oversimplified popular discourses miss the range of experiences. In sub-Saharan Africa, the relationship between coercion and consent in marriage is a complex one that has changed over time and place, rendering impossible any single interpretation or explanation. The legal experts, anthropol…
An examination of the mix of face-to-face and digital methods that young people use in their experiments with civic engagement. Although they may disavow politics as such, civic-minded young people use every means and media at their disposal to carry out the basic tasks of citizenship. Through a mix of face-to-face and digital methods, they deliberate on important issues and debate with peers a…
This book explores nanotechnology, a rapidly evolving and growing field with applications in a large number of areas. The concepts and physics are highlighted through topics such as nanoscience, quantum effects, nanostructures, and new forms of carbon. Applications and potential health and safety implications of nanomaterials are discussed for healthcare, food production, electronics, defence a…
This book covers the principles and practices of technologies for the control of pollution originating from organic wastes (e.g. human feces and urine, wastewater, solid wastes, animal manure and agro-industrial wastes) and the recycling of these organic wastes into valuable products such as fertilizer, biofuels, algal and fish protein and irrigated crops. Each recycling technology is described…
We all wait – in traffic jams, passport offices, school meal queues, for better weather, an end to fighting, peace. Time spent waiting produces hope, boredom, anxiety, doubt, or uncertainty. Ethnographies of Waiting explores the social phenomenon of waiting and its centrality in human society. Using waiting as a central analytical category, the book investigates how waiting is negotiated in m…
Until recently only lipophilic compounds were analysed in any research on the occurrence of mutanogenic and carcinogenic compounds in water. They were isolated using XAD-resins. They contain approximately half of the total organic material present in water. A clear mutanogenic effect was demonstrated for these compounds using Amestest. The hydrophilic fraction of the organic material was diffic…