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This course will examine issues of family and modernity through two lenses: (i) the relationship between “the individual” and “the collectivity” and (ii) the relationship between “tradition” and “modernity.”
A collection of 13 essays jointly examine some of the central traditional questions of political theory- the nature of obligation, equality, liberty, the public, the private, democracy, and justice. The application and scope of these notions are examined in a broader framework- in the face of changes to the nation-state, changing forms of sovereignty, the relations between domestic and international law, questions of violence and warfare, the interconnections between the domestic and international political economy and the matters of justice within the nation-state and in the broader international system.
This book anticipated the realignment of countries across the globe according to cultural spheres of influence or civilizations. It analyzes global politics to explain how civilizations have replaced ideologies as the driving force of geopolitics. Topics covered include the concept of civilizations; the question of a universal civilization; the relation between power and culture; the shifting balance of power among civilizations; cultural indigenization in non-Western societies; the political structure of civilizations; conflicts generated by Western universalism, Muslim militancy, and Chinese assertion; balancing and bandwagoning responses to the rise of Chinese power; the causes and dynamics of fault line wars; and the futures of the West and of a world of civilizations.
This book is a representative collection of twenty-four essays, tracing the history of the anthropological study of kinship from the early 1900s to the present day. Part One covers descent and alliance theory, covering the history of anthropological kinship up to 1970s. Part Two covers the demise and later revival of kinship in anthropology from the early 1970s to the present. The book brings together both classic works from Evans-Pritchard, Lévi-Strauss, Leach, and Schneider, as well as articles on such electrifying contemporary debates as surrogate motherhood, and gay and lesbian kinship.
This book explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia’s parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia. However, while the doctors used anticonvulsant medication, Lia’s parents believed that symptoms were rooted in spiritual causes (soul loss) but was unable to communicate with the doctors due to their inability to speak English. Lia’s parents turned to traditional Hmong traditional remedies- herbal medicines, massage, and a Hmong shaman. Eventually, Lia had a massive seizure which led her to brain death and on the verge of death.
This book focuses on the boundary between the biological and the social in the recognition of kinship. Carsten suggests that kinship can be reformulated more broadly as “relatedness”. What this suggests is that in any society there are types of social and emotional feelings of connectedness, of which biological relationships are only one part. By requiring that kinship be placed in a wider frame of social connections, "relatedness" opens the door to a broad social contextualization of kinship. Carsten further proposes that by suspending or questioning the social and biological divide in kinship, anthropologists can return to the task of cross-cultural comparison rather than lapse into cultural particularism.
This book takes aim at the related notions of nation, identity, and tradition to show how Western and Third World scholars have misrepresented Third World cultures and feminist agendas. Drawing attention to the political forces that have spawned, shaped, and perpetuated these misrepresentations since colonial times, the book inspects the underlying problems which "culture" poses for the respect of difference and cross-cultural understanding. Questioning the problematic roles assigned to Third World subjects within multiculturalism, the book examines ways in which the flow of information across national contexts affects our understanding of issues.
Built on bracing original research that spans gay men’s intimacies and parenting in America to plural and non-marital forms of family in South Africa and China, this book decouples the taken-for-granted relationships between love, marriage, and parenthood. Through compelling stories of real families navigating inescapable personal and political trade-offs between desire and domesticity, the book undermines popular convictions about family, gender, and sexuality held on the left, right, and center. Taking on prejudices of both conservatives and feminists, the book poses a powerful empirical challenge to the belief that the nuclear family—whether straight or gay—is the single, best way to meet our needs for intimacy and care.
By examining popular films, commercials, magazines, advertising, television sitcoms and even children's toys, this book shows the pervasive influence of weddings in our culture and the important role they play in maintaining the romance of heterosexuality, the myth of white supremacy and the insatiable appetite of consumer capitalism. It examines how the economics and marketing of weddings have replaced the religious and moral view of marriage. This second edition includes many new and updated features including full coverage of the wedding industrial complex; gay marriage and its relationship to white weddings and heterosexuality and demographics shifts as to who is marrying whom and why, nationally and internationally.
The essays collected in this work consider the ways in which assumptions about the genealogical model―in particular, ideas concerning sequence, essence, and transmission―structure other modes of practice and knowledge-making in domains well beyond what is normally labeled “kinship.” The essays explore how these assumptions have been built into our understanding of race, personhood, ethnicity, property relations, and the relationship between human beings and non-human species. The essays also explore the influences of the genealogical model of kinship in wider social theory and examine anthropology’s ability to provide a unique framework capable of bridging the “social” and “natural” sciences.
This book argues that resolving work-life conflicts is as vital for individuals and families as it is essential for realizing the country’s productive potential. The federal government, however, largely ignores the connection between individual work-life conflicts and more sustainable economic growth, which resulted in negative consequences. The book presents detailed innovations to help Americans find the time they need and help businesses attract more productive workers, and demonstrates that economic efficiency and equity can be reconciled if we have the vision to forge a new social contract for business, government, and private citizens.
