Maize is the world’s most productive food and industrial crop, grown in more than 160 countries and on every continent except Antarctica. If by some catastrophe maize were to disappear from our food supply chain, vast numbers of people would starve and global economies would rapidly collapse. How did we come to be so dependent on this one plant?<BR /><BR /><I>Maize for the Gods</I> brings together new research by archaeol ...
Years after the Great Recession, the economy is still weak, and an unprecedented number of workers have sunk into long spells of unemployment. <I>Cut Loose </I>provides a vivid and moving account of the experiences of some of these men and women, through the example of a historically important group: autoworkers. Their well-paid jobs on the assembly lines built a strong middle class in the decades after World War II. But today, they ...
Return to Sender is an anthropological account of how Peruvian emigrants raise and remit money and what that activity means for themselves and for their home communities. The book draws on first-hand ethnographic data from North and South America, Europe, and Japan to describe how Peruvians remit to relatives at home, collectively raise money to organize development projects in their regions of origin, and invest savings in business and other ac ...
In the late nineteenth century, Mexican citizens quickly adopted new technologies imported from abroad to sew cloth, manufacture glass bottles, refine minerals, and provide many goods and services. Rapid technological change supported economic growth and also brought cultural change and social dislocation.<BR /><BR /> Drawing on three detailed case studies—the sewing machine, a glass bottle–blowing factory, and the cyanide process fo ...
Handbook of Religion and the Asian City highlights the creative and innovative role of urban aspirations in Asian world cities. It does not assume that religion is of the past and that the urban is secular, but instead points out that urban politics and governance often manifest religious boundaries and sensibilities—in short, that public religion is politics. The essays in this book show how projects of secularism come up against projects and a ...
Las mujeres transitamos este mundo cargando mandatos, el «deber ser»: ser buena hija, novia, esposa, madre, amante, femme fatal. Desde temprana edad, se despliega una enorme cantidad de exigencias sobre nuestro cuerpo y comportamiento. ?De donde viene esa fuerza que nos lleva a un unico destino de cuidadoras una y otra vez? ?Quienes somos y que deseamos cuando no estamos agradando, cuidando, o amando? ?Por que las mujeres de todo el mund ...
Most labor and migration studies classify migrants with limited formal education or credentials as «unskilled.» Despite the value of migrants' work experiences and the substantial technical and interpersonal skills developed throughout their lives, the labor-market contributions of these migrants are often overlooked and their mobility pathways poorly understood. <I>Skills of the </I><I>"</I><I>Unskilled</I& ...
Love’s Uncertainty explores the hopes and anxieties of urban, middle-class parents in contemporary China. Combining long-term ethnographic research with analyses of popular child-rearing manuals, television dramas, and government documents, Teresa Kuan bears witness to the dilemmas of ordinary Chinese parents, who struggle to reconcile new definitions of good parenting with the reality of limited resources. Situating these parents’ experiences i ...
Do «human rights»—as embodied in constitutions, national laws, and international agreements—foster improvements in the lives of the poor or otherwise marginalized populations? When, where, how, and under what conditions? <I>Closing the Rights Gap: From Human Rights to Social Transformation </I>systematically compares a range of case studies from around the world in order to clarify the conditions under which—and institutions through ...
