Showing results for "F" in Anthropology

Friends do it, strangers do it and so do chimpanzees - and it's not just deeply embedded in our history and culture, it may even be written in our DNA. The humble handshake, it turns out, has a rich and surprising history.

The Golden Bough, the monumental study of religious rites and practices in ‘primitive’ societies, was one of the earliest influential texts in anthropology. Its author, Sir James Frazer, surveyed the wide range of cultural habits, taboos and beliefs in communities across the world concluding that there was an observable pattern in the way magic developed into religion, though formal expression emerged in different ways.

Over the last 500 years, life for the average human being has changed dramatically - plagues no longer wipe out entire families, and no longer do we empty our chamber pots into the street. Nope, not today. But, Western progress has shown that no matter how many dangers we neutralize, new ones emerge. Now we remain at the mercy of an invisible enemy - fear. Our well-being suffers and our imaginations are stifled.

'Superb ... entertaining ... Phillips traverses this sprawling terrain with energy and charm' Telegraph 'Exceptionally funny from cover to cover, it is not only an entertaining read but also deeply researched and thoughtful' Irish Independent 'Fans of Phillips's earlier books Humans and Truth...

Just 70 years ago, the Gulf nation of Qatar was a backwater, reliant on pearl diving. Today it is a gas-laden parvenu with seemingly limitless wealth and ambition. Skyscrapers, museums and futuristic football stadiums rise out of the desert and Ferraris race through the streets. But in the shadows, migrant workers toil in the heat for risible amounts. Inside Qatar reveals how real people live in this surreal place, a land of both great opportunity and great iniquity.

How to effect positive social change by the top progressive white hat lobbyist in Washington. HELPING THE GOOD DO BETTER pulls back the curtain on the corridors of power in Washington to reveal how social change really happens. This book offers lessons from the trenches on how some of this...

A richly-detailed real-life account of ancient tribal life and the fascinating role of Ayahuasca in the heart of the Amazon. Wizard of the Upper Amazon provides an insightful depiction of a South American tribal society at the turn of the 20th century. It delves into the captivating world of the...

With Israel and antisemitism constantly in the news, it seems as though the Jewish people—a fraction of a percentage of the world's population—have become synonymous with controversy, drama and anxiety. But what if there was another side to this persistently interesting people; one that non-Jews often don't know about and Jews rarely talk about? This is the stuff of 'everyday' Jewishness; the capacity to be ordinary, mundane and sometimes just plain dull.

What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside those from newly discovered writers of all ages. All of the contributors speak from the heart - sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.

21st-Century Yokel explores the way we can be tied inescapably to landscape, whether we like it or not, often through our family and our past. It's not quite a nature book, not quite a humour book, not quite a family memoir, not quite folklore, not quite social history, not quite a collection of essays, but a bit of all six. It contains owls, badgers, ponies, beavers, otters, bats, bees, scarecrows, dogs, ghosts and yes, even a few cats. What emerges from this are themes that are broader, bigger and more definitive.

In a bid to uncover the unique spirit of the single malt whisky, author lain Banks has decided to undertake a tour of the distilleries of his homeland. His tour of Scotland combines history, literature and landscape in an entertaining and informative account.

In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nick Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between the Americas and the western coast of Asia from late prehistory onwards: firstly the colonization by speakers of Austronesian languages of the western Pacific littoral, from around 3000 BC, of the Philippines, Indonesia, Micronesia and Melanesia; followed by the later settlement, by Polynesian peoples, of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Easter Island and eventually New Zealand, up to AD 1250.