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Anthropologists are often reluctant to present their work relating to matters of a broad social context to the wider public even though many have much to say about a range of contemporary issues. In this second edition of a classic work in the field, Edward J. Hedican takes stock of Anthroplogy?s research on current indigenous affairs and offers an up-to-date assessment of Aboriginal issues in Canada from the perspective of applied Anthropology.

In his central thesis, Hedican underlines Anthropology?s opportunity to make a significant impact on the way Aboriginal issues are studied, perceived, and interpreted in Canada. He contends that anthropologists must quit lingering on the periphery of debates concerning land claims and race relations and become more actively committed to the public good. His study ranges over such challenging topics as advocacy roles in Aboriginal studies, the ethics of applied research, policy issues in community development, the political context of the self-government debate, and the dilemma of Aboriginal status and identity in Canada.

Applied Anthropology in Canada is an impassioned call for a revitalized Anthropology ? one more directly attuned to the practical problems faced by First Nations peoples. Hedican?s focus on Aboriginal issues gives his work a strong contemporary relevance that bridges the gap between scholarly and public spheres.

Since many of us still picture anthropologists as people in khaki-coloured safari clothes peering at fossils or scribbling notes on kinship theory, it is fair to say that public perception of anthropology lags a little behind the times. In fact anthropologists have much to say about a range of contemporary issues but are themselves often reluctant to present their research in a wider social context. In this book Edward Hedican takes stock of anthropology's research on current indigenous affairs and offers an up-to-date assessment of aboriginal issues in Canada from the perspective of applied anthropology.

In his central thesis Hedican underlines the opportunity of anthropology to make a significant impact on the way aboriginal issues are studied, perceived, and interpreted in Canada. He contends that anthropologists must quit lingering on the periphery of debates concerning land claims and race relations, and become more actively committed to the public good. His study ranges over such challenging topics as advocacy roles in aboriginal studies, the ethics of applied research, policy issues in community development, the political context of the self-government debate, and the dilemma of aboriginal status and identity in Canada.

This book is an impassioned call for a revitalized anthropology -- one more directly attuned to the practical problems faced by First Nations peoples. Hedican's focus on aboriginal issues gives his work a strong contemporary relevance that bridges the scholarly and the public spheres. ... Read more

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School differentiates students-and provides differential access to various human and material resources-along a range of axes: from elected subjects and academic "achievement" to ethnicity, age, gender, or the language they speak. These categorizations, affected throughout the world by neo-liberal reforms that prioritize market forces in transforming educational institutions, are especially stark in societies that recognize their bi- or multicultural makeup through bilingual education. A small town in Aotearoa/New Zealand, with its contemporary shift toward official biculturalism and extensive free-marketization of schooling, is a prime example. Set in the microcosm of a secondary school with a bilingual program, this important volume closely examines not only the implications of categorizing individuals in ethnic terms in their everyday life but also the shapes and meaning of education within the discourse of academic achievement. It is an essential resource for those interested in bilingual education and its effects on the formations of subjectivities, ethnic relations, and nationhood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great work!
Meaningful Inconsistencies is a rich ethnographic study about bilingual education at where Doerr calls Waikaraka High School in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Te Reo (Maori)-English bilingual schools or programs within schools go back to the late 1970s, following Maori revitalization movement in the 1970s. The book is based on Doerr's nine-month of intensive fieldwork at Waikaraka High School, a co-educational state secondary school with a bilingual unit for the maintenance of heritage language, in 1997-1998 when the power of neoliberal market forces was observed earlier than in the U.S. and other countries. Meaningful Inconsistencies provides detailed ethnographic documentations of the school life of the indigenous Maori and the dominant Pakeha students with a focus on the cultural politics of bilingual education, and investigates multiple forces that produce subjectivities, ethnic relations, and changing nationhood, and how individuals respond to these forces in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In a sense, Doerr uses bilingual education as a lens to discuss the processes in which everyday life and subjectivities of students, teachers, and parents of Maori and Pakeha backgrounds are materially and discursively structured under the influence of neoliberal economy.

Based on a rigorous fieldwork and her theoretical training in cultural anthropology, Doerr contends how "bi" of bilingual education is "constituted and further supported through bilingual education" (13), and thus, language education is about relations of dominance. With this perspective on bilingual education, Doerr demonstrates that bilingual education can help challenge relations of dominance.

The core of her analysis lies in the ethnographic details of how individuals negotiate their subject positions through various sets of "regimes of difference," i.e., "the ways individuals are categorized in relation to others" (17). This is drawn from Louis Althusser's understanding that we experience the world through system of categories, that we are positioned or "interpellated" into such categories, and that our practices are structured by them. Although ethnic and racial categories are powerful among the people in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Doerr is careful enough to remind us of other institutional categories at school, such as Year (grade), Form classes (homeroom classes, either Bilingual or Mainstream), and academic achievement via tracking. Due to these forces for regimes of difference, individuals are categorized in ethnic, linguistic, and academic terms at Waikaraka. Combined with this notion of categorization is Judith Butler's concept of "performativity," that people cite certain regimes of difference and by this citing, these regimes become materialized as "meaningful frame to understand the act or person under discussion" (18) or naturalized categories to classify people via practices.By ethnographically documenting how students, parents, and teachers cite conflicting regimes of difference, Doerr shows how individuals in Aotearoa respond to and challenge multiple social and cultural forces that interpellated them in various subject positions. Moreover, the book demonstrates how illusion and discourse, such as Maori under-achievement, can be created in the intersections and gaps of these regimes that dividing people based on culture, language, and achievement (discussed in Chapter 6).

The two concepts -- "regimes of difference" and "performativity" -- provide an effective way to examine how individual differences and personal experiences can help with understanding something "collective," like race, ethnicity, and nationhood.This is an alternative to using the notion of "categorization," which has a stronger link to a rigid structure and can be a framework to mold subject and subjectivity in a fixed way. Therefore, her analysis is able to show the richness of real life experiences of students in Waikaraka High School in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Followed by research methodology, theoretical arguments, and social transformation of Aotearoa/New Zealand, in particular, the emergence of biculturalism in the 1970s and neoliberal reforms in the 1980s, Doerr discusses historical transformation of ethnic categorizations (Chapter 2), daily life at school and the influence of neoliberal reform on school life (Chapter 3), creation of meaning on the tracking system (Chapter 4), practice of the mainstream parents to call bilingual unit as separatist (Chapter 5), illusion of Maori under-achievement (Chapter 6),language politics between Maori/bilingual students and Pakeha/mainstream teachers (Chapter 7), how Maori/ex-bilingual students used laughter to manipulate their relations with the field researcher/Doerr (Chapter 8), and the question of nationhood by looking at dance performances at school by Asians, i.e., study-abroad students from Japan and Thailand (Chapter 9). Chapter 10 summarizes Doerr's theoretical contentions that subjectivities, ethnic relations, and a sense of nationhood are created via various regimes of difference, and suggests some practices that can promote social justices to challenge relations of dominance.

Meaningful Inconsistencies will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience for its methodological and theoretical attention to Maori, New Zealand, bilingual education, subjectivity, ethnic relations, nationhood, globalization, neoliberal reforms, and social justice. Additionally, we are reminded how scholarship on education benefits from attention to what Ray McDermott and Hervé Varenne call "cultural" arrangement, as well as political and economic institutions.

Excellent book!!!
I enjoyed reading Neriko Doerr's book, Meaningful Inconsistencies. Doerr provides the reader with details about the realities of a school bilingual program (Te Reo (Maori language) and English) in New Zealand and reveals how students, teachers, and parents produce, reproduce, sometimes resist and contest identities, ethnic relations, and their sense of nationhood.

This book differs from the mainstream approach in the field of bilingual education which treats any type of difference [e.g., upper-track class vs. lower-track class, or Te Reo (Maori language) vs. English, Maori vs. Pekeha (white)] as clear-cut or fixed and tries to identify the location of the problem. Rather, Doerr problematizes those "self-evident" facts and analyzes everyday ordinary practices very carefully. By doing so, she reveals how people create and recreate 1) the illusion of Maori underachievement, 2) the unimportance of Te Reo (Maori language) in relation to English, and 3) New Zealand's nationhood as Pacic (represented by Maori) yet Western.

This book contributes to not only to the literature in the field of bilingual education but also theories of identity (or subjectivity) in general. In this book, she illustrates how identities are produced not only at the intersections of discourses but also in the gaps between them.

This book shows us that problems do not exist just there, but we are the ones who create problems. In conclusion, Doerr tells us, if we don't like it, do something about it. After reading this book, as an educator I was encouraged to make an action.
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Addresses how shepherding communities in Israel and the Middle East might be preserved. ... Read more

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Applied anthropology was, for most of the last decade of the 20th century, a major focus for the beginning cultural course. This mainstream, comprehensive cultural anthropology text takes an applied perspective to the study of society's behaviour. ... Read more

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This interdisciplinary volume examines the issue of female genital cutting, or "circumcision" and explores the role that scholars can and should play in approaching this issue. ... Read more

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This book presents the results of an experiment in interdisciplinary collaboration to clarify theories of morality and anthropology and philosophy, showing how each may be enriched by borrowing from the other. Pooling the resources and methods of their respective fields-anthropology and philosophy-May and Abraham Edel examine the wide range of moral differences in the world "to establish 'coordinates' for the more systematic mapping of particular moralities, to explore more explicitly the relations of morality to cultural patterns and social processes, and to see how philosophic issues of ethical theory become refined and reformulated when their cultural content is made manifest."

The book contains an implicit suggestion that the anthropologist should focus on morality as an independent area of study and that the philosopher should stop treating morality in isolation. Anthropology tends to include morality as an incidental part of other inquiries. Philosophy, on the other hand, tends to cut morality off from the framework of psychological and cultural processes; the result is a kind of deadlock in ethical theory. The Edels observe that to develop a working concept of morality at least as well developed as that furnished for religion, anthropology can benefit from philosophic methods of analyzing concepts and from philosophical ways of conceptualizing problems of ethical theory. On the other hand, philosophy can use the methods of anthropology, to approach morality in more meaningful terms. This study is not addressed only to professionals; its aim, rather, is to "provide an orientation to morality itself in a world in which human problems are becoming extremely complex and have to be confronted directly as moral." ... Read more

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This is a first-hand account of a reindeer-herding collective in the remote Taimyr peninsula of Siberia. The author gives an intimate description of the day-to-day lives of a little-known group of Evenkis as they face both economic and ecological challenges. His study addresses questions of identity, nationalism, and ecological theory, as well as mapping the changes caused in the region by the formation of and the recent break-up of the Soviet Union. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best recent ethnography of Siberian people
Anderson synthesizes first-hand obsevations with archival material and other published sources (mostly in Russian) to present a subtle picture of ethnic identity and daily life among Siberian native peoples. Ethnic identity is a hot topic in Siberian anthropology (for both Russian and English-language anthropologists), but most people seem to deploy a rather simplistic theory of culture in their analysis. Anderson's book is dense in parts, but well worth the effort. It also includes plenty of vivid description of life on the land. Many of his observations jive with my own in Kamchatka (several thousand miles away) and those of other colleauges who have done research in Siberia.

If you read just one book on Siberian native people, this should be it.

Full disclosure: David is a colleauge of mine, but you can see my review published in American Anthropologist 104(1):340-41, which I wrote before joining this department at the University of Aberdeen. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Neutral
I waited 4 weeks for this book to arrive and it never did.I requested a refund and was refunded however, I would have liked to have known it wasn't coming sooner since I am now behind in my class which I ordered this text for.

Dry Reading, But Useful
McElroy and Townsend's medical anthropology text is one of the classics in its field.I personally find the going very slow; I don't think that academic texts necessarily need to be presented in so pedantic a format.However, the information contained in the studies is quite useful to the anthropology student's understanding of disease in a cultural and ecological context. ... Read more

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Taking an anthropological approach, she examines the relationship between human culture and human ecology and considers how a cultural approach to the study of environmental issues differs from other established approaches in social science. This book adds significantly to our understanding of environmentalism as a contemporary phenomenon, by demonstrating the distinctive contribution of social and cultural anthropology to the environmental debate. ... Read more

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This definitive text on ecological anthropology is the most complete discussion of environmental, physiological, behavioral, and cultural adaptive strategies available. Designed to help readers understand the multiple levels at which human populations respond to their surroundings, Human Adaptability discusses the development of ecological anthropology and relevant research methods; uses an ecosystem approach with emphasis on arctic, high altitude, arid land, grassland, and tropical rain forest environments; and includes an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive glossary of technical terms.

The third edition has been thoroughly updated to include new chapters on urban sustainability and methods of spatial analysis, with enhanced emphasis on the role of gender in human-adaptability research and on global environmental issues. New sections guide students to websites that complement the text's coverage of biomes and suggest ways to become active in environmental issues. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

anthro book
The book did a good job of introducing the study of how people adapt to different environments from cultural, technological and acclimatory changes.It first explains how different groups and regions can be studied, then it goes into the various environments.

Technical but interesting book for class
While I have only gone through about half the book, so far it does a fair job of summarizing studies of anthropology. The book is on the technical side however, and can be a bit of chore to digest. Overall I find it an interesting read in human interaction with the environment.

Great integration of Modern Ecological Anthropology
I would say quite hastily that this book is probably the best introduction to Ecological Anthropology, written by a massive authority on the subject. What I love about the book is its ability to present the pertinent aspects of the subject matter in a way that forces you to understand why it is important.My only caveat about the book is that it does assume a certain degree of knowledge about environmental science that I found most students of anthropology (including myself when I read it) do not have.Keeping this in mind, if you do have supplementary texts available on the natural science aspects of this subject, than you will definately be able to appreciate the depths of human adaptability that Moran describes.This cannot necessarily be considered a weakness of the book, since the natural science has been discussed elsewhere.On the other hand, the material in this book is a great compilation of cultural, physiological, and genetic adaptations around the world.Since it is this that Moran stresses, it is of no detriment to the book that the natural science is not as detailed as it must be.

Below is a list of supplementary texts that should be read alongside this book, the most important one being the soil science textbook.

1) The Nature and Properties of Soils - by Nyle Brady & Ray Weil
2) Ecology: Theories and Applications - by Peter Stiling
3) A book on Human Biology and Human Physiology (I have not found one to my liking which is why I don't recommend a specific one here). ... Read more

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Human interaction with the natural environment has a dual character. By turning increasing quantities of natural substances into physical resources, human beings might be said to have freed themselves from the constraints of low-technology survival pressures. However, the process has generated a new dependence on nature in the form of complex "socionatural systems," as Bennett calls them, in which human society and behavior are so interlocked with the management of the environment that small changes in the systems can lead to disaster. Bennett's essays cover a wide range: from the philosophy of environmentalism to the ecology of economic development; from the human impact on semi-arid lands to the ecology of Japanese forest management. This expanded paperback edition includes a new chapter on the role of anthropology in economic development. ... Read more

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NAPA Bulletin is a peer reviewed occasional publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods.

• peer reviewed publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology
• dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods
• most editions available for course adoption

Product Description
NAPA Bulletin is a peer reviewed occasional publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods.

• peer reviewed publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology


• dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods


• most editions available for course adoption

Product Description
In this book Gerald Sider rebuilds theories of class and class struggle, at the same time rethinking and making significant the concept of culture. Rooted in the history of the last two centuries of daily life in the maritime villages of Newfoundland and Labrador, the book develops an historical anthropology that interweaves ordinary moments, spectacular customs, and social confrontations, as well as exploring the role of folk culture in daily life, state politics, and labour domination. It also presents an original analysis of merchant capital, the often unexamined context of a great many anthropological studies, and a key factor in the integration of the hinterlands with regional and global economic systems. ... Read more