Product Description
Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) was the leading social anthropologist in Paris between the world wars, and his Manuel d ethnographie, dating from that period, is the longest of all his texts. Despite having had four editions in France, the Manuel has hitherto been unavailable in English. This contrasts with his essays, longer and shorter, many of which have long enjoyed the status of classics within anthropology. We are therefore pleased to present, in the English language for the first time, this extraordinary work that is based on the more than thirty lectures Mauss delivered each year under the title Instructions in descriptive ethnography, intended for travelers, administrators and missionaries. Despite his dates, Mauss s treatment of fundamental questions, such as how to conceptualize and classify the range of social phenomena known to us from history and ethnography, has lost none of its freshness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent intro to anthopology
I used this book for an intro anthropology course, and it proved to bevery interesting on its own,apart from the class itself.Mr. Service'swriting is clear and easily read by those unfamiliar with anthropologicalterms and such.It is a little old (70s) but is still a really goodstandard text.Especially intriguing were the chapters on the !Kungbushmen, the Irish Countrymen, and the Trobriand Islanders.Service does agood job of delineating the line of contact between these civilizations andthose of the west, which helps us to understand how such contact hasnegatively affected these dying cultures.An excellent read for theamateur anthropologist or the casual reader. ... Read more

Book Description
This book is a major contribution to the study of the encounter between Europeans and non-Europeans in the early modern period and to a neglected aspect of the cultural transformation of Europe throughout the Renaissance. Focusing on European travelers in India and their analysis of Hindu society, politics and religion, it also offers a detailed and systematic study of the variety of travel narratives describing South India from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In addition, the book proposes a novel approach to the study of European attitudes toward non-Europeans.Download Description
This book offers a wide-ranging and ambitious analysis of how European travellers in India developed their perceptions of ethnic, political and religious diversity over three hundred years. It analyses the growth of novel historical and philosophical concerns, from the early and rare examples of medieval travellers such as Marco Polo, through to the more sophisticated narratives of seventeenth-century observers - religious writers such as Jesuit missionaries, or independent antiquarians such as Pietro della Valle. The book's approach combines the detailed contextual analysis of individual narratives with an original long-term interpretation of the role of cross-cultural encounters in the European Renaissance. An extremely wide range of European sources is discussed, including the often neglected but extremely important Iberian and Italian sources. However, the book also discusses a number of non-European sources, Muslim and Hindu, thereby challenging simplistic interpretations of western 'orientalism'. ... Read more

Product Description

This is the definitive one-volume guide to the Indian tribes of North America, and it covers allgroupings such as nations, confederations, tribes, subtribes, clans, and bands. Formatted as a dictionary, or gazetteer, and organized by state, it includes all known tribal groupings within the state and the many villages where they were located. The text includes such facts as the origin of the tribal name and a brief list of the more important synonyms; the linguistic connections of the tribe; its location; a brief sketch of its history; its population at different periods; and the extent to which its name has been perpetuated geographically.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Scope of the Work
The author summarizes this work as follows: the objective of this work is to "inform the general reader what Indian tribes occupied the territory of his State and to add enough data to indicate the place they occupied among the tribal groups of the continent and the part they played in the early period of our history and the history of the States immediately to the north and south of us. It attempts to be rather a gazetteer of present knowledge than a guide to the attainment of more knowledge."

Indeed, this is a "gazetteer" type reference. Each State in the U.S. is covered as well as regions of Canada, Mexico, Central America and the West Indies including: Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.

An outline is fleshed out for categories about the tribes associated with each geographic region. This information was extracted from historical records recorded by colonists, explorers and exploiters, and scholars; therefore, the scope of study begins in the 1500's for some regions and as late as 1700's for others. The outline includes: TRIBES associated with that region; [linguistic] CONNECTIONS to other tribes; LOCATION of places inhabited (described by modern-day towns, rivers and landmarks); SUBDIVISIONS (tribes that divided from these main-heading tribes that were described in greater detail); VILLAGES (names and approximate locations); HISTORY (includes mention of historical accounts recorded by colonists, historians, and scholars but this is very sketchy information, providing little more that a sentence to tell about conflicts or interactions with other tribes or settlers, treaties signed and broken, relocation to reservations, decimation factors such as disease, loss of land, wars, etc.); POPULATION (based on census records as well as records left by explorers, and so on. It links decimated populations to wars and disease when possible); CONNECTION IN WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN NOTED (might include wars; size and/or power; individuals whose name is well-known; cultural recognition-- carvings, ceremonies, tools, etc.; names of counties, towns, rivers, and other landmarks with which this tribe is associated).

For what it is, this is an excellent resource; however, this is not an in-depth history of tribes. (How COULD it be? It's already 726 pages long!) It is an in-depth overview of tribes inhabiting these regions over the course of a few hundred years. My only disappointment is that Swanton failed to mention some rather landmark events (Sioux uprising in 1863, for example). The author does note that another text, Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America," written by Professor Kroeber, "aims to... review the environmental relations of the native cultures of North America"... and to "examine the historic relations of the culture areas, or geographical units of cultures." Kroeber's text is written for the college student, not the layman.

Publishers' note for the 2007 hardcover Genealogical Publishing edition:
This is the definitive one-volume guide to the Indian tribes of North America, and it covers all groupings such as nations, confederations, tribes, subtribes, clans, and bands. It is a vast and impressive digest of all Indian groups and their historical locations throughout the continent. Formatted as a dictionary, or gazetteer, and organized by state, it includes all known tribal groupings within the state and the many villages where they were located.

Using the year 1650 to determine the general location of most of the tribes, Swanton has drawn four over-sized fold-out maps, each depicting a different quadrant of North America and the location of the various tribes therein, including not only the tribes of the United States, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and Central America, but the Caribbean islands as well. According to the author, the gazetteer and the maps are "intended to inform the general reader what Indian tribes occupied the territory of his State and to add enough data to indicate the place they occupied among the tribal groups of the continent and the part they played in the early period of our history. . . ."

Accordingly, the bulk of the text includes such facts as the origin of the tribal name and a brief list of the more important synonyms; the linguistic connections of the tribe; its location; a brief sketch of its history; its population at different periods; and the extent to which its name has been perpetuated geographically. As far as possible each tribe, or group, is treated as an independent entity, but the work as a whole forms an absolutely comprehensive picture of the Indian tribes of North America, and leaves no question unanswered about any tribal grouping, big or small.

Along with the bibliography and index, and the imprimatur of its original publisher, the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology, Swanton's book is an authoritative digest of the Indian tribes of North America, and it is the one book that you'll need as a desk reference in your Native American research.

GREAT introduction with heaps of information.
It has become fashionable for politicians to ridicule government spending and waste. Certainly there are occasions when employees have squandered funds on research, but in the early days of our republic such was not the case.

This book, combined with the two-part HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIANS (Bulletin 30 issued by The Bureau of American Ethnology) are great compilations that could only have been funded by the federal government. In dollars and cents no private concern could expect a fair return on their investment that would have been necessary to get the results that was accomplished.

You will have to search long to find the books. Amazon might be of much help. I, however, found my copies at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon.

Contrary to many depictions by Hollywood, many American pioneers fought to defend the rights of Native Americans. Much of America wept for many of the dispossessed peoples - there were fewer of the vigilante types than you would suppose.

I am using these books to compile a web site in Acrobat but expect this project to take a couple years. While you wait, beg, borrow or steal all three books if you want to get a solid, unbiased understanding of the lifestyles of a forgotten people - Bill Anderson. ... Read more

Book Description
Kava is an herb that has been used for ceremonial, ritual, religious, social, political, and medicinal purposes for centuries. In the past few decades, kava has been widely marketed as an over-the-counter treatment for anxiety, stress, restlessness, and sleep disorders.Kava: From Ethnology to Pharmacology describes the history, botanical origins, production, economic aspects, and chemical and biological properties of this medicinal herb. A major part of the book focuses on the chemical and pharmacological properties of kavalactones, the psychoactive constituents of kava that reportedly have sedative, anxiolytic, analgesic, local anesthetic, anticonvulsant, and neuroprotective properties. Clinical and medical studies that provide evidence of kava's therapeutic benefits are balanced with an assessment of the known adverse effects and interactions in which kava has been implicated.With contributions from experts in the field, this volume presents a comprehensive view of the traditional aspects of kava and the latest applications for the herb. It is a valuable reference for botanists, phytochemists, toxicologists, physicians, pharmacists, herbalists, and alternative medicine practitioners. ... Read more

Book Description
In Three Volumes. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This book gives a new interpretation of the reception of the new world by the old. It is the first in-depth study of the pre-Enlightenment methods by which Europeans attempted to describe and classify the American Indian and his society. Between 1512 and 1724 a simple determinist view of human society was replaced by a more sophisticated relativist approach. Anthony Pagden uses new methods of technical analysis, already developed in philosophy and anthropology, to examine four groups of writers who analysed Indian culture: the sixteenth-century theologian, Francisco de Vitoria, and his followers; the 'champion of the Indians' Bartolomé de Las Casas; and the Jesuit historians José de Acosta and Joseph François Lafitau. Dr Pagden explains the sources for their theories and how these conditioned their observations. He also examines for the first time the key terms in each writer's vocabulary - words such as 'barbarian' and 'civil' - and the assumptions that lay beneath them. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Partial Contents: Siouan Indians, A Preliminary Sketch; Tusayan Katcinas; The Repair Of Casa Grande Ruin, Arizona. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The best book available on Rock Art
Polly Schaafsma is the expert on Southwestern Rock art.This book is based on a lifetime devoted to the scientific study of Rock art.It is grounded in science but easily readable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The One Indispensable Book on Easter Island

This 400+ page paperback, a reprint of the 1941 original, is printed in a font size which makes it the equivalent of 800 pages of today's more common offerings. Almost 60 years later it remains the unsurpassed Encyclopaedia Pascuensis. Geography, climate, flora, fauna, society, art, language, culture, everything is there, tattoos, games, the still undeciphered writing system, religion, traditional law... everything. Indispensable to anyone interested in Easter Island, and at $29.50, a steal. However much I may disagree with Metraux about the famous, enigmatic, rongorongo (see http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/rongo.html), I do not hesitate one nanosecond in giving it the top rating: 10. ... Read more