From the late Middle Ages to The Marriage of Figaro to Mel Gibson's Braveheart, the ultimate symbol of feudal barbarism has been thedroit de cuissage, or right of a feudal lord to sleep with the bride
Finalist, Architecture/Interior Design Category in the 1999 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) presented by Independent Publisher Magazine.This small book on small dwellings explores some of t
In Culture and Comfort Katherine C. Grier shows how the design and furnishings of the mid-nineteenth century parlor reflected the self-image of the Victorian middle class. Parlors provided public faca
This benchmark collection of cross-cultural essays on reproduction and childbirth extends and enriches the work of Brigitte Jordan, who helped generate and define the field of the anthropology of birt
Crossroads is a rich, multidisciplinary collection of contemporary thought on rites of passage from leading psychologists, anthropologists, social and religious leaders, medical professionals, educato
Through a steamy rain forest in Brazil, along a river in Papua New Guinea, across a frozen inlet in the arctic, this book takes young children on a far-reaching journey to discover how babies worldwid
This work explores what it means to be modern and what it means to be Korean in a culture where courtship and marriage are often the crucible in which notions of gender and class are cast and recast.
FROM BEGINNING TO ENDWhy "rituals"?My thinking was set in motion by those who, knowing I was a parish minister for many years, have asked me for advice about ceremonies and celebrati
Describes the authors journey around the world to interview a group of women trying to eliminate the traditional practice of female circumcision, a practice forced on women by the men of diverse socie
In the first systematic documentation of New Guinea rituals of manhood, Gilbert Herdt places the homosexual customs of the Sambia in their ecological and ideological contexts while exploring what the
A look at the fascinating shelters that Native communities in the Far North built, using only materials their environment provided: snow, stone, sod, skin, bones, and any driftwood picked up along the
In January 1862, Charles Godwin courted Harriet Russell, ultimately unsuccessfully, with the following lines: "Like cadences of inexpressibly sweet music, your kind words came to me: causing ever
Now reissued in an expanded edition, this unique book offers the first full-length treatment of women's initiation rites in five cultures. Asserting the critical importance of such rites in a world do
For centuries, classical scholars have intensely debated the "position of women" in classical Athens. Did women have a vast but informal power, or were they little better than slaves? Using methods de
This book challenges those who argue that we can change the world by changing the way people think. Harris shows that no matter how bizarre a people's behavior may seem, it always stems from concrete
This is an anthropological study of boyhood in a group of related Igbo villages called Afikpo, in souteastern Nigeria. About half of the book is taken up with the description and analysis of adolescen
The Poison in the Gift is a detailed ethnography of gift-giving in a North Indian village that powerfully demonstrates a new theoretical interpretation of caste. Introducing the concept ofritual centr
