It is 1963, one year after Independence, and Trinidadians are beginning to wonder what they can expect. Anna takes a temporary post at a remote post office in a small coastal town, hoping to escape a failed relationship, and the drama, pressures and politics of her city life. But neither time or space is granted, as the life of Macaima passes through the post office, and Anna reluctantly begins to take on the villagers' stories – which prove to be just as complicated and enmeshed in the so...

"To travel through the nineteen works of poetry and prose in this remarkable anthology is to experience Trinidad and Tobago through a kaleidoscopic lens. The writings are grouped into four historically significant periods ('Leaving Colonialism,' 'Facing Independence,' 'Looking In,' and 'Losing Control'). It's an effective construct; the reader experiences island culture and history as a part of its time, formed by a pastiche of nationality, culture, and social class. Standouts abound."

Created in the West Indies: Caribbean Perspectives on V.S. Naipaul updates and furthers the debates on the life and work of an internationally acclaimed writer, Nobel laureate and native son of Trinidad and Tobago. The essays in this collection are organised into three sections that represent a compression of the multifaceted range of V.S. Naipaul’s creative concerns, thematic explorations, even obsessions, and philosophical persuasions. The singular power of these contributions is their a...

A multidisciplinary collection of essays with a focus on contemporary issues in Caribbean cultural studies.

In this powerful, compassionate work, one of anthropology’s most distinguished ethnographers weaves together rich fieldwork with a compelling critical analysis in a book that will surely make a signal contribution to contemporary thinking about violence and how it affects everyday life. Veena Das examines case studies including the extreme violence of the Partition of India in 1947 and the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In a major de...

If you want to know what anthropology is, look at what anthropologists do. This Very Short Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology combines an accessible account of some of the disciplines guiding principles and methodology with abundant examples and illustrations of anthropologists at work. Peter Just and John Monaghan begin by discussing anthropologys most important contributions to modern thought: its investigation of culture as a distinctively human character...

From the local to the global level, religion is – more than ever – an important and hotly debated part of modern life in the twenty-first century.From silver rings to ringtones and from clubs to headscarves, we often find the cultural role and discussion of religion in unexpected ways.Now in its second edition, Religion: The Basics remains the best introduction to religion and contemporary culture available. The new edition has been fully revised and updated, and i...

Now in its fourth edition, this popular A-Z guide provides a comprehensive overview of the issues which characterize postcolonialism: explaining what it is, where it is encountered and the crucial part it plays in debates about race, gender, politics, language and identity.Fully revised and updated, the fourth edition contains more than 30 new entries, including:AnthropoceneBiopoliticsDecolonialityEcocriticismGlobal South

From the preeminent anthropologist, a landmark exploration of how culture shapes human society“Shrewd and often illuminating."—New York TimesOver his storied career, Clifford Geertz pioneered ground-breaking approaches to anthropology, arguing that interpreting and analyzing cultural symbols was central to understanding a wide range of societies. In Local Knowledge, he revisits and expands the core ideas that reshaped an e...

George Lamming is one of the best known, certainly one of the most highly regarded contemporary writers from the Caribbean. Spanning nearly 60 years and encompassing fiction, poetry and critical essays, Lamming’s writing covers the length and breadth of Caribbean intellectual, cultural, political and literary life. Credited as a part of that group of Caribbean activists who awoke the Caribbean to its identity and more specifically to its cultural identity, his works have focused on finding...

A visionary but practical sharing of how spiritual insights, and deepening our inner lives, can impact leadership for social change.Over the past half-century, the issues facing activists have changed, as has our understanding and awareness of spirituality. For activists, spiritual philosophy is rising up the agenda because it offers distinct, tried and tested approaches to deep questions: Where did it all go wrong? What does it mean to be human? What is the place ...

British expatriate writer Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) moved to America prior to the Second World War and lived more than half his life in California, writing for the Hollywood studios. Famous initially for the stories he wrote during the rise of the Nazis, he attracted a second wave of interest in the 1970s with his 'out' autobiography 'Christopher and His Kind' (1976). But much less is known about Isherwood's writing during his forty years as a student of a guru from the Ramakrishna...