What good is a rattlesnake? What purpose do animals serve? All species play a vital role in their biological communities, and the removal of just one can have a noticeable and catastrophic ripple effect.Yet social and political pressures frequently pit species conservation against economic progress and prosperity, and scientists fear that we may be in the midst of a mass extinction event. Brian R. Chapman and William I. Lutterschmidt make the case that the effort to preserve animal...

Stories can inspire love, anger, fear and nostalgia – but what is going on in our brains when this happens? And how do our minds conjure up worlds and characters from the words we read on the page?Rapid advances in the scientific understanding of the brain have cast new light on how we engage with literature. This book – collaboratively written by an experienced neuroscientist and literary critic and writer – explores these new insights. Key concepts in neuroscience are fi...

This book will suggest new agendas for identity and heritage studies by means of presenting contentious issues facing archaeology and heritage management in a globalized world. The book is not only present the variability of heritage objectives and experiences in the New and Old World, and opens a discussion, in a shrinking world, to look beyond national and regional contexts. If the heritage sector and archaeology are to remain relevant in our contemporary world and the near future, there...

In Ethnicity, Inc. anthropologists John L. and Jean Comaroff analyze a new moment in the history of human identity: its rampant commodification. Through a wide-ranging exploration of the changing relationship between culture and the market, they address a pressing question: Wherein lies the future of ethnicity?Their account begins in South Africa, with the incorporation of an ethno-business in venture capital by a group of traditional African chiefs. But their horizons are...

Even though the Portuguese are relatively new to Canada, they have made major contributions to the cultural mosaic of the country. Containing many new essays, this second edition of The Portuguese in Canada updates the work that filled a gap in the scholarly literature of multiculturalism in Canada.The contributors come from a variety of disciplines - anthropology, geography, history, literature, linguistics, sociology, and urban planning - and are from Portugal, Canada an...

Historic sites, memorials, national parks, museums…we live in an age in which heritage is ever-present. But what does it mean to live amongst the spectral traces of the past, the heterogeneous piling up of historic materials in the present? How did heritage grow from the concern of a handful of enthusiasts and specialists in one part of the world to something which is considered to be universally cherished? And what concepts and approaches are necessary to understanding this global obsessi...

Other Cities, Other Worlds brings together leading scholars of cultural theory, urban studies, art, anthropology, literature, film, architecture, and history to look at non-Western global cities. The contributors focus on urban imaginaries, the ways that city dwellers perceive or imagine their own cities. Paying particular attention to the historical and cultural dimensions of urban life, they bring to their essays deep knowledge of the cities they are bound to in their lives and ...

Museum Frictions is the third volume in a bestselling series on culture, society, and museums. The first two volumes in the series, Exhibiting Cultures and Museums and Communities, have become defining books for those interested in the politics of museum display and heritage sites. Another classic in the making, Museum Frictions is a lavishly illustrated examination of the significant and varied effects of the increasingly globalized world on contemporar...

Since the late eighteenth century, academic engagement with political, economic, social, cultural and spatial changes in our cities has been dominated by theoretical frameworks crafted with reference to just a small number of cities. This book offers an important antidote to the continuing focus of urban studies on cities in ‘the Global North’.Urban Theory Beyond the West contains twenty chapters from leading scholars, raising important theoretical issues about cities thro...

Reimagining Political Ecology is a state-of-the-art collection of ethnographies grounded in political ecology. When political ecology first emerged as a distinct field in the early 1970s, it was rooted in the neo-Marxism of world system theory. This collection showcases second-generation political ecology, which retains the Marxist interest in capitalism as a global structure but which is also heavily influenced by poststructuralism, feminism, practice theory, and cultural studies...

Drawing upon a variety of important philosophical traditions, this book develops an original perspective on the relations between ethical, economic and aesthetic values in a tourism context. It considers the ethical/political issues arising in many areas of tourism development, including:the profound cultural and environmental impacts on tourist destinationsthe reciprocity (or lack of) in host-guest relationsthe (un)fair distribution of benefits and revenu...

Scrutinizing, in detail, the relationship between archaeology, heritage and the public, this much-needed volume explores public interest and participation in archaeology as a subject worthy of academic attention in its own right.Examining case studies from throughout the world; from North America, Britain, Egypt and Brazil to East Africa, China and beyond, Nick Merriman focuses on two key areas: communication and interpretation, and stakeholders.Constant reports of new disc...