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by Ruth Benedict

In "Patterns of Culture," renowned anthropologist Ruth Benedict explores the intricate tapestry of human societies through a comparative study of three different cultures: the Zuni of the American Southwest, the Dobuans of Melanesia, and the Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest. Through her insightful analysis, Benedict sheds light on the diverse ways in which these societies structure their beliefs, values, and social practices.

By delving deep into the customs, rituals, and traditions of each culture, Benedict reveals how distinct patterns emerge that shape the worldview and behaviors of its members. Drawing on her expertise in anthropology, she challenges readers to question their own cultural assumptions and consider the profound impact of environment and history on shaping human civilization.

With clarity and precision, "Patterns of Culture" offers a compelling examination of the complexities of culture and the rich diversity of human experience. Benedict's seminal work continues to inspire readers to explore the multifaceted layers of society and reflect on the fundamental elements that define who we are as individuals and communities.

NY. A MENTOR BOOK. THE NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY1934. 289p.

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Edited by JOSEPH and BARRIE KLAITS

Animals and Man in Historical Perspective edited by Joseph and Barrie Klaits provides a comprehensive exploration of the complex relationship between humans and animals throughout history. This collection of essays delves into various historical periods, offering insightful perspectives on how animals have influenced and been influenced by human societies. From ancient civilizations to modern times, the book examines the ways in which animals have been perceived, treated, and utilized by humans in different cultural contexts. The editors, renowned scholars in their field, have curated a thought-provoking anthology that sheds light on the intricate interplay between animals and mankind, making it essential reading for anyone interested in understanding our shared history.

Harper & Row, 1974, 169 pages

By Maggie Brady

In Teaching ‘Proper’ Drinking?, the author brings together three fields of scholarship: socio-historical studies of alcohol, Australian Indigenous policy history and social enterprise studies. The case studies in the book offer the first detailed surveys of efforts to teach responsible drinking practices to Aboriginal people by installing canteens in remote communities, and of the purchase of public hotels by Indigenous groups in attempts both to control sales of alcohol and to create social enterprises by redistributing profits for the community good. Ethnographies of the hotels are examined through the analytical lens of the Swedish ‘Gothenburg’ system of municipal hotel ownership.

The research reveals that the community governance of such social enterprises is not purely a matter of good administration or compliance with the relevant liquor legislation. Their administration is imbued with the additional challenges posed by political contestation, both within and beyond the communities concerned.

Canberra: ANU Press, 2017. 344p.

By Ashraf Hoque

What is it like to be a young Muslim man in post-7/7 Britain, and what impact do wider political factors have on the multifaceted identities of young Muslim men? Drawn from the author’s ethnographic research of British-born Muslim men in the English town of Luton, Being Young, Male and Muslim in Luton explores the everyday lives of the young men and, in particular, how their identity as Muslims has shaped the way they interact with each other, the local community and the wider world. Through a study of religious values, the pressures of masculinity, the complexities of family and social life, and attitudes towards work and leisure, Ashraf Hoque argues that young Muslims in Luton are subverting what it means to be ‘British’ through consciously prioritising and re-articulating self-confessed ‘Muslim identities’ in novel and dynamic ways that suit their experiences as a post-colonial diaspora. Employing extensive participant observation and rich interview content, Hoque paints a detailed picture of young Muslims living in a town consistently associated in the popular media with terrorist activity and as a hotbed for radicalisation. He challenges widely held assumptions about cultural segregation, gender relations and personal liberty in Muslim communities, and gives voice to an emerging generation of Muslims who view Britain as their home and are very much invested in the long-term future of the country and their permanent place within it.

London: UCL Press, 2019. 128p.

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By Luigi Barzini

FROM THE COVER: “The most illuminating book about the Italians I have yet encountered; it explains thing about the Italian character and be havior which have been puzzling and infuriating me for the last twenty years, and does it all with the wit, brio and charm which distinguish everything Barzini writes.— HARPER'S

"Altogether wonderfully readable. Luigi Barzini paints a full-length portrait of his countrymen that is at once grave and witty, cynical and compassionate, somber and glittering, scholarly and stimulating." —CHICAGO TRIBUNE

NY. Bantam. 1969. 390p.

Edited by Marco Castrignanò, Carolina Mudan Marelli and Teresa Carlone

Analyzing with an ethnographic approach The Wire, one of the most important TV series on American ghettos, to understand and question the sociological perspective that emerges from the series, positioning it into the broader scientific debate. This is, in a nutshell, the work presented in the book It's all in the Game, the outcome of a laboratorial research activity carried out in 2020 by students and teachers of the Sociology of Communities and Urban Neighborhoods class, at the University of Bologna. The text is structured into four chapters, resulting from the four topics used to analysis the TV series: forms of social capital, the relationship between structural forces- culture of poverty and individual agency, neighborhood effects mechanism and the relationship between statistics and political action. Four subjects that are the core of many neighborhood- studies related researches and on which the TV series makes a clear stand. We analyzed those topics through a critical perspective, not considering them as a truth about ghettos, but as a very precise way of thinking about life in the American suburbs.

Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2022. 158p.

By Janice M. Irvine

Marginal People in Deviant Places revisits early- to mid-twentieth-century ethnographic studies, arguing that their focus on marginal subcultures—ranging from American hobos, to men who have sex with other men in St. Louis bathrooms, to hippies, to taxi dancers in Chicago, to elderly Jews in Venice, California—helped produce new ways of thinking about social difference more broadly in the United States. Irvine demonstrates how the social scientists who told the stories of these marginalized groups represented an early challenge to then-dominant narratives of scientific racism, prefiguring the academic fields of gender, ethnic, sexuality, and queer studies in key ways. In recounting the social histories of certain American outsiders, Irvine identifies an American paradox by which social differences are both despised and desired, and she describes the rise of an outsider capitalism that integrates difference into American society by marketing it.

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022. 349p.

Edited by Mark Maguire, Catarina Frois, and Nils Zurawski.

Perspectives from the Frontline of Policing, Counter-terrorism and Border Control. Anthropology is a discipline based upon in-depth ethnographic works that deal with wider theoretical issues in the context of particular, local conditions – to paraphrase an important volume from the series: large issues explored in small places. This series has a particular mission: to publish work that moves away from an old-style descriptive ethnography that is strongly area-studies oriented, and offer genuine theoretical arguments that are of interest to a much wider readership, but which are nevertheless located and grounded in solid ethnographic research. If anthropology is to argue itself a place in the contemporary intellectual world, then it must surely be through such research. We start from the question: ‘What can this ethnographic material tell us about the bigger theoretical issues that concern the social sciences?’ rather than ‘What can these theoretical ideas tell us about the ethnographic context?’ Put this way round, such work becomes about large issues, set in a (relatively) small place, rather than detailed description of a small place for its own sake. As Clifford Geertz once said, ‘Anthropologists don’t study villages; they study in villages.

London: Pluto Press, 2014. 225p.