Anthropologists George and Sharon Gmelch have been studying the quasi-nomadic people known as Travellers since their fieldwork in the early 1970s, when they lived among Travellers and went on the road in their own horse-drawn wagon. In 2011 they returned to seek out families they had known decades before―shadowed by a film crew and taking with them hundreds of old photographs showing the Travellers' former way of life. Many of these images are included in this book, alongside more recent photos and compelling personal narratives that reveal how Traveller lives have changednow that they have left nomadism behind.

Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life

History

Gmelch, George

Gmelch, Sharon Bohn

Europe

Indiana University Press

While anthropologists often have been accused of failing to "study up," this book turns an anthropological lens on an elite activity – wine tasting. Five million people a year, from the US and abroad, travel to California's Napa Valley to experience the "good life": to taste fine wines, eat fine food, and immerse themselves in other sophisticated pleasures while surrounded by bucolic beauty. 
Written in a highly readable style by anthropologists George and Sharon Gmelch, Tasting the Good Life examines who wine tourists are and what the "tasting" experience is all about. It also examines the growth of wine tourism in the valley and the impact it is having on the landscape and the lives of the people who live there. In addition to the authors’ own analysis, they present the personal narratives of 17 people who work in Napa tourism ― from winemaker to vineyard manager, from celebrity chef to wait staff, from hot air balloonist to masseuse. Their stories provide unexpected and entertaining insights into this new form of tourism, the people who engage in it, its impact on a now iconic place, and American consumer culture in the 21st century.

Tasting the Good Life: Wine Tourism in the Napa Valley

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Beverages & Wine

While anthropologists often have been accused of failing to "study up," this book turns an anthropological lens on an elite activity – wine tasting. Five million people a year, from the US and abroad, travel to California's Napa Valley to experience the "good life": to taste fine wines, eat fine food, and immerse themselves in other sophisticated pleasures while surrounded by bucolic beauty. 
Written in a highly readable style by anthropologists George and Sharon Gmelch, Tasting the Good Life examines who wine tourists are and what the "tasting" experience is all about. It also examines the growth of wine tourism in the valley and the impact it is having on the landscape and the lives of the people who live there. In addition to the authors’ own analysis, they present the personal narratives of 17 people who work in Napa tourism — from winemaker to vineyard manager, from celebrity chef to wait staff, from hot air balloonist to masseuse. Their stories provide unexpected and entertaining insights into this new form of tourism, the people who engage in it, its impact on a now iconic place, and American consumer culture in the 21st century.

One of the first things any visitor to Barbados notices is Barbadian youths wearing baseball caps and T-shirts sporting the logos of North American teams; and these days, one is more likely to find an American sitcom on television than a Caribbean program. The Parish behind God's Back describes the social fabric and everyday life of one rural parish on the island, St. Lucy, including its many links to the outside world. It is a contemporary ethnography of the local that takes into account the enormous influence of global factors such as tourism, television, foreign travel, and return migrants.Written with students in mind, the book contains several unique features. Each chapter blends descriptions of Barbadian culture with comparisons to North America; throughout, the authors include tales of not only their own fieldwork experiences but those of their undergraduate students; and personal narratives are emphasized to engage interest in individuals. This highly readable and thought-provoking account should appeal to general readers with an interest in the Caribbean as well as to students of anthropology. George Gmelch is Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Union College. Sharon Bohn Gmelch is Professor of Anthropology and Director of Women's Studies, Union College.

The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Univ of Michigan Pr

In the Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology

This book offers an invaluable look at what cultural anthropologists do when they are in the field. Through fascinating and often entertaining accounts of their lives and work in varied cultural settings, the authors describe the many forms fieldwork can take, the kinds of questions anthropologists ask, and the common problems they encounter. From these accounts and the experiences of the student field workers the authors have mentored over the years, In the Field makes a powerful case for the value of the anthropological approach to knowledge.

University of California Press

In the eastern Caribbean the expression "behind God's back" refers to a place that is remote or far away. In this book, the authors look at the changing face of village life in St. Lucy, Barbados' northern and most rural parish. What they find are people whose lives are fully connected to the outside world. One of the first things any visitor to the island notices are youths in baseball caps and T-shirts sporting the names and logos of American teams. Switching on the television, it is easier to find an American sitcom than a Caribbean program. In conversation, it soon becomes apparent that nearly every villager has a relative living overseas and that many have themselves traveled to New York, Toronto, and London. And all Barbadians are aware that the health of their economy depends on decisions made beyond their shores. The Parish Behind God's Back is informed by the authors' research and experiences directing an anthropology field school in Barbados since 1983. The book begins with an introduction to the island and parish, followed by history and macrolevel description of the island economy, before turning to the local scene--patterns of work, gender relations, lifecycle, community, and religion. The perspective then widens to look at the global forces that most directly affect local people's lives--television, tourism, and travel. An appendix describes how North American college students were changed by living in St. Lucy.

The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing of Rural Barbados

Religion & Spirituality

Waveland Press. Inc.

Capturing the diversity and importance of tourism research! What do people seek when they travel? How do locals respond and who benefits? What impact do tourists have on the environments and people they visit? What do tourists gain from their travel and exposure to other cultures and what are their responsibilities? Stimulating and comprehensive, Tourists and Tourism is a valuable examination of a major social and economic phenomenon. This new collection provides an authoritative and lively introduction to global tourism. Twenty-seven essays, by a wide array of North American and international scholars, have been selected to achieve a balance between theory and recent case studies from different parts of the world. In addition, contributors represent a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, history, geography, folklore, and journalism, offering fresh, eclectic perspectives. The volume is enriched by photographs. Appendices provide a list of recommended films and examples of behavioral guidelines for tourists.

Tourists and Tourism: A Reader

Anthropology

Waveland Pr Inc.

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, shortly after the invention of photography, the Tlingit of southeastern Alaska encountered early Russian and American survey teams, ethnographic investigators, studio photographers, tourists, and resident amateur and commercial photographers.
Why were the Tlingit photographed and how were their images disseminated? How were they portrayed through photography? How active were the Tlingit in shaping the images taken of them and in controlling their representation? Did photography remain an alien technology and activity or did the Tlingit incorporate it into their own culture?
Based on research in thirteen North American archives (including the Penn Museum's Shotridge Collection), a close examination of hundreds of photographs, and extensive oral-history interviews in Sitka and other sites with both Tlingit and non-Native residents, Sharon Bohn Gmelch presents valuable insights on the motivations and reactions of Native subjects to being photographed. She shows the ways the Tlingit incorporated photography and came to use it for their own purposes, expressing a new sense of empowerment as they reclaimed images from public archives for their own purposes. This is the first book to explore the photographic imagery of the Tlingit during a critical period of change, from the 1860s through the 1920s. It also provides the first full treatment of the Tlingit photography of Elbridge W. Merrill, a neglected figure in the history of ethnographic photography.

The Tlingit Encounter with Photography

Americas

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gmelch, Sharon Bohn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gmelch, Sharon Bohn

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gmelch, Sharon Bohn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life

Tasting the Good Life: Wine Tourism in the Napa Valley

Tasting the Good Life: Wine Tourism in the Napa Valley

The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados

In the Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology

The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing of Rural Barbados

Tourists and Tourism: A Reader

The Tlingit Encounter with Photography