This book provides a wide ranging introduction to the meaning and context of violence. The authors build upon David Riches's concept of "the triangle of violence" which examines the relationship between performers, victims and witnesses and his proposition that violence is marked by contests regarding its legitimacy as a social act. Adopting an approach which looks at the negotiated and contingent nature of violent behavior, Stewart and Strathern particularly stress the powerful underlying motivation for revenge and the often unacknowledged association between ideas of revenge and concepts of justice.These theoretical perspectives are applied to in-depth case studies from Rwanda-Urundi, Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland. The authors also draw on extensive field experience in Papua New Guinea, and ethnographic detail is used to address broader issues of considerable global importance.

Violence: Theory and Ethnography

Politics & Social Sciences

Pamela J. Stewart

Andrew Strathern

Social Sciences

Bloomsbury Academic

Focusing on hybrid health practices and perceptions in Yogyarta, Indonesia, this ethnographic study describes Javanese approaches to their own health and the health of modernity. Based on his observations of and interviews with the people there, Ferzacca (University of Lethbridge) details a pluralistic system of urban medicine. In so doing, he describes the Javanese construction of self, and contradicts earlier anthropological studies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Healing the Modern in a Central Javanese City (Ethnographic Studies in Medical Anthropology Series)

Ferzacca, Steve

Anthropology

Carolina Academic Press

This monograph, which is based on two years of field research carried out in collaboration with medical doctors, explores Yupno conceptions of the link between personal illness and disturbed social relations. Using the sickness and treatment of a small child as a central narrative device, Keck shows how the Yupno chart the onset and course of sickness in relation to imbalances in bodily humours caused by disturbed, burdened social relations. She also compares Yupno ways of diagnosing and treating illness with those of biomedicine--in particular, as these were in evidence in the treatment of the sick child--in order to underscore their specificity, and to show how they link to local conceptions of personhood, emotions, and social equilibrium. This book will be of interest for all scholars working in the field of medical anthropology, and for a general readership interested in Melanesia and the Pacific.

Social Discord and Bodily Disorders: Healing Among the Yupno of Papua New Guinea (Ethnographic Studies in Medical Anthropology Series)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Keck, Verena

Alternative Medicine

This entirely new book is written collaboratively by experts on different regions of Oceania. It presents a unique tool for instructors and general readers who wish to become more familiar with the peoples of the Pacific and for scholars looking for an analytical conspectus on this part of the world. Oceania combines surveys of prehistory and history with careful discussions of cultural patterns and problems arising out of contemporary political and economic change. 
General discussions on specific islands or sub-regions are followed by wide-ranging studies that bring together classic themes and recent, pertinent issues. Readers will find the book easy to understand, and instructors will find the layout of the materials simple to set into course syllabi. 
Each section of the book probes issues that are significant for the study of the peoples of Oceania. These issues range from the contemporary interpretation and manifestation of traditional concepts such as "aloha" ("pity," "love," "affection," "sympathy," or "empathy") to the development of ethnicity and political conflict between local and national levels within the state, to the long-term influence of forms of Christianity and their intertwining with indigenous religion and ritual. 
Throughout Oceania, the authors emphasize the vitality and adaptability of Pacific Islanders in their rapidly transforming world, while analyzing their culture and cultural issues in a style and format accessible for students and interested readers alike.

Oceania: An Introduction to the Cultures and Identities of Pacific Islanders

Andrew J. Strathern

Laurence M. Carucci

Lin Poyer

Richard Feinberg

Cluny Macpherson

The body is a central reality of culture and a fundamental site at which culture is expressed in action and in thought. Yet anthropological analyses continue to regard the body as a cultural artifact - something static, objectifiable, and removed from the everyday experiences of living in society. These are the central ideas in Elusive Fragments: Making Power, Propriety &amp; Health in Samoa. In this book, the author argues for another way of thinking about the body and bodies. Based on ongoing field research in Samoa, the author describes everyday processes of village and family life as the primary sites through which the body works as an agent of cultural production. By locating the body as a process of awareness and enactment, he links it with Samoan concerns for dignity, humility, and strength, thereby illuminating central dynamics within Samoan culture.

Elusive Fragments: Making Power, Propriety, and Health in Samoa (Ethnographic Studies in Medical Anthropology Series)

Drozdow-St. Christian, Douglass

Throughout history and throughout the world today, problems of health, sickness, and medical treatment have been intimately interwoven with social, cultural, and political life generally. Medical anthropology deals with these problems from a biocultural perspective, recognizing the deep connections between cultural patterns, historical change, and life processes. This book draws on a rich array of ethnographic cases from around the world to demonstrate the complexities of ideas and practices that surround the health of the human body, and how health is impacted by the beliefs and practices of the community. The authors make particular use of new materials from their field areas among the Hagen and Duna people in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The book is intended as a textbook useable for both anthropology courses and courses for medical students. The topics covered include a survey of earlier works in medical anthropology, regimens of bodily treatment, sex and reproduction, medical pluralism, doctor-patient communication, epidemiology, ethnopsychiatry, illness and the emotions, and how diseases such as AIDS have altered the ways in which individuals see themselves and 'traditional' practices alter to accommodate new diseases. Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart are a husband and wife anthropological team who work in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and the Lowlands of Scotland.

Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in Global Perspective

Part of the Ritual Studies Monograph Series. This unique set of essays explores the multiple ways in which ritual practices have responded to, or have been a part of, historical and political changes. Particular chapters on China deal with the revival of festivals in Pucheng, Zhejiang Province (Paul Katz); the Emperor Huizong's musical insignia (Joseph Lam); music and rituals for Hong Kong's reunion with the Mainland (Yu Siu Wah); Christianity in nineteenth century South China (Joseph Tse-Hei Lee); and refusal by Buddhists and Christians to bow to the Emperor (Eric Reinders). Chapters on Taiwan discuss cultural revival movements (Stewart and Strathern); a Daoist master's performances (Marc Moskowitz); history in spirit-writing morality books (Philip Clart); and the cult of a female figure, Wang Yulan, on Jinmen Island (Michael Szonyi). Vesna Wallace's chapter is on transformations in Indian Tantric Buddhism. Throughout, the emphasis in this book is on complex connections between ritual, state politics, and changing senses of local and personal identity.

Asian Ritual Systems: Syncretisms and Ruptures (Ritual Studies Monograph Series)

Ritual: Key Concepts in Religlon

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Books by Pamela J. Stewart