Snake charmers, bards, acrobats, magicians, trainers of performing animals, and other nomadic artisans and entertainers have been a colorful and enduring element in societies throughout the world. Their flexible social system, based on highly specialized individual skills and spatial mobility, contrasts sharply with the more rigid social system of sedentary peasants and traditional urban dwellers. Joseph Berland brings into focus the ethnographic and psychological differences between nomadic and sedentary groups by examining how the experiences of South Asian gypsies and their urban counterparts contribute to basic perceptual habits and skills. No Five Fingers Are Alike, based on three years of participant research among rural Pakistani groups, provides the first detailed description in print of Asian gypsies. By applying methods of anthropological observation as well as psychological experimentation, Berland develops a theory about the relationship between social experience and mental growth. He suggests that there are certain social conditions under which mental growth can be accelerated. His work promises to stand as an important contribution to the cross-cultural literature on cognitive development.

This book, the second in the International Series of Psychosocial Perspectives on Trauma, Displaced People and Political Violence, focuses on refugee women and one of the few that limit their scope only to one group of refugees – the Kurds in Norway.

In Egypt, singing and dancing are considered essential on happy occasions. Professional entertainers often perform at weddings and other celebrations, and a host family's prestige rises with the number, expense, and fame of the entertainers they hire. Paradoxically, however, the entertainers themselves are often viewed as disreputable people and are accorded little prestige in Egyptian society. This paradox forms the starting point of Karin van Nieuwkerk's look at the Egyptian entertainment trade. She explores the lives of female performers and the reasons why work they regard as "a trade like any other" is considered disreputable in Egyptian society. In particular, she demonstrates that while male entertainers are often viewed as simply "making a living," female performers are almost always considered bad, seductive women engaged in dishonorable conduct. She traces this perception to the social definition of the female body as always and only sexual and enticing—a perception that stigmatizes women entertainers even as it simultaneously offers them a means of livelihood. Drawn from extensive fieldwork and enriched with the life stories of entertainers and nightclub performers, this is the first ethnography of female singers and dancers in present-day Egypt. It will be of interest to a wide audience in anthropology, women's studies, and Middle Eastern culture, as well as anyone who enjoys belly dancing.

The Falling Stars is the first book of poetry collection by Aimen Iqbal. A collection of ruined words which were born from the emotions dwelling in the heart. This book is divided into twelve parts each dealing with a specific topic. Each topic is just a presentation of how the world is seen by the poet, each poem deals with how to eradicate such errors or embrace them wholly. From the difficulties faced by people due to criticism, the struggles of a dreamer and topics such as self-love, the book deals with topics of stereotypes of the East yet how the Sun always shines the first on East, poetry against animal abuse, the feelings of a writer and the magic of a reader, the beauty of nature and emotions such as pain and fear. The twelve parts of the book are an attempt to turn the sights and sounds of the world, both inside and outside, into tales and poetries. The words were created and compiled into ‘The Falling Stars’ with a hope to change the world, both inside and outside.