The Max Gluckman memorial lecture, 1998.

DIVA special issue of PUBLIC CULTURE, this collection of essays forms an empirically grounded, conceptual discussion that posits global millennial capitalism as a historical formation./div

A study of the modes of predation used by and against the Sanema people of Venezuela.

Violent Becomings sheds light on violence in the periods of colonial and postcolonial state formation by conceptualizing the state not as the bureaucratically ordered polity of the nation-state, but as a continuously evolving and violently challenged mode of social ordering.

DIVState-of-the-art volume by the major voices in historical anthropology./div

There’s religion in my marketing! There’s marketing in my religion! Selling the Sacred explores the religio-cultural and media implications of a two-sided phenomenon: marketing religion as a product and marketing products as religion. What do various forms of religion/marketing collaboration look like in the twenty-first century, and what does this tell us about American culture and society? Social and technological changes rapidly and continuously reframe religious and marketing landscapes. Crossfit is a “cult.” Televangelists use psychographics and data marketing. QAnon is a religion and big business. These are some of the examples highlighted in this collection, which engages themes related to capitalist narratives, issues related to gender and race, and the intersection of religion, politics, and marketing, among other key issues. The innovative contributors examine the phenomenon of selling the sacred, providing a better understanding of how marketing tactics, married with religious content, influence our thinking and everyday lives. These scholars bring to light how political, economic, and ideological agendas infuse the construction and presentation of the “sacred,” via more traditional religious institutions or consumer-product marketing. By examining religion and marketing broadly, this book offers engaging tools to recognize and unpack what gets sold as “sacred,” what’s at stake, and the consequences. A go-to resource for those working in marketing studies, religious studies, and media studies, Selling the Sacred is also a must-read for religious and marketing professionals.

A seeming constant in the history of capitalism, greed has nonetheless undergone considerable transformations over the last five hundred years. This multilayered account offers a fresh take on an old topic, arguing that greed was experienced as a moral phenomenon and deployed to make sense of an unjust world. Focusing specifically on the interrelated themes of religion, economics, and health—each of which sought to study and channel the power of financial desire—Jared Poley shows how evolving ideas about greed became formative elements of the modern experience.