An attempt to understand coded messages and modern interactive thinking, including the Internet, through the symbol of the labyrinth. In this cultural history, Attali shows that nonlinear searching has always been a part of cultures and may well become more important in the future. Color photos & illustrations.

Review: "Scholarly contribution to the understanding of national culture. First part studies cultural production and ideology in Morelos and in the Huasteca Potosina. Second part focuses on history of legitimacy and charisma in Mexican politics, and relationship between the national community and racial ideology. Based on extensive field work and participant observation"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57. http://www.loc.gov/hlas/

The series "Studies in Sociology: Symbols, Theory and Society" has been created by Elzbieta Halas and Risto Heiskala to stimulate cooperation in research on the meaning, forms and functions of symbolism in society. The series is open to various theoretical and methodological orientations in the studies of social symbolism. The aim is to show the central place of the problems of symbolization and symbolism in sociology - processes of symbolization in everyday life or in collective actions.

From the text adventures of Zork, to the arcade game of Pac-Man, to the corridors of Doom, and on to the city streets of Grand Theft Auto IV, the maze has often been used as a space to trap and confuse players in their navigation of gameworlds. However, the maze as a construction on the landscape has a long history before the invention of the videogame. By examining the change in the maze from the landscapes of open spaces and closed gardens through to the screen of the videogame, both mazes and labyrinths are discussed in terms of historical reference, alongside the author's personal experiences of walking and playing these structures. This book shows how our cultural experiences of real world maze landscapes may have changed, and how we negotiate videogame worlds along the various paths and meanings they so often create for us.

In the wake of tensions between modern and postmodern sensibilities, what larger directions now emerge in cultural anthropology? In this major work, Bruce Knauft takes stock of important recent initiatives in cultural and critical theory. By combining critical reviews and ethnographic engagements with fresh readings of major figures and approaches, the work develops a larger vantage point for considering the dispersing influence of practice theories, postmodernism, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, modern/post-positive feminism, and multicultural criticisms.

This book, updated throughout and with new sections on visual culture, urban culture and subcultures, argues that to understand the culture concept we need to locate it within traditions of thought and appreciate its political and ideological bases.