This absorbing collection of essays subjects such popular commentators as Thomas Friedman, Samuel Huntington, Robert Kaplan, and Dinesh D'Souza to cold, hard scrutiny and finds that their writing is often misleadingly simplistic, culturally ill-informed, and politically dangerous. Mixing critical reflection with insights from their own fieldwork, twelve distinguished anthropologists respond by offering fresh perspectives on globalization, ethnic violence, social justice, and the biological roots of behavior. They take on such topics as the collapse of Yugoslavia, the consumer practices of the American poor, American foreign policy in the Balkans, and contemporary debates over race, welfare, and violence against women. In the clear, vigorous prose of the pundits themselves, these contributors reveal the hollowness of what often passes as prevailing wisdom and passionately demonstrate the need for a humanistically complex and democratic understanding of the contemporary world.

In this fresh, literate, and biting critique of current thinking on some of today's most important and controversial topics, leading anthropologists take on some of America's top pundits. This absorbing collection of essays subjects such popular commentators as Thomas Friedman, Samuel Huntington, Robert Kaplan, and Dinesh D'Souza to cold, hard scrutiny and finds that their writing is often misleadingly simplistic, culturally ill-informed, and politically dangerous. Mixing critical reflection with insights from their own fieldwork, twelve distinguished anthropologists respond by offering fresh perspectives on globalization, ethnic violence, social justice, and the biological roots of behavior. They take on such topics as the collapse of Yugoslavia, the consumer practices of the American poor, American foreign policy in the Balkans, and contemporary debates over race, welfare, and violence against women. In the clear, vigorous prose of the pundits themselves, these contributors reveal the hollowness of what often passes as prevailing wisdom and passionately demonstrate the need for a humanistically complex and democratic understanding of the contemporary world. Available: November 2004 Pub Date: January 2005

Contains papers presented at a conference, entitled 'Cutting Edge Theories and Recent Developments in Conflict Resolution'. This work explores some of the major themes of conflict analysis, including how dominant discourses can soothe and exacerbate conflict, and the importance of a structural understanding of ethnocentrism and racism.

This volume presents a comprehensive analysis of global future scenarios and their impact on a growing, shared culture. Ever since the end of the Cold War, a diverse range of future concepts has emerged in various areas of academia—and even in popular journalism. A number of these key concepts—‘the end of history,’ ‘the clash of civilizations,’ ‘the coming anarchy,’ ‘the world is flat,’ ‘soft power,’ ‘the post-American century’—suggest what could become characteristic of this new, interconnected world. Ulf Hannerz scrutinizes these ideas, considers their legacy, and suggests further dialogue between authors of the ‘American scenario’ and commentators elsewhere.

This edited collection addresses a growing concern in Europe and the United States about the future of the European Union, democratic institutions, and democracy itself. The current success of right-wing parties—marked by the adoption of extremist nationalistic rhetoric aimed to incite fear of the “other” and the use of authoritarian policies when attaining the majority—is putting pressure on basic human rights and the rule of law. Eight sociocultural anthropologists, working in England, Northern Ireland, Italy, France, Poland, Germany, Hungary and the United States use varying methodological and theoretical approaches to inspect a number of such parties and their supporters, while assessing the underpinnings of current right-wing successes in what has heretofore been a recurring post-war cycle. The research collected in Cycles of Hatred and Rage supports the validity of the above concerns, and it ultimately suggests that in the current battle between democratic globalists and authoritarian nationalists, the outcome is far from clear.

This book explores the aporias of liberal democracy, freedom, care, and justice--with the seemingly at-odds ideas of neoliberal fascism, racism, sexism, and other forms of violence. As Derrick Bell and others have argued that racism is inherent in US democracy, I examine the intertwined concepts of justice and freedom with fascist ideas that unsettle democratic practices of freedom and political equality. There is ongoing tension that uproots democratic practices driven by the very ideals of democracy itself. Freedom is acquired for one group while circumscribing it for others. In analyzing the troubling neoliberal fascist leanings of our times, I explore the origins of US liberalism to diagnose our current state of politico-theological abyss. In that regard, our own field of pastoral care needs to address its complicity in the current devolving situation of the neoliberal fascist ideologies in US society. Fascist and nationalist ideologies rely foremost on perpetuating mythic ideologies, masking reality, and controlling our epistemologies. In charting a new genealogy for spiritual care, I argue that the image of care as articulated by W. E. B. DuBois--one of Third World liberation that addresses the decoloniality of the entombed soul--should be the primary genealogy of spiritual care for our field today.

Since the 1950s, anthropologist Sidney W. Mintz has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate the disciplines of anthropology and history. Author of Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History and other groundbreaking works, he wa