Books published by AltaMira Press

With a focus on the personal, immediate and contextual, this work presents plays about marginalized identities, abortion, street life and oppression that manage a unique balance between theoretical research and everyday realism.

"The Passion of the Christ" topped box office charts and changed the American religious conversation. The controversies it raised remain unsettled. This work features scholars who ask what Gibson's film and the resulting controversy reveal about Christians, Jews, and the possibilities of inter-religious dialogue in the United States.

With a focus on the personal, immediate and contextual, this work presents plays about marginalized identities, abortion, street life and oppression that manage a unique balance between theoretical research and everyday realism.

Utilizing almost 40 years' work, Andrew Smith presents a detailed portrait of modern herdsmen and their historical antecedents. Following the assumption that Africa has never been isolated from the rest of the world, Smith illuminates key topics ranging from material culture and rituals, to future prospects for pastoralists.

Looks into why people travel, examining travel and tourism as a cultural phenomenon through social, cultural, psychological, and economic forces. This book explores the role of travel in contemporary lives, from university travel-abroad programs to package tours and family vacations.

Ethnographers of religion have created a vast record of religious behavior from small-scale non-literate societies to globally distributed religions in urban settings. This work features a range of ethnographers who grapple critically with Harvey Whitehouse's theory of two divergent modes of religiosity.

Examines persistent dropout rates among Native American youth, which remain high despite overall increases in Native adult education attainment over the years. Focusing on the experiences of the Northern Cheyenne nation, this work analyses historical, ethnographic, and quantitative data.

Prompted by the overt omission of Muncie's black community from the famous study by Lynd and Lynd, "Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture", this book uncovers the neglected part of the story of Middletown, a well-known pseudonym for the Midwestern city of Muncie, Indiana. It is a useful resource for community research.

An overview of the central themes of women's studies, suitable for introductory reading in undergraduate courses or for a general audience's introduction to the meaning of feminism and its relevance as a progressive force in society.

In this spellbinding book, these scholars offer tantalizing evidence that the First Lady of the Air and her copilot Fred Noonan landed on a deserted tropical island but perished before they could be rescued.

This is a study of a gay community, a narrative of personal development and change and an exploration of the use of friendship in conducting research. The study explores sexuality, marriage, lifestyles, and the meanings of friendship.

The entrance of Native Americans into the world of cultural resource management is forcing a change in the traditional paradigms that have guided archaeologists, anthropologists, and other CRM professionals. This book examines these developments from tribal perspectives and articulates native views on the identification of cultural resource.

Presents an overview of the religious practices of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian Americans. This work explores how these communities work through issues of gender, race, transnationalism, income disparities and social service, and the passing along an ethnic identity to the next generation.

Explores how religious concerns influence those who shape and those who are shaped by policies. This work queries the social teachings of global denominations and local congregations, as well as the implicit religious stances taken by national governments and international NGOs.

Shows how Eastern thought has dealt with Western contact in the 19th and 20th centuries. Suitable for students familiar with Western philosophy, this book also shows how Indian, Chinese and Islamic traditions responded to these questions: How did philosophy arise? What is the origin of order in the universe? What is human nature? What is truth?

States that despite the economic utopianism brought on by globalization, effective solutions to the plight of urban blacks throughout the African diaspora eludes scholars, politicians, and community leaders. This book investigates the interface of the historic racism faced by these urban communities and contemporary trends of globalization.

Section 106 is a critical section of an obscure law, the National Preservation Act. It has saved thousands of historic sites, archaeological sites, buildings, and neighborhoods across the country from destruction by federal projects. This title de-mythologizes Section 106, explaining its origins and its rationale.

This volume examines the ways people from a multitude of indigenous communities think about and practice health care, within historical and socio-cultural contexts.

Drawing from ethnographic examples found throughout the world, this revised and updated text, hailed as the "best general text on religion in anthropology available," offers an introduction to what anthropologists know or think about religion, how they have studied it, and how they interpret or explain it since the late 19th century.

Global Tourism: Cultural Heritage and Economic Encounters explores the connections among economy, sustainability, heritage, and identity that tourism and related processes make explicit. It illustrates how emerging theories of the economics of tourism can lead to the rethinking of traditionally non-touristic enterprises.

Key Themes in Qualitative Research is an attempt by three well-respected ethnographic researchers to present a balanced view of qualitative methodology and research. The book is structured around classic texts, written by methodological pioneers, which comprise the basic foundation of modern qualitative research.

This volume examines how gender, social class and ethnicity colour the storylines of those who experienced the horrors of Auschwitz, and asks whether we can or should make sense of Auschwitz.

Introduction to designing an archaeological project, in both academic and contract contexts.

Introduces deviance from an interactionist perspective, placing the study of deviant behavior within the broader terrain of cultural meaning. This book examines the persistence of gender inequality and the formation of youth subcultures. It helps in the study of deviance and crime and for courses in sociology on deviance and social control.

Edited volume exploring key issues in ethics for archaeologists.

Demonstrates the position of Asian Pacific Americans in the US workforce. This book examines personal accounts of discrimination in the workplace, sexual harassment, and familial relations. It offers Asian Pacific Americans strategies to cope with discrimination.

Reflects the complexity and diversity of Native American cultural life. This book offers experiences and perspectives from various Native settings.

This work provides an introduction to some of the important researchers, issues, and methodological and stylistic approaches in Yiddish and Jewish studies.

Recent immigrants are creating their own unique religious communities within existing denominations or developing hybrid identities that combine strands of several faiths or traditions. Covering groups from across the US and a range of religious traditions, this work provides an overview to this subfield.