Books published by AltaMira Press

Against the Grain gathers scholars from across disciplines to explore the work of ecological anthropologist Andrew P. Vayda and the future of the study of human ecology.

Thema Bryant-Davis examines the cultural issues that health-care professionals need to consider in caring for trauma survivors.

An invaluable resource for students and service practitioners alike, Ethnic Studies Research reflects on important trends in ethnic studies offering a breadth of understanding on critical topics pertaining to the discipline.

Weaves together multi-sector, multidiscipline strategies and discusses the power of human connection. This book shows how citizen engagement and open source solutions could tip the scale toward a better world.

Defining the parameters of social change for Native Nations in the 21st century.

Presenting the knowledge of museum learning, this work aims to promote effective programs and exhibitions, identify promising approaches for future research, and develop strategies for implementing and sustaining connections between research and practice in the museum community.

Draws upon a body of scholarship on the economics and organizational theory of nonprofit organizations to offer a set of practically applicable principles that guide nonprofits towards firmer financial ground.

By examining the connections among local values, material needs, and environmental management regimes, Saving Forests, Protecting People? explores that difficult terrain where culture, the environment, and social policies meet.

Christian colleges have been set up by Christian churches throughout American history. But all too often these schools and the groups that support them come into conflict, typically over what is being taught in religion and philosophy classes.

Helps readers understand indigenous empowerment through education, and creates a foundation for implementing specialized indigenous/minority education worldwide, engaging the simultaneous projects of cultural preservation and social integration. This work is suitable for scholars in Native American studies, ethnic studies, and education.

Collection of original articles exploring theatricality in the ancient world and how it affected social life and politics.

Tackles the critical question of how people of diverse cultures confront the common problems that arise with global integration. This book reveals these impacts on an urban US community, on Mandalay rice cultivators, on Mayan and Andean peasants and miners. It is for anthropologists and other social scientists engaged in ethnographic research.

What makes the 'self'? How is it created, defined, and transformed? Arthur Asa Berger's fascinating, educational whodunit novel unravels the mysteries of cultural studies theory, and more specifically, the complexities of postmodernism and identity.

A text on the academic study of contemporary wicca and paganism throughout the world.

The foundational books of the "Torah" - "Genesis", "Exodus", "Leviticus", "Numbers" and "Deutoronomy" - form the basis of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This volume seeks to keep in creative tension the realities and concerns.

Offers a political battle plan in a fight to designate a local historic district. This title covers what you need to know about the politics of organizing a grassroots campaign and what you have to do to win. It explains how and why historic districts are politically created, It is useful for anyone studying or working in local preservation.

Using archaeological work at Thotlakonda in Southern India as a lens in an examination of Buddhist monastic life, this title discovers the tension between the desired isolation of the monastery and the mutual engagement with neighbors in the Early Historic Period. It shows how archaeology can contribute to our understanding of religious practice.

Presenting a cultural ecological study of a Siberian people, the Viliui Sakha, this title describes the local and global forces of modernization that challenge their survival. It is suitable for environmental and economic anthropologists, as well as to practitioners interested in sustainable rural development in Eurasia, and post-Soviet Russia.

Exploring Hindu nationalism from the varied perspectives of its critics in women's activist and Left intellectual circles, its ideologues, supporters, and sympathizers, this book locates Hindutva in a broader culture of critique in which identity movements of different kinds compete for recognition, representation, and rights.

Shovel bums endure weeks of flea-bitten motel beds, greasy roadhouse food, tempermental field vehicles, and long stretches of boredom to practice that most romantic of intellectual endeavors - archaeology.

Fuses the cultural critique of modern society and the inversion of gender roles with the medical analysis of neurasthenia.

A work on the etiology and treatment of neurasthenia, commonly called brain drain which provides the intersection of medical diagnoses of a serious ailment with cultural critiques of modernity.

This book provides groundbreaking analyses of the interlinking of world heritage with the increasingly complex processes of (post)nationalism, the preservation and representation of cultural diversity, tourism, and sustainable development and the conservation of authenticity.

Crossing Mountains provides important insights about integrating Native-language learning into public education. Using case studies of school districts on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, Phyllis Ngai argues that carefully designed and inclusive Native-language programs can benefit communities and students regardless of ethnic identity.

Helps in understanding the religion in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.

Historians bound by their singular stories and archaeologists bound by their material evidence do not typically seek out broad comparative theories of religion. But Harvey Whitehouse's 'modes of religiosity' theory has been attracting many scholars.

Social media has been a factor in the explosion of interest in food and democratization of food criticism, and this book explains and critique the phenomena and key issues in a lively and anecdotal manner that will appeal to scholars and the interested general public alike.

In recent decades, oral history has matured into an established field of critical importance to historians and social scientists alike. Handbook of Oral History captures the current state-of-the-art, identifies major strands of intellectual development, and predicts key directions for future growth in theory, research, and application.