Books published by AltaMira Press

Reader of original synthesizing articles for introductory courses on archaeology and native peoples of California.

A new volume exploring spiritual transformation from various disciplinary perspectives.

Tells the story of a contemporary Ojibwa household and the woman and her children who are at its core. As their lives unfold, we understand how traditional beliefs help Rachel's family cope as they encounter racism in rural Michigan.

Reveals the impact of globalization on human health, as it is mediated through environmental change. This book examines the bio-cultural intersection of health and the environment and the impact of rapid change, technological development and the expansion of the global economy.

A collection of essays which convey the challenge of conducting systematic behavioral science research cross-culturally. It is suitable as a reference and teaching tool for those concerned with a behavioral, scientific approach to anthropology.

Collecting narratives of his grandmother's life, communication researcher NickTrujillo learns how family members use stories to define the family's sense of itself and create collective views on intergenerational relations, social history, gender, class, and ethnicity in this experimental ethnography.

Reader outlining key developments in the recent history of interpretive social science methods.

New Orleans' celebrated status derives in large measure from its incredibly rich food culture, based mainly on Creole and Cajun traditions. At last, this world-class destination has its own food biography.

Anthropology graduate students and newly minted professionals now have a one-stop source that demystifies the all-important task of getting their work published. How to Get Published in Anthropology provides tried-and-true advice from anthropologists who share their experiences and from publishing professionals on how to publish, where to publish, and what publishing efforts will be most effective for individual career paths.

The culmination of 34 years of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, this book offers ground-breaking insights into fundamental principles of Huichol shamanism and ritual. The scope and length of Fikes's research, combined with the depth of his participation with four Huichol shamans, enable him to convey with empathy details of shamanic initiation, methods for diagnosis and treatment of illness, and motives for performing funeral, deer and peyote hunting, and maize-cultivating rituals.

Featuring readings on four prominent theoretical perspectives on American Indian education - cultural discontinuity theory, structural inequality theory, interactionalist theory, and transculturation theory - this book provides a comparison of each theoretical perspective's basic premise, fundamental assumptions regarding American Indian education, implications, and associated criticisms.

All social scientists, despite their differences on many issues, ask causal questions about the world. In this anthology, Andrew P. Vayda and Bradley B. Walters set forth strategy and methods to answer those questions.

Small museums need affordable ways to provide care for their collections and the tools to lobby for additional funds for their long-term health. In this book, we offer practical tips for collections care, including preservation strategies for historic properties, strategies for managing collections, developing policies, and planning for the future of your museum's holdings.

Cross-Cultural Research Methods is an introductory teaching tool that shows students and potential researchers how to describe, compare, and analyze patterns that occur in different cultures. This text explains how to form and test hypotheses about cultural variation, whether it be anthropological, sociological, psychological, medical, or political.

Bones of the Ancestors tells the shadowy story of the Ambum Stone, a 3,000-year-old carving from Papua New Guinea that found its way onto the antiquities market and then into an important modern museum.

A concise methods book, Research Design and Methods for Studying Cultures emphasizes that all methods are related as parts of a research design and must be chosen with respect to the larger research objective of anthropology.

In Pathways through Crisis, Carl Maida describes how communities tend (and need) to develop "grass roots" solutions in responding to critical social problems.

Part novel and part memoire, Not Far Away recounts the life of a female Ojibwe schoolteacher in northern Michigan as she endures the most caustic forms of racism.

Economies and the Transformation of Landscape explores both the general and specific ways in which local economic ventures around the world, such as mining, ranching, and farming, affect the environment.

InIdentity and Subsistence, a number of scholars look at how the idea of gender has worked with respect to the formation of the self, ideas of femininity and masculinity, human evolution, and the development of early agrarian and pastoralist societies.

As Saddam Hussein's government fell in April 2003, news accounts detailed the pillage of Iraq's National Museum. Less dramatic, though far more devastating, was the subsequent looting at thousands of archaeological sites around the country, which continues on a massive scale to this day. This book details the disasters that have befallen Iraq's cultural heritage, analyzes why all efforts to protect it have failed, and identifies new mechanisms and strategies to prevent the mistakes of Iraq from being replicated in other war-torn regions.

A virtual Who's Who of Native American scholars, activists, and community leaders reflect on the problems and achievements of Native American peoples over the last several decades.

Part III and IV of Handbook of Oral History, now available in paper for classroom use.

This book asks an important question: Can we simply accelerate growth under the assumption that increased prosperity and new technologies will allow us to reverse environmental damage? Or do we need to transform our modes of living radically to maintain the health of the world around us?

This travelogue tackles the pressing issues of cultural-heritage management in Southern Asia by examining archaeological sites in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, among other countries.

Re-riting Woman is an ethnographic study of Dianic Wicca, a modern Pagan religion in which the divine is solely feminine. Kristy S. Coleman explores Dianic Witchcraft, what it really means to practice Wicca today, and how our understanding of womanhood can change with the experience of a divine feminine.