Books published by Left Coast Press Inc

Presents a detailed description of key concepts and leading scholars of phenomenology as it has evolved over the past centurythoughtfully works through the methodological issues of phenomenological reflection, empirical methods, and writing that various phenomenological approaches offer for the applied researcher."

In the first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit, Falk and Dierking present research findings to demonstrate people's motivations for visiting museums and how museum professionals can enhance their visitors' experiences.

This book offers a methodology for studying sound, providing a flexible and widely applicable set of elements that can be adapted for use in a broad range of archaeological and heritage contexts.

The set of case studies presented in this volume emphasize the significance of new research in South Asia within the broader universe of archaeological scholarship.

This volume documents the analysis of excavated historical archaeological collections at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa to provide a rich picture of life and times at this distant outpost of an immense Dutch seaborne empire.

The Bioarchaeology of Disaster examines two dozen disasters occurring around the world over the past 2000 years, ranging from natural and environmental disasters to human conflict and warfare, from epidemics to those of social marginalization.

Heritage, Tourism, and Race views heritage and leisure tourism in the Americas through the lens of race, and is especially concerned with redressing gaps in recognizing and critically accounting for African Americans as an underrepresented community in leisure.

This book examines the public memorialization of women in the US over the past century, with a particular focus on the late twentieth century and early twenty first. The analysis centers on six case examples of memorialization, and explores broad themes of cultural representation.

The blue and white porcelain exported by China in the 18th and early 19th centuries is an important category of artifacts and antiques. This illustrated guide to Chinese export porcelain offers an overview and identification and context information for the most common styles and motifs.

Paleoethnobotanical inference is increasingly sophisticated, and contributes to our understanding of the past in ways that may not be apparent outside the field or to all practitioners. Case Studies in Paleoethnobotany guides the reader through the process of analyzing archaeobotanical data and using it to address research questions. The unique case study format in this book allows in depth exploration of the process of interpretation in the context of significant issues that will engage readers. It will be of interest to archaeologists, paleoethnobotanists, and paleoecologists, as well as instructors of classes in archaeological methods, environmental archaeology, and ethnobiology.

Exploring the history and modern day practice of object-based learning, Shaffer outlines the rationale for endorsing this approach in both formal and informal learning spaces. She argues that museums, as collecting institutions, are learning spaces uniquely positioned to allow children to make meaning about their world through personal connections to cultural artifacts, natural specimens, and works of art. A range of case study descriptive object lessons, inspired by objects in museums as well as from the everyday world, are presented throughout the text as examples of ways in which children can be encouraged to engage with museum collections.

This interdisciplinary group of scholars-anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, educators, lawyers, heritage administrators, policy analysts, and consultants-make the first attempt to define and assess heritage values on a local, national and global level. Chapters range from the theoretical to policy frameworks to case studies of heritage practice, written by scholars from eight countries.

Examining the key components of the museum-community relationship, Authentic Connections looks at both the impact of museums on the cultural and civic lives of local communities, and the impact of local communities on the programs, collections and organisational culture of museums. Advocating an accessible and inclusive approach to museum management, Kadoyama focuses in particular on the role of museum leadership in fostering community relationships. The result offers insights into how relationships between communities and museums can be forged in practice, and how community engagement strategies can be developed, implimented and evaluated successfully.

This book considers modern museum collection stewardship and argues that the museum field risks being constrained by rigid ways of thinking about objects. Exploring issues such as `quality over quantity¿, emotional attachment, dispassionate cataloging, and cognitive biases in curatorship, the book aims to inform and innovate collection practices.

"First published in French 2014: Howard S. Becker, Paris: Editions L'Harmattan."