Books published by University of Pennsylvania Press

"The ancient and modern question of what is the nature of man and his activity and what ought to be the directions pursued in this activity is once again being reaffirmed as a primary issue for reflective men."-from Praxis and Action

Ann Grodzins Gold weaves together an integrated series of ethnographic sketches depicting the distinctive nature of non-urban, non-rural places; the impact locality has on belonging; the negotiations of difference required in a pluralistic society; and the ways a changing environment permeates experiences of self and place.

Contested Bodies explores how the end of the transatlantic trade impacted Jamaican slaves and their children. Examining the struggles for control over biological reproduction, Turner shows how central childbearing was to the organization of plantation work, the care of slaves, and the development of their culture.

In Maimonides and the Merchants, Mark R. Cohen reveals the extent of pragmatic revisions to the halakha, or body of Jewish law, introduced by Moses Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah, the comprehensive legal code he compiled in the late twelfth century.

Evolution of Mind, Brain, and Culture draws together studies in archaeology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, genetics, neuroscience, and environmental science to investigate the evolution of the human mind, the brain, and the human capacity for culture.

"An exemplary study of public memory because of its wide vision, its attentiveness to context, and its careful delineation of change over time."-David Waldstreicher, author of In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776-1820