Maya Angelou Resource Library: Ethnicity & Culture

Philosophers have traditionally concentrated on the qualities that make human beings different from other species. In Beast and Man Mary Midgley, one of our foremost intellectuals, stresses continuities. What makes people tick? Largely, she asserts, the same things as animals. She tells us humans are rather more like other animals than we previously allowed ourselves to believe, and reminds us just how primitive we are in comparison to the sophistication of many animals. A veritable classic for our age, Beast and Man has helped change the way we think about ourselves and the world in which we live.

Amidst all the anticipation, anxiety, and hype swirling around the year 2000, we may find ourselves searching for some sure guidance as we enter the new millennium. Dharma: The Way of Transcendence provides it. Written by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, whom scholars and spiritual leaders worldwide recognize as the most distinguished teacher of Indian culture and philosophy of the modern age, Dharma answers essential questions thoughtful people ask in every millenium: Who am I? What are my deepest needs? How can I fulfill them? Srila Prabhupada writes, "The body and the mind are but superfluous outer coverings of the spirit soul. The spirit soul's needs must be fulfilled. The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfill his desire for complete freedom. He wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit." To learn what that free light and spirit are, and how you can see them, read Dharma.

The 851 terms defined include slurs used to disparage nearly every ethnic group in U.S. society, ethnic euphemisms and code words, and vogue or disputed terms heard in ongoing multicultural debates. In addition to providing known etymology and usage, entries explore how meaning varies by social context or circumstance, and how it has changed over time. Many include brief quotations from recent writings.

Probably the most detailed of the recent spate of accounts of conflict and resistance in the Amazon, based on the authors' 15 years of research in the field. This interdisciplinary analysis of the process of frontier change in one region of the Brazilian Amazon, the southern portion of the state of Para, shows how deforestation, settlement patterns, and the intensity of rural violence were outcomes of the competition for resources among social groups capable of mobilizing varying degrees of power.

Translated from the French edition of 1987. Vignettes and the author's comments show how French and Americans differ in their presuppositions about love, friendship, and raising children, as well as in such everyday activities as using the phone or asking for information. No bibliography or index.

In this excellent, scholarly work, Hunter explores the transition in deeply rooted cultural conflicts in American society. These are the political and social hostilities generated from differing systems of moral understanding involving such issues as abortion, homosexuality, families, education, laws, elections, censorship, media, and the arts. In the past, ancient animosities had been expressed along religious lines: Protestants versus Catholics, Christians versus Jews. Now the culture wars are the issues-centered conflicts between two passionately polarized groups, the ``orthodox'' and the ``progressive.'' Concluding that the moderate voices within this public discourse are usually eclipsed, Hunter suggests some practical steps for us to acquire new analytical tools to resolve cultural conflict.

A dramatic new retelling of our nation's past by today's preeminent multiculturalism scholar, Ronald Takaki, this book examines America's history in "a different mirror"--from the perspective of the minority peoples themselves.Beginning with the colonization of the "New World" and ending with the Los Angeles riots of 1992, this book recounts the history of America in the voices of the non-Anglo peoples of the United States--Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and others--groups who helped create this country's rich mosaic culture. In this significant work of scholarship, Professor Takaki grapples with the raw truth of American history and examines the ultimate question of what it means to be an American.

New edition of an introductory text designed to help students build effective communication skills. Offers updated and expanded coverage of gender and culture, values and theories, and WWW links. Twenty chapters discuss culture as context for communication, communication variables, cultural values, cultures within cultures, and the future.

A collection of 27 readings for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, based on the assumption that the study of racial and ethnic relations should focus primarily on patterns of differential power and intergroup conflict. Many articles demonstrate that racial and ethnic relations cannot be understood apart from a transnational perspective, and all explore aspects of race and ethnicity in the US and address broader conceptual issues. Most selections are presented in their entirety, with introductions. No index.

Four photographers who worked with the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s--Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee--were instrumental in making Americans aware of the depths of rural poverty during the Depression. Yet the realism of their images and their impact, according to University of Delaware historian Curtis, were often achieved by deliberate calculation. Evans, the author shows, superimposed his love of symmetry and neatness on Alabama sharecroppers. Lange, he claims, reduced the size of the sprawling family in her Migrant Mother series to suit prevailing middle-class norms. Rothstein, we learn, staged key shots to dramatize the plight of Dust Bowl farmers. Lee transformed the tiny outpost of Pie Town, N. M., into a symbol of the last frontier. Curtis's brilliant, revolutionary study of 82 photos probes a central paradox: documentary photography at times derives its power from artful manipulation.

Contents:Longing for America / David Rubin -- Alienation / Julio Ramón Ribeyro -- America / Arthur Schnitzler -- You have left your lotus pods on the bus / Paul Bowles -- Odd tippling / Kurt Kusenberg -- The little governess / Katherine Mansfield -- Saree of the gods / G.S. Sharat Chandra -- The growing stone / Albert Camus -- Everything is nice / Jane Bowles -- Robert Aghion / Hermann Hesse -- Pastor Dowe at Tacaté / Paul Bowles -- The blue hotel / Stephen Crane -- An outpost of progress / Joseph Conrad -- The overlap / John Bovey -- The door in the wall / Oliver La Farge -- East and West / Rudyard Kipling -- Story of the warrior and the captive / Jorge Luis Borges -- Yard sale / Paul Theroux -- Home sickness / George Moore -- The captive / Jorge Luis Borges.

No one who cares about the human future can afford to ignore Edward O. Wilson's book. On Human Nature begins a new phase in the most important intellectual controversy of this generation: Is human behavior controlled by the species' biological heritage? Does this heritage limit human destiny? With characteristic pungency and simplicity of style, the author of Sociobiology challenges old prejudices and current misconceptions about the nature-nurture debate. He shows how...evolution has left its traces on the most distinctively human activities, how patterns of generosity, self-sacrifice, and worship, as well as sexuality and aggression, reveal their deep roots in the life histories of primate bands that hunted big game in the last Ice Age. His goal is nothing less than the completion of the Darwinian revolution by bringing biological thought into the center of the social sciences and the humanities. Wilson presents a philosophy that cuts across the usual categories of conservative, liberal, or radical thought.

For more than a generation, this pioneering book has been an indispensable introduction to the field of anthropology. Here, in her study of three sharply contrasting cultures, Benedict puts forward her famous thesis that a people's culture is an integrated whole, a "personality writ large." Includes a preface from Margaret Mead.

The New Press's Abridged Teaching Edition of A People's History of the United States has made Howard Zinn's original text available specifically for classroom use. With exercises and teaching materials to accompany each chapter, this edition spans American Beginnings, Reconstruction, the Civil War and through to the present, with new chapters on the Clinton Presidency, the 2000 elections, and the "War on Terrorism."

This edition contains 27 articles, written by scholars and filmmakers who are generally acknowledged as the international authorities in the field.. The book covers ethnographic filming and its relations to the cinema and television; applications of filming to anthropological research, the uses of still photography, archives, and videotape; subdisciplinary applications in ethnography, archeology, bio-anthropology, museology and ethnohistory; and overcoming the funding problems of film production.

This brief book focuses on 14 cultures which are used to illustrate concepts throughout. This provides a unique opportunity to present a holistic view of these cultures. With the introduction of each culture, a Focus Culture Overview box (including a map showing the location of the culture) will highlight key facts about the culture. The reader will learn about the cultures represented as well as learning how to watch ethnographic films.

his book offers a solid historical overview of the Rastafari movement; this ethnography is set within a crosscultural & comparative framework central to anthropological analysis.

Case studies in cultural anthropology.

Excerpts from articles and books by economists, naturalists, anthropologists, and historians provide different perspectives on the relationship between society and nature in the rainforests of Latin America. They overview issues involved in the destruction and preservation of tropical rainforests, looking at causes of deforestation and alternative visions of development in rainforest regions. This revised edition contains 11 new articles and an updated introduction. This work lacks a subject index.

As stated by Edward Hall in the foreword, this is an updated, much expanded, and clarified revision of the original version (1967). What the two Colliers have produced is a manual on the two interlocked processes of observation: how to get information on film and how to get information off film. This new version has a larger format with better-quality paper; it is easier to read and shows off the photographs much better than the original. This is not a history or survey book but a how-to book, with most examples drawn from the extensive experience of the authors. Although directed at professional and student anthropologists, the book would be just as valuable to most social scientists. After reading this book it is unlikely that anyone would ever take a picture-or look at one-in the same way again.

Nationally known intuitive and spiritual leader Sonia Choquette shares the nine universal principles for creating the reality of your dreams. Step by step, with practical advice, specific exercises, and modern-day parables, she teaches readers to make the changes in thought and behavior that will lead them to the attainment of their most heartfelt desires.