Sean Kingston Publishing is a new and alternative outlet for high quality academic texts within the social sciences, particularly anthropology. We use the latest print-on-demand (POD) technology to enable print and distribution on both sides of the Atlantic.
The publisher takes a personal interest in all books accepted for publication, and believes in close liaison with authors. In providing a straightforward but rigorous avenue to publication, Sean Kingston Publishing hopes to address the needs of anthropology and its allied disciplines, which are increasingly overlooked by many of the larger publishers.
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Body Arts and Modernity
Edited by Elizabeth Ewart and Michael O'Hanlon
What happens to body arts when these aesthetic practices assume fresh significance in the context of modernity?
In many parts of the indigenous world, the realm of body arts has become an arena for innovation, debate, revival and repression under the conditions of modernity. Among some groups, formerly suppressed ‘traditions’ of body arts have recently been revived. Elsewhere, body arts have been the means for creating or renovating identities in response to a developing international tourist market and in the light of novel technologies of representation, such as photography and film.
The contributions to this volume draw together ideas emerging from the anthropology of the body, the western interest in body ornamentation of the ‘Other’, and the recent revival of specific body arts such as tattooing and piercing.
Drawing on ethnographic case studies from Amazonia, Indonesia, Africa, Melanesia and Polynesia, this volume shows how bodily presentation plays a fundamental role in contemporary identity politics in tension with encompassing national and global stereotypes, which may in turn both constrain and empower local traditions.
CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Body arts and modernity: an introduction, Michael O’Hanlon; Chapter 2: Ski masks, veils, nose-rings and feathers: identity on the frontlines of modernity, Beth A. Conklin; Chapter 3: Black paint, red paint and a wristwatch: the aesthetics of modernity among the Panará in Central Brazil, Elizabeth Ewart; Chapter 4: Clothing as acculturation in Peruvian Amazonia, Peter Gow; Chapter 5: Body art and modernity: south-east Nuba, James C. Faris; Chapter 6: From self-decoration to self-fashioning: Orientalism as backward progress among the Gebusi of Papua New Guinea, Bruce M. Knauft; Chapter 7: Lipsticked brides and powdered children: cosmetics and the allure of modernity in an eastern Indonesian village, Catherine Allerton; Chapter 8: Encounters on the surface of life: t-shirts and visual analogy in South Auckland, Chloe Colchester; Chapter 9: Decorated being in Huli: parleying with paint, Laurence R. Goldman; Chapter 10: ‘Island dress that belongs to us all’: mission dresses and the innovation of tradition in Vanuatu, Lissant Bolton.
Elizabeth Ewart is University Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford.
Michael O'Hanlon is is Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University’s museum of anthropology and world archaeology.
Hardback, ISBN 0-9545572-9-8 (978-0-9545572-9-4), £49.50 (GBP), $99.50 (USD)
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Anthropology Matters Vol. 1
Of Alien Kings and Perpetual Kin
Contradiction and Ambiguity in Ruwund (Lunda) Symbolic Thought
Manuela Palmeirim
Of Alien Kings and Perpetual Kin presents a detailed understanding and analysis of the ideology of kingship among the Aruwund (Lunda) of southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In doing so the text is drawn into addressing a range of important regional themes: the debate on the concept of the 'culture hero' in central African traditions of state formation; the system of 'perpetual kinship'; issues of hierarchy; and the symbolic use of space in royal ritual. All these lead to an analysis that stresses the fluidity and ambiguity of symbolic thought. In this, this innovative work questions the heuristic and theoretical validity of the concept of 'opposition' as used in theoretical models applied to the study of symbolism in which terms are self-contained and mutually exclusive.
'a major ethnographic contribution ... Palmeirim is remarkably successful in her ambition to present the Ruwund epic as a story of exceptional complexity'
Johan Pottier (School of Oriental and African Studies), Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 14
Manuela Palmeirim is a Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Minho, Portugal.
Hardback, ISBN 0-9545572-7-1, £45.00 (GBP), $90.00 (USD)
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OUT NOW! - Anthropology Matters Vol. 2
Living with Things
Ridding, Accommodation, Dwelling
Nicky Gregson
Living with Things provides an account of consumption in terms of its centrality to our dwelling practices. Its focus is on the home, particularly on the movement of people and things within and through it in everyday habitation.
Here dwelling is seen as an activity, as doing things with and to the things to hand around us. Being ‘at home’ is achieved through living amongst things, as well as amongst people and other non-human presences, such as pets and gardens. Being at home is achieved through what we do with objects, the things that are acquired and stored, that linger around in our homes, sometimes for decades, and which we may eventually get rid of. These ordinary things make dwelling structures accommodating accommodations; they make them homes.
Based primarily on a former coal-mining village in North-east England, this book explores practices of inhabitation, from moving in or being modernised, to the daily accommodation of sleep and children. It provides a demonstration of what happens to consumption research when it ‘comes home’ and is positioned not in sites of exchange but within the home and in households.
Hardback, ISBN 0-9545572-8-X, £45.00 (GBP), $90.00 (USD)
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Medical Anthropology in Europe
Teaching and Doctoral Research
Elisabeth Hsu and Doreen Montag
Medical Anthropology is the fastest growing field in anthropology. Over the last three decades it has developed a strong academic and applied importance, both in North America and Europe. This has led to the establishment of a specific degree in medical anthropology at some universities, and to a specialization within general anthropological teaching or within the medical curriculum at others.
This publication provides a handbook to existing programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level, with the aim of making this information available to a wide public. As a guide to medical anthropology programmes in Europe, it is primarily designed for students who are looking for suitable training, but it will also interest professionals who are looking for expertise in the field. It provides information on ongoing doctoral research all over Europe, and indicates new directions in medical anthropology. It is the first handbook of its kind.
Elisabeth Hsu is University Lecturer in Medical Anthropology, and Doreen Montag is completing a D.Phil. in Social Anthropology, both at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.
Paperback, ISBN 0-9545572-5-5, £8.99 (GBP), $16.00 (USD)
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Mining and Indigenous Lifeworlds in Australia and Papua New Guinea
Edited by Alan Rumsey and James Weiner
This volume gives a vital and unique insight into the effects of mining and other forms of resource extraction upon the indigenous peoples of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Based on extensive fieldwork with the people concerned, it offers a comparative focus on indigenous cosmologies and their articulation or disjunction with the forces of 'development'.
A central dimension of contrast is that Australia as a 'settled' continent has had wholesale dispossession of Aboriginal land, while in Papua New Guinea more than 95% of the land surface remains unalienated from customary ownership. Less obviously, there are also important similarities owing to:
- a shared form of land title (largely unheard of outside Australia and Papua New Guinea) in which the state retains ownership of underground resources;
- the manner in which Western law has been used in both countries to define and codify customary land tenure;
- an emphasis on the reproductive imagery of minerals, petroleum and extraction processes employed by Aborigines and Papua New Guineans;
- and some surprising parallels in the ways that social identities on either side of the Arafura Sea have traditionally been grounded in landscape.
These studies are essential reading for all scholars involved in assessing the effects of resource extraction in Third World and Fourth World settings. Their distinctive contribution lies in their penetrating study of the forms of indigenous socio-cultural response to multinational companies and Western forms of governance and law.
1 Introduction: Depositings, James F. Weiner; 2 The iron furnace of Birrinydji, Ian McIntosh; 3 The Mount Kare python: Huli myths and gendered fantasies of agency, Holly Wardlow; 4 Who and what is a landowner? Mythology and marking the ground in a Papua New Guinea mining project, Dan Jorgensen; 5 Continuity and identity: Mineral development, land tenure and 'ownership' among the northern Mountain Ok, Don Gardner; 6 Land, stories and resources: Some impacts of large-scale resource exploitation on Onabasulu lifeworlds, T.M. Ernst; 7 The politics of petroleum extraction and royalty distribution at Lake Kutubu, Bill F. Sagir; 8 The Old Airforce Road: Myth and mining in north-east Arnhem Land, Ian Keen; 9 Changing views of place and time along the Ok Tedi, Stuart Kirsch; 10 Poisoning the rainbow: Mining, pollution and indigenous cosmology in Far North Queensland, Veronica Strang; 11 Mining, land claims and the negotiation of indigenous interests: Research from the Queensland Gulf country and the Pilbara region of Western Australia, David Trigger and Michael Robinson; 12 Development, rationalisation, and sacred sites: Comparative perspectives on Papua New Guinea and Australia, Francesca Merlan; References; Index.
'The writing is new and interesting. The essays mark out new ideas in seemingly effortless abundance. . . In sum - buy it, read it, I think you'll agree that its one of the really interesting books of the year.'
Deborah Rose (Senior Fellow, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, ANU)
Alan Rumsey is a Senior Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and James Weiner a Visiting Fellow in the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Project, both in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
Hardback, ISBN 0-9545572-4-7, £50.00 (GBP), $90.00 (USD)
Paperback, ISBN 0-9545572-3-9, £19.50 (GBP), $35.00 (USD)
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Commons and Borderlands
Working Papers on Interdisciplinarity, Accountability and the Flow of Knowledge
Marilyn Strathern
In Commons and Borderlands a leading social anthropologist examines early twenty-first-century interests in interdisciplinarity, with particular attention to the conjunction of science and society. Interdisciplinary practice has become well entrenched in any number of scientific disciplines, or disciplines from the humanities or from social science for that matter. This does not deter current rhetoric which sees new opportunities in new combinations of interests. One arresting strand is the promise that in a strong form - transdisciplinarity - 'society' might thereby be brought into 'science'. Marilyn Strathern’s questioning of these processes addresses the challenge that notions of ownership pose to the expected flow of knowledge. As is fitting for a consideration of the flow and transformational properties of knowledge, the contents of this collection are knowingly designated 'working papers', left as open, unfinished statements to highlight their future and the work they may still do. They are designed to inspire debate, and publication will coincide with a Cambridge seminar series on Social Property at which many of these challenges will be rehearsed and articulated.
PREFACE; INTRODUCTION - In crisis mode : a comment on interculturality; CHAPTER ONE - Knowledge on its travels: Dispersal and divergence in the make-up of communities; CHAPTER TWO - Commons and borderland;.CHAPTER THREE - Who owns academic knowledge? CHAPTER FOUR - Accountabilty across disciplines.ENDNOTE Re-describing society.
Marilyn Strathern is William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge.
Paperback, ISBN 0-9545572-2-0, £12.99 (GBP), $20.99 (USD)
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Rationales of Ownership
Transactions and Claims to Ownership in Contemporary Papua New Guinea
Edited by Lawrence Kalinoe and James Leach
What constitutes a resource, and how do people make claims on them? In the context of a burgeoning discourse of property, these are vital questions. Rationales of Ownership offers conceptual clarification in the context of material, intellectual and cultural resources in Papua New Guinea. The volume is a result of a major research project headed by Marilyn Strathern and Eric Hirsch, and brings together contributions from social anthropology and law. The approaches demonstrated, and conclusions reached, build upon recent understandings developed within Melanesian anthropology, but have far wider significance. The first publication sold out in Papua New Guinea due to the relevance of its approach and contents to lawyers and policy makers in that country. It is here made available to a wider readership, particularly those teaching courses on resource development, cultural and intellectual property, contemporary Pacific societies, environmental degradation, and property itself.
CONTENTS: Preface, James Leach; 1. Introduction: Rationales of Ownership, Marilyn Strathern; 2. Mining Boundaries and Local Land Narratives (tidibe) in the Udabe Valley, Central Province, Eric Hirsch; 3. Disputing Damage Versus Disputing Ownership in Suau, Melissa Demian; 4. Land, Trees and History: Disputes Involving Boundaries and Identities in the Context of Development, James Leach; 5. The Bases of Ownership Claims Over Natural Resources by Indigenous Peoples in Papua New Guinea, Lawrence Kalinoe; 6. Keeping the Network in View: Compensation Claims, Property and Social Relations in Melanesia, Stuart Kirsch; 7. Combining Rationales from Bolivip: The Person and Property Rights Legislation in Papua New Guinea, Tony Crook; 8. Global and Local Contexts, Marilyn Strathern.
'. . .a unique contribution to the discipline's voice in contemporary global debates. . .this volume represents the best of the comparative, ethnographic tradition providing critical insight into difference and similarity on issues that entangle us all in various degrees of responsibility and care. It will be read by anthropologists, policy makers and all academic and non-academic students of what has come to be seen as the test area of the survival of cultural difference.'
Marta Rohatynskyj (University of Guelph)
Click here to sample prelims or endmatter, or to purchase chapters as pdfs.
Lawrence Kalinoe is Professor and Executive Dean in the School of Law, University of Papua New Guinea.
James Leach is Research Fellow, King's College and Associate Lecturer, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge.
Hardback, ISBN 0-9545572-0-4, £34.99 (GBP), $54.99 (USD)
Paperback, ISBN 0-9545572-1-2, £12.99 (GBP), $20.99 (USD)
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