Assault On Paradise

In a fast-paced, bawdy, swashbuckling adventure in Central America of the early 1700s, Costa Rican novelist Tatiana Lobo lays bare the dark legacy of the Conquistadores and the Church.

By the highest standards, Assault on Paradise ranks among the best and most complete modern ethnographic accounts ever written. In a rich narrative style, it chronicles the rapid social and economic change in Arembepe, a once-isolated coastal fishing village in Brazil where the author first conducted anthropological fieldwork more than fifty years ago. With emphasis on the impact of globalization, technology, and mass media, the current edition extends stories of people and events as well as internal and external changes. Readers quickly feel a part of the evolving community of Arembepe and the author’s close friends and informants. As one reviewer put it, “The people and personalities come through in a very human and often amusing way. This isn’t ethnography with the people taken out.” The well-structured, jargon-free coverage makes it ideal for use in introductory anthropology courses.

This book is designed for use as a supplementary text in cultural and anthropology courses. The book chronicles the rapid social and economic change in Arembepe, a Brazilian coastal fishing village, which the author has visited repeatedly from 1962 to the present (1991). The new edition brings the account up-to-date by describing and analyzing the past ten years of life in Arembepe.

The Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology, now in its second edition, maintains a strong benchmark for understanding the scope of contemporary anthropological field methods. Avoiding divisive debates over science and humanism, the contributors draw upon both traditions to explore fieldwork in practice. The second edition also reflects major developments of the past decade, including: the rising prominence of mixed methods, the emergence of new technologies, and evolving views on ethnographic writing. Spanning the chain of research, from designing a project through methods of data collection and interpretive analysis, the Handbook features new chapters on ethnography of online communities, social survey research, and network and geospatial analysis. Considered discussion of ethics, epistemology, and the presentation of research results to diverse audiences round out the volume. The result is an essential guide for all scholars, professionals, and advanced students who employ fieldwork.

The acclaimed Nobel Prize winner challenges our most fiercely held beliefs as she weaves folklore and history, memory and myth into an unforgettable meditation on race, religion, gender, and a far-off past that is ever present—in prose that soars with the rhythms, grandeur, and tragic arc of an epic poem. “They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” So begins Toni Morrison’s Paradise, which opens with a horrifying scene of mass violence and chronicles its genesis in an all-black small town in rural Oklahoma. Founded by the descendants of freed slaves and survivors in exodus from a hostile world, the patriarchal community of Ruby is built on righteousness, rigidly enforced moral law, and fear. But seventeen miles away, another group of exiles has gathered in a promised land of their own. And it is upon these women in flight from death and despair that nine male citizens of Ruby will lay their pain, their terror, and their murderous rage. “A fascinating story, wonderfully detailed. . . . The town is the stage for a profound and provocative debate.” —Los Angeles Times

Many men believe that they own the world and that women are simply objects placed in that world to enable men to enjoy it fully. Such men claim to fully understand what is on a woman's mind at every moment, an indication of control over the female sex, and proof of their opinion that a woman's happiness depends fully on the man. Do men really understand and know as much about women as they presume? In this book Colin Diyen imagines himself as a woman and tries to think like one.