Pre-capitalism and Cosmology

Pre-capitalism and Cosmology
Author: Jelle Miedema
Publisher: KITLV Press
Total Pages: 56
Release: 1986
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

In this article, the author attempts to demonstrate that the study of inland fisheries can provide additional insight into the culture of the Meybrat, a tribal community living around the Ayamaru lakes in the northern part of the Western Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. The author discusses the following: the significance of pusaka (sacred hereditary goods) in fishery; the role of ancestor worship and cosmology; the rise of a class of native immigrant 'big men' such as 'bankers' in ikat textiles (kain timur); the role of imported kain pusaka as part of the so-called kain timur-complex; newly discovered aspects of myths from the western and eastern Bird's Head, that are often culturally imposed.

On the Edge of the Banda Zone

On the Edge of the Banda Zone
Author: Roy Ellen
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2003-08-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780824826765

The impact of the Indonesian spice trade on global and, more particularly, European history has been widely acknowledged. Although more recent studies have gone beyond the preoccupation with the colonial relationship to provide a more "Asiacentric" view, On the Edge of the Banda Zone is the first to focus an anthropological lens on the dynamics of trade in a specific area: that incorporating the Seram Laut and Gorom archipelagoes (and the adjacent mainland) of east Seram, in the Moluccas. The point of departure for Roy Ellen's analysis is a description of trade relations in the east Seram zone between 1970 and 1990, but the wider importance of the data presented here is readily apparent: For five hundred years (and probably much longer), it has served as a corridor between Eurasia and the southwestern Pacific and played a vital role in the production and distribution of nutmeg and other high-value commodities that have for centuries had an impact on the global economy. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork as well as archival and secondary sources, this ambitious, eclectic volume demonstrates the enduring continuities in the local system as it comes into contact with the changing outside world. It illuminates how barter, ecological and ethnic divisions of labor, exchange patterns, and the organization of trade between the peoples of the New Guinea coast and east Seram, help us make sense of long-term cycles and trends.

Author:
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 649
Release:
Genre:
ISBN:

Peasants, Capitalism, and Imperialism in an Age of Politico-Ecological Crisis

Peasants, Capitalism, and Imperialism in an Age of Politico-Ecological Crisis
Author: Mark Tilzey
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2023-09-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 100096258X

This book utilises a new theoretical approach to understand the dynamics of the peasantry, and peasant resistance, in relation to capitalism, state, class, and imperialism in the global South. In this companion volume to Peasants, Capitalism, and the Work of Eric R. Wolf, the authors further develop their thinking on agrarian transitions to capitalism, the development of imperialism, and the place of the peasantry in these dynamics, with special reference to the global South in an era of politico-ecological crisis. Focusing on the political role of the peasantry in contested transitions to capitalism and to modes of production outside of, and beyond, capitalism, the book contends that an understanding of these dynamics requires an analysis of class struggle and of the resources, material and discursive, that different classes can bring to bear on this struggle. The book focuses on the rise of capitalism in the global South within the context of imperial subordination to the global North, and the place of the peasantry in shaping and resisting these dynamics. The book presents case studies of contested transitions to agrarian capitalism in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and South Asia. It also examines the case of transition to a post-capitalist mode of production in Cuba. The book concludes with an assessment of the nature of capitalism and imperialism within the context of the contemporary politico-ecological crisis, and the potential role of the peasantry as agent of emancipatory change towards social and environmental sustainability. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in the areas of peasant studies, rural politics, agrarian studies, development, and political ecology.

The Djief Hunters, 26,000 Years of Rainforest Exploitation on the Bird's Head of Papua, Indonesia

The Djief Hunters, 26,000 Years of Rainforest Exploitation on the Bird's Head of Papua, Indonesia
Author: Juliette M. Pasveer
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2004-07-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1482283948

Two prehistoric cave sites on the Bird's Head of western New Guinea provide a detailed narrative of 26,000 years of human occupation of this area. During Late Pleistocene times, lower temperatures allowed a suite of montane animal species to descend onto the lowland Ayamaru Plateau. When the montane fauna receded during the subsequent climatic amel

Civil Histories

Civil Histories
Author: Peter Burke
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2000-05-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191542679

Sir Keith Thomas is one of the most innovative and influential of English historians, and a scholar of unusual range. These essays, presented to him on his retirement as President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, concentrate on one of the broad themes illuminated by his work - changing notions of civility in the past. From the sixteenth century onwards, civility was a term applied to modes of behaviour as well as to cultural and civic attributes. Its influence extended from styles of language and sexual mores to funeral ceremonies and commercial morality. It was used to distinguish the civil from the barbarous and the English from the Irish and Welsh, and to banish superstition and justify imperialism. The contributors - distinguished historians who have been Keith Thomas's pupils - illustrate the many implications of civility in the early modern period and its shifts of meaning down to the twentieth century.

Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology
Author: John H. Bodley
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 650
Release: 2011-04-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0759118671

This introductory text introduces basic concepts in cultural anthropology by comparing cultures of increasing scale and focusing on specific universal issues throughout human history. It uniquely challenges students to consider the big questions about the nature of cultural systems.

Coastal Economies, Cultural Accounts

Coastal Economies, Cultural Accounts
Author: Gísli Pálsson
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1994
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780719043864

Palsson (social anthropology, U. of Iceland) examines how indigenous producers and anthropologists portray the interaction between people and the environment in the fishing industry. He finds that, through history, different cultural models reflect different social relations, which in turn reflect changes in the resources, technology, and organization of the industry. Of interest to anthropologists and human ecologists. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Capitalism and Modern Social Theory

Capitalism and Modern Social Theory
Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1973-02-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1107268044

Giddens's analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Weber has become the classic text for any student seeking to understand the three thinkers who established the basic framework of contemporary sociology. The first three sections of the book, based on close textual examination of the original sources, contain separate treatments of each writer. The author demonstrates the internal coherence of their respective contributions to social theory. The concluding section discusses the principal ways in which Marx can be compared with the other two authors, and discusses misconceptions of some conventional views on the subject.