Contemporary Cultures, Global Connections: Anthropology for the 21st Century

Contemporary Cultures, Global Connections: Anthropology for the 21st Century is an anthology designed to reflect the changing face of cultural anthropology and to reveal the dynamics of present-day life around the world. The selections offer excellent examples of current research by leading anthropologists and others that represent the state of the art in anthropology today.

While many text books and readers present the study of culture through “classic†material about hunters and gatherers and tribes, Contemporary Cultures conveys anthropological insights about human life through studies of globalization, microcredit, immigration, NGOs, fair trade, and other contemporary realities. The authors address the politics of knowledge production, issues of representation, racialization, and constructions of gender while exploring enduring concerns of anthropology. The anthropologists included here study cities, technology, media, government policies, corporations, migration, and other institutions and processes that are shaping life in the modern world. The chapters provide examples of how globalization gives rise to connections and processes that cross regional and cultural boundaries, producing both similarities and differences. By combining theoretical depth and empirical scope, the twenty-seven chapters in the anthology challenge readers to critically reflect on common assumptions about society and human nature.

Contemporary Cultures, Global Connections: Anthropology for the 21st Century is a path-breaking collection for use in teaching cultural anthropology and interdisciplinary fields such as global studies, international studies, and gender studies. The anthology will be useful to scholars and students in a range of disciplines because of the growing interest in ethnography as a tool for understanding social values, institutions, and behavior

Victoria Bernal is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research and teaching focus on politics, new media, diaspora, gender, Africa, and Islam. Dr. Bernal has conducted ethnographic research in Sudan, Eritrea, Tanzania, and cyberspace.