Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2020 -

Not many concepts in anthropology have provoked so much contention as that of "civilization." Banned from the discipline's lingua franca for more than a century and turned into the perennial target of Marxist and postmodern criticism, the idea of civilization usually comes to us in association with Eurocentric, elitist, and modernizing biases. In Civilization Recast, however, Feuchtwang (London School of Economics, UK) and Rowlands (Univ. College London, UK) courageously endeavor to reintroduce the concept into the scholarly conversation while overcoming critical suspicion in productive ways. Divided into seven chapters, the book reformulates much of 20th-century anthropological thought around culture, morality, and social formations (chapters 1 and 2), and illustrates the proposed interpretation through a myriad of case studies that range across time and space (chapters 3 to 7). This short but persuasive study is the product of two erudite scholars writing boldly in the late years of their careers. It is well organized and easy to follow, presenting anthropological theory in a clear and accessible manner. It also bridges conversations across different fields, which makes this volume a great candidate for introductory and interdisciplinary courses.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through upper-division undergraduates.

Despite its nondescript title suggesting a rudimentary look at 21st-century military technology and culture, this book takes a deep dive into the American psyche that underwrites the most dastardly acts of war since the atomic bombings of Japan. Zulaika (Univ. of Nevada, Reno) focuses on drone pilots at an area of Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas, nicknamed Paradise Ranch. Freudian theory informs his investigation into the militarized masculinity that enables pilots' robotic killing of those deemed terrorists in the post-9/11 era. But the reality of their disposition lies deeper still in the hunter-hunted fantasies hidden within the symbolisms of modern warfare. For Zulaika, drone warfare not only imagines human targets as animals but fantasizes them as animals to be hunted, as embodied by the practice of "double tap strikes," attacks designed to draw first responders as additional targets. The epilogue, "Obama's Troy," is a Homerian takedown of President Barack Obama that parallels Obama's hunt for and drone assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011 with Achilles's slaying of Hector at the gates of Troy--the former a prophecy foretelling terrorism's return in the form of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. This is a marvelous book.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

Perceiving the tension between tradition and modernization, especially accelerated in the digital age, eminent folklorist Bronner (Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) argues that commercial mass culture will come to displace traditional culture, presenting this volume to address the resulting existential, folklore-related issues. The book is divided into three sections, focusing on theory, case study data, and an analysis and application of that data, respectively. In the four case studies, including, for example, a mini-ethnography about the boogieman and another about the relationship between "wild-child narratives" and school shootings, Bronner explores the psychocultural meanings and the adaptive fluidity arising from contemporary folk beliefs and behaviors. Always questioning how and why people practice folklore, he asks: Why do people traditionalize? What are the complications and implications of our digitized era regarding how people communicate? He highlights new directions of folklore in everyday life, with a vitality and adaptive potential for application and integration within mainstream contemporary culture, describing a new "hyper" community of folkloric practice intersecting with the digital world. Raising stimulating topics, this book is highly recommended for folklore and anthropology scholars.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.