Visual Anthropology Books

New and Published Books

1. Unburied Memories: The Politics of Bodies of Sacred Defense Martyrs in Iran

   Edited by Pedram Khosronejad

   Today, almost a generation has passed since the Iran–Iraq war and the memory of it is set to diminish with each passing generation. The following questions emerge. Can we say that the gradual disappearance of war’s memory means that, increasingly, Iranians will see the Iran–Iraq war solely as an...

   Published August 16th 2012 by Routledge
2. Visual Sociology

   By Douglas Harper

   Visual sociology has been part of the sociological vocabulary since the 1970s, but until now there has not been a comprehensive text that introduces this area. Written by one of the founding fathers in the field, Visual Sociology explores how the world that is seen, photographed, drawn, or...

   Published July 2nd 2012 by Routledge
3. A Host of Devils

   The History and Context of the Making of Makonde Spirit Sculpture

   By Zachary Kingdon

   A Host of Devils provides an in-depth account of the background, origin and development of the spirit figure sculptures which emerged during colonial times among the Makonde people of Mozambique.The creation of such works is shown to connect with a regional system of knowledge and practice, within...

   Published June 21st 2012 by Routledge
4. Museums in Postcolonial Europe

   Edited by Dominic Thomas

   The history of European nation-building and identity formation is inextricably connected with museums, and the role they play in displaying the acquired spoils and glorious symbols of geopolitical power in order to mobilize public support for expansionist ventures. This book examines the...

   Published May 29th 2012 by Routledge
5. Images of the Wildman in Southeast Asia

   An Anthropological Perspective

   By Gregory Forth

   The book examines ‘wildmen’, images of hairy humanlike creatures known to rural villagers and other local people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Sometimes described in considerable detail, the creatures are reported as still living or as having survived until recent times. The aim of the book is...

   Published April 30th 2012 by Routledge
6. Surviving Dictatorship

   A Work of Visual Sociology

   By Jacqueline Adams

   Series: Contemporary Sociological Perspectives

   Written as a book for undergraduate students as well as scholars, Surviving Dictatorship is a work of visual sociology and oral history, and a case study that communicates the lived experience of poverty, repression, and resistance in an authoritarian society: Pinochet’s Chile. It focuses on...

   Published March 6th 2012 by Routledge
7. Chinese Entertainment

   Edited by Kwok-Bun Chan

   Scholarly studies of Chinese culture, history and society, both within and outside of China, generally pay little attention to leisure, entertainment and amusement, though it has long been known that this aspect of life gives a deep understanding of the psyche and soul, and the hopes and fears, of...

   Published December 4th 2011 by Routledge
8. Okubo Diary (Routledge Revivals)

   Portrait of a Japanese Valley

   By Brian Moeran

   First published in 1985, this Routledge Revival is a lively and colourful account of life in the Japanese countryside, as seen through the eyes of an anthropologist who did fieldwork there for four years. Part journal, part ethnographic observation, part social and moral commentary, this very...

   Published November 28th 2011 by Routledge
9. Making Japanese Heritage

   Edited by Christoph Brumann, Rupert A. Cox

   Series: Japan Anthropology Workshop Series

   This book examines the making of heritage in contemporary Japan, investigating the ways in which particular objects, practices and institutions are ascribed public recognition and political significance. Through detailed ethnographic and historical case studies, it analyses the social, economic,...

   Published May 11th 2011 by Routledge
10. Being Alive

    Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description

    By Tim Ingold

    Anthropology is a disciplined inquiry into the conditions and potentials of human life. Generations of theorists, however, have expunged life from their accounts, treating it as the mere output of patterns, codes, structures or systems variously defined as genetic or cultural, natural or social....

    Published April 18th 2011 by Routledge