In this extensively revised and updated second edition of her classic ethnography, Lynn Stephen explores the intersection of gender, class, and indigenous ethnicity in southern Mexico. She provides a detailed study of how the lives of women weavers and merchants in the Zapotec-speaking town of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, have changed in response to the international demand for Oaxacan textiles. Based on Stephen’s research in Teotitlán during the mid-1980s, in 1990, and between 2001 and 2004, this volume provides a unique view of a Zapotec community balancing a rapidly advancing future in export production with an entrenched past anchored in indigenous culture.

Stephen presents new information about the weaving cooperatives women have formed over the last two decades in an attempt to gain political and cultural rights within their community and standing as independent artisans within the global market. She also addresses the place of Zapotec weaving within Mexican folk art and the significance of increased migration out of Teotitlán. The women weavers and merchants collaborated with Stephen on the research for this book, and their perspectives are key to her analysis of how gender relations have changed within rituals, weaving production and marketing, local politics, and family life. Drawing on the experiences of women in Teotitlán, Stephen considers the prospects for the political, economic, and cultural participation of other indigenous women in Mexico under the policies of economic neoliberalism which have prevailed since the 1990s.

Late Editions 8 is the final volume in the annual series devoted to documenting the diverse social and cultural transitions of the fin-de-siècle just past into the twenty-first century. Through the innovative use of conversations and interviews, this series has ranged over many topics in many places, including corporations, media, science and technology, government, political culture, journalism, and social movements, always offering access to the points of view and experiences of people engaged in crucial processes of change.

The book begins with a fascinating, at times poignant, look back at the inception and progress of the series, in which the contributors reflect on how the shifting contexts for the production and reception of the series has been a reliable barometer of the profound ways in which traditional forms of knowledge about society are changing. Then, appropriate to the end of the century and of the series, the focus turns to pieces that deal with social phenomena that evoke the value of zero. They explore the idea of a zero state as it relates to artificial intelligence, euthanasia, cryonics, money, and the disappearing idea of society itself in the discourse of contemporary politics.

Far from being the loss of meaning, the consideration of zero entails the proliferation of meaning in the face of voids, absences, and ultimately, of puzzles like the contemplation of death in life. In this way, so many of the fin-de-siècle conditions that have been documented in this series have exemplified precisely this quest for meaning at or near zero points of change, of ends and beginnings, in social life.

Zombies in the Academy taps into the current popular fascination with zombies and brings together scholars from a range of fields, including cultural and communication studies, sociology, film studies, and education, to give a critical account of the political, cultural, and pedagogical state of the university through the metaphor of zombiedom. The contributions to this volume argue that the increasing corporatization of the academy—an environment emphasizing publication, narrow research, and the vulnerability of the tenure system— is creating a crisis in higher education best understood through the language of zombie culture—the undead, contagion, and plague, among others. Zombies in the Academy presents essays from a variety of scholars and creative writers who present an engaging and entertaining appeal for serious recognition of the conditions of contemporary humanities teaching, culture, and labor practices.

   Why do people go to zoos? Is the role of zoos to entertain or to educate?
        In this provocative book, the authors demonstrate that zoos tell us as
        much about humans as they do about animals and suggest that while animals
        may not need zoos, urban societies seem to.
      A new introduction takes note of dramatic changes in the perceived role
        of zoos that have occurred since the book's original publication.
      "Bob Mullan and Garry Marvin delve into the assumptions about animals
        that are embedded in our culture. . . . A thought-provoking glimpse of
        our own ideas about the exotic, the foreign." -- Tess Lemmon, BBC
        Wildlife Magazine
      "A thoughtful and entertaining guided tour." -- David White,
        New Society
      "[An] unusual and intriguing combination of historical survey, psychological
        enquiry, and compendium of fascinating facts." -- Evening Standard
 

This photographic atlas, developed over twenty years of teaching in the field, expedites the work of the zooarchaeologist by integrating both osteology and wildlife ecology into a single volume. Zooarchaeology, the study of animal remains found at archaeological sites, is interdisciplinary in nature, requiring students and researchers to not only master the technical skills of identifying fragmentary bones and teeth but also to develop a deep understanding of the taxonomy, natural history, behavior, and ecology of the species identified. Until now, these topics have always been treated separately. This book is the only field guide and laboratory manual to combine animal ecology and natural history with the detailed osteology of all the vertebrate classes (fishes, amphibians, birds, and mammals) and all the primary orders native to western North America. Skeletal images are shown at a variety of magnifications and views and are accompanied by photographs of the animals in their characteristic habitats.