New Distributed Titles Fall 2009 - Oxbow Books

cultural studies � anthropology
Textiles from the Balkans
by Diane Waller
This is the first time the British Museum’s
fascinating collection of Balkan textiles,
dating from the late 19th to the mid 20th
century and one of the finest in the world,
is published. The book is also the first
published overview of the textiles from
this region, setting the techniques for
making them within their historical and geographical context.
88p, 100 col illus, paperback, 9780714125831, $22.95, British Museum Press, June 2009,
Fabric Folios.
Textiles from the Andes
by Penny Dransart
and Helen Wolfe
This is the first time the British Museum’s
major collection of Peruvian and other
early Andean textiles is being published
as a group. Included are rare and exquisite
pieces, many of great iconographic
and technical importance, ranging in date from the Paracas to the Inka and Colonial
periods, 200 BC to the late 18th century AD. Examples of contemporary Andean
textiles complement the early pieces and illustrate the continuation of weaving
traditions in the Andes. The introduction discusses briefly how ancient Andean
textiles have survived in desert graves for up to 2,000 years, setting them in their
chronological, cultural and environmental context. The authors then explain their
importance in reflecting and often affecting the political and religious beliefs of
these cultures. They also look at the evidence of who made them, how and why.
88p, 100 col illus, paperback, 9780714125848, $22.95, British Museum Press,
July 2009, Fabric Folios.
90
A Papuan Plutocracy
Ranked Exchange on Rossel Island
by John Liep
This volume of classic scope is a monograph on a Melanesian society, an exploration of ranked exchange and a bold critique of
anthropological exchange theory. John Liep unravels the complex society and exchange system on Rossel Island east of New
Guinea. At center stage is the famous ‘Rossel Island money’, a hierarchy of more than twenty classes of sea shells displayed in
payment rituals such as bride-wealth and pig feasts. High-ranking shells are monopolized by big men who control exchange
and dominate social life on the island. Theories of reciprocity and gift exchange, with their built-in utopian assumption of social
equality, Liep finds, cannot account for a system of ranked exchange. Instead, exchange is unequal and money an instrument of
distinction and power. Liep argues that ranked exchange has remained undiscovered as a general phenomenon. Still found in
some Pacific societies it was formerly widespread in Oceania and beyond.
440p, illus, paperback, 9788779344464, $80.00, Aarhus University Press, October 2009.
The ‘Malaboch’ Books
Kgaluši in the
“Civilization of the Written Word”
by Lize Kriel
This study looks into the making of historical
knowledge through written texts and publications.
The focus is on the colonial subjugation
of a South African community, the
Hananwa of Kgaluši Mmalebôhô, in a war
against the Boers in 1894. During the course of the twentieth century, two diaries
came to play an extraordinary role in the way ‘Malaboch’ and his people would be
represented. Attention is paid to the diary as a source for historical research, and the
extent to which its aspirations as a literary genre affect its possible meanings for
successive generations of readers.
377p, 15 b/w illus, 1 plan, paperback, 9783515092432, $87.00(s),
Franz Steiner Verlag, May 2009, Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv 13.
On an Auspicious Day at Dawn…
Studies in Tulu Culture and Oral Literature
by Heidrun Brückner
The volume consists of a collection of essays on aspects of Tulu oral literature and
its cultural and religious context. Taking sung poetic ritual texts from the west coast
of South India (coastal Karnataka) as her starting point, the author addresses the
relationship between text structure and the social and geographical distribution
of particular local and subregional cults; questions of gender and genre, of the
correlation between narrative and ritual dramatization especially with respect to
death, and of the success and failure of rituals in the local perception. One essay
studies features of South Indian popular cults in a wider perspective; two discuss
historical material relating to Basel Mission activities in the area.
244p, paperback, 9783447059169, $87.00(s), Harrassowitz Verlag, July 2009,
Drama und Theater in Südasien 7.
The David Brown Book Company – Fall 2009