Novedades del último mes en libros de Antropología social y cultural

La tertulia tiene una larga tradición en nuestro país y forma parte de nuestra cultura. Los españoles, sin distinción de clases sociales, estamos siempre dispuestos a esta manera de comunicarnos a traves de la palabra y los gestos. Cualquier escenario es propicio para la conversacion, habiendo predominado los cafes y los casinos (siglo XIX y primera mitad del XX), sin embargo, otro espacio muy significativo han sido las farmacias. A ellas acudian, atraidos por la personalidad y formacion cultural del boticario, sus amigos y notables, a quienes recibia con agrado en su rebotica. Alli, en agradable conversacion, pasaban horas dia tras dia. A lo largo de la historia han existido numerosas tertulias famosas y tertulianos celebres, como los que aparecen en estas paginas: don Hilarion, Antonio Machado, Leon Felipe, Jose Giral, Azaña, Unamuno, Cajal, Marañon, Azorin, Jose Maria Cossio y tantos otros que, con sus obras creativas y sus actividades diarias, alcanzaron triunfos relevantes y en la tertulia encontraron descanso y sosiego de sus quehaceres cotidianos. Ellos practicaron y nos enseñaron una vez mas los valores que atesora una tertulia. El proposito de este libro es rendir homenaje a esa figura, real por su ubicacion, aunque abstracta en su condicion, que reflejo personalidad propia durante un periodo muy convulso de nuestra historia, reuniendo en torno a una mesa y a veces simplemente formando corrillo a ilustres personajes, y donde era su anfitrion el eminente boticario.

El autor se permite expresar el hondo sentimiento de asombro que experimentamos los observadores objetivos y bien informados al constatar día tras día cómo sociedades tenidas por cultivadas siguen siendo ciegamente tributarias de una cosmovision esencialmente religiosa, o, al menos, conformada por un enfoque ontologico dualista de lo que hay, en abierta contradiccion con los resultados de las ciencias y de las reglas logicas aplicadas a la experiencia. La religiosidad -que es una hipotesis objetivamente falsa nacida al calor de un sentimiento de temor y perplejidad ante lo enigmatico y ominoso- es un producto de la mente humana siguiendo una senda equivocada.

En lo que atañe a la biología, las distinciones raciales fueron derogadas por los desarrollos de la teoría evolutiva. Con todo, las designaciones raciales, además de operar significativamente en el marco de investigaciones epidemiologicas, tambien se muestran imprescindibles tanto en el desarrollo de estudios sociales como en la articulacion e implementacion de politicas publicas. Es necesario, por eso, comprender y establecer la legitimidad de esos usos vigentes de las designaciones raciales.

When spirits guard forests, conservation becomes revolution - and liberation grows from the soilIn 2011 Myanmar emerged from what was by some counts the longest ongoing war in the world. Amid the flurry of ceasefires and constitutional reforms, Indigenous communities moved to reterritorialize land that was fiercely contested in the preceding decades of conflict. In southeast Myanmar, the Indigenous people of Karen State, activists, and revolutionaries transformed their war-torn land into the Salween Peace Park - a conservation area that is home not only to endangered species like tigers and gibbons but also to territorial spirits and ancestors.Set in the highlands of the Myanmar-Thai border, Possessed Landscapes introduces a world where land is understood as both spiritually inhabited and politically claimed. Pwakanyaw cosmologies blur boundaries between human and more-than-human ownership, presence, and possession. Anthropologist Tomas Cole's concept of more-than-human political ecology captures the nuanced, playful, and often deeply strategic ways in which local communities negotiate power, land, and identity amid civil war and state violence. Through vibrant ethnography and grounded political analysis, Cole illuminates how Indigenous Karen communities and their allies are defining conservation, autonomy, and peace building on their own terms.A case study in reimagining sovereignty through ecological stewardship, Possessed Landscapes is essential reading for scholars and practitioners in anthropology, environmental humanities, and peace and conflict studies, as well as anyone seeking to understand how revolutionary politics and conservation can be inseparably entwined.

When spirits guard forests, conservation becomes revolution - and liberation grows from the soilIn 2011 Myanmar emerged from what was by some counts the longest ongoing war in the world. Amid the flurry of ceasefires and constitutional reforms, Indigenous communities moved to reterritorialize land that was fiercely contested in the preceding decades of conflict. In southeast Myanmar, the Indigenous people of Karen State, activists, and revolutionaries transformed their war-torn land into the Salween Peace Park - a conservation area that is home not only to endangered species like tigers and gibbons but also to territorial spirits and ancestors.Set in the highlands of the Myanmar-Thai border, Possessed Landscapes introduces a world where land is understood as both spiritually inhabited and politically claimed. Pwakanyaw cosmologies blur boundaries between human and more-than-human ownership, presence, and possession. Anthropologist Tomas Cole's concept of more-than-human political ecology captures the nuanced, playful, and often deeply strategic ways in which local communities negotiate power, land, and identity amid civil war and state violence. Through vibrant ethnography and grounded political analysis, Cole illuminates how Indigenous Karen communities and their allies are defining conservation, autonomy, and peace building on their own terms.A case study in reimagining sovereignty through ecological stewardship, Possessed Landscapes is essential reading for scholars and practitioners in anthropology, environmental humanities, and peace and conflict studies, as well as anyone seeking to understand how revolutionary politics and conservation can be inseparably entwined.