Combining shrewd applications of current cultural theory with compelling autobiography and elegant prose, Jose E. Limon works at the intersection of anthropology, folklore, popular culture, history, and literary criticism. A native of South Texas, he renders a historical and ethnographic account of its rich Mexican-American folk culture. This folk culture, he shows--whether expressed through male joking rituals, ballroom polka dances, folk healing, or eating and drinking traditions--metaphorically dances with the devil, both resisting and accommodating the dominant culture of Texas.
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The Lost Drum is both a theoretical experiment in anthropology and a provocative analysis of myth and ritual in Papua New Guinea societies. James F. Weiner offers the first comprehensive attempt to fashion an anthropological method from the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan and extends his own previous work on Melanesian sociality and language.
Applying literary, psychoanalytic, and hermeneutic theories to myths of the Foi, Marind-anim, Yafar, and Gimi peoples, Weiner shows how mythic narratives reveal the productive and consumptive processes that compose the New Guinea...

In a world of multinational commerce, satellite broadcasting, migration, terrorism, and global arms dealing, what is said and how it is said in one society can no longer be isolated from what is said and how it is said in another. Debating Muslims focuses on Iranian culture, Shi'ite Islam, and Iranians in the United States, offering an experiment in postmodern ethnography and an invitation to think in a multifaceted way about Islam in the contemporary world.