Although in its early years anthropology often used demographic research and showed interest in demographic issues, anthropology and demography have more recently grown to distrust each other's guiding assumptions and methods. Demographers have stressed universal causal models and standardized survey methods, while sociocultural anthropologists have increasingly focused on the uniqueness of different peoples and their cultures.
Showing that the two disciplines have much to offer each other, this book bridges the demography/anthropology divide. The editors begin the volume with an...

As in so many other parts of Europe, the northern Italian community of Casalecchio experienced massive social and economic changes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Characterized by sharecropping agriculture and large, complex family households, the community faced the effects of industrialization, urbanization and dramatic political changes. The book represents an unprecedented interdisciplinary effort to discover how changes in family life and demographic behaviour actually occurred in this crucial period, and how people's lives were affected. The book takes issue with a...

In the most comprehensive study of political ritual yet written, David I. Kertzer explains why ritual has been and will continue to be an essential part of political life. Weaving together examples from around the world and throughout history, Kertzer shows that the success of all political groups, whether conservative or revolutionary, is linked to their effective use of ritual.
"The author delights the reader with numerous excursions into the political rites of the Aztecs, the contemporary Soviet Union, the French Revolution, colonial Africa, the Italian Communist Party, and a host of...

How have family relations been regulated through the ages by state institutions and laws? What impact did the advent of Christianity have on marriage? Were parents in the past less emotionally attached to their children? What changes have taken place in legal attitudes and practices toward adultery and "homicides of honor"? How has the position of women in the household altered over the millennia?

In this book distinguished contributors offer historical and anthropological perspectives on the Western family, focusing on family life in Italy from the Roman Empire to the present. Using...

In the wake of the fall of the Berlin wall, and with the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe collapsing, Italian Communist Party (PCI) head Achille Occhetto shocked his party in 1989 by insisting that the PCI jettison its old name and become something new. This dramatic book tells of the ensuing struggle within the PCI, which at the time was Italy's second-largest party and the most powerful Communist party in the West. David I. Kertzer's vivid depiction of the conflict brings to life the tactics that party factions employed and the anguish of party members for whom Communism was the core of...

In this meticulously researched, unflinching, and reasoned study, National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer presents shocking revelations about the role played by the Vatican in the development of modern anti-Semitism. Working in long-sealed Vatican archives, Kertzer unearths startling evidence to undermine the Church's argument that it played no direct role in the spread of modern anti-Semitism. In doing so, he challenges the Vatican's recent official statement on the subject, We Remember. Kertzer tells an unsettling story that has stirred up controversy around the world and sheds...

This study examines the ways that states have attempted to pigeon-hole the people within their boundaries into racial, ethnic, and language categories. These attempts, whether through American efforts to divide the U.S. population into mutually exclusive racial categories, or through the Soviet system of inscribing nationality categories on internal passports, have important implications not only for people's own identities and life chances, but for national political and social processes as well. The book reviews the history of these categorizing efforts by the state, offers a theoretical...

Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology. Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation.

Nancy Riley and James McCarthy examine demography in this study from the new perspective of postmodernism, and survey its development as a field. Demography as a social science has struggled to maintain its political and academic strength. Riley and McCarthy accordingly argue for the inclusion of new methodologies and theories into the field in order to broaden and strengthen the analysis of demographic behavior. The book includes numerous examples of innovative demographic-related research, indicating how it enriches the field.

Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology. Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation.