Where do we come from,where do we go: Political anthropology looks ahead

Robbins Burling. The Passage of Power: Studies in Political Succession. New York: Academic Press, 1974. xiv + 322 pp. Maps, figures, appendixes and index. $11.50.

Abner Cohen. Two‐Dimensional Man: An Essay on the Anthropology of Power and Symbolism in Complex Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974. xii + 156 pp. Bibliography and index. $8.50.     

The anthropology of modernization and the modernization of anthropology

John J. Poggie, Jr. and Robert N. Lynch, eds. Rethinking Modernization. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1974. xii + 405 pp. Tables, illustrations, maps, figures, bibliography, and index. $15.95.     

Understanding urban anthropology: A review of anthropology of the city

Edwin Eames and Judith Granich Goode, eds. Anthropology of the City. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1977. 344 pp. Bibliography, indexes. $8.95.     

Histories of anthropology

Timothy H. H. Thoresen, ed. Toward A Science of Man: Essays in the History of Anthropology. The Hague and Paris: Mouton Publishers, 1975. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Company, vii + 232 pp. Biographical notes and indices. $14.95.     

The anthropology of ethnicity

Frances Henry, ed. Ethnicity in the Americas. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1976. vii + 438 pp. Bibliographical notes and index. $22.50.     

Brain death and the historical understanding of bioethics

In a 1968 Report, the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death promulgated influential criteria for the idea and practice known as "brain death." Before and since the Committee met, brain death has been a focal point of visions and nightmares of medical progress, purpose, and moral authority. Critics of the Committee felt it was deaf to apparently central moral considerations and focused on the self-serving purpose of expanding transplantation. Historical characterizations of the uses and meanings of brain death and the work of the Committee have tended to echo these themes, which means also generally repeating a widely held bioethical self-understanding of how the field appeared-that is, as a necessary antidote of moral expertise. This paper looks at the Committee and finds that historical depictions of it have been skewed by such a bioethical agenda. Entertaining different possibilities as to the motives and historical circumstances behind the Report it famously produced may point to not only different histories of the Committee, but also different perspectives on the historical legacy and role of bioethics as a discourse for addressing anxieties about medicine.     

Controversial controversies in the history of anthropology

Service, Elman R. A Century of Controversy: Ethnological Issues from 1860 to 1960. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press, 1985. xii + 351 pp. including bibliography and index. $48.00 cloth.     

Development theory meets the Amazon

Bunker, Stephen G. Underdeveloping the Amazon: Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Failure of the Modern State. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985. xiii + 279 pp. including glossary, references, and index. $24.50 cloth.     

The stubborn persistence of the anthropology of religion

Klass, Morton. Ordered Universes: Approaches to the Anthropology of Religion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995. xiv + 177 pp. including references and index. $49.95 cloth, $16.95 paper.

Reynolds, Vernon and Ralph Tanner. The Social Ecology of Religion. Oxford University Press, 1995. viii + 322 pp. including index. $39.95 cloth, $17.95 paper.

Holm, Jean and John Bowker, eds. Attitudes to Nature. London: Pinter Publishers, 1994. xii + 172 pp. including index. $45.00 cloth, $16.00 paper.     

A critical view of the anthropology of religion

Anthropologists who write textbooks or teach undergraduate courses on the topic of ‘religion’ ought to be more aware of the tradition of critique by religious studies academics of their shared central category. There is a large and growing literature on the modern invention of religion and religions since the colonial era, and the radical shifts in meaning that have occurred in English and other europhone vernaculars since the 17th century. This literature is widely ignored by anthropologists who claim expertise on ‘religion’. ‘Religion’ is a complex, contested product of colonial and class power relations and has been used to control and classify peoples everywhere. The author suggests that the category religion emerged as a placeholder during the colonial era for any institution or practice that impeded (male) private property interests. The idea of ‘religion’ is by no means as innocent and neutral as it appears.     

Medical anthropology and the analysis of health policy

Donahue, John. The Nicaraguan Revolution in Health. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey, 1986. xi + 156 pp. including illustrations, references, and index. $27.95 cloth.

Justice, Judith. Culture and Health Development in Nepal. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. vi + 202 pp. including appendices, notes to pages, bibliography, and index. $29.95 cloth.

Low, Setha. Culture, Politics, and Medicine in Costa Rica. Bedford Hills, New York: Redgrave, 1985. vii + 131 pp. including appendix, references, and index.     

The anthropology of Latin America

Dwight B. Heath, ed. Contemporary Cultures and Societies of Latin America: A Reader in the Social Anthropology of Middle and South America [Second ed.]. New York: Random House, 1974. xvii + 572 pp. Charts, tables, figures, and bibliography. $11.95 (cloth).     

An anthropology of impossible futures

This guest editorial explores the intricate relationship between anthropology and the concept of impossible futures, focusing on the global push towards electric vehicles (EVs) and the lithium energy assemblage. Drawing inspiration from a lecture by palaeobiologist Mark Williams, a member of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), the author reflects on the Anthropocene epoch and the human-caused transformations of the earth. It examines the European Green Deal's impact on the automotive industry, the global struggle for lithium and the paradoxes of green technology investments. It questions the feasibility of the envisioned future, emphasizing the contradictions within global capitalism and the potential futility of climate change mitigation efforts. The author calls for a reorientation in anthropological research, focusing on novel forms of unity, solidarity, justice and interspecies bonds in the face of seemingly impossible conditions. It concludes with a contemplation of anthropology's role in translating and understanding social life in the context of unattainable futures without losing sight of the discipline's contested past and inherent hope.