Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture

by Setha M. Low (Editor), Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga (Editor)

Overview

The Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture is an unprecedented collection of key anthropological articles that illustrate how the conceptual and material dimensions of space are central to the production of social life.

• Assembles key anthropological articles that challenge accepted definitions and ideas of space and place
• Reveals how both the conceptual and material dimensions of space as well as of built forms and landscape characteristics are central to the production of social life
• Includes introduction that synthesizes existing literature, highlights core issues, and maps potential directions for future research
• Brings classics in cultural anthropology together with new theoretical approaches

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631228783
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/04/2003
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Readers in Anthropology , #4
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.82(w) x 9.75(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Setha M. Low is Professor of Environmental Psychology and Anthropology and Director of the Public Space Research Group at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her publications include Behind the Gates: The New American Dream (2003), On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture (2000), and Theorizing the City (edited, 1999).

Denise Lawrence-Zúñigais Professor of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is the co-editor of House Life: Space, Place and Family in Europe (with Donna Birdwell-Pheasant, 1999).

Table of Contents

Introduction (Setha M. Low and Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga).

Part I: Embodied Spaces.

1. Proxemics. (Edward T. Hall).

2. Being-in-the-Market Versus Being-in-the-Plaza: Material Culture and the Construction of Social Reality in Spanish America. (Miles Richardson).

3. Excluded Spaces: The Figure in the Australian Aboriginal Landscape. (Nancy D. Munn).

4. Indexical Speech across Samoan Communities. (Alessandro Duranti).

Part II: Gendered Spaces.

5. The Berber House. (Pierre Bourdieu).

6. The Sweetness of Home: Class, Culture and Family Life in Sweden. (Orvar Löfgren).

7. The Architecture of Female Seclusion in West Africa. (Deborah Pellow).

Part III: Inscribed Spaces.

8. Emergence and Convergence in some African Sacred Places. (James Fernandez).

9. Empowering Place: Multilocality and Multivocality. (Margaret C. Rodman).

10. Open Spaces and Dwelling Places: Being at Home on Hill Farms in the Scottish Borders. (John Gray).

Part IV: Contested Spaces).

11. The Language of Sites in the Politics of Space. (Hilda Kuper).

12. Myth, Space, and Virtue: Bars, Gender, and Change in Barcelona’s Barrio Chino. (Gary Wray McDonogh).

13. Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community. (Steven Gregory).

Part V: Transnational Spaces.

14. The Song of the Nonaligned World: Transnational Identities and the Reinscription of Space in Late Capitalism. (Akhil Gupta).

15. Sovereignty without Territoriality: Notes for a Postnational Geography. (Arjun Appadurai).

16. Markets and Places: Tokyo and the Global Tuna Trade. (Theodore C. Bestor).

Part VI: Spatial Tactics.

17. Ordonnance, Discipline, Regulation: Some Reflections on Urbanism. (Paul Rabinow).

18. A Place in History: Social and Monumental Time in a Cretan Town. (Michael Herzfeld).

19. After Authenticity at an American Heritage Site. (Eric Gable and Richard Handler).

20. The Edge and the Center: Gated Communities and the Discourse of Urban Fear. (Setha M. Low).

Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘A valuable resource for teaching and research. Bringing older work on the symbolics of space together with more recent analyses of the politics of place and contested spatial practices, it gives a fine overview of the depth, range, and vitality of anthropological approaches to space and place.’ James Ferguson, University of California, Irvine

‘This stunning collection provides an invaluable guide to an exciting new field: The analysis of the spatial dimensions of culture and the cultural meanings of space and place. It features a clear and comprehensive introduction and a wide-ranging set of articles that reveal the power and potential of this new field of anthropological inquiry.’ Sally Engle Merry, Wellesley College

‘A rich sourcebook of classic and new perspectives on culture and the physical environment. Encompasses a range of spaces and places from the small-scale to the large-scale; from the body to transnational settings. A terrific resource to spark new questions, ideas, and projects.’ Irwin Altman, University of Utah

"Geographers should of course read The Anthropology of Space and Place. Reading this volume also opens up opportunities to refine our strengths as geographers as well as to open up new domains of exploration inspired by the expertise of anthropologists." Progress in Human Geography, Vol 29/1, 2005

From the Publisher