The Land of Weddings and Rain

The Land of Weddings and Rain
Author: Gediminas Lankauskas
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2015-01-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1442612568

Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research, The Land of Weddings and Rain examines the components of the contemporary urban wedding in post-socialist Lithuania.

The Land of Weddings and Rain

The Land of Weddings and Rain
Author: Gediminas Lankauskas
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2015-01-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442699361

In The Land of Weddings and Rain, Gediminas Lankauskas examines the components of the contemporary urban wedding – religious and civil ceremonies, “traditional” imagery and practices, and the conspicuous consumption of domestic and imported goods – in the context of the Western-style modernization of post-socialist Lithuania. Studying the tensions between “tradition” and “modernity” that surround this important ritual event, Lankauskas highlights the ways in which nationalism serves to negotiate the impact of modernity in the aftermath of state socialism’s collapse. His analysis also shows the importance of consumption and commodification to Lithuania’s ongoing “Westernization.” Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research, The Land of Weddings and Rain is a fascinating account of the tensions – between national and transnational, East and West, and old and new – that shape life in post-socialist Eastern Europe.

The Heart of Helambu

The Heart of Helambu
Author: Tom O'Neill
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2016-05-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1487510810

Over the course of the last twenty-five years, Tom O’Neill has traveled frequently to Kathmandu and the Helambu region of Nepal to undertake ethnographic fieldwork with the Yolmo business owners and carpet weavers of the area. The Heart of Helambu is an evocative and touching account of his experiences working in Nepal during those turbulent times. In his autoethnographic memoir, O’Neill reflects on the complex relationships he developed with his research participants: the carpet weavers, their families, and others in the communities which he studied. A compelling account of ethnographic fieldwork’s personal dimension and the ethical and emotional challenges that come with maintaining relationships across substantial social distances, The Heart of Helambu illustrates an important aspect of anthropological research through O’Neill’s engaging story.

Wedding Planning and Management

Wedding Planning and Management
Author: Maggie Daniels
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 534
Release: 2020-08-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000091147

This third edition of Wedding Planning and Management: Consultancy for Diverse Clients provides students, consultants, engaged couples, vendors and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to the business of weddings. Looking through an event management lens, this is the only book to thoroughly explore the fundamentals of weddings, including historical and cultural foundations, practice and the business of wedding planning, in one volume. Diversity and inclusivity are emphasized through the integration of wedding traditions from cultures around the globe and international case studies that inspire and set standards for best practice. Key features of the third edition include: Updated research reflecting trends in areas such as technology, social media, marriage equality legislation, LGBTQ+ weddings, celebrity influences, destination weddings, DIY essentials and planning eco-friendly weddings. Cutting-edge innovations in areas such as "green" venues, themed menus, fusion stationery, sustainable floral décor and distinctive site layout, all of which are highlighted by top wedding vendors. Budget management tips, timeline specifics and guidelines for starting and marketing a wedding consulting business. Over 100 international case studies exploring cultural traditions, vendor relations and best practice. A companion website for instructors, including updated PowerPoint slides, syllabus guidelines, real-world assignments and a comprehensive test bank. This full-color book is visually stunning, with over 150 images by top wedding photojournalist Rodney Bailey. End-of-chapter checklists, review questions and practical scenarios support readers' knowledge as they progress. Maggie Daniels and Carrie Wosicki bring a combination of over 45 years of industry practice and teaching experience. They have written a book that is the ideal guide to successful wedding planning and management.

Exemplary Life

Exemplary Life
Author: Andreas Bandak
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2022-06-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 148754295X

Based on over five years of ethnographic fieldwork in Syria, Exemplary Life focuses on the life of a Damascus woman, Myrna Nazzour, who serves as an aspirational figure in her community. Myrna is regarded by her followers as an exemplary figure, a living saint, and the messages, apparitions, stigmata, and oil that have marked Myrna since 1982 have corroborated her status as chosen by God. Exemplary Life probes the power of examples, the modelling of sainthood around Myrna’s figure, and the broader context for Syrian Christians in the changing landscape of the Middle East. The book highlights the social use of examples such as the ones inhabited by Myrna’s devout followers and how they reveal the broader structures of illustration, evidence, and persuasion in social and cultural settings. Andreas Bandak argues that the role of the example should incite us to investigate which trains of thought set local worlds in motion. In doing so, Exemplary Life presents a novel frame for examining how religion comes to matter to people and adds a critical dimension to current anthropological engagements with ethics and morality.

Moral Figures

Moral Figures
Author: Alexandra Widmer
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2023-02-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1487543220

In the early twentieth century, people in the southwestern Pacific nation of Vanuatu experienced rapid population decline, while in the early twenty-first century, they experienced rapid population growth. From colonial governance to postcolonial sovereignty, Moral Figures shows that despite attempts to govern population size and birth, reproduction in Vanuatu continues to exceed bureaucratic economization through Ni-Vanuatu insistence on Indigenous relationalities. Through Alexandra Widmer’s examination of how reproduction is made public, she demonstrates how population sciences have a naturalized focus on women’s fertility and privileged issues of wage labour over women’s land access, as well as broader social relations of reproduction. Widmer draws on oral histories with retired village midwives and massage healers on the changes to care for pregnancy and birth, as well as ethnographic research in a village outside the capital of Port Vila. Locating the Pacific Islands in global histories of demographic science and the medicalization of birth, the book presents archival material in a way that emphasizes bureaucratic practices in how colonial documents attempted to render Indigenous relationalities of reproduction governable. While demographic imaginaries and biomedical practices increasingly frame fertility control as an investment in the reproductive health of individual bodies, the Ni-Vanuatu worlds presented in Moral Figures show that relationships between people, land, knowledge, kin, and care make reproduction a distributed and assisted process.

Without the State

Without the State
Author: Emily Channell-Justice
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2022-10-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1487509766

Without the State explores the 2013–14 Euromaidan protests – a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine – through in-depth ethnographic research with leftist, feminist, and student activists in Kyiv. The book discusses the concept of "self-organization" and the notion that if something needs to be done and a person has the competence to do it, then they should simply do it. Emily Channell-Justice reveals how self-organization in Ukraine came out of leftist practices but actors from across the spectrum of political views also adopted self-organization over the course of Euromaidan, including far-right groups. The widespread adoption of self-organization encouraged Ukrainians to rethink their expectations of the relationship between citizens and their state. The book explains how self-organized practices have changed people’s views on what they think they can contribute to their own communities, and in the wake of Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has also motivated new networks of mutual aid within Ukraine and beyond. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, including the author’s first-hand experience of the entirety of the Euromaidan protests, Without the State provides a unique analytical account of this crucial moment in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history.

Moving Words

Moving Words
Author: Andrew Brandel
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2023-07-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1487543700

In the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin has re-emerged as a global city in large part thanks to its reputation as a literary city – a place where artists from around the world gather and can make a life. Moving Words foregrounds the many contexts in which life in the city of Berlin is made literary – from old neighbourhood bookshops to new reading circles, NGOs working to secure asylum for writers living in exile to specialized workshops for young migrant poets. Highlighting the differences, tensions, and contradictions of these scenes, this book reveals how literature can be both a site of domination and a resource for resisting and transforming those conditions. By attending to the everyday lives of writers, readers, booksellers, and translators, it offers a crucial new vantage point on the politics of difference in contemporary Europe, at a moment marked by historical violence, resurgent nationalism, and the fraught politics of migration. Rooted in ethnographic fieldwork, rich historical archives, and literary analysis, Moving Words examines the different claims people make on and for literature as it carries them through the city on irregular and intersecting paths. Along the way, Brandel offers a new approach to the ethnography of literature that aims to think anthropologically about crossings in time and in space, where literature provides a footing in a world constituted by a multiplicity of real possibilities.