Iconic as a novelist and popular cultural figure, Zora Neale Hurston remains underappreciated as an anthropologist. Is it inevitable that Hurston’s literary authority should eclipse her anthropological authority? If not, what socio-cultural and institutional values and processes shape the different ways we read her work? Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall considers the polar receptions to Hurston’s two areas of achievement by examining the critical response to her work across both fields. Drawing on a wide range of readings, Freeman Marshall explores Hurston’s popular appeal as iconography, her elevation into the literary canon, her concurrent marginalization in anthropology despite her significant contributions, and her place within constructions of Black feminist literary traditions. Perceptive and original, Ain’t I an Anthropologist is an overdue reassessment of Zora Neale Hurston’s place in American cultural and intellectual life.

Weird is a sad clown in church. Weirder, that the congregation is all clowns. Weird: you're a sad clown, too, and you think you like it.That says it all. In 'Weird, Weirder & WEIRD,' descend into the depths of A.A. Garrison's particular brand of strange. Begin with the traditional, sci-fi weird ("Suffer," "RIP, Krokinski"), progress to the hauntingly peculiar ("Faith," "Chesterfield Drive"), and then end with some full-throttle, no-apologies bizarro ("The Enema Flower: A Love Story," "GG Allin Must Die"). Altogether, these twenty stories deliver a full spectrum of weirdness-and then some.Come on, don't be shy. Everyone likes a little weird. Or are you afraid you'll like life as a sad, church-going clown?

When Zandria Robinson returned home to interview African Americans in Memphis, she was often greeted with some version of the caution "I hope you know this ain't Chicago." In this important new work, Robinson critiques ideas of black identity constructed through a northern lens and situates African Americans as central shapers of contemporary southern culture. Analytically separating black southerners from their migrating cousins, fictive kin, and white counterparts, Robinson demonstrates how place intersects with race, class, gender, and regional identities and differences. Robinson grounds her work in Memphis--the first big city heading north out of the Mississippi Delta. Although Memphis sheds light on much about the South, Robinson does not suggest that the region is monolithic. Instead, she attends to multiple Souths, noting the distinctions between southern places. Memphis, neither Old South nor New South, sits at the intersections of rural and urban, soul and post-soul, and civil rights and post-civil rights, representing an ongoing conversation with the varied incarnations of the South, past and present.

Ain't I a Feminist? presents the life stories of twenty African American men who identify themselves as feminists, centering on the turning points in their lives that shaped and strengthened their commitment to feminism, as well as the ways they practice feminism with women, children, and other men. In her analysis, Aaronette M. White highlights feminist fathering practices; how men establish egalitarian relationships with women; the variety of Black masculinities; and the interplay of race, gender, class, and sexuality politics in American society. Coming from a wide range of family backgrounds, ages, geographical locations, sexualities, and occupations, each man also shares what he experiences as the personal benefits of feminism, and how feminism contributes to his efforts towards social change. Focusing on the creative agency of Black men to redefine the assumptions and practices of manhood, the author also offers recommendations regarding the socialization of African American boys and the reeducation of African American men in the interest of strengthening their communities.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyrigh Page -- Contents -- WAYS IN TO THE TEXT -- Who Is Jay MacLeod? -- What Does Ain't No Makin' It Say? -- Why Does Ain't No Makin' It Matter? -- SECTION 1: INFLUENCES -- Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context -- Module 2: Academic Context -- Module 3: The Problem -- Module 4: The Author's Contribution -- SECTION 2: IDEAS -- Module 5: Main Ideas -- Module 6: Secondary Ideas -- Module 7: Achievement -- Module 8: Place in the Author's Work -- SECTION 3: IMPACT -- Module 9: The First Responses -- Module 10: The Evolving Debate -- Module 11: Impact and Influence Today -- Module 12: Where Next? -- Glossary of Terms -- People Mentioned in the Text -- Works Cited

In a time of intense uncertainty, social strife, and ecological upheaval, what does it take to envision the world as it yet may be? The field of anthropology, Anand Pandian argues, has resources essential for this critical and imaginative task. Anthropology is no stranger to injustice and exploitation. Still, its methods can reveal unseen dimensions of the world at hand and radical experience as the seed of a humanity yet to come. A Possible Anthropology is an ethnography of anthropologists at work: canonical figures like Bronislaw Malinowski and Claude Lévi-Strauss, ethnographic storytellers like Zora Neale Hurston and Ursula K. Le Guin, contemporary scholars like Jane Guyer and Michael Jackson, and artists and indigenous activists inspired by the field. In their company, Pandian explores the moral and political horizons of anthropological inquiry, the creative and transformative potential of an experimental practice.

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment celebrates the seventy-five year history of the Apollo Theater, Harlem's landmark performing arts space and the iconic showplace for the best in jazz, blues, dance, comedy, gospel, R & B, hip-hop, and more since it opened its doors in 1934. This beautifully illustrated book is the companion volume to an exhibition of the same name, organized by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in collaboration with the Apollo Theater Foundation. It offers a sweeping panorama of American cultural achievement from the Harlem Renaissance to the present through the compelling story of a single institution. Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing brings together a diverse group of twenty-four writers to discuss the theater's history and its intersection with larger social and political issues within Harlem and the nation. Featuring more than 300 photographs, this volume brings to life the groundbreaking entertainers in music, dance, and comedy—Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, James Brown, Moms Mabley, Redd Foxx, Honi Coles, and Savion Glover, to name a few—who made the Apollo the icon that it is today. The Apollo Theater has been the setting for soaring achievement and creativity in the face of enormous challenges. In telling this truly American story, Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing is a celebration of the lasting contributions of African Americans to the nation's cultural life.

Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History presents a selection of critical essays in anthropology from 1860 to the present day. Classic authors such as Marx, Durkheim, Boas, Malinowski and Douglas are joined by contemporary thinkers including Das, Ortner, Boellstorff and Simpson. McGee and Warms’ detailed introductions examine critical developments in theory, introduce key people, and discuss historical and personal influences on theorists. In extensive footnotes, the editors provide commentary that puts the writing in historical and cultural context, defines unusual terms, translates non-English phrases, identifies references to other scholars and their works, and offers paraphrases and summaries of complex passages. The notes identify and provide background information on concepts important in the development of anthropology. New to the Eighth Edition: “Anthropology, Decolonization and Whiteness” puts the anthropology of resistance in historical context, explores the history of the anthropology of decolonization and whiteness, and presents some recent controversies in anthropology “Phenomenological Anthropology and The Anthropology of the Good” broadens the focus of the previous anthropology of the good section to provide a more diverse overview of philosophical anthropology. Revised introductions to every section in the book offer suggested readings for important works in each area beyond what’s offered in the text New readings include works by Sherry Ortner, Michel-Rolf Trouillot, Jason Throop, Audra Simpson, and Orisanmi Burton

Unlike the literary tradition of ethnographic fiction that attempts to bridge the gap between the world of the Western reader and the world of the exotic other of distant places, the fiction presented here focuses on the bridge itself. Richardson documents the emergence of the anthropologist's life in the context of the culture of the American South.