School for Advanced Research

Becoming Indian; the struggle over Cherokee identity in the twenty-first century.

According to the US census, the Native American population grew by an astounding 349 percent between 1960 and 2000, a figure that is inexplicable unless it is reflective of what Sturm (anthropology, U. of Texas at Austin) calls "racial shifting," in which people who did not identify as Indian later come to reclaim their Indian identity (excluding obviously instrumentalist examples of racial appropriation). In this work, she carries out an ethnographic study of "new Indians," seeking their motivations for asserting Indian-ness in the changing cultural, political, and social values surrounding indigenous ancestry and identity. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Forces of compassion; humanitarianism between ethics and politics.

This collection of essays, edited by Bornstein (anthropology, U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Redfield (anthropology, U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), examines the relatively recent transformation of war casualties into humanitarian crises. The contributors investigate humanitarianism from an anthropological viewpoint, considering common practices and political elements such as with nongovernmental organization. The current heavy media coverage of humanitarian crises is in stark contrast to similar situations in human history, an element which is considered throughout the essays. This book appeals to those studying anthropology. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)