Publications

You can order these publications by e-mail from info[at]suomenantropologinenseura.fi.

Studia Fennica Anthropologica

On Foreign Ground: Moving between Countries and Categories

Edited by Minna Ruckenstein & Marie-Louise Karttunen

The essays in this collection explore classical anthropological questions in modern sites, from Ghana to Karelia, from India to Italy, from Kuala Lumpur to St. Petersburg. They examine change and continuity through the lens of memory and sense of place, religious practice, migration and diaspora, social and politico-economic structures. Together these themes illustrate the resilience of culture in creating meaningful orders in people’s lives and underline the importance of analysis of cultural difference in today’s world. Scholarly approaches that are foundational to anthropological knowledge are here applied to the exploration of the particularities and rationales behind various kinds of cultural orders. Thus the essays contained in this collection are rewarding both for empirical and theoretical content and can be recommended for teachers, students and researchers of anthropology.

Studia Fennica Anthropologica 1

Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura
209 p. paperback
ISBN 978-951-746-914-2

Earlier publications of the Finnish Anthropological Society

Departures. How societies distribute their people.

Edited by Jukka Siikala

People have always been on the move. Changes in the ways this movement occurs and the different positions from which anthropologists look at the movement have made it a new kind of theoretical problem. The contributions to this collection address the ways in which people have been moving, from tribal to individual migrations. The aim is to look at, from a comparative perspective, the effects of the movement of the people in this world, and in turn, how they make the world their own.

Sast 46 2001,
235 pp.
ISBN 952-9573-24-3

Urban Peasants and Rural Workers. Making a living in the Third World.

Timo Kortteinen

Kortteinen’s comparative study of four Third World countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, delineates the impact of the socio-economic mechanisms of commercialisation on the relationship between rural and urban societies. Based on first hand data, the analysis breaks boundaries between rural and urban studies and gives scope for a more comprehensive understanding of the contemporary processes transforming Third World countries.

Tafas 44 1999,
ISBN 952-9573-22-7

Desire and Death. History through ritual practice in Kilimanjaro.

Päivi Hasu

Hasu’s work contributes significantly to discussions on culture and history as well as to African studies. Drawing on important archival and ethnographic sources on the Chagga of Kilimanjaro, she examines encounters between the Chagga sociocultural order and a German Lutheran mission, and brings historically derived cultural categories into contemporary ethnographic context, characterized by material and moral crisis and the event of AIDS.

Tafas 42 1999,
570 pp.
ISBN 952-9573-20-0

Developing Anthropological Ideas: The Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lectures 1983-1997.

Edited by Jukka Siikala, Ulla Vuorela and Tapio Nisula

Nine leading anthropologists reflect on various current issues in anthropology in the series of lectures given in honour of Edvard Westermarck. Ranging from Marshall Sahlins’ powerful arguments on the interrelatedness of cultural meanings and transformation of structure to Arthur Kleinman’s exposure of suffering as a moral experience in our disordered time, the volume includes the voices of Eric R. Wolf, Mary Douglas, Ernest Gellner, Claude Meillassoux, George E. Marcus, Maurice Bloch, and Jean Comaroff.

Tafas 41 1998,
215 pp.
ISBN 952-9573-19-7

Localizing Modernity. Action, interests and association in rural Zambia.

Jeremy Gould

Gould’s doctoral dissertation looks into the significances, imagery and ideals associated with modernization by Zambian villagers. Examining the everyday life of village communities, the study takes a critical approach to sociological theory of modernization and challenges the position of individual interests as the major force behind social change.

Tafas 40 1997,
286 pp.
ISBN 952-9573-18-9

Forest, Power and Development. Costa Rican peasants in the changing environment.

Anja Nygren

This complex and sophisticated study analyses the changing situation of Costa Rican forests and land in regard to people’s practices. Nygren strikes a balance between local processes and global forces by combining the perspectives of political economy and cultural constructions.

Tafas 37 1995,
238, pp.
ISBN 952-9573-12-X

The Golden Handshake of the First World. Development research, developmentalism and take-off into development studies.

Timo Kyllönen

Discussing development studies as a historical and social phenomenon, Kyllönen looks into the connections between the welfare state, development ideologies and practices and shows how development studies as a First World ideology justify and legitimise the relationship between the developed and the developer.

Tafas 34 1993,
248 pp.
ISBN 952-9573-06-5

When the Bones Are Left. A study of the material culture of Central Sulawesi.

Eija-Maija Kotilainen

Kotilainen examines the notions of cosmos and society as expressed through material objects in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, in the early 1900’s. The material culture, tangible objects like bridewealth, bones or a shaman’s attributes, reflect the local concept of time as well as the relationship between human and spirit worlds. The ethnography is supported by numerous illustrations.

Tafas 31 1992,
297 pp.
ISBN 952-9573-99-5

Akatokamanava. Myth, history and society in the Southern Cook Islands.

Jukka Siikala

Siikala’s study contributes to the contemporary discussions on hierarchy and historical transformations in Polynesian societies. Beginning with local notions about the origins and population of the Southern Cook Islands, the book connects the structure emerging from these narratives to later historical events, presenting a picture of the historical developments of the area. On the basis of this history, Siikala analyses the political system and practice of power on the islands.

Tafas 29 1991,
153 pp.
ISBN 0-473-01133-5

Culture and History in the Pacific.

Edited by Jukka Siikala

This collection of essays by internationally esteemed scholars reflects the diversity of the present anthropological writing, even though they all discuss problems of Pacific ethnography. The articles analyse the interplay between anthropologists’ and local representations and also take up questions of culture as a repository of historical information. Among the contributors are Roger Keesing, Marilyn Strathern, Anthony Hooper, Judith Huntsman, John Liep, David Lawrence, Jukka Siikala and several other specialists on anthropology in the Pacific.

Tafas 27 1990,
282 pp.
ISBN 951-95435-8-9