Cultural Studies Resources

What exactly is culture? The authors of this volume suggest that the study of one of anthropology's central questions may be a route to developing a scientific paradigm for the field. The contributors--prominent scholars in anthropology, biology, and economics--approach culture from very different theoretical and methodological perspectives, through studies grounded in fieldwork, surveys, demography, and other empirical data. From humans to chimpanzees, from Taiwan to New Guinea, from cannibalism to marriage patterns, this volume directly addresses the challenges of explaining culture scientifically. The evolutionary paradigm lends itself particularly well to the question of culture; in these essays, different modes of inheritance - genetic, cultural, ecological, and structural - illustrate evolutionary patterns in a variety of settings.Explaining Culture Scientificallyis divided into parts that address how to think about culture, modelling approaches to cultural influences on behaviour, ethnographic case studies addressing the question of culture's influence on behaviour, and challenges to the possibility of a scientific approach to culture.

From Central District Seattle to Harlem to Holly Springs, Black people have built a dynamic network of cities and towns where Black culture is maintained, created, and defended. But imagine--what if current maps of Black life are wrong? Chocolate Cities offers a refreshing and persuasive rendering of the United States--a "Black map" that more accurately reflects the lived experiences and the future of Black life in America. Drawing on film, fiction, music, and oral history, Marcus Anthony Hunter and Zandria F. Robinson trace the Black American experience of race, place, and liberation, mapping it from Emancipation to now. As the United States moves toward a majority minority society, Chocolate Cities provides a provocative, broad, and necessary assessment of how racial and ethnic minorities make and change America's social, economic, and political landscape.

"From YouTube's Head of Culture and Trends, a rousing and illuminating behind-the-scenes exploration of internet video's massive impact on our world. Whether your favorite YouTube video is a cat on a Roomba, "Gangnam Style," the "Bed Intruder Song," an AsapSCIENCE explainer, Rebecca Black's "Friday," or the "Evolution of Dance," Kevin Allocca's Videocracy reveals how these beloved videos and famous trends--among many others--came to be and why they mean more than you might think.