Ethnology articles

Recent articles from Ethnology

Reincarnation, sect unity, and identity among the druze.
March 22, 2006... A belief in reincarnation is atypical within Islam, although exceptions exist with a few small sects. This essay analyzes the role that reincarnation plays in maintaining a sense of unity and identity among the Druze, an Islamic sect residing primarily in the Levantine Middle East. It also...

Girl power: young women and the waning of patriarchy in rural north China (1).
March 22, 2006... Since the early 1950s, several generations of young women in rural north China have responded to social changes brought about by state policies and practices, gradually altering their position in the domestic sphere from statusless "outsiders" to new players in family affairs. While favorable...

Special money: Ithaca hours and garage sales.
March 22, 2006... This article explores how special monies are used in two different sites of the alternative economy, the U.S. garage sale and a local barter currency called Ithaca HOURS, and how they are socially demarcated as special styles of exchange. Although characterized by different flows, money in...

Sexual magic and money: Miskitu women's strategies in northern Honduras.
March 22, 2006... This article highlights Afro-indigenous Miskitu women's position and agency on the increasingly cash-oriented Miskitu Coast (northeastern Honduras). While Miskitu men (the main breadwinners) work as deep-water lobster divers, women live in matrilocal groups and use sexual magic to beguile men...

Drinking games, karaoke songs, and yangge dances: youth cultural production in rural China (1).
March 22, 2006... This article examines the different ways youth in rural Shaanbei, northcentral China participate in cultural production. It explores the media through which young people express themselves and the roles that social institutions (temples, schools, villages, households), modern technologies...