Among the first anthropologists to work in Eastern Europe, Katherine Verdery had built up a significant base of ethnographic and historical expertise when the major political transformations in the region began to take place. In this collection of essays dealing with the aftermath of Soviet-style socialism and the different forms that may replace it, she explores the nature of socialism in order to understand more fully its consequences. By analyzing her primary data from Romania and Transylvania and synthesizing information from other sources, Verdery lends a distinctive anthropological perspective to a variety of themes common to political and economic studies on the end of socialism: themes such as 'civil society', the creation of market economies, privatization, national and ethnic conflict, and changing gender relations.Under Verdery's examination, privatization and civil society appear not only as social processes, for example, but as symbols in political rhetoric. The classic pyramid scheme is not just a means of enrichment but a site for reconceptualizing the meaning of money and an unusual form of post-Marxist millenarianism. Land being redistributed as private property stretches and shrinks, as in the imaginings of the farmers struggling to tame it. Infused by this kind of ethnographic sensibility, the essays reject the assumption of a transition to capitalism in favor of investigating local processes in their own terms.

In 2004, Vanessa Fong offered a groundbreaking ethnographic exploration of the social, economic, and psychological development of children born since China's one-child policy was introduced in 1979. Her book Only Hope left readers with a picture of stressed, ambitious adolescents for whom elite status was the ultimate goal, though relatively few were in a position to achieve it. In Paradise Redefined, Fong tracks the experiences of many in her initial cohort of Chinese only-children—now college-age—as they study abroad in Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and Singapore. While earning a prestigious college education in China is the main path to elite status, study abroad provides an alternative channel by offering a particularly flexible "developed world" citizenship. This flexible citizenship promises the potential for greater happiness and freedom afforded by transnational mobility, but also brings with it unexpected suffering, ambivalence, and disappointment. Paradise Redefined offers insights into China's globalization by examining the expectations and experiences that affect how various Chinese students make decisions about studying abroad, staying abroad, immigration, and returning home. "Vanessa Fong has made a remarkable contribution by her meticulous following of a generation of Chinese single children through their educational careers, first at home and now abroad. The impact of this generation on the world will be immense, and this is a key window on how their lives are unfolding."—Alan Smart, University of Calgary "From Only Hope to Paradise Redefined, Fong's unique, longitudinal research offers an invaluable key to better understand the singleton generation in China who have come of age in the first decade of the 21st century, and will to a great extent determine the future of the most populous country on earth."—Yunxiang Yan, University of California, Los Angeles "With Paradise Redefined,Vanessa Fong has produced another well-researched and innovative account.Those familiar with Only Hope will welcome this impressive transnational sequel, and a wider audience of globalization and migration scholars, educators, policy makers, and China scholars will find it a timely, authoritative, and unique source of insight into Chinese students abroad."—Nicole Constable, University of Pittsburgh

本书从地理的角度研究文化，着重研究文化是怎样在实际生活中起作用的，并且将文化视为实际生活情景中可定位的具体现象。

《猿猴大爆炸:人类的兴衰》主要内容：现在地球上大约居住着六十五亿人，而且这个数目仍以惊人的速度在继续增长。这是怎么一回事？而且人类将何去何从？为了阐明人口猛烈增长的原因，热尤墨尔以一些动、植物种类为例，描述了它们来到新的环境时的表现。其实人类的表现和高速公路边上的那些植物并没有多大的区别。《猿猴大爆炸》一书向我们阐述了动、植物如何以其庞大的数量危害其周边的环境。当人类扰乱自身生境并由此为自己的成功做铺垫时，他同时也在为自己的衰落埋下伏笔。随后通过饥荒、疫疾流行、种族大屠杀等“自然”手段来限制人口数量。耶勒。热尤墨尔的叙述读来犹如生物学悬疑故事。

西南民族志论文集 仪式、人物类型、交换与物质文化 对分类论和关系论的反思性继承 呈现的西南人文世界之面貌 ................... ※编辑推荐※ 本书以“文化复合性”的概念作为西南地区研究论文的连结，力图呈现西南地区的人文世界之面貌，从更长时段、以更广泛的 视角对西南地区进行重新审视。 ................... ※内容简介※ 本书作为一部人类学专题研究论文集，由13篇西南民族志论文构成。内容涉及“仪式”、“人物类型”、“交换与物质文化”的研究，在基于对前人的分类论和关系论的反思性继承基础上提出了“文化复合性”概念，用来概括这组研究所呈现的西南人文世界之面貌。