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Public Culture in Theory and Practice Research Group
A research group of the Department of Anthropology.
The Public Culture Group is dedicated to the study of publics and public institutions, their forms, their cultures and their influence on our history and our future. It is our view that advances in the theoretical understanding of publics must arise in fine grained ethnographic study of particular publics in a comparative perspective. The study of publics may include the exploration of multi-locale fieldwork, where locale can be taken to mean virtual space (e.g. a web-site) as much as a specific bounded territory/place. We also believe that ethnographic study from this point of view can produce rich results for practical application in the social world.
Research Areas
- Anthropology of consciousness
- Anthropology of food
- Caribbean
- Conflict resolution
- Dreams
- Exchange
- Genetics
- Islam
- Kinship
- Mediterranean
- New reproductive technologies
- Political organisation
- Public culture
- Religion
- Sports and martial arts
- Virtual societies and artificial intelligence
- Visual anthropology
Research Projects
- Contextual instantiation of indigenous domain knowledge: An e-science approach
- DNA Evidence? Genetic Anthropology and Historical Debate
- Rhetoric, Agency, and Farmers’ Knowledge in the Management of Upland Environmental Processes in the UK
- Sociality and Rhetoric Culture in the Interpretation of Situations: an Anthropological Theory and its Application in East Germany
- The Children of Ephraim: Constructing Jewish Identity in Andhra Pradesh
- The Inspirational Night Dream in the Motivation and Justification of Jihad
- The Inspirational Night Dream in the Motivation and Justification of Jihad
Staff
Academic Staff
- Prof Catherine Alexander
- Dr Matei Candea
- Prof Michael B. Carrithers
- Dr Iain Edgar
- Dr Yulia Egorova
- Dr Charles Gullick
- Dr A. Maria A. Kastrinou
- Dr Elisabeth Kirtsoglou
- Prof Robert H. Layton
- Dr Stephen M. Lyon
- Prof Bob Simpson
Research Staff
Research Student
- Mr Damien Boutillon
- Ms Rachel Douglas-Jones
- Dr Gareth E. Hamilton
- Ms Julian Kotzé
- Mr Sorbon Mavlonazarov
- Mrs Alkmini Morou
- Mr Muhammad Aurang Zeb Mughal
- Ms Savita Sathe
Taught Postgraduate
Uncategorised
From other departments
- Dr Stavroula Pipyrou (in the Health and Human Sciences)
Publications by staff in this group
Books: authored
- Parfitt, T. & Egorova, Y. (2006). Genetics, Mass Media and Identity: A Case Study of the Genetic Research on the Lemba and Bene Israel. London: Routledge.
- Layton, R.H. (2006). Order and anarchy: civil society, social disorder and war. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- PLATZ, Teresa (2006). Anthropologie des Körpers. Vom Körper als Objekt zum Leib als Subjekt von Kultur. (Anthropology of the Body. From the Body as an object to the 'Leib' as a Subject of culture.). Berlin: Weissensee Verlag.
- Egorova, Y. (2006). Jews and India: Perceptions and Image. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2005). Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus. Oxford: Berghahn.
- Edgar, I. (2004). Guide to Imagework: Imagination-Based Research Methods. London: Routledge.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2004). An anthropological analysis of local politics and patronage in a Pakistani village. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.
- Kirtsoglou, E. (2004). For the love of women: Gender, Identity and Same-Sex Relationships in a Greek Provincial town. London: Routledge.
- Dietzsch, Ina. (2004). Grenzen überschreiben? Deutsch-Deutsche Briefwechsel 1948 - 1989. Köln-Weimar: Böhlau.
- Simpson, B. (1998). Changing Families: An ethnographic approach to divorce and separation. Oxford: Berg Press.
- Layton, R.H. (1997). An introduction to theory in anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Edgar, I. (1995). Dreamwork, Anthropology and the Caring Professions: A Cultural Approach to Dreamwork. Aldershopt: Avebury.
Books: edited
- Carrithers, Michael. (2009). Culture, Rhetoric and the Vicissitudes of Life. Volume 2, Studies in Rhetoric and Culture. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
- Kirtsoglou, E. & Theodossopoulos, D. (2009). United in Discontent: Local Responses to Cosmopolitanism, Multiculturalism and Globalisation. Oxford: Berghahn.
- Sant Cassia, P. & Fabre, T. (2007). Between Europe and the Mediterranean: The Challenges and the Fears. London: Palgrave, Macmillan.
- Sant Cassia, P. & Fabre, T. (2005). Les Defis et les Peurs. Entre Europe et Mediterranee. Paris: Actes Sud.
- Eva Schäfer, Ina Dietzsch, Petra Drauschke, Iris Peinl, Sylka Scholz, Susanne Voelker & Virginia Penrose (2005). Irritation Ostdeutschland? Geschlechterverhältnisse in Deutschland 13 Jahre nach der Wende. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.
- Drackle, D. & Edgar, I.R. (2004). Learning Fields Vol.2 Current Educational Practices in European Social Anthropology. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
- Parfitt, T. & Egorova, Y. (2004). Jews, Muslims and Mass Media: Mediating the ‘Other’. London: Routledge.
- D. Drackle, I. Edgar & T. Schippers (2003). Learning Fields Vol. 1 Educational Histories of European Anthropology. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
- Iain R. Edgar & A. Russell (1998). Anthropology of Welfare. London: Routledge.
Edited works: contributions
- Lyon, Stephen M. - Contributing Editor (2008). Section News for Society for Anthropological Sciences. In Anthropology News. American Anthropological Association.
- Egorova, Y. (2007). Describing the “Other”, Describing the “Self” Jews, Hindu Reformers, and Indian Nationalists. In Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century. Katz, N. et al. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Widlok, Thomas. (2004). (Re-)current doubts on hunter-gatherer studies as contemporary history. In Hunter-gatherers in history, archaeology and anthropology. Barnard, Alan. Oxford: Berg. 217-226.
- Fischer, Michael D. & Lyon, Stephen M. (2004). George Peter Murdock. In Biographical Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Vered Amit London: Routledge. 367-369.
- Edgar, I. (2004). Imagework method and potential applications in health, social sciences and social care research: journeying with a question. In New Qualitative Research Methodologies in Health and Social Care Research. Rapport, F London: Routledge. 123-138.
- Edgar, I. (2004). Imagework in Ethnographic Research. In Working Images; research and representation in ethnography. S.Pink, L.Kurti & A.Afonso London: Routledge. 90-106.
- Egorova, Y. (2004). Jewish Topics in the Press of Independent India. In Jews, Muslims and Mass Media: Mediating the ‘Other’. Parfitt, T. & Egorova, Y. London: Curzon.
- Edgar, I. (2003). Line-ups. In Strategies for Teaching Anthropology Vol 3. P.Rice & D.McCurdy Prentice Hall. 1-4.
- Edgar, Iain R. (1996). The tooth butterfly: rendering a sensible account from the imaginative present. In After Writing Culture. A James, J Hockey & A Dawson London: Routledge. 71-85.
Journal papers: academic
- Carrithers, Michael (2008). From inchoate pronouns to proper nouns: a theory fragment with 9/11, Gertrude Stein, and an East German Ethnography. History and Anthropology 19(2): 161-186.
- Edgar, I. (2008). Overtures of Paradise: Night Dreams and Islamic Jihadist Militancy. Curare: Journal of Medical Anthropology 31(1): 87-97.
- Sant Cassia, P. & Cassar, C. (2008). Patrolling Socierty's Borders: Slavery, Apostasy and the Inquisition. Sacra Militia 6: 55-62.
- Edgar, I. (2007). The Inspirational Night Dream in the Motivation and Justification of Jihad. Nova Religio 11(2): 59-76.
- Simpson, B. (2007). On Parrots and Thorns: Sri Lankan Perspectives on Genetics, Science and Personhood. Health Care Analysis 15(1): 41-49.
- Ina Dietzsch & Sabine Imeri (2007). Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde revisited.
- Ina Dietzsch & Sabine Imeri (2007). Zettels Alltag oder die Geheimnisse wissenschaftlichen Handwerks. Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte 10(Alltagswelt Universität): 105-122.
- Egorova, Y. (2007). The Meanings of Science: Conversations with Geneticists. Health Care Analysis 15(1): 51-58.
- Egorova, Y. (2007). Genetics and tradition as competing sources of knowledge of human history. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
- Lyon, Stephen M. & Magliveras, Simeon S. (2006). Kinship, Computing and Anthropology. Social Science Computer Review 24(1): 30-42.
- Egorova, Y., Edgar, A. & Pattison, S. (2006). The Meanings of Genetics: accounts of biotechnology in the work of Habermas, Baudrillard and Derrida. International Journal of the Humanities 3(2): 97-103.
- Carrithers, Michael B. (2006). “Witnessing a shipwreck” German figurations in facing the past to face the future. Revista de antropología social 15: 193-230.
- Kirtsoglou, E. (2006). Phantom menace: What junior Greek army officers have to say about Turks and Turkey. South European Society and Politics 11(1): 163-177.
- Edgar, I. (2006). The ‘true dream’ in contemporary Islamic/Jihadist dreamwork: a case study of the dreams of Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Contemporary South Asia 15(3): 263-272.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2006). Guarding Each Other's Dead, Mourning One's Own: The Problem of Missing Persons and Missing Pasts in Cyprus. South European Society and Politics 11(1): 111-128.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2005). Culture and information: An anthropological examination of communication in cultural domains in Pakistan. Cybernetics and Systems 36(8): 919-932.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2005). Culture and Information: An Anthropological Examination of Communication in Cultural Domains in Pakistan. Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal 36(8): 917-929.
- Fischer, Michael D., Read, Dwight & Lyon, Stephen M. (2005). Introduction (to Special Issue on Cultural Systems, edited by M.D. Fischer, D. Read and S.M. Lyon). Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal 36(8): 719-734.
- Carrithers, Michael B. (2005). Anthropology as a moral science of possibilities. Current anthropology 46(3): 433-456.
- Carrithers, Michael B. (2005). Why anthropologists should study rhetoric. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11(3): 577-583.
- Sant Cassia, P. & Schafer, I. (2005). 'Mediterranean Conundrums': Pluridisciplinary Perspectives for Research in the Social Sciences. History and Anthropology 16(1-23).
- Fernandes, Vasco S.C. (2005). Indifference and Political Parties. Durham Anthropology Journal 13(1).
- Parfitt, T. & Egorova, Y. (2005). Genetics, History and Identity: The Case of the Bene-Israel and of the Lemba. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 29: 193-224.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2004). 'Indirect' symbolic violence and rivalry between equals in rural Punjab, Pakistan. Durham anthropology journal 12(1): 37-50.
- Widlok, Thomas. (2004). Sharing by default?: Outline of an anthropology of virtue. Anthropological Theory 4(1): 53-70.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2004). Modeling Context in Punjabi Conflict Resolution: Social Organizations as Context Agents. Cybernetics and Systems 35(2-3): 193-210.
- Kirtsoglou, E. & Theodossopoulos, D. (2004). “They are taking our culture away” tourism and culture commodification in the Garifuna community of Roatan. Critique of Anthropology 24(2): 135-157.
- Edgar, I. (2004). A War of Dreams? Militant Muslim Dreaming in the Context of Traditional and Contemporary Islamic Dream Theory and Practice. Dreaming 14(1): 21-29.
- Simpson, B. (2004). Refractions Through Culture: The New Genomics in Contemporary Iceland. Ethnos 68(4): 533-543.
- Simpson, B. (2004). On the impossibility of invariant repetition:Ritual tradition and creativity among Sri Lankan ritual specialists. Anthropology and History 13(3): 301-316.
- Simpson, R. (2004). Acting ethically, responding culturally: Framing the new reproductive and genetic technologies in Sri Lanka. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 5(3): 227-243.
- Simpson, R. (2004). Impossible gifts: Bodies, Buddhism and Bioethics in Contemporary Sri Lanka. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 10(4): 839-859.
- Egorova, Y. (2003). The Home of One’s Own: Indian Jewish Fiction and the Problem of Bene-Israel Identity. Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies 6: 71-79.
- Egorova, Y. (2003). Portraying the “Other” Indian Jewish Representations of the Parsis. Cracow Indological Studies 4-5: 179-193.
- Edgar, Iain R. (2003). Encountering the dream: intersecting Anthropological and Psychoanalytical Approaches. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research 3(2): 95-101.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2003). Navigating an Anthropology of the Mediterranean: Recent Developments in France. History and Anthropology 14(1): 87-94.
- Kohn, Tamara (2002). Becoming an Islander through Action in the Scottish Hebrides. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 8(1): 143-158.
- Edgar, Iain R. (2002). Invisible Elites: Authority and the Dream. Dreaming 12(1): 79-92.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2002). Local arbitration and conflict deferment in Punjab, Pakistan. Anthropologie 40(1): 59-71.
- Lyon, Stephen M., David Zeitlyn & Michael D. Fischer (2002). Finding the 'good stuff' on the web: a review of SOSIG. Anthropology Today 18(3): 27.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2001). Absences and Losses: Psychoanalysis, Anthropology and the cultural construction of Emotions. Anthropological Journal on European Cultures 10: 143-163.
- Simpson, R. (2001). Making 'bad' deaths 'good': The kinship consequences of posthumous conception. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 7(1): 1-18.
- Carro-Ripalda, S. (2001). El Senor de Caracuaro: una etnografia fenomenologica de una peregrinacion en Mexico [Our Lord o Caracuaro: a phenomenological ethnography of a pilgrimage in Mexico]. Guaraguao. Revista de Cultura Latinoamericana 13: 28-50.
- Carro-Ripalda, S. (2001). Objeto o experiencia? Apuntes para una etnografia fenomenologica de la religion en America Latina [Object or experience? Notes for a phenomenological study of religion in Latin America]. Guaraguao. Revista de Cultura Latinoamericana 12: 63-76.
- Carrithers M. B. (2000). On polytropy or the natural condition of spiritual cosmopolitanism in India the Digambar Jain case. Modern Asian studies 34(4): 831-861.
- Edgar, Iain R. (2000). Cultural dreaming or dreaming cultures? The anthropologist and the dream. KEA: Zeitscrift fur Kulturwissenschaften 13: 1-20.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2000). ''Open' Doctoral Research: Work-in-Progress'. iNtergraph: journal of dialogic anthropology 1(1).
- Sant Cassia, P. (2000). Exoticizing Discoveries and Extraordinary Experiences. 'Traditional' Music, Modernity and Nostagia in Malta and other Mediterranean Societies. Ethnomusicology 44: 281-301.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2000). 'Better Occasional Murders than Frequent Adulteries'. Discourses on Banditry, Violence and Sacrifice in the Mediterranean. History and Anthropology 1/1: 63-99.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2000). Statist Imperatives and Ethical Dilemmas in the Representation of Missing Persons in Cyprus. Morals of Legitimacy Between Agency and System 127-156.
- Carro-Ripalda, S. (2000). A relationship with Senor de Caracuaro. Culture and Religion 1(2): 211-231.
- Edgar, Iain R. (1999). The Imagework Method in Social Science and Health Research. Qualitative Health Research 9(2): 198-211.
- Sant Cassia, P. (1999). Tourism, Tradition and Memory in Malta. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5(2): 247-263.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (1999). 'Open' Ethnography and the Internet in the Field: Increased Communications, Feedback, and �Usability� Versus Technical and Ethical Issues. Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 30(1): 51-66.
- Edgar, Iain R. (1999). Dream Fact and Real Fiction: The Realisation of the Imagined Self. Anthropology of Consciousness 10(1): 28-42.
- Sant Cassia, P. (1999). Piercing Transfigurations: Representations of Suffering in Cyprus. Visual Anthropology 13(1): 23-46.
- Sant Cassia, P. (1998). Missing Persons in Cyprus as Ethnomartyres. Modern Greek Studies Yearbook 14(15): 261-284.
- Simpson, B. (1997). On gifts, payments and disputes: Divorce and changing family structures in contemporary Britain. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3: 731-745.
- Simpson, B. (1997). Possession, dispossession and social distribution of knowledge among Sri Lankan ritual specialists. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3(1): 43-59.
- Carrithers MB & D Machin (1996). From 'interpretative communities' to 'communities of improvisation'. Media, Culture and Society 18(2): 343-352.
Other media: research
- Sant Cassia, P. & Piault, C. (2003). Dead, Presumed Missing? A film on Missing Persons in Cyprus.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (1999). Social Organisation, Economy and Development. Experience Rich Anthropology
Articles: magazine
- (2006). Encountering the 'true dream' in islam: A journey to Turkey and Pakistan. British Academy Review (9): 7-9.
Theses: PhD
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2002). Power and patronage in Pakistan. Department of Anthropology. Canterbury, University of Kent. PhD: 262.
Books: sections
- Kirtsoglou, E. (2006). Unspeakable Crimes: Athenian Greek perceptions of local and international terrorism. In Terror and Violence: Imagination and the Unimaginable. Strathern, A., Stewart, P. & Whitehead, N.L. London: Pluto Press. 61-88.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2006). Recognition and Emotion. Exhumations of Missing Persons in Cyprus. In Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History and an Island in Conflict. Papadakis, Yiannis., Peristianis, Nicos. & Welz, Gisela. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 194-213.
- Simpson, B. (2006). ‘You don’t do fieldwork, fieldwork does you’ Between Subjectivation and Objectivation in Anthropological Fieldwork. In The Sage Handbook of Fieldwork. Hobbs, D. & Wright, R. London: Sage.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2005). When Intuitive Knowledge Fails: Emotion, Art and Resolution. In Mixed Emotions: Anthropological Studies of Feeling. Milton, Kay & Svasek, Maruska Oxford New York: Berg. 109-125.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2004). 'The Banality of Modern Traditions' Popular Music, Folklore, and Tradition in the Mediterranean. In De la chataigne au Carnaval: Relances des traditions dans l'Europe contemporaine. Bromberger, C., Chevallier, D. & Dossetto, D. Die: Mission du Patrimoine ethnologique: Editions A Die. 121-139.
- Simpson, R. (2004). Localising a Brave New World: New Reproductive Technologies and the Politics of Fertility in Contemporary Sri Lanka. In Reproductive Agency, Medicine and the State: Cultural Transformations in Childbearing. Unnithan-Kumar, Maya. New York Oxford: Beghahn Books. 43-57.
- Layton, R.H. (2003). What creates village democracy in (Western) Europe? A comparative study. In Distinct inheritances: property, family and community in a changing Europe. H. Grandits & P. Heady Münster: LIT. 97-113.
- Carro-Ripalda, S. (2002). Envejecer en Jaracuaro [Growing old in Jaracuaro]. In America Latina, Historia y Sociedad. Pique, R. & Ventura, M. Barcelona: Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona/Institut Catala de Cooperacio Iberoamericana. 457-478.
- Sant Cassia, P. (2001). Waiting for Ulysses. The Committee for Missing Persons. In Promoting Peace and Development: Reviewing Five Decades of UN Involvement in Cyprus. Richmond, O. & Ker-Lindsay, J. St. Martin's Press (Palgrave).
- Carrithers MB (2000). 'Hedgehogs, Foxes and Persons: Resistance and Moral Creativity in East Germany and South India'. In Being Human: Anthropological Universality and Particularity in Transdisciplinary Perspectives. N Roughey New York: Walter de Gruyter. 356-379.
- Carro-Ripalda, S. (2000). Pilgrimages. In Encyclopedia of Contemporary Caribbean and Latin American Culture. Balderston, D. et al London and New York: Routledge.
- Carro-Ripalda, S. (2000). Saint's Days. In Encyclopedia of Contemporary Caribbean and Latin American Culture. Balderston, D. et al London and New York: Routledge.
Edited works: conference proceedings
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2002). Modelling competing contextual rules conflict resolution in Punjab, Pakistan. 16th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research, Vienna, Austrian Society for Cybernetics Studies.
Essays in edited volumes
- Fischer, Michael, Lyon, Stephen & Zeitlyn, David (2008). The Internet and the Future of Social Science Research. In The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods. Fielding, Nigel, Lee, Raymond M. & Blank, Grant London: SAGE Publications. 519-536.
- Lyon, Stephen M. (2005). In the Shadow of September 11th: Multiculturalism and Identity Politics. In Muslim Britain: Communities Under Pressure. Abbas, Tahir London: Zed.
Edited works: journals
- Bolognani, Marta & Lyon, Stephen (2006). Special Issue: Celebrating 20 years of the Lake District Pakistan Workshop. Contemporary South Asia, 15 (3): Taylor and Francis.
- Fischer, M.D., Read, D. & Lyon, S.M. (2005). Special Issue on Cultural Systems. Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal, 36 (8).
Journal papers: online
- Carrithers, Michael B. (2007). Story seeds and the inchoate. Durham Anthropology Journal 14(1): 1-20.
