Up, Down, and Sideways: Anthropologists Trace the Pathways of Power

Using a “vertical slice” approach, anthropologists critically analyze the relationship between undemocratic uses and abuses of power and the survival of the human species. The contributors scrutinize modern institutions in a variety of regions―from Russia and Mexico to South Korea and the U.S. Up, Down, and Sideways is an ethnographic examination of such phenomena as debtculture, global financial crises, food insecurity, indigenous land and resource appropriation, the mismanagement of health care, andcorporate surrogacy within family life. With a preface by Laura Nader, this isessential reading for anyone seeking solid theories and concrete methods to inform activist scholarship.

Rachael Stryker is Assistant Professor in the department of Human Development and Women’s Studies at California State University, East Bay. Her work comparatively explores emotion socialization, with a focus on attachment formation and representation, and her publications include The Road to Evergreen: Adoption, Attachment Therapy, and the Promise of Family (Cornell, 2010), as well as articles for the Childhood, International Migration and Children and Youth Services Review journals.

Roberto J. González is Professor of Anthropology at San Jose State University and author of several books including Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca (Texas, 2001), American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and the Human Terrain (Prickly Paradigm, 2009), and Militarizing Culture: Essays on the Warfare State (Left Coast, 2010). He co-produced the documentary film Losing Knowledge: 50 Years of Change and is a founding member of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists.