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The struggle for the world -- The Latin American quest for independence -- The European search for certainty -- Global movements to transform humanity -- Purifying the world : the global jihad -- Between doom and redemption

Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier. David B. Edwards. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. 307 pp.

Kinship studies have traditionally been the core of the anthropological enterprise, but the knowledge gained in studies of indigenous kinship systems has not generally been of interest to other disciplines. This essay intends to draw attention to some of the political and social implications of patterns of kinship relations by comparing two large historical culture areas, that of the frontier region of Inner Asia, and that of the peripheral tribes of the Middle East.

Is the United States a nation of materialistic loners whose politics are dictated by ethnic, racial, religious, or sexual identities? This is what America has become in the eyes of many commentators. Americans seem to fear that their society is breaking apart, but how accurate is this portrayal and how justified is the fear? Introducing a balanced viewpoint into this intense debate, John Hall and Charles Lindholm demonstrate that such alarm is unfounded. Here they explore the institutional structures of American society, emphasizing its ability to accommodate difference and reduce conflict. The culture, too, comes under scrutiny: influenced by Calvinistic beliefs, Americans place faith in the individual but demand high moral commitment to the community. Broad in scope and ambition, this short book draws a realistic portrait of a society that is among the most powerful and stable in the world, yet is perennially shaken by self-doubt.Concern over the cohesiveness of American society, Hall and Lindholm argue, is actually a product of a shared cultural belief in human distinctiveness and equality. They find that this shared belief paradoxically leads Americans to exaggerated worries about disunity, since they are afraid that disagreements among co-equals will rend apart a fragile community based solely on consensus and caring. While there is little dissent among Americans over essential values, racism still abounds. Here the authors predict that the homogenizing force of economic participation might still be the key to mending the wounds of racial turmoil.By combining history, sociology, and anthropology, the authors cover a wide range of past and recent challenges to the stability of American society: from the history of unions to affirmative action, from McCarthyism to militant distrust of government, from early prejudice toward Irish and Italian immigrants to current treatment of African Americans. Hall and Lindholm do not skirt the internal contradictions and moral tensions of American society but nonetheless recognize the strength and promise of its institutions and culture. Their book is a vivid, sweeping response to the doomsayers in the reassessment of our society

¿Es el amor un fenómeno particularmente occidental y moderno o una experiencia universal? Este artículo argumenta que ambos enfoques yerran al tomar la atracción sexual como la característica esencial del romance, mientras que las experiencias históricas y personales tensionan la idealización de un otro particular. El amor romántico se define propiamente como una experiencia de trascendencia y se elabora en configuraciones culturales de tres tipos básicos. El primero se encuentra en sociedades jerárquicas e internamente competitivas donde el matrimonio es una cuestión política y las relaciones románticas son siempre adúlteras y a menudo no-sexuales; el segundo, en las sociedades individualistas, fragmentadas y fluidas adonde amor y matrimonio van juntos; el tercero, en sociedades desarmónicas altamente estructuradas, donde los lazos románticos entre los jóvenes son desechos por matrimonios arreglados. ; Is romantic love a particularly Western and modern phenomenon, or a universal experience? This article argues that both these approaches err in taking sexual attraction as the essential characteristic of romance, whereas historical and personal accounts stress idealization of a particular other. Romantic love is properly defined as an experience of transcendence and is elaborated in cultural configurations of three basic types. The first is in hierarchical and internally competitive societies where marriage is a political matter and romantic relations are always adulterous and often non-sexual; the second is in individualistic, fragmented and fluid societies where love and marriage go together; the third is in highly structured disharmonic societies where romantic ties between youth are severed by arranged marriages.