{"title":"Edward F Fischer","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"making-better-coffee-book-edward-f-fischer-9780520386969","title":"Making Better Coffee","description":"An anthropologist uncovers how \"great coffee\" depends not just on taste, but also on a complex system of values worked out among farmers, roasters, and consumers.   What justifies the steep prices commanded by small-batch, high-end Third Wave coffees? Making Better Coffee explores this question, looking at highland coffee farmers in Guatemala and their relationship to the trends that dictate what makes \"great coffee.\" Traders stress material conditions of terroir and botany, but just as important are the social, moral, and political values that farmers, roasters, and consumers attach to the beans.     In the late nineteenth century, Maya farmers were forced to work on the large plantations that colonized their ancestral lands. The international coffee market shifted in the 1990s, creating demand for high-altitude varietals—plants suited to the mountains where the Maya had been displaced. Edward F. Fischer connects the quest for quality among U.S. tastemakers to the lives and desires of Maya producers, showing how profits are made by artfully combining coffee's material and symbolic attributes. The result is a complex story of terroir and taste, quality and craft, justice and necessity, worth and value.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742636613905,"sku":"NGR9780520386969","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51002975748369,"sku":"NIN9780520386969","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53521413046545,"sku":"NLS9780520386969","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520386965.jpg?v=1751166940"},{"product_id":"tecpan-guatemala-book-edward-f-fischer-9780813340340","title":"Tecpan Guatemala","description":"This case study of a highland Guatemala town examines what it means to be Maya in a rapidly changing and globalized world. In providing an historical synopsis of the Kaqchikel Maya from pre-Columbian and Colonial times to the present day, this volume focuses on the dynamics of clutural boundaries in light of the use of the Kaqchikel language versus Spanish, the growing role of Protestantism and the revitalization of Maya religion versus Catholicism, and the effects of violent civil war on social networks. It examines the role of weaving and export agriculture in linking Tecpanecos to larger economic and political orbits and for defining local, regional, and national identities. As a result, this accessibly written book demonstrates that even seemingly traditional Maya cultural forms are actively constructed in the context of intense global connections.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49939008127249,"sku":"CIN0813340349G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0813340349.jpg?v=1750785955"},{"product_id":"good-life-book-edward-f-fischer-9780804792530","title":"The Good Life","description":"What could middle-class German supermarket shoppers buying eggs and impoverished coffee farmers in Guatemala possibly have in common? Both groups use the market in pursuit of the \"good life.\" But what exactly is the good life? How do we define wellbeing beyond material standards of living? While we all may want to live the good life, we differ widely on just what that entails.    In The Good Life, Edward Fischer examines wellbeing in very different cultural contexts to uncover shared notions of the good life and how best to achieve it. With fascinating on-the-ground narratives of Germans' choices regarding the purchase of eggs and cars, and Guatemalans' trade in coffee and cocaine, Fischer presents a richly layered understanding of how aspiration, opportunity, dignity, and purpose comprise the good life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50367982174481,"sku":"CIN0804792534G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50409222406417,"sku":"GOR008074339","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007486853393,"sku":"NIN9780804792530","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53396973289745,"sku":"CIN0804792534VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804792534.jpg?v=1757416037"},{"product_id":"indigenous-peoples-civil-society-and-the-neo-liberal-state-in-latin-america-book-edward-f-fischer-9781845455972","title":"Indigenous Peoples, Civil Society, and the Neo-liberal State in Latin America","description":"In recent years the concept and study of \"civil society\" has received a lot of attention from political scientists, economists, and sociologists, but less so from anthropologists. A ground-breaking ethnographic approach to civil society as it is formed in indigenous communities in Latin America, this volume explores the multiple potentialities of civil society's growth and critically assesses the potential for sustained change. Much recent literature has focused on the remarkable gains made by civil society and the chapters in this volume reinforce this trend while also showing the complexity of civil society - that civil society can itself sometimes be uncivil. In doing so, these insightful contributions speak not only to Latin American area studies but also to the changing shape of global systems of political economy in general. Edward F. Fischer is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt University. His work focuses on issues of political economy, identity politics, and globalization; he has conducted long-term fieldwork with the Maya of Guatemala and in Germany. His publications include Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala (1996), Cultural Logics and Global Economies: Maya Identity in Thought and Practice (2001), Tecpan Guatemala: A Modern Maya Town in Local and Global Context (2002, with Carol Hendrickson), and Broccoli and Desire: Global Connections and Maya Struggles in Postwar Guatemala (2006, with Peter Benson). His current research focuses on the interplay of moral values and economic rationalities.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50590822924561,"sku":"GOR012932426","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51091310805265,"sku":"NIN9781845455972","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845455975.jpg?v=1770285990"},{"product_id":"cash-on-the-table-book-edward-f-fischer-9781938645006","title":"Cash on the Table","description":"Moral values inform economic behaviour. On its face, this proposition is unassailable. Think of the often spiritual appeal of consumer goods or the value-laden stakes of upward or downward mobility. Think about the central role that moral questions regarding poverty, access to health care, the tax code, property and land rights, and corruption play in the shaping of modern governments, societies, and social movements. Think of fair trade coffee and organic produce as well as the thrift expressed in Walmart's everyday low prices. The moral aspects of the marketplace have never been so contentious or consequential. However, the realm of economics is often treated as a world unto itself, a domain where human behaviour is guided not by emotions, beliefs, moralities, or the passions that fascinate anthropologists but by the hard calculus of rational choices.   Anthropologists have historically tended to focus on the corrosive effects of markets on traditional lifeways and the ways in which global markets disadvantage marginalised peoples. Economists often have difficulty allowing that markets are embedded in particular social and political power structures and that \"\"free\"\" market transactions are often less free than we might think. If anthropologists could view markets a bit more ecumenically and if economists could view them a bit more politically, then great value - cash on the table - could be found in bringing these perspectives together. A great deal is at stake in understanding the moral dimensions of economic behaviour and markets. Public debates over executive compensation, the fair trade movement, and recent academic inquiries into the limitations of rational-choice paradigms all point to the relevance of moral values in our economic decision-making processes.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50630756696337,"sku":"NGR9781938645006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1938645006.jpg?v=1763126617"},{"product_id":"peoples-and-cultures-of-the-world-book-edward-f-fischer-9781565859197","title":"Peoples and Cultures of the World","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50764383551761,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50764384895249,"sku":"CIN1565859197VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1565859197.jpg?v=1751374666"},{"product_id":"tecpan-guatemala-book-edward-f-fischer-9780367318208","title":"Tecpan Guatemala","description":"This case study of a highland Guatemala town examines what it means to be Maya in a rapidly changing and globalized world. In providing an historical synopsis of the Kaqchikel Maya from pre-Columbian and Colonial times to the present day, this volume focuses on the dynamics of clutural boundaries in light of the use of the Kaqchikel language versus","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51232166805777,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51232169820433,"sku":"NIN9780367318208","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52521049424145,"sku":"NLS9780367318208","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0367318202.jpg?v=1750975499"},{"product_id":"maya-cultural-activism-in-guatemala-book-edward-f-fischer-9780292708518","title":"Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala","description":"Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala marks a new era in Guatemalan studies by offering an up-to-the-minute look at the pan-Maya movement and the future of the Maya people as they struggle to regain control over their cultural destiny. The successful emergence of what is in some senses a nationalism grounded in ethnicity and language has challenged scholars to reconsider their concepts of nationalism, community, and identity.  Editors Edward F. Fischer and R. McKenna Brown have brought together essays by virtually all the leading U.S. experts on contemporary Maya communities and the top Maya scholars working in Guatemala today. Supplementing scholarly analysis of Mayan cultural activism is a position statement originating within the movement and more wide-ranging and personal reflections by anthropologists and linguists who have worked with the Maya over the years. Among the broader issues that come in for examination are the complex relations between U.S. Mayanists and the Mayan cultural movement, efforts to promote literacy in Mayan languages, the significance of woven textiles and native dress, the relations between language and national identity, and the cultural meanings that the present-day Maya have encountered in ancient Mayan texts and hieroglyphic writing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51694434353425,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51694435827985,"sku":"CIN0292708513VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0292708513.jpg?v=1763220111"},{"product_id":"good-life-book-edward-f-fischer-9780804790963","title":"The Good Life","description":"What could middle-class German supermarket shoppers buying eggs and impoverished coffee farmers in Guatemala possibly have in common? 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With fascinating on-the-ground narratives of Germans' choices regarding the purchase of eggs and cars, and Guatemalans' trade in coffee and cocaine, Fischer presents a richly layered understanding of how aspiration, opportunity, dignity, and purpose comprise the good life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53014032220433,"sku":"NIN9780804790963","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804790963.jpg?v=1768142919"},{"product_id":"making-better-coffee-book-edward-f-fischer-9780520386952","title":"Making Better Coffee","description":"An anthropologist uncovers how \"great coffee\" depends not just on taste, but also on a complex system of values worked out among farmers, roasters, and consumers.   What justifies the steep prices commanded by small-batch, high-end Third Wave coffees? Making Better Coffee explores this question, looking at highland coffee farmers in Guatemala and their relationship to the trends that dictate what makes \"great coffee.\" Traders stress material conditions of terroir and botany, but just as important are the social, moral, and political values that farmers, roasters, and consumers attach to the beans.     In the late nineteenth century, Maya farmers were forced to work on the large plantations that colonized their ancestral lands. The international coffee market shifted in the 1990s, creating demand for high-altitude varietals—plants suited to the mountains where the Maya had been displaced. Edward F. Fischer connects the quest for quality among U.S. tastemakers to the lives and desires of Maya producers, showing how profits are made by artfully combining coffee's material and symbolic attributes. 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