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Chronicles from the Field

The Townsend Thai Project
By Robert M. Townsend, Sombat Sakunthasathien and Rob Jordan

Running since 1997 and continuing today, the Townsend Thai Project has tracked millions of observations about the economic activities of households and institutions in rural and urban Thailand. The project represents one of the most extensive datasets in the developing world. Chronicles from the Field offers an account of the design and implementation of this unique panel data survey.

Language, Thought, and Reality, Second Edition

Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf
By Benjamin Lee Whorf
Edited by John B. Carroll, Stephen C. Levinson and Penny Lee

The pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941) grasped the relationship between human language and human thinking: how language can shape our innermost thoughts. His basic thesis is that our perception of the world and our ways of thinking about it are deeply influenced by the structure of the languages we speak. The writings collected in this volume include important papers on the Maya, Hopi, and Shawnee languages, as well as more general reflections on language and meaning.

Cognition in the Wild

By Edwin Hutchins

Environmental Values in American Culture

By Willett M. Kempton, James S. Boster and Jennifer A. Hartley


How do Americans view environmental issues? From EarthFirst! members to sawmill workers, this study by a team of cognitive anthropologists offers both good and bad news for those addressing environmental issues in the public arena. On the one hand it reveals surprising similarities in the way different groups of Americans view long-term global environmental change, and on the other it shows that Americans have serious misunderstandings about these issues, which skews public support for policies.