Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2025 -

In this brilliant exploration of ideology, Espino (Santa Maria La Antigua Catholic Univ., Panama), an anthropologist and working architect, cites several prominent social theorists to propose a viable path forward for national development. The integration of psychiatry (Sigmund Freud), psychology (Karen Horney), economics (Karl Marx and Albert O. Hirschman), theology (Ivan Illich), and literature (Rene Girard), among other disciplines, makes this an intellectual feast. Significantly, Espino converges his analyses to propose a three-part agenda for development based on capitalism, the state, and "convivial infrastructure"--essentially a more robust and community-oriented independent sector (p. 163). Implications for the welfare state are poignantly relevant. The text is rich with one-liners, attesting to the author's erudition: "What in economic discourse is called a free market is frequently translated socially into an environment of free conflicts, where everyone's social standing is besieged on multiple fronts" (p. 64). Conversations with the Turtles should be required reading for students of anthropology and social development. Additionally, readers should investigate Espino's designs on the internet, as the integration of his art and thought warrants a more lavish publication than this book provides. Nick Romeo's The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy (2024) complements this study.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Ever since first realizing that stone tools were only a minor part of hominins' technologies, this reviewer has been looking for a book on botanical tools (i.e., nests, slings, baskets) for 50 years. Although organic technologies were much more important and central, they have often been ignored by researchers because they did not survive. Falk (Florida State Univ.) has now mined the literature, her own experience, and that of others to reveal the centrality of organic artifacts to the evolution of humanity, both well before and after the invention of lithic artifacts. She begins by looking at the baskets that our fellow hominoids make in trees to argue that hominids would have made them too, and then brought them to the ground, leading to physical and mental changes in our ancestors. Over several million years, organic technologies grew and developed, as did their users. As organic technologies evolved from baby slings to wooden spears and from sandals to spears and boats, language also developed as women used their voices to soothe their babies, and the babies responded. This marvelous book is both accessible to general readers and thought-provoking for experts.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.