Author Guidelines for Westview Case Studies in Anthropology

The series editors will work in close association with authors to ensure consistency in the quality of work and the structure of presentation. Each book will focus on a particular cultural community while addressing certain cross-culturally significant topics (e.g., religion, family, and economic strategies) in a manner consistent across the series (see the attached author guidelines). This presentation will allow instructors to easily incorporate examples of diversity and commonality into the topically arranged structure of most undergraduate survey courses. At the same time individual authors will be expected to explore in greater detail issues of particular importance to the area they study, and to present their own theoretical contributions to the field at large. Authors will be particularly be encouraged to integrate analytic consideration of how particular cultures are integrated into and affected by their association with larger systems in this age of globalization. Monographs will be between 150 and 175 pages each, an optimal length for inclusion in undergraduate classes.

1. General subject matter: Each text should examine a particular community or culture group, as conventionally defined, and should be based on ethnographic field data. An attempt at topical holism should be made to make the text useful as a supplement to course textbooks. Texts should also include a strong and engaging narrative theme appropriate to the area under study. Contributions by the author to anthropological theory should be highlighted.

2. Specific topics: To promote consistency across titles and to facilitate use of these case studies as textbook supplements, we ask authors to cover certain specific topics. The relative emphasis place on each topic is left up to the author. Assigned topics need not be given separate chapters, and indeed some of these issues are part of contemporary ethnographic sensibilities which will likely pervade discussions of various subjects. Suggested topics to be included are:

A. family, marriage, and kinship relations beyond the household level: this should not be a rote listing of the features of the kinship system (although kinship charts may be appropriate), but should touch on the significance and practice of kinship relations in everyday life;

B. gender: which may be collapsed into the above or other categories, but all titles should demonstrate an awareness of the universal (yet culturally particular) importance of gender relations;

C. belief systems and religion: again, this need not be treated as exoticized trait lists of rituals but should include the importance of religious beliefs and more generally the role of symbolic systems in worldview;

D. subsistence and economics: this should focus on how individuals, families, and communities make their living, with a sensitivity to the larger economic systems in which they are enmeshed;

E. larger contexts: the books in this series should be up-to-date in the sense of not portraying the culture under study as an isolated entity; global-local relations need not be the primary focus of the study but all authors should demonstrate an awareness of such issues, including transnationalism; and

F. native voices: where feasible, extended quotes should present excerpts of transcribed interviews to allow individual subjects to speak for themselves.

3. Style: Innovative approaches to ethnographic representation are welcomed, and yet it is crucial that all manuscripts be written in an accessible language and style. We strongly encourage authors to develop narrative themes in their work. While it is appropriate for authors to place themselves in their works, we are not looking for books that are primarily first-person narratives about anthropologists.

4. Length: The printed book should ideally be between 150 and 175 pages. Manuscripts should thus be approximately 200-250 double spaced pages in length (57,000 to 75,000 words), excluding references and endmatter.

5. Figures, maps, illustrations, and multimedia supplements: Each text should include at least one map to situate the population under study clearly in geographic context. In most cases this will require at least two maps, one at a global or continental scale and the other at a regional or local scale. Authors are also encouraged to integrate figures and illustrations into their. Subject to negotiations with the series editors and Westview Press, authors are encouraged to develop supplemental World Wide Web sites to complement their texts, and these may include additional figures, still and motion photography, and links to relevant sites.

6. Glossary and endmatter: Each text should include a short glossary of key terms, both anthropological and area language specific. Authors are further required to include a short annotated bibliography of relevant works to orient students in research projects. Further, authors are encouraged to include an annotated listing of ethnographic films available on the area of study.

7. Software: Manuscripts submitted to the series editors and to Westview Press should be in both hard copy (single-sided, doubled-spaced) and on IBM compatible 3 1/4" diskette in either WordPerfect or Word format.

Interested authors are encouraged to contact the series editors with proposal ideas:
Edward F. Fischer (edward.f.fischer@vanderbilt.edu)