FIELD NOTES BREAKTHROUGH BOOKS
INSIDE PUBLISHING
LOST TRIBES THE SEX THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME
ATLAS OF THE DIFFICULT WORLD
ARE YOU A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST? HYPOTHESES
The Proust boom/Said's bombshell/Explosive textbooks, and more
Geography
Healthy Nazis/Puzzling pictures/The priapic postmodern professor, and more
For Native American tribes, recognition from the federal government means political
sovereignty, subsidized health care, and, possibly, windfall casino profits. As anthropologists at the Bureau of Indian Affairs try to decide how to allocate these benefits, critics in the academy, Congress, and in the Indian community charge them with using outdated categories and racially suspect assumptions. But is there a better way?
BY PETER BEINART
People come in two genders, right? In fact, thousands of babies are born each year
with ambiguous genitals--and without an obvious gender identity. For decades,
doctors have resorted to surgery to "correct" these anomalies. Now, an intersexual
rights movement with allies in the academy is forcing doctors to revise their procedures--
and challenging us to rethink our most fundamental beliefs about men and women.
BY EMILY NUSSBAUM
Three hefty new anthologies promise to deliver the best of the world's poetry to
English-language readers. But does "world poetry" faithfully reflect the diversity
of languages and traditions--or is it an insidious euphemism for the imposition
of Western modernist aesthetics?
BY JOHN PALATTELLA
You may go around telling everybody you're a social constructionist. Do you really know what you're talking about? A leading philosopher helps you find out.
BY IAN HACKING
Jim Holt pokes holes in the miracle of stigmata.
