Alan Macfarlane

In many areas of the world destruction of natural resources and the rapid growth of populaton are among the most important problems facing individuals and governments. This book, first published in 1976, utilises the tools of social anthropology and population studies in an attempt to see some of the causes and consequences of populations growth and some of the effects of change on natural resources. It analyses a particular 'community' in the Annapurna range of the central Himalayas during this century, and investigates how the destruction of forests and the growth of settled rice cultivation have occurred, and some of the consequences. The Gurungs are famous as recruits to the Gurkha regiments of the British and Indian armies, and the demographic and economic effects of foreign mercenary labour are among the topics examined.

This entertaining and endlessly surprising book takes us on an exploration into every aspect of Japanese society from the most public to the most intimate. A series of meticulous investigations gradua

Alan MacFarlane has studied the parishes of Earls Colne in Essex and Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria, as well as other parishes, and has undertaken anthropological fieldwork in a contemporary community in Nepal. In collaboration with Sarah Harrison and Charles Jardine he has devised a method of collecting, breaking down and then reintegrating historical records in a way which makes it possible to answer some of the sociological, demographic, anthropological, geographical and other questions which interest many people. For the amateur historian or genealogist who wants to know about a village or family, the method makes it possible to find out almost everything that survives in historical documents concerning each person who lived in a village, each plot of land and house.

This book describes the nature of English historical records over the period 1200–1800. It surveys the records created by the state, the estates of landlords, and the Church. The work arises from an intensive research project (1973–81), which involved the manual and computerised analysis of all the surviving records for two parishes, in Westmorland and Essex, up to 1800. The book considers the administrative and judicial process, which led to the compilation of the documents, the survival and quantity of each class, the location and form of the material, and the hidden omissions, inaccuracies and deceptions.

What is love? Why are families so difficult? How do we get justice? Who is God? What makes us individuals? And why are we here in the first place? In responding to his granddaughter’s challengi

What conditions the chances of liberty, wealth, and equality at the start of the third Christian Millennium? Why did human civilizations develop so slowly for thousands of years, and then transform th

What conditions the chances of liberty, wealth, and equality at the start of the third Christian millennium? Why did human civilizations develop so slowly for thousands of years, and then transform th

This is a classic regional and comparative study of early modern witchcraft. The history of witchcraft continues to attract attention with its emotive and contentious debates. The methodology and conc

Ralph Josselin, vicar of Earls Colne in Essex from 1641 to his death in 1683, kept for almost forty years a remarkably detailed account of his life—his mental and emotional world as well as his activi

Picture, if you can, a world without glass. There would be no microscopes or telescopes, no sciences of microbiology or astronomy. People with poor vision would grope in the shadows, and planes, cars

In the years before Indian Independence in 1947, the Nagas of northeast India came to exemplify an exotic society. Peoples of the hills, radically different in culture and beliefs from the better-know

Written by experts who have been part of this field since its beginnings in both research and academia, this textbook introduces readers to this evolving topic and the broad range of applications that

Seeks to explain how the Earth's presently enormous population manages to exist and even thrive, against the predictions of leading thinkers of 200 years ago such as Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith. Dra

The Origins of English Individualism is about the nature of English society during the five centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, and the crucial differences between England and other Eur

The Origins of English Individualism is about the nature of English society during the five centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, and the crucial differences between England and other Eur

Marriage and Love in England: Modes of Reproduction 1300-1840 is a history of the intimate lives and aspirations of the English people from medieval to modern times. It is scholarly, provocative, and