"Social Movements: An Anthropological Reader expands on standard studies of social movements by offering a collection of writings that is exclusively anthropological in nature and global in its focus - thereby serving as an invaluable tool for instructors and students alike." "The chapters are based on fieldwork carried out on four continents - North America, South America, Africa, and Asia - and in 14 countries. These chapters address problems of global health and the spread of diseases; loss of control over basic resources such as water and fuel; militarization; and repression of indigenous peoples and of women. The authors offer solutions that have been formulated by local peoples themselves; these responses provide a context for reform from below rather than directed by preconceived notions from above."--BOOK JACKET.