The Way We are

by Margaret Visser (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.25

  A collection of essays which dissects the whos, the whats, and the wherefores of the ways we live and examines our origins, eccentricities and foibles. What constitutes an initiation rite in our society? Why are we so squeamish about eating offal? What are we to make of the Easter Bunny (a male rodent, remember, that produces eggs)? and what are the unsavory implications of Santa Claus? Each one of a wide variety of ordinary objects and typical behavioural habits is made to yield up what it has to tell us about the way we are, and how we became this way. The essays present a portrait of ourselves, and aims to promote thought on what exactly it means to be modern.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1995

  $3.25

  From the author of Much Depends on Dinner and The Rituals of Dinner comes a collection of essays in which Visser, a self-described anthropologist of everyday life , analyzes the patterns of modern living. She taps into our very modern fascination with our origins, eccentricities, and foibles: what constitutes an initiation rite in our society?; why are we so squeamish about eating offal?; what are we to make of the Easter Bunny (a male rodent that produces eggs)?; and what are the unsavoury implications of Santa Claus? Each one of a wide variety of ordinary objects and typical behavioural habits is made to yield up its evidence about our society, and how we developed in this way. Visser leaves us with a portrait of ourselves, and forces us to think about what exactly it means to be modern.