The Way We are

by Margaret Visser (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1995

  $3.37

  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.