Anthropology of Los Angeles

Jenny Banh is assistant professor of anthropology and Asian American studies at California State University, Fresno.Melissa King is faculty chair of the anthropology department at San Bernardino Valley College.

• ForewordYolanda T. MosesAcknowledgments IntroductionMelissa King with Jenny BanhChapter 1 Hauntings of a Different Kind: Militarized Spaces and Memories of ContainmentJocelyn Pacleb Chapter 2 Bicycle Anthropology of Los AngelesAdonia Lugo, Allison Mattheis, with Maryann Aguirre Chapter 3 The People in Los Angeles Public Spaces Are Not Dead: Micro-Sociability in the Squares, Plazas, and Parks of the Post-Modern Global CityNathalie BoucherChapter 4 Embodying Democratic Spaces: Community Organizer Alternative Narratives That Challenge the Mainstream Negative Stigma of South Los AngelesGeorge VillanuevaChapter 5 Analysis of Latino-Korean Relations in the Workplace: Latino Perspectives in the Aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles Civil UnrestKyeyoung ParkChapter 6 Memory: The Angeleno PharmakonCharles Joseph Chapter 7 Multiple Ways of Knowing: Layers of History on The Great Wall of Los AngelesAndrea LepageChapter 8 Making Space: Ethnic Towns and the Racing of

Banh and King’s anthology is a timely and multifaceted addition to Los Angeles studies and urban anthropology. Reminiscent of editors Raúl Villa and George Sánchez’s Los Angeles and the Future of Urban Cultures (2005), the book focuses on contestations of power and space through public culture, agency, and memory. Threads of activism and intersecting identities run throughout the chapters, which range from the aftermath of the 1992 LA uprisings to the Great Wall of Los Angeles mural, urban agriculture, and models of community organizing. The book’s methodological emphasis on ground-up ethnography (including autoethnography) is one of its greatest strengths, along with interventions into scholarship of the city that has largely drawn from archives, interviews, or literary works.... [T]his is a useful volume for students and scholars of postmodern urban landscapes, as well as practitioners seeking an introduction to the heterogeneity of Los Angeles. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries.