Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner raises a call to action as the seas rise over the Marshall Islands. Weaving together history, personal experience, and Marshallese perspectives, the author provides a glimpse into a culture and people that is ancient and resilient—but that is also changing and adapting to each new threat. She uses the power of poetry to demand justice in the face of the devastating effects of climate change on her home island. Iep Jaltok is the first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author.

Frederick Luis Aldama and graphic artists from Mapache Studios give shape to ugly truths in the most honest way, creating new perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about life in the borderlands of the Américas. Each bilingual prose-art fictional snapshot offers an unsentimentally complex glimpse into what it means to exist at the margins of society today.

This book recounts the fascinating story of the placing of Native American girls into the homes of white families for domestic service during their summer vacations from boarding schools run by the federal Office of Indian Affairs. It complicates our picture of “women’s work” and the complex involvement of white women as agents of colonization.

Food Systems in an Unequal World examines regulatory risk and how it translates to and impacts farmers in the agrochemical-dependent agriculture industry of Costa Rica. Ryan E. Galt shows how the food produced for domestic markets lacks regulation similar to that of export markets, creating a dangerous double standard of pesticide use. In seeking solutions, Galt argues for improved governance and research into alternative pest control but emphasizes that the process must be rooted in farmers’ economic well-being.

The first interdisciplinary study to examine the historic role of alcohol across Latin America and over a broad time span. Contributors use the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, art history, ethnohistory, history, and literature to examine alcohol use in six locations—the Andean region, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico—thus offering a better understanding of race, class, gender, state-building, and more.

This is a rich ethnographic account of the relationship between identity politics, neoliberal development policy, and rights to resource management in native communities on the north coast of Honduras. It also answers the question: can “freedom” be achieved under the structures of neoliberalism?

Throughout the “New South,” relationships based on race, class, social status, gender, and citizenship are being upended by the recent influx of Latina/o residents. Drawing on direct experiences and first-hand interviews, Doing Good provides an informative and fascinating view of how changing demographics are profoundly affecting the new social order.

Challenging the Dichotomy explores how dichotomies regarding heritage dominate the discussions of ethics, practices, and institutions. Contributing authors underscore the challenge to the old paradigms from multiple forces. The case studies and discourses, both ethnographic and archaeological, arise from a wide variety of regional contexts and cultures.

Voices of Crime examines how different social groups constructed, contested, navigated, and negotiated notions of crime, criminality, and justice. The authors seek to document and illustrate the everyday experiences of crime in particular settings, emphasizing under-researched historical actors such as criminals, victims, and police officers. The fresh research offers a critical approach to the very definition of crime and its perpetrators, suggesting that “not only the actions of the poor and racial others but also the state can be termed as criminal.”