Education

University of Chicago (BA 1963, Linguistics; PhD 1969 Anthropology);
Stanford University (MA 1964, Anthropology)

Research Interests

Cultural & Psychological Anthropology, Anthropology of Religion, Chinese Popular Religion, Language & Sociolinguistics, East Asia, Taiwan

University Participation

I have been on the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at UCSD since its official founding in 1969. I served a term as Chair of the Program in Chinese Studies in the 1970s and of the Department of Anthropology in the 1980s. I served as Provost (head) of Earl Warren College from 1994 to 2004. I am now officially retired, which means I can read Chinese poetry instead of attending faculty meetings, although I continue to teach because I like students. (I was called back to active service as Interim Provost of Sixth College for a few months, but I got over it.)

Books Authored or Edited

1. Books on Chinese Studies

   2004 Minor Arts of Daily Life: Popular Culture in Taiwan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. (Edited with Andrew D. Morris and Marc L. Moskowitz.)

   (A wide range of essays all of which focus on various aspects of modern life in Taiwan, especially the life of young adults. The book, newly released, is obviously the ideal gift for friends and relatives for all occasions. Order your copies immediately while supplies last!)

   1986 The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Sectarianism in Taiwan. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (With Daniel L. Overmyer)

   (Comparative study of modern Chinese spirit-writing sects and their traditional forebears. This book is a collaboration between an anthropologist, who provided ethnographic field materials, and an historian of religions, who dealt with the text tradition and the texts generated by the groups described in the field materials. The series of case studies shows such groups in more detail than is possible for earlier periods, but also shows them to be in direct lineage with earlier traditions, allowing some tentative hypotheses about the internal dynamics of earlier groups as well.)

   1972 Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: The Folk Religion of a Taiwanese Village. Berkeley: University of California Press.

   (An overview of Chinese popular religion as practiced in one village. Treats topics like patron gods, ghosts, spirit marriage, &c. The entire text of the third edition is available on-line.)

2. Books on Anthropology

   1990 Personality and the Cultural Construction of Society: Papers in Honor of Melford E. Spiro. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.(Edited with Marc J. Swartz.)

   (A wonderful collection of sixteen papers by students and colleagues of Spiro, divided into four parts on [1] Nonteleological Functionalism; [2] Culture & Personality, Gender Roles, the Oedipus Complex, and Dreams; [3] Religion and Personality; and [4] Aggression, Dependency, & the Skills of Social Manipulation. My own paper from this collection is available on-line.)

   1976 Anthropology: Perspective on Humanity. New York: Wiley. (With Marc J. Swartz.)

   (A now obsolescent general textbook of anthropology. A very slightly revised reprint of selected chapters was published in 1980 as Culture: The Anthropological Perspective.)

3. Books in or on Esperanto

   1999 Being Colloquial in Esperanto: A Reference Guide. El Cerrito: Esperanto League for North America.

   (A reference grammar and style guide to Esperanto with a substantial list of false cognates and other expressions troubling for American learners. Intended for intermediate students. This work is unusual in describing Esperanto as a living language based on how existing speakers actually use it, rather than as a hypothetical or idealized "project" or "proposal." The 1999 edition has been revised and enlarged. The original edition, with thesubtitle A Reference Guide for Americans, was published in 1992 by University Press of America.)

   1996 Rakontoj prapatraj pri nia lando antau multaj jarcentoj kiam okazemis mirindaj aferoj. (Forefatherly tales of our land many centuries ago when marvelous things would happen.) Berkeley: Eldonejo Bero.

   (A collection of "fakelore" stories designed to simulate the folk tales of natural languages while remaining within the frame of Esperanto, which logically lacks a "folk" to produce such lore. Saturated with insinuation and cultural references fully accessible only to Esperanto speakers, the tales are intentionally untranslatable.)
   (An English translation of the introduction to this volume is available on the website of the Canadian Esperanto Association)
   (Videblas specimenaj rakontoj en la Esperantisma Ludejo de tiu chi retpagharo.)

Papers

I have written various papers, mostly published in inaccessible journals. A few are available on this web site. (Link)

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