Professor Emeritus
Ph.D. University of Chicago (1972)
My ethnographic research has been carried out primarily among nomadic and pastoral peoples, in Baluchistan (Iran), Rajasthan (India), and most recently in Sardinia (Italy). I am especially interested in exploring the similarities and differences among nomadic peoples in different places and in understanding the reasons for these differences. The ways in which particular groups have transformed over time, often in relation to multi-year environmental, economic, and political cycles, has taught me that change is part of social organization rather than extraneous to it. In my current research I am exploring "equality" and "freedom" by drawing on the many philisophical discourses on these subjects and applying their complex understanding to the rich ethnographic descriptions of specific societies and cultures.
Representative Publications
Books
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| Submitted |
Can We Be Free And Equal Too? Prometheus Books. |
| 2011 |
Classic Comparative Anthropology, Waveland. |
| 2010 | Thinking Anthropologically: A Practical Guide for Students, Third edition, edited with Pat Rice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2010. |
| 2008 | Culture and Conflict in the Middle East, Humanity (Prometheus). |
| 2008 | Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, P.C. Salzman and D. R. Divine, eds. Routledge. |
| 2007 | Thinking Anthropologically: A Practical Guide for Students, Second Edition, edited with Pat Rice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. 121 pp. |
| 2004 | Pastoralism: Equality, Hierarchy, and The State. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. |
| 2003 | Thinking Anthropologically: A Practical Guide for Students, edited with Pat Rice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. 99 pp. |
| 2001 | Understading Culture: an Introduction to Anthropological Theory. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland. 165 pp. (Reviewed: JRAI 8 [4]:809, 2002) |
| 2000 | Black Tents of Baluchistan. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. 390 pp. Winner of the Premio PitrP–Salomone Marino. |
| 1999 | The Anthropology of the Real Life: Events in Human Experience. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, "Guide to Contemporary Anthropology" Series, 108 pp. |
| 1996 | Antropologia Delle Societa` Pastorali Tribali E Contadine//The Anthropology of Tribal and Peasant Pastoral Societies, U. Fabietti & P.C. Salzman, editors. Como, Italy: Ibis; Pavia, Italy: Collegio Ghislieri. 472 pp. |
| 1992 | Kin and Contract in Baluchi Herding Camps, Baluchistan Monograph Series II. Naples: Istituto Universitario Oreintale & Istituto Italiano per Il Medeo ed Estremo Oriente. 109 pp. |
| 1990 | Nomadic People in a Changing World, P.C. Salzman and J.G. Galaty, editors, Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale. 470 pp. |
| 1982 | Contemporary Nomadic and Pastoral Peoples: North Africa, Asia, and the North, P.C. Salzman, editor, Studies in Third World Societies, No. 18. |
| 1982 | Contemporary Nomadic and Pastoral Peoples: Africa and Latin America, P.C. Salzman, editor, studies in Third World Societies, No. 17 |
| 1981 | Change and Developement in Nomadic and Pastoral Societies, J.G. Galaty and P.C. Salzman, editors, Leiden, Brill. |
| 1981 | The future of Pastoral Peoples, J.G. Galaty, D.R. Aronson, and P.C. Salzman, editors, Ottawa, International Development Research Centre. |
| 1980 | When Nomads Settle: Processes of Sedentarization as Adaptation and Response, P.C. Salzman, editor, Bergin/ Praeger. |
Book Chapters and Articles
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| In press | "The Yarahmadzai Baluch," in The Encyclopaedia of Persian Folklore, Tehran. |
| 2010 | "Fieldwork: Collecting Information," in THINKING ANTHROPOLOGICALLY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR STUDENTS 3rd Edition, P. C. Salzman & P. Rice, eds. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. |
| 2009 | "Persians and Others: Iran’s Minority Politics," Middle East Strategy at Harvard. |
| 2008 | "Politics and Change among the Baluch in Iran," Middle East Strategy at Harvard, Paper No. 2. |
| 2007 | "The Middle East’s Tribal DNA," MIDDLE EAST QUARTERLY 15(1): 23-33. |
| 2007 | "Reflections on Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israel Conflict," Scholars for Peace in the Middle East website, 2 December; also SPME FACULTY FORUM, 4 December. |
| 2007 | "Making Ideas Researchable," P.C. Salzman & P. Rice, in THINKING ANTHROPOLOGICALLY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR STUDENTS, Second Edition, edited with Pat Rice. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. 121 pp. |
| 2006 | "Sardinia," ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANTHROPOLOGY, James Birx, ed.Sage. Pp. 2053-2054. |
| 2006 | "Lineage Systems," ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANTHROPOLOGY, James Birx, ed.Sage. Pp. 1478-1479. |
| 2006 | "Anthropology, Characteristics of, " ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANTHROPOLOGY, James Birx, ed. Sage. Pp. 142-144. |
| 2006 | "Baluchistan," ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANTHROPOLOGY, James Birx, ed.Sage. Pp. 331-332. |
| 2006 | "Karl Popper," ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANTHROPOLOGY, James Birx, ed.Sage. Pp. 1899-1900. |
| 2006 | "Post-colonialism," ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANTHROPOLOGY, James Birx, ed.Sage. Pp. 1910-1912. |
| 2005 | "The Iron Law of Politics," POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES 23(2):20-49, August |
| 2003 | "Introduction" (with Pat Rice), in THINKING ANTHROPOLOGICALLY, Salzman and Rice, eds. Prentice Hall. |
| 2003 | "What Anthropologists Are Looking For: Patterns," in THINKING ANTHROPOLOGICALLY, Salzman and Rice, eds., Prentice Hall (2003). |
| 2003 | "Thinking Theoretically," in THINKING ANTHROPOLOGICALLY, Salzman and Rice, eds., Prentice Hall (2003). |
| 2002 | "On Reflexivity," AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 104(3):805-813. |
| 2002 | "Pastoral Nomads: Some General Observations Based on Research in Iran", JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH 58(2):245-264. |
| 2002 | "Highland Sardinians and their Environment", in CONSERVATION AND INDIGENOUS MOBILE PEOPLES: DISPLACEMENT, FORCED SETTLEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, D. Chatty, editor. Oxford: Berghahn. |
| 2002 | "What is an Ethnography?" ANTHROPOLOGY NEWS 43(4):49. |
| 2001 | "Ethnography, Humanity, and Imagination: Seeing Culture and Society through the Eyes of an Individual", in STRATEGIES IN TEACHING ANTHROPOLOGY (Second Edition), David McCurdy and Patricia Rice, editors. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. |
| 2001 | "Toward a Balanced Approach to the Study of Equality", CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 42(2): 281-284. |
| 2000 | "Hierarchical Image and Reality: The Construction of a Tribal Chiefship", COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY 42 (1):49-66. |
| 1999 | "Is Inequality Universal?", CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 40 (1): 31-61. |
| 1999 | "Mobilia e nomadismo", LA RICERCA FOLKLORICA 40:37-46, special issue on SOCIETA PASTORALI D’AFRICA E D’ASIA, edited by Maria Arioti and Barbara Casciarri. |