《盲国萨满》是一部神话史诗纪录片，片中记叙了一个尼泊尔西北部边远地区的宗教治疗。为记录当地宗教习俗的基本特征，电影跟踪拍摄的时间超过十八个月。在宗教精神上，该特征见于北亚的西伯利亚地区和广大喜马拉雅地区，与大内亚地区典型萨满教传统的多种形式一脉相通。

这是一部有关中国独生子女研究的经典民族志作品。作者于1997—2002年间在中国大连进行了共计27个月的田野调查，通过收集统计数据、问卷调查、访谈和参与观察等方法，对大连市独生子女及其家庭进行了全面系统而深入细致的研究。作者对何种政治、经济、文化、社会力量造就了独生子女一代及其独特的成长经历和体验，以及独生子女身份对于青少年的主体性、渴盼、体验带来的影响，进行了生动细致的描绘和深刻有趣的探讨。该书曾获2005年美国东亚人类学学会授予的许烺光图书奖。

本书是用文学体裁写成的学术专著。它述说两个家庭在中国民间传统文化与经济的背景下，面对新的商业社会的经济方式，如何调整适应以求新的发展或因不能适应而日渐衰落，再现了30年代前后中国农村生活的情景及经济变迁的剖断面。文字浅显流利朴素平白，内容丰富生动。

"In terms of its richness of data, this is one of the best ethnographies I have read about any locale anywhere. It is also exemplary in its novel and creative synthesis of literary analysis and more conventional social science-oriented anthropology. . . . The book has a consistent focus, both disturbing and riveting, on the ways that pain, loss, and social upheaval are woven into people's attempts to reconstitute new lives over some fifty years of rapid social change."—P. Steven Sangren, author of Chinese Sociologics



"Mueggler writes with uncommon grace, elegance, and charm. . . . Readers will come away from this book with lasting memories of various aspects of these peoples’ lives—death, hunger, fear, sex, humor—and with an understanding of their all-too-powerful humanity as well as their genius for adapting their lives to the often-changing demands of the communist state."

Robert B. Edgerton, author of Death or Glory



"A rare work that really gives us a new way of thinking about what modernity (or one version of it, anyway) means to people who have had it thrust upon them involuntarily."

Kenneth Pomeranz, author of The Great Divergence