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Of Marriage, Violence and Sorcery: The Quest for Power in Northern Queensland (Anthropology and Cultural History in Asia and the Indo-Pacific)
by David McKnightThis is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between marriage, violence and sorcery in an Australian Aboriginal Community, drawing on David McKnight’s extensive research on Mornington Island. The case studies, which occurred both before and after a Presbyterian Mission was established on the island, allow McKnight to show how the complexities of kin ties and increased sexual competition help to explain incidences of violence and sorcery, without resorting to psychiatric justifications. He demonstrates that kin ties both stimulated conflict and helped to mitigate it. Following on from McKnight’s previous book, Going the Whiteman’s Way (Ashgate 2004), Of Marriage, Violence and Sorcery offers an archive of valuable primary materials, drawing on the author’s forty-year knowledge of the community on Mornington Island.
Of Maybugs and Men: A History and Philosophy of the Sciences of Homosexuality
by Pieter R. Adriaens Andreas De BlockA much-needed exploration of the history and philosophy of scientific research into male homosexuality. Questions about the naturalness or unnaturalness of homosexuality are as old as the hills, and the answers have often been used to condemn homosexuals, their behaviors, and their relationships. In the past two centuries, a number of sciences have involved themselves in this debate, introducing new vocabularies, theories, arguments, and data, many of which have gradually helped tip the balance toward tolerance and even acceptance. In this book, philosophers Pieter R. Adriaens and Andreas De Block explore the history and philosophy of the gay sciences, revealing how individual and societal values have colored how we think about homosexuality. The authors unpack the entanglement of facts and values in studies of male homosexuality across the natural and human sciences and consider the extent to which science has mitigated or reinforced homonegative mores. The focus of the book is on homosexuality’s assumed naturalness. Geneticists rephrased naturalness as innateness, claiming that homosexuality is innate—colloquially, that homosexuals are born gay. Zoologists thought it a natural affair, documenting its existence in myriad animal species, from maybugs to men. Evolutionists presented homosexuality as the product of natural selection and speculated about its adaptive value. Finally, psychiatrists, who initially pathologized homosexuality, eventually appealed to its naturalness or innateness to normalize it. Discussing findings from an array of sciences—comparative zoology, psychiatry, anthropology, evolutionary biology, social psychology, developmental biology, and machine learning—this book is essential reading for anyone interested in what science has to say about homosexuality.
Of Maybugs and Men: A History and Philosophy of the Sciences of Homosexuality
by Pieter R. Adriaens Andreas De BlockA much-needed exploration of the history and philosophy of scientific research into male homosexuality. Questions about the naturalness or unnaturalness of homosexuality are as old as the hills, and the answers have often been used to condemn homosexuals, their behaviors, and their relationships. In the past two centuries, a number of sciences have involved themselves in this debate, introducing new vocabularies, theories, arguments, and data, many of which have gradually helped tip the balance toward tolerance and even acceptance. In this book, philosophers Pieter R. Adriaens and Andreas De Block explore the history and philosophy of the gay sciences, revealing how individual and societal values have colored how we think about homosexuality. The authors unpack the entanglement of facts and values in studies of male homosexuality across the natural and human sciences and consider the extent to which science has mitigated or reinforced homonegative mores. The focus of the book is on homosexuality’s assumed naturalness. Geneticists rephrased naturalness as innateness, claiming that homosexuality is innate—colloquially, that homosexuals are born gay. Zoologists thought it a natural affair, documenting its existence in myriad animal species, from maybugs to men. Evolutionists presented homosexuality as the product of natural selection and speculated about its adaptive value. Finally, psychiatrists, who initially pathologized homosexuality, eventually appealed to its naturalness or innateness to normalize it. Discussing findings from an array of sciences—comparative zoology, psychiatry, anthropology, evolutionary biology, social psychology, developmental biology, and machine learning—this book is essential reading for anyone interested in what science has to say about homosexuality.
Of Maybugs and Men: A History and Philosophy of the Sciences of Homosexuality
by Pieter R. Adriaens Andreas De BlockA much-needed exploration of the history and philosophy of scientific research into male homosexuality. Questions about the naturalness or unnaturalness of homosexuality are as old as the hills, and the answers have often been used to condemn homosexuals, their behaviors, and their relationships. In the past two centuries, a number of sciences have involved themselves in this debate, introducing new vocabularies, theories, arguments, and data, many of which have gradually helped tip the balance toward tolerance and even acceptance. In this book, philosophers Pieter R. Adriaens and Andreas De Block explore the history and philosophy of the gay sciences, revealing how individual and societal values have colored how we think about homosexuality. The authors unpack the entanglement of facts and values in studies of male homosexuality across the natural and human sciences and consider the extent to which science has mitigated or reinforced homonegative mores. The focus of the book is on homosexuality’s assumed naturalness. Geneticists rephrased naturalness as innateness, claiming that homosexuality is innate—colloquially, that homosexuals are born gay. Zoologists thought it a natural affair, documenting its existence in myriad animal species, from maybugs to men. Evolutionists presented homosexuality as the product of natural selection and speculated about its adaptive value. Finally, psychiatrists, who initially pathologized homosexuality, eventually appealed to its naturalness or innateness to normalize it. Discussing findings from an array of sciences—comparative zoology, psychiatry, anthropology, evolutionary biology, social psychology, developmental biology, and machine learning—this book is essential reading for anyone interested in what science has to say about homosexuality.
Of Memory and the Misplaced: Irish Immigrant Life Writing in the United States (Irish Culture, Memory, Place)
by Sarah O'BrienWhat can the life writing of post-famine Irish immigrants tell us about Irish diasporic memory? Of Memory and the Misplaced considers the endurance and nature of Irish American memory across the twentieth century. Guided by 30 memoirs written between 1900 and 1970, Sarah O'Brien shows the prevalence of intimate and taboo themes in ordinary immigrants' writing, such as domestic violence, same-sex love, and famine-induced trauma. Importantly, Of Memory and the Misplaced critiques the role of the Irish landscape as a site of memory and shows how the interiority of the domestic world has provided Irish women with the language needed to reclaim their own lives.Combining literary and historical theory, Of Memory and the Misplaced highlights voices that have traditionally been silenced and offers a rare and unexplored collection of primary source autobiographical texts to better understand the experiences of Irish immigrants in the United States.
Of Men and Women: How to Be for Each Other
by Pearl S. BuckA provocative and fascinating exploration of male–female relationships by the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth. Pearl S. Buck grew up in China, accustomed to its traditions, but when she moved to the United States as an adult in the 1930s she was struck by the cultural differences in gender roles and expectations. In nine short chapters, she applies this personal experience to an exploration of the power dynamics of the American household, drawing one universal conclusion: &“Complete freedom is the atmosphere in which men and women can live together most happily. But it must be complete.&” As she makes her case, Buck outlines two American female archetypes: the dissatisfied &“gunpowder woman&” and the placid &“angel.&” &“Sensible and witty, merciless and often amusing,&” this is a book that ultimately delivers a clarion call for men and women to find common ground and succeed hand in hand (The New York Times Book Review). The first American female Nobel laureate, Buck was a pioneer women&’s rights activist and humanitarian who believed both sexes could find happiness together, even in challenging economic or political circumstances. Imbued with an unshakeable faith in equality and strident candor, Of Men and Women remains a daringly original and candid work in the canon of feminist literature. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author&’s estate.
Of No Interest to the Nation: A Jewish Family in France, 1925-1945
by Gilbert MichlinEnglish translation of Gilbert Michlin's Holocaust memoir detailing his family's life as Jewish immigrants in France and their eventual deportation to Auschwitz in 1944.
Of One Mind and Of One Government: The Rise and Fall of the Creek Nation in the Early Republic (New Visions in Native American and Indigenous Studies)
by Kevin KokomoorIn Of One Mind and Of One Government Kevin Kokomoor examines the formation of Creek politics and nationalism from the 1770s through the Red Stick War, when the aftermath of the American Revolution and the beginnings of American expansionism precipitated a crisis in Creek country. The state of Georgia insisted that the Creeks sign three treaties to cede tribal lands. The Creeks objected vigorously, igniting a series of border conflicts that escalated throughout the late eighteenth century and hardened partisan lines between pro-American, pro-Spanish, and pro-British Creeks and their leaders. Creek politics shifted several times through historical contingencies, self-interests, changing leadership, and debate about how to best preserve sovereignty, a process that generated national sentiment within the nascent and imperfect Creek Nation. Based on original archival research and a revisionist interpretation, Kokomoor explores how the state of Georgia’s increasingly belligerent and often fraudulent land acquisitions forced the Creeks into framing a centralized government, appointing heads of state, and assuming the political and administrative functions of a nation-state. Prior interpretations have viewed the Creeks as a loose confederation of towns, but the formation of the Creek Nation brought predictability, stability, and reduced military violence in its domain during the era.
Of Pure Blood
by Marc Hillel Clarissa Henry Eric MossbacherWe spent nearly three years tracking down every available source about the Lebensborn organization. We had heard of the human stud-farms created by Heinrich Himmler during the Second World War; we knew that they were called Lebensborns.
Of Reels, Romance and Retakes: Social Narratives of Cinema in Odisha
by Sanjoy PatnaikOf Reels, Romance and Retakes carries the reader on a fascinating journey into the genesis, evolution and reception of Odia cinema. Telling the story of its quiet emergence in 1936, the book goes on to chronicle its unexpected triumphs in the coming decades when cinema arose as an undisputed cultural form of both the middle class and the masses. The account the book gives of how Odia cinema, aesthetically intertwined with the indigenous folk and literary tradition, carried forward both the project of modernity and Odia cultural identity is particularly illuminating and instructive. At the same time it takes an introspective look at the crisis Odia cinema faces now, sandwiched as it is between two competing social trends - one following the route to Hindi as the chief language of entertainment and the other that is focused on regional cultural assertion as a key to commercial success. On the whole, it is a timely and much awaited book that seeks to construct the hitherto uncharted ‘social narratives’ of cinema in Odisha.
Of Reels, Romance and Retakes: Social Narratives of Cinema in Odisha
by Sanjoy PatnaikOf Reels, Romance and Retakes carries the reader on a fascinating journey into the genesis, evolution and reception of Odia cinema. Telling the story of its quiet emergence in 1936, the book goes on to chronicle its unexpected triumphs in the coming decades when cinema arose as an undisputed cultural form of both the middle class and the masses. The account the book gives of how Odia cinema, aesthetically intertwined with the indigenous folk and literary tradition, carried forward both the project of modernity and Odia cultural identity is particularly illuminating and instructive. At the same time it takes an introspective look at the crisis Odia cinema faces now, sandwiched as it is between two competing social trends - one following the route to Hindi as the chief language of entertainment and the other that is focused on regional cultural assertion as a key to commercial success. On the whole, it is a timely and much awaited book that seeks to construct the hitherto uncharted ‘social narratives’ of cinema in Odisha.
Of Relations and the Dead: Four Societies Viewed from the Angle of Their Exchanges
by Cécile Barraud; Daniel de Coppet; André Iteanu; Raymond Jamous; Stephen J. SuffemExchanges are fundamental to human societies. The authors show that the study of exchanges not only serves as a key to understanding particular societies as totalities but also helps to frame a comparative mode of analysis expressed in terms of a hierarchy of values. Starting with a comparative analysis of the different vocabularies used when dealing with exchange, the authors go on to provide a detailed account of how each society's exchanges form a genuine value-oriented system. Their conclusions shed light on important issues in anthropology such as the difference between subject and object; the construction of the person in the matrix of social relations; and the contrast between 'socio-cosmic' systems and other societies which recognize a universal term of reference beyond their community.
Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume 1: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa
by John L. Comaroff Jean Comaroff"Defining their enterprise as more in the direction of poetics than of prosaics, the Comaroffs free themselves to analyze a vivid series of images and events as objects of analysis. These they mine for clues to the 19th-century contents of the British imagination and of Tswana minds. They are themselves imagining the imagination of others, and they do the job with characteristic aplomb....The first volume creates an appetite for the second."—Sally Falk Moore, American Anthropologist
Of Sand or Soil: Genealogy and Tribal Belonging in Saudi Arabia
by Nadav SaminWhy do tribal genealogies matter in modern-day Saudi Arabia? What compels the strivers and climbers of the new Saudi Arabia to want to prove their authentic descent from one or another prestigious Arabian tribe? Of Sand or Soil looks at how genealogy and tribal belonging have informed the lives of past and present inhabitants of Saudi Arabia and how the Saudi government's tacit glorification of tribal origins has shaped the powerful development of the kingdom's genealogical culture.Nadav Samin presents the first extended biographical exploration of the major twentieth-century Saudi scholar Ḥamad al-Jāsir, whose genealogical studies frame the story about belonging and identity in the modern kingdom. Samin examines the interplay between al-Jāsir's genealogical project and his many hundreds of petitioners, mostly Saudis of nontribal or lower status origin who sought validation of their tribal roots in his genealogical texts. Investigating the Saudi relationship to this opaque, orally inscribed historical tradition, Samin considers the consequences of modern Saudi genealogical politics and how the most intimate anxieties of nontribal Saudis today are amplified by the governing strategies and kinship ideology of the Saudi state.Challenging the impression that Saudi culture is determined by puritanical religiosity or rentier economic principles, Of Sand or Soil shows how the exploration and establishment of tribal genealogies have become influential phenomena in contemporary Saudi society. Beyond Saudi Arabia, this book casts important new light on the interplay between kinship ideas, oral narrative, and state formation in rapidly changing societies.
Of Stones and Man: From the Pharaohs to the Present Day
by Jean KeriselOf Stones and Man explores the many errors of judgement made by civilizations both ancient and modern across the world. Arrogance and a penchant for excess drove mankind to build ever greater and more ambitious edifices. The author analyzes these works from a scientific and historically-sensitive perspective, highlighting the hydro-geological background to repeated infamous disasters, from the faults inherent in the Sphinx to the leaning Tower of Pisa. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Of Stones and Man is a testament to the impermanence of our surroundings. It questions how the earth and its resources have borne the cumulative burden placed upon it over the ages by one civilization after another, and how, in turn, the earth has exacted its inevitable revenge on the great constructions of our ancestors. Of Stones and Man is the final work of Jean Kerisel (1908-2005) who served as President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering from 1973 to 1977, and who worked worldwide as a consultant on many ambitious engineering projects. Driven by his great passion for Ancient Builders and Egyptology, Kerisel here extends his professional knowledge into the realms of historical architecture.
Of Summits and Sacrifice
by Thomas BesomIn perhaps as few as one hundred years, the Inka Empire became the largest state ever formed by a native people anywhere in the Americas, dominating the western coast of South America by the early sixteenth century. Because the Inkas had no system of writing, it was left to Spanish and semi-indigenous authors to record the details of the religious rituals that the Inkas believed were vital for consolidating their conquests. Synthesizing these arresting accounts that span three centuries, Thomas Besom presents a wealth of descriptive data on the Inka practices of human sacrifice and mountain worship, supplemented by archaeological evidence. Of Summits and Sacrifice offers insight into the symbolic connections between landscape and life that underlay Inka religious beliefs. In vivid prose, Besom links significant details, ranging from the reasons for cyclical sacrificial rites to the varieties of mountain deities, producing a uniquely powerful cultural history.
Of The People, By The People: A New History of Democracy
by Roger Osborne'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.'Churchill had more reason than most to rue the power of democracy, having been thrown out of office after leading Britain to victory in 1945. Democracy, when viewed from above, has always been a fickle master; from below it is a powerful but fragile friend.Most books on democracy focus on political theory and analysis, in a futile attempt to define democracy. Of The People, By The People takes the opposite approach, telling the stories of the different democracies that have come into existence during the past two and half millennia. From Athens to Rhaetia, Jamestown to Delhi, and Putney to Pretoria, the book shows how democratic systems are always a reflection of the culture and history of their birthplaces, and come about through seizing fleeting opportunities. Democracy can only be understood through the fascinating and inspiring stories of the peoples who fought to bring it about.
Of The Social Contract and Other Political Writings (Cambridge Texts In The History Of Political Thought Ser.)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau'Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.' These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has stirred vigorous debate ever since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.Translated by Quintin HoareWith a new introduction by Christopher Bertram
Of Vagabonds and Fellow Travelers: African Diaspora Literary Culture and the Cultural Cold War (Class : Culture)
by Cedric TolliverOf Vagabonds and Fellow Travelers recovers the history of the writers, artists, and intellectuals of the African diaspora who, witnessing a transition to an American-dominated capitalist world-system during the Cold War, offered searing critiques of burgeoning U.S. hegemony. Cedric R. Tolliver traces this history through an analysis of signal events and texts where African diaspora literary culture intersects with the wider cultural Cold War, from the First Congress of Black Writers and Artists organized by Francophone intellectuals in September 1956 to the reverberations among African American writers and activists to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Among Tolliver’s subjects are Caribbean writers Jacques Stephen Alexis, George Lamming, and Aimé Césaire, the black press writing of Alice Childress and Langston Hughes, and the ordeal of Paul Robeson, among other topics. The book’s final chapter highlights the international and domestic consequences of the cultural Cold War and discusses their lingering effects on our contemporary critical predicament.
Of Virgins and Martyrs: Women and Sexuality in Global Conflict (Themes in Global Social Change)
by David JacobsonExplores the role of women’s status, bodies, and sexuality in global conflicts.Women's bodies have become a battleground. Around the world, people argue about veiling, schooling for Afghan girls, and "SlutWalk" protests, all of which involve issues of women's sexuality and freedom. Globalization, with its emphasis on human rights and individuality, heats up these arguments. In Of Virgins and Martyrs, David Jacobson takes the reader on a fascinating tour of how self-identity developed throughout history and what individualism means for Muslim societies struggling to maintain a sense of honor in a globalized twenty-first century.Some patriarchal societies have come to see women’s control of their own sexuality as a threat to a way of life that goes back thousands of years. Many trace their lineage to tribal cultures that were organized around the idea that women’s virginity represents the honor of male relatives and the good of the community at large. Anyone or anything that influences women to the contrary is considered a corrupting and potentially calamitous force. Jacobson analyzes the connection between tribal patriarchy and Muslim radicalism through an innovative tool—the tribal patriarchy index. This index helps to illuminate why women's sexuality, dress, and image so compel militant Muslim outrage and sometimes violent action, revealing a deeper human story of how women's status defines competing moral visions of society and why this present clash is erupting with such ferocity.
Of Water and the Spirit
by Malidoma Patrice SoméThis is a wonderful autobiography by a man who not only holds two doctorate degrees but has also been initiated in his tribal shaman tradition. His life bridges seminary and mud hut. It is fascinating and heart opening to read.
Of Wolves and Men
by Barry LopezOriginally published in 1978, this classic exploration of humanity&’s complex relationship with and understanding of wolves returns with a new afterword by the author.Humankind's relationship with the wolf is the sum of a spectrum of responses ranging from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez&’s classic, careful study has won praise from a wide range of reviewers and improved the way books on wild animals are written. Of Wolves and Men explores the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing upon an impressive array of literature, history, science, and mythology as well as extensive personal experience with captive and free-ranging wolves, Lopez argues for the wolf's preservation and immerses the reader in its sensory world, creating a compelling portrait of the wolf both as a real animal and as imagined by different kinds of men. A scientist might perceive the wolf as defined by research data, while an Eskimo hunter sees a family provider much like himself. For many Native Americans the wolf is also a spiritual symbol, a respected animal that can strengthen the individual and the community. With irresistible charm and elegance, Of Wolves and Men celebrates careful scientific fieldwork, dispels folklore that has enabled the Western mind to demonize wolves, explains myths, and honors indigenous traditions, allowing us to understand how this remarkable animal has become so prominent for so long in the human heart.
Of Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience And Institution
by Adrienne RichThe pathbreaking investigation into motherhood and womanhood from an influential and enduring feminist voice, now for a new generation. In Of Woman Born, originally published in 1976, influential poet and feminist Adrienne Rich examines the patriarchic systems and political institutions that define motherhood. Exploring her own experience—as a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a mother—she finds the act of mothering to be both determined by and distinct from the institution of motherhood as it is imposed on all women everywhere. A “powerful blend of research, theory, and self-reflection” (Sandra M. Gilbert, Paris Review), Of Woman Born revolutionized how women thought about motherhood and their own liberation. With a stirring new foreword from National Book Critics Circle Award–winning writer Eula Biss, the book resounds with as much wisdom and insight today as when it was first written.
Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution
by Adrienne RichAdrienne Rich's influential and landmark investigation concerns both the experience and the institution of motherhood. The experience is her own--as a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a mother--but it is an experience determined by the institution, imposed on all women everywhere. She draws on personal materials, history, research, and literature to create a document of universal importance.
Of Women 'Inside': Prison Voices from India
by Rani Dhavan ShankardassBased on original research and personal encounters, this book narrates the real-life-stories of women locked up in Indian prisons for alleged or actual violations of the state’s criminal laws. It contextualises women offenders’ experiences of the criminal justice system and of state custodial institutions within the larger narratives of their particular lives, thus interrogating the social as well as legal frameworks within which women face adversities in their lives and in custody. It argues that the sex and gender issues that affect women ‘outside’ are carried over ‘inside’, with extremely damaging consequences for the lives and mental health of women prisoners. The volume will be of interest to those in gender studies, legal studies, sociology, and human rights organisations, as well as to policy makers and the general reader.