View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.

aTo the Break of Dawn marks a crucial turning point in hip-hop writing. . . . By opening the discourse on hip-hopas aesthetic, Cobb spearheads a new sub-genre, and perhaps a return or revolution in hip-hop aesthetics.a
--"Black Issues Book Review"

a[P]eels back the many digitized layers of hip-hop to explore the evolution of the MC, from African folkloric traditions to the global (and often hypercommercial) phenomenon it is today.
a--"Utne"

SEE ALSO: "Pimps Up, Hoas Down: Hip Hopas Hold on Young Black Women" by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting.

aTo the Break of Dawn is smart, funny, conversational -- a book to touch off serious study of the modern MC.a
--"The Austin Chronicle"

aUpon finishing To The Break of Dawn any objective fan will acknowledge that Cobb has done a commendable job in chronicling rapas evolution and explaining its multiple influences and impact.a
--"City Paper"

aTo the Break of Dawn dissects the evolution of hip hop lyricism from its most primitive beginnings to its current manifestation as a global phenomenon. Author Jelani Cobb examines issues of race, geography, genre and bravado in this overview of hip hopas lyrical art. Covering words from B.I.G., Cube, Obie Trice and Pimp C, Cobb offers an intellectual and up-to-date report on hip hopas most powerful elementa
--"The Source Magazine"

aWhat makes William Jelani Cobb's To the Break of Dawn so refreshing is that it centers on what hip-hop is, rather than on what it does. Eschewing the common practice of treating rap lyrics as just another way to talk about race, politics or the self, Cobb treats them as art. His aim is ambitious: toarticulate hip-hop's aesthetic principles while tracing its roots back to the aancestral poetic and musical traditionsa of black oral culture, from Sunday sermons to gut-bucket blues. To the Break of Dawn celebrates lyrical invention, the artists and even the particular rhymes that make hip-hop great. For the uninitiated, it is Hip-Hop 101, offering a rich overview of rap's verbal artistry. For the aficionado, it alternately affirms and challenges deeply held beliefs of what is valuable in hip-hop.a
--"Washington Post Book World"

aThis book makes an important contribution to hip-hop history. . . . Cobbas writing style is engaging, and the book benefits from the legitimacy provided by the authoras background: he is a former MC who grew up with the culture.a
--"Choice"

aOn literally every page [Cobb] displays a tremendous command of language and history as he aexamines the aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic evolution of hip hop from its inception in the South Bronx to the present era.a But make no mistake: this groundbreaking work is an artfully constructed and vividly written look at athe artistic evolution of rap music and its relationship to earlier forms of black expression.a Much of the book's pleasure also comes from Cobb's ability to afreestylea serious and humorous insights-from how artists such as Tupac and Nas sometimes astepped outside the conventions of hip-hop to pen sympathetic narratives about the sexual exploitation of young women, a to how LL Cool J's pioneering aI Need a Beata sounded alike he'd raided every entry in an SAT book.a aa
--"Publishers Weekly" (starred review)

aVital stuff for hip hop fans eager to know more about their favorite culturalidiomas development and underpinnings.a
--"Booklist"

aAt a time when academics are just beginning to recognize hip hop as a legitimate form, William Jelani Cobb, a child of rap himself, brings an unparalleled level of understanding to the music. His historically informed yet hip-to-the-tip viewpoint roots readers in the art form rather than the hype.a
--Chuck D

aWith poetic passion and surgical precision, William Jelani Cobb's engaging exploration of the hip hop aesthetic lovingly demonstrates that, when it comes to beats and rhymes, the beauty of the (bass) god resides in the details.a
--Joan Morgan, author of "When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost"

aFinally, a hip hop study that captures the verve and swagger that marked the work of our critical forebears Albert Murray and Amiri Baraka. In his brilliant new tome, William Jelani Cobb bridges the gap between the majesty of the blues and the gully regality of hip hop.a
--Mark Anthony Neal, author of "New Black Man"

"Wow! "To the Break of Dawn" is a crucial contribution to hip hop history. I'm thrilled that William Jelani Cobb has documented hip hop's relationship to the blues. If you want to truly understand how hip hop was born, read this booka
--MC Lyte

"aTo the Break of Dawn" tells the serious story of hip hop's artistic roots, and in the process revels in the great MCs who stand at the crossroads of music and literature. In a crowded field of hip hop scholars, pundits, and journalists, "To the Break of Dawn" puts William Jelani Cobb way out in front.a
--Ta-Nehisi Coates

aUpon finishing To the Break of Dawn, any objective fan will acknowledge that Cobb has done a commendable job in chronicling rapasevolution and explaining its multiple influences and impact. Hereas a fresh look at a music that continues to electrify, confound, alienate, and fascinate.a
--"Nashville City Paper"

"He'll idle with some prelim scratches to let the crowd know what's coming next. And if his boy got skills enough, if the verbal game is tight enough, that right there will be the kinetic moment, that blessed split-second when beat meets rhyme."

With roots that stretch from West Africa through the black pulpit, hip-hop emerged in the streets of the South Bronx in the 1970s and has spread to the farthest corners of the earth. To the Break of Dawn uniquely examines this freestyle verbal artistry on its own terms. A kid from Queens who spent his youth at the epicenter of this new art form, music critic William Jelani Cobb takes readers inside the beats, the lyrics, and the flow of hip-hop, separating mere corporate rappers from the creative MCs that forged the art in the crucible of the street jam.

The four pillars of hip hop--break dancing, graffiti art, deejaying, and rapping--find their origins in traditions as diverse as the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira and Caribbean immigrants' turnstile artistry. Tracing hip-hop's relationship to ancestral forms of expression, Cobb explores the cultural and literary elements that are at its core. From KRS-One and Notorious B.I.G. to Tupac Shakur and Lauryn Hill, he profiles MCs who were pivotal to the rise of the genre, verbal artists whose lineage runs back to the black preacher and the bluesman.

Unlike books that focus on hip-hop as a social movement or a commercial phenomenon, To the Break of Dawn tracks the music's aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic evolution from its inception to today's distinctly regional sub-divisions and styles. Written with an insider's ear, the book illuminates hip-hop's innovations in a freestyle form that speaks to both aficionados and newcomers to the art.

"Kawaii" is a Japanese word that denotes "cute," "lovable," or "charming" although it does not have exactly the same meaning as those adjectives. This book proposes engineering methodologies for systematic measurement of the affective perception of kawaii, by using virtual reality and biological signals, and discusses the effectiveness of kawaii engineering for designing industrial products and services. Kawaii can draw sympathy from people and can embody a special kind of cute design, which reduces fear and makes dull information more acceptable and appealing. Following the introduction of the background of kawaii engineering in Chapter 1, Chapters 2 and 3 describe experiments on the systematic measurement and evaluation methods for kawaii products and affective evaluation experiments. Chapter 4 proposes a mathematical model to identify the physical attributes that determine kawaii in motion. Chapters 5 and 6 explain research that uses biological signals and eye-tracking. After a brief survey of psychological research on kawaii and cuteness in Chapter 7, Chapters 8 and 9 introduce the use of spoons designed to stimulate the appetite of the elderly and the practical implementation of an emotion-driven camera. Chapters 10-14 explain experimental research that examines kawaii perception of people from various cultural backgrounds. Kawaii Engineering will appeal to those who work on affective computing, product design, user experience design, virtual reality, and biological signals.

The Return of the Baroque in Modern Culture explores the re-invention of the early European Baroque within the philosophical, cultural, and literary thought of postmodernism in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Gregg Lambert argues that the return of the Baroque expresses a principle often hidden behind the cultural logic of postmodernism in its various national and cultural incarnations, a principal often in variance with Anglo-American modernism. Writers and theorists examined include Walter Benjamin, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Octavio Paz, and Cuban novelists Alejo Carpentier and Severo Sarduy. A highly original and compelling reinterpretation of modernity, The Return of the Baroque in Modern Culture answers Raymond WilliamsGCO charge to create alternative national and international accounts of aesthetic and cultural history in order to challenge the centrality of Anglo-American modernism.

While the term "culture wars" often designates the heated arguments in the English-speaking world spiraling around race, the canon, and affirmative action, in fact these discussions have raged in diverse sites and languages. Race in Translation charts the transatlantic traffic of the debates within and between three zones--the U.S., France, and Brazil. Stam and Shohat trace the literal and figurative translation of these multidirectional intellectual debates, seen most recently in the emergence of postcolonial studies in France, and whiteness studies in Brazil. The authors also interrogate an ironic convergence whereby rightist politicians like Sarkozy and Cameron join hands with some leftist intellectuals like Benn Michaels, i ek, and Bourdieu in condemning "multiculturalism" and "identity politics." At once a report from various "fronts" in the culture wars, a mapping of the germane literatures, and an argument about methods of reading the cross-border movement of ideas, the book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of the Diasporic and the Transnational."

This compelling volume brings together original essays that explore the relationship between food and identity in everyday life in the Caribbean. The Caribbean history of colonialism and migration has fostered a dynamic and diverse form of modernity, which continues to transform with the impact of globalization and migration out of the Caribbean. One of the founders of the anthropology of food, Richard Wilk provides a preface to this exciting and interdisciplinary collection of essays offering insight into the real issues of food politics which contribute to the culinary cultures of the Caribbean. Based on rich contemporary ethnographies, the volume reveals the ways in which food carries symbolic meanings which are incorporated into the many different facets of identity experienced by people in the Caribbean. Many of the chapters focus on the ways in which consumers align themselves with particular foods as a way of making claims about their identities. Development and political and economic changes in the Caribbean bring new foods to the contemporary dinner table, a phenomenon that may subsequently destabilize the foundations of culinary identities. "Food and Identity in the Caribbean" reveals the ways in which some of the connections between food and identity persist against the odds whilst in other contexts new relationships between food and identity are forged.

This anthology analyzes societal and cultural aspects of modern Japan. It identifies the dynamic trend and undercurrent in Japan by addressing three key areas: modernization, internationalization, and memory and imagination. Using interdisciplinary and multi-language approaches, it discusses topics such as religion, ethnicity, civil society, art, public health, popular culture, war, identity and education. It is a valuable resource for scholars and graduate students with an interest in cutting-edge research analyses of Japanese / Asian studies.

In tracing the process through which monuments give rise to collective memories, this path-breaking book emphasizes that memorials are not just inert and amnesiac spaces upon which individuals may graft their ever-shifting memories. To the contrary, the materiality of monuments can be seen to elicit a particular collective mode of remembering which shapes the consumption of the past as a shared cultural form of memory. In a variety of disciplines over the past decade, attention has moved away from the oral tradition of memory to the interplay between social remembering and object worlds. But research is very sketchy in this area and the materiality of monuments has tended to be ignored within anthropological literature, compared to the amount of attention given to commemorative practice. Art and architectural history, on the other hand, have been much interested in memorial representation through objects, but have paid scant attention to issues of social memory. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary in scope, this book fills this gap and addresses topics ranging from material objects to physical space; from the contemporary to the historical; and from 'high art' to memorials outside the category of art altogether. In so doing, it represents a significant contribution to an emerging field.

In Assessing the Landscape of Taiwan and Korean Studies in Comparison, the chapters offer a reflection on the state of the field of Taiwan and Korea Studies. For the editors, the volume's purpose was to identify not just their similarities, but also a reflection on their differences. Both have national identities formed in a colonial period. The surrender of Japan in 1945 ignited the light of independence for Korea, but this would be ideologically split within five years. For Taiwan, that end forced it into a born-again form of nationalism with the arrival of the Chinese Nationalists. Taiwan and South Korea's economic development illustrate a progressive transition and key to understanding this is the relationship between 'modernization' and 'democracy'. By looking at Korea and Taiwan, the chapters in the volume broaden an understanding of the interconnectivity of the region.

The words and grammatical structure of a given language are the most basic building blocks of thought and communication; they reflect the ways speakers conceptualize themselves and their world and communicate with others. Since language reflects a culture's biases and inequities, a socially constructed, gendered power differential between men and women may lead each to have very different relationships to language. The essays in this collection explore some of the ways in which power and its expression (or repression) is gendered. The contributors seek to discover contexts and patterns within which power is articulated, reproduced, and ultimately transformed. While some contributors provide primarily descriptive examinations of presumed gender differences, others seek to critique or deconstruct these supposed meanings associated with gender and power relationships. An important collection for scholars and researchers involved with communication and with gender issues.

This study shows that, despite numerous surface similarities, the popular culture of the 1930s was different from that of the 1920s in a variety of ways, and not only because of the Great Depression. It was a period of quiet desperation and shifting values, one in which nickels and dimes replaced dollars as the currency of popular culture, and in which the emphasis was on finding methods to occupy idle time and idle minds. Popular culture during the 1930s is important for understanding not only how Americans coped, but why they did so with such good humor and so little of the discontent visible elsewhere in the world. An appreciation of popular culture during the 1930s is essential to understanding other aspects of the decade.

In the final years of the Soviet Union and into the 1990s, Soviet Jews immigrated to Israel at an unprecedented rate, bringing about profound changes in Israeli society and the way immigrants understood their own identity. In this volume ex-Soviets in Israel reflect on their immigration experiences, allowing readers to explore this transitional cultural group directly through immigrants' thoughts, memories, and feelings, rather than physical artifacts like magazines, films, or books. Drawing on their fieldwork as well as on analyses of the Russian-language Israeli media and Internet forums, Larisa Fialkova and Maria N. Yelenevskaya present a collage of cultural and folk traditions--from Slavic to Soviet, Jewish, and Muslim--to demonstrate that the mythology of Soviet Jews in Israel is still in the making. The authors begin by discussing their research strategies, explaining the sources used as material for the study, and analyzing the demographic profile of the immigrants interviewed for the project. Chapters use immigrants' personal recollections to both find fragments of Jewish tradition that survived despite the assimilation policy in the USSR and show how traditional folk perception of the Other affected immigrants' interaction with members of their receiving society. The authors also investigate how immigrants' perception of time and space affected their integration, consider the mythology of Fate and Lucky Coincidences as a means of fighting immigrant stress, examine folk-linguistics and the role of the lay-person's view of languages in the life of the immigrant community, and analyze the transformation of folklore genres and images of the country of origin under new conditions. As the biggest immigration wave from a single country in Israel's history, the ex-Soviet Jews make a fascinating case study for a variety of disciplines. Ex-Soviets in Israel will be of interest to scholars who work in Jewish and immigration studies, modern folklore, anthropology, and sociolinguistics.

An ideal resource for anyone interested in learning about Ethiopia, this accessible, single-volume work provides all-encompassing and up-to-date coverage of the ancient and diverse cultures of Africa's second-most populated nation. Explore the fascinating culture of Ethiopia, a highly diverse nation built on the foundations of ancient kingdoms-truly a melting pot of traditions from Africa as well as other continents. With increasing freedom of speech and growing access to technology, Ethiopians are better able-and more eager-than ever to share ideas, art, and information not only with each other, but with the rest of the world. This detailed volume offers readers informed perspectives on one of the world's oldest populations, covering its long-ago history as well as its evolution in the 21st century. Readers will discover Ethiopa's collection of written and oral stories, unique art and architecture inspired by royalty and religion, delicious cuisine, and many forms of music, dress, and dance. The book's chapters also describe important changes in Ethiopia's social customs, prevalent attitudes regarding women, and the nation's historically oppressive political system. Presents comprehensive, current coverage of Ethiopia that includes the latest archaeological findings and socio-economic and political developments as well as previously overlooked topics such as gender, slavery, and migration Addresses the major famines in Ethiopia in the 1980s that led to the deaths of thousands of people and served as the reason many Westerners first became aware of this African nation Describes all of the major ethnic groups of Ethiopia, including the Afar, Amhara, Oromo, Sidamo, Somalis, and Tigray

This collection, arranged and edited by Beverly G. Hawk, examines media coverage of Africa by American television, newspapers, and magazines. Scholars and journalists of diverse experience engage in debate concerning U.S. media coverage of current events in Africa. As each African crisis appears in the headlines, scholars take the media to task for sensational and simplistic reporting. Journalists, in response, explain the constraints of censorship, reader interest, and media economics. Hawk's book demonstrates that academia and the press can inform each other to present a fuller and more sensitive picture of Africa today.

This volume will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in African studies, African politics, journalism, and international relations.

The development of sustainable agricultural systems is an imperative aspect of any country, but particularly in the context of developing countries. Lack of progress in these initiatives can have negative effects on the nation as a whole. Agricultural Development and Food Security in Developing Nations is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly material on promoting advancements in agricultural systems and food security in developing economies. Highlighting impacts on citizens, as well as on political and social environments of a country, this book is ideally designed for students, professionals, policy makers, researchers, and practitioners interested in recent developments in the areas of agriculture.

How do technological and cultural developments interact to affect consumption? What do ways of using household goods in specific historical contexts tell us about individual and collective identities? Do changes in consumption patterns emancipate social groups or reinforce existing structures of power?
The 'economic miracle' experienced by West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s had profound effects on everyday life and gender relations. This book reflects the growing need for historical research on leisure and consumption in the modern period and provides a very entertaining and carefully researched study of ideas about women, men, housework, consumption, and modernity. It contrasts the virtual reality presented by advertisements with the important qualitative changes in household appliances and how they affected everyday life and gender roles. New products claimed to make housework easier, but the idea of substituting money for labor contrasted with the ideal of the thrifty, hard-working housewife and a clear division of gender roles. The author examines a broad range of issues encompassing the transformation of household appliances from luxuries to necessities, the threat of consumer debt, men and housework, women and technology, and labor and leisure in the modern household.
This timely book represents a significant contribution to the following areas: material culture, German history, women's history, sociology, media/cultural studies and anthropology.

Since 2004, the Baby Doll Mardi Gras tradition in New Orleans has gone from an obscure, almost forgotten practice to a flourishing cultural force. The original Baby Dolls were groups of black women, and some men, in the early Jim Crow era who adopted New Orleans street masking tradition as a unique form of fun and self-expression against a backdrop of racial discrimination. Wearing short dresses, bloomers, bonnets, and garters with money tucked tight, they strutted, sang ribald songs, chanted, and danced on Mardi Gras Day and on St. Joseph feast night. Today's Baby Dolls continue the tradition of one of the first street women's masking and marching groups in the United States. They joyfully and unabashedly defy gender roles, claiming public space and proclaiming through their performance their right to social citizenship. Essayists draw on interviews, theoretical perspectives, archival material, and historical assessments to describe women's cultural performances that take place on the streets of New Orleans. They recount the history and contemporary resurgence of the Baby Dolls while delving into the larger cultural meaning of the phenomenon. Over 140 color photographs and personal narratives of immersive experiences provide passionate testimony of the impact of the Baby Dolls on their audiences. Fifteen artists offer statements regarding their work documenting and inspired by the tradition as it stimulates their imagination to present a practice that revitalizes the spirit.

This open access handbook presents a multidisciplinary and multifaceted perspective on how the 'digital' is simultaneously changing Russia and the research methods scholars use to study Russia. It provides a critical update on how Russian society, politics, economy, and culture are reconfigured in the context of ubiquitous connectivity and accounts for the political and societal responses to digitalization. In addition, it answers practical and methodological questions in handling Russian data and a wide array of digital methods. The volume makes a timely intervention in our understanding of the changing field of Russian Studies and is an essential guide for scholars, advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying Russia today.

This work explores the philosophical positions of five postmodern thinkers--Lyotard, Rorty, Schrag, Foucault, and Derrida--to show how their critiques imply that scholars are unduly limited by the belief that inquiry is fundamentally about gaining knowledge of phenomena that are assumed to exist prior to and independent of inquiry, and to persist essentially unchanged by inquiry. The author argues that there are good reasons why this constraint is both unnecessary and undesirable, and he resituates the disciplines within a more flexible foundation that would expand what counts as legitimate inquiry. This foundation would emphasize the inquirer as a cause of reality, not just an observer who aims to accurately describe and explain phenomena. Mourad proposes an intellectual and organizational form which he calls post-disciplinary research programs. These dynamic programs would be composed of scholars from diverse disciplines who collaborate to juxtapose disparate disciplinary concepts in order to create contexts for post-disciplinary inquries.

Chile's natural beauty, fascinating history, cultural traditions, and warm people are uniquely evoked in "Culture and Customs of Chile." Chilean American Castillo-Feliu effectively conveys how Chile's geography has helped to shape it into a modern, socially responsible model in Latin America. Students and other readers will learn how this small country has contributed to the hemisphere's stature, from a stable political scene to seafood-inspired cuisine. Chile's lively history forms the backdrop for a survey of a wealth of social riches. The literary lion Pablo Neruda, Andean music, and fine wine are just a few of the highlights found herein.

Because it has been such a model country, except for a troubled period in the 1970s and 1980s under the dictator Augusto Pinochet, Chile often stays out of headline news in the United States. Through chapters on history and people, religion, social customs, broadcasting and print media, literature, performing arts, and the arts and architecture, "Culture and Customs of Chile" will introduce Chile to a wider audience who can appreciate its understated charms. A chronology and appendix of the Spanish of Chile are indispensable aids.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nation building and identity construction in the post-socialist region have been the subject of extensive academic research. The majority of these studies have taken a 'top-down' approach - focusing on the variety of ways in which governments have sought to define the nascent nation states - and in the process have often oversimplified the complex and overlapping processes at play across the region. Drawing on research on the Balkans, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, this book focuses instead on the role of non-traditional, non-politicised and non-elite actors in the construction of identity. Across topics as diverse as school textbooks, turbofolk and home decoration, contributors - each an academic with extensive on-the-ground experience - identify and analyse the ways that individuals living across the post-socialist region redefine identity on a daily basis, often by manipulating and adapting state policy.In the process, Nation Building in the Post-Socialist Region demonstrates the necessity of holistic, trans-national and inter-disciplinary approaches to national identity construction rather than studies limited to a single-state territory. This is important reading for all scholars and policymakers working on the post-socialist region.

This is a discussion of the relationships between mass media and society. Topics examined include: talk radio and community; the growth of the corporate newspaper; media violence and audience behaviour; and race, ethnicity and the mass media.

The construct of transformation has emerged as a prominent theme in academic discourse. Based on the accepted notion that processes and living organisms are in an ongoing state of development, it is unsurprising that this concept of transformation would find resonance within literature on the pilgrimage phenomenon. Examples of transformational processes intersecting with pilgrimage are the movement from sickness to wellness, from grief to closure and from fractured to integrated. That the pilgrimage journey itself can be construed as a transformational quest was noted by Winkleman and Dubisch (2005), who stated "Life-transforming experiences are at the core of both 'traditional' and more contemporary forms of pilgrimage". In the current volume, Warfield and Hetherington examine the transformational process of pilgrimage journeys. Contributors are Sharenda Holland Barlar, Anne M. Blankenship, Valentina Bold, Shirley du Plooy, Alexandria M. Egler, Miguel Tain Guzman, Kate Hetherington, Scott Libson, Chadwick Co Sy Su, Kip Redick, Roy Tamashiro and Heather A. Warfield.

This thoroughly engaging encyclopedia considers the rich diversity of unfamiliar foods eaten around the world. The title They Eat That?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from around the World says it all. This fun encyclopedia, organized A-Z, describes and offers cultural context for foodstuffs people eat today that might be described as "weird"-at least to the American palate. Entries also include American regional standards, such as scrapple and chitterlings, that other regions might find distasteful, as well as a few mainstream American foods, like honey, that are equally odd when one considers their derivation. A long narrative entry on insects, for example, discusses the fact that insects are enjoyed as a regular part of the diet in some Asian, South and Central American, and African countries. It then looks at the kinds of insects eaten, where and how they are eaten, cultural uses, nutrition, and preparation. Each of the encyclopedia's 100 entries includes a representative recipe or, for a food already prepared like maggoty cheese, describes how it is eaten. Each entry ends with suggested readings. Approximately 100 entries A representative recipe for each entry Photographs and drawings Suggested readings for each entry Alphabetical and geographical lists of entries A selected bibliography

Readings in African American Culture: Resistance, Liberation, and Identity from the 1600s to the 21st Century helps readers understand and appreciate the Black experience through readings that illustrate the lives, history, and intersecting cultures of African Americans and the development of a unique African American identity. Early units examine the definition of African American culture through the lens of the cultural trauma of slavery and the power of white privilege in the U.S. Additional units discuss Afrocentrism and the formation of critical race theory. Students read about expressions of Black cultural power, Blackness and Black identity in contemporary society, and issues related to the appropriation of Black culture. The second edition has expanded from four units to seven, with new readings addressing topics such as the appropriation, Black Twitter and resistance, Black athletes, challenging the defense of using racial slurs, and more. Rooted in an interdisciplinary approach, Readings in African American Culture is appropriate for courses on Black culture and will be of interest in any course centered on the effects of race and culture on minority populations.

This book addresses a variety of topics within the growing discipline of Archaeoastronomy, focusing especially on Archaeoastronomy in Sicily and the Mediterranean and Cultural Astronomy. A further priority is discussion of the astronomical and statistical methods used today to ascertain the degree of reliability of the chronological and cultural definition of sites and artifacts of archaeoastronomical interest. The contributions were all delivered at the XVth Congress of the Italian Society of Archaeoastronomy (SIA), held under the rubric "The Light, the Stones and the Sacred" - a theme inspired by the International Year of Light 2015, organized by UNESCO. The full meaning of many ancient monuments can only be understood by examining their relation to light, given the effects that light radiation produces in "interacting" with lithic structures. Moreover, in addition to manifestations of the sacred through the medium of light (hierophanies), there are many ties between temples, tombs, megalithic structures, and the architecture of almost all ages and cultures and our star, the Sun. Readers will find the book to be a source of fascinating insights based on synergies between the disciplines of archaeology and astronomy.