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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General
How do imperceptibly small differences in the environment change
one's behavior? What is the anatomy of a bad mood? Does stress
shrink our brains? What does "People" magazine's list of America's
"50 Most Beautiful People" teach us about nature and nurture? What
makes one organism sexy to another? What makes one orgasm different
from another? Who will be the winner in the genetic war between the
sexes?
Welcome to "Monkeyluv," a curious and entertaining collection of
essays about the human animal in all its fascinating variety, from
Robert M. Sapolsky, America's most beloved
neurobiologist/primatologist. Organized into three sections, each
tackling a Big Question in natural science, "Monkeyluv" offers a
lively exploration of the influence of genes and the environment on
behavior; the social and political -- and, of course, sexual --
implications of behavioral biology; and society's shaping of the
individual. From the mating rituals of prairie dogs to the practice
of religion in the rain forest, the secretion of pheromones to bugs
in the brain, Sapolsky brilliantly synthesizes cutting-edge
scientific research with wry, erudite observations about the
enormous complexity of simply being human. Thoughtful, engaging,
and infused with pop-cultural insights, this collection will appeal
to the inner monkey in all of us.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
The members of the Domestic Workers United (DWU)
organization-immigrant women of color employed as nannies,
caregivers, and housekeepers in New York City-formed to fight for
dignity and respect and to "bring meaningful change" to their work.
Alana Lee Glaser examines the process of how these domestic workers
organized against precarity, isolation, and exploitation to help
pass the 2010 New York State Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, the
first labor law in the United States protecting in-home workers.
Solidarity & Care examines the political mobilization of
diverse care workers who joined together and supported one another
through education, protests, lobbying, and storytelling. Domestic
work activists used narrative and emotional appeals to build a
coalition of religious communities, employers of domestic workers,
labor union members, and politicians to first pass and then to
enforce the new law. Through oral history interviews, as well as
ethnographic observation during DWU meetings and protest actions,
Glaser chronicles how these women fought (and continue to fight) to
improve working conditions. She also illustrates how they endure
racism, punitive immigration laws, on-the-job indignities, and
unemployment that can result in eviction and food insecurity. The
lessons from Solidarity & Care along with the DWU's
precedent-setting legislative success have applications to workers
across industries. All royalties will go directly to the Domestic
Workers United
Sometimes history seems like a laundry list of malevolent monarchs,
pompous presidents and dastardly dictators. But are they really the
ones in the driving seat? Sapiens: A Graphic History – The Masters of
History takes us on an immersive and hilarious ride through the human
past to discover the forces that change our world, bring us together,
and – just as often – tear us apart.
Grab a front-row seat to the greatest show on earth and explore the
rise of money, religion and empire. Join our fabulous host Heroda Tush,
as she wonders: which historical superhero will display the power to
make civilisations rise and fall? Will Mr Random prove that luck and
circumstance prevail? Will Lady Empire convince us of the irrefutable
shaping force of conquerors? Or will Clashwoman beat them all to
greatness by reminding us of the endless confrontations that seem to
forever plague our species?
In this next volume of the bestselling graphic series, Yuval Noah
Harari, David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave continue to present the
complicated story of humankind with wit, empathy and originality.
Alongside the unlikely cast of new characters, we are rejoined by the
familiar faces of Yuval, Zoe, Professor Saraswati, Bill and Cindy (now
Romans), Skyman and Captain Dollar. As they travel through time, space
and human drama in search of truth, it's impossible not to wonder: why
can’t we all just get along?
This third instalment in the Sapiens: A Graphic History series is an
engaging, insightful, and colourful retelling of the story of humankind
for curious minds of all ages, and can be browsed through on its own or
read in sequence with Volumes One and Two.
Scholars remain locked in a battle over the relative importance of
heredity and environment for such diverse matters as human
intelligence, female institution, and racial stratification. The
present collection is an attempt to contribute to the quality of
this discussion, and focuses not only on the matter of relative
weights, but the matter of interaction. Most of the contributions
deal with the quality and character of the connection between the
two. Four essays focus upon what is now known about this friendship
in several areas of practical and theoretical significance. The
authors reach beyond the caveat that "both are important" and
indicate how and why there is a relationship of some complexity.
Matthew Williams Stirling (1896-1975) American ethnologist,
archaeologist and administrator made discoveries relating to the
Olmec civilization.
Jean Liedloff, an American writer, spent two and a half years in
the South American jungle living with Stone Age Indians. The
experience demolished her Western preconceptions of how we should
live and led her to a radically different view of what human nature
really is. She offers a new understanding of how we have lost much
of our natural well-being and shows us practical ways to regain it
for our children and for ourselves.
"A remarkable combination of biology, genetics, zoology,
evolutionary psychology and philosophy." -Richard Powers, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of The Overstory "A brilliant,
thought-provoking book." -Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling
author of The Midnight Library A wide-ranging take on why humans
have a troubled relationship with being an animal, and why we need
a better one Human are the most inquisitive, emotional,
imaginative, aggressive, and baffling animals on the planet. But we
are also an animal that does not think it is an animal. How well do
we really know ourselves? How to Be Animal tells a remarkable story
of what it means to be human and argues that at the heart of our
existence is a profound struggle with being animal. We possess a
psychology that seeks separation between humanity and the rest of
nature, and we have invented grand ideologies to magnify this. As
well as piecing together the mystery of how this mindset evolved,
Challenger's book examines the wide-reaching ways in which it
affects our lives, from our politics to the way we distance
ourselves from other species. We travel from the origin of homo
sapiens through the agrarian and industrial revolutions, the age of
the internet, and on to the futures of AI and human-machine
interface. Challenger examines how technology influences our sense
of our own animal nature and our relationship with other species
with whom we share this fragile planet. That we are separated from
our own animality is a delusion, according to Challenger. Blending
nature writing, history, and moral philosophy, How to Be Animal is
both a fascinating reappraisal of what it means to be human, and a
robust defense of what it means to be an animal.
Salvadoran refugee women tell their stories of escape from El
Salvador during some of the worst years of civil unrest (1979-1981)
and their subsequent adaptation to refugee life in Costa Rica.
These stories--called "testimonios"--are interwoven against the
backdrop of their children's daycare center. The women's complex
relationships with one another and the ambiguous nature of their
interactions with the author as ethnographer are examined. The
author's voice is used in the text to place the women in their
historical and cultural context.
The daily lives and the "testimonios" of the refugees serve as
an eloquent expression of the multidimensional feminism that has
developed in Latin America. In contrast to mainstream feminism in
the United States that focuses primarily on the power relationships
between men and women, the concern of Latin American feminism is
with power asymmetries in socioeconomic class, ethnicity, and
religion, as well as gender. The women, whose daycare center is
supported by international funding, rely on their cultural
traditions to survive in the face of tragedy and oppression.
This book breaks new theoretical and methodological ground in the
study of the African diaspora in the Atlantic world. Leading
scholars of archaeology, linguistics, and socio-cultural
anthropology draw upon extensive field experiences and archival
investigations of black communities in North America, the
Caribbean, South America, and Africa to challenge received
paradigms in Afro-American anthropology. They employ dialogic
approaches that demand both an awareness of the historical
fashioning of anthropology's categories and self-reflexive,
critical research and define a new agenda for the field. Paying
close attention to power, politics, and the dynamism of
never-finished, open-ended behavioral forms and symbolic
repertoires, the contributors address colonialism, the slave trade,
racism, ethnogenesis, New World nationalism, urban identity
politics, the development of artworlds, musics and their publics,
the emergence of new religious and ritual forms, speech genres, and
contested historical representations. The authors offer
sophisticated interpretations of cultural change, exchange,
appropriation, and re-appropriation that challenge simplistic
notions of culture.
Hawai'i and Fiji share strikingly similar histories of colonialism
and plantation sugar production but display different legacies of
ethnic conflict today. Pacific Island chiefdoms colonized by the
United States and England respectively, the islands' indigenous
populations were forced to share resources with a small colonizing
elite and growing numbers of workers imported from South Asia. Both
societies had long traditions of chiefly power exercised through
reciprocity and descent; both were integrated into the plantation
complex in the nineteenth century. Colonial authorities, however,
constructed vastly different legal relationships with the
indigenous peoples in each setting, and policy toward imported
workers also differed in arrangements around land tenure and
political participation. The legacies of these colonial
arrangements are at the roots of the current crisis in both places.
Focusing on the intimate relationship between law, culture, and the
production of social knowledge, these essays re-center law in
social theory. The authors analyze the transition from chiefdom to
capitalism, colonizers' racial and governmental ideologies, land
and labor policies, and contemporary efforts to recuperate
indigenous culture and assert or maintain indigenous sovereignty.
Speaking to Fijian and Hawaiian circumstances, this volume
illuminates the role of legal and archival practice in constructing
ethnic and political identities and producing colonial and
anthropological knowledge.
Who were the First Americans? Where did they come from? When did
they get here? Are they the ancestors of modern Native Americans?
These questions might seem straightforward, but scientists in
competing fields have failed to convince one another with their
theories and evidence, much less Native American peoples. The
practice of science in its search for the First Americans is a
flawed endeavor, Robert V. Davis tells us. His book is an effort to
explain why. Most American history textbooks today teach that the
First Americans migrated to North America on foot from East Asia
over a land bridge during the last ice age, 12,000 to 13,000 years
ago. In fact, that theory hardly represents the scientific
consensus, and it has never won many Native adherents. In many
ways, attempts to identify the first Americans embody the conflicts
in American society between accepting the practical usefulness of
science and honoring cultural values. Davis explores how the
contested definition of "First Americans" reflects the unsettled
status of Native traditional knowledge, scientific theories,
research methodologies, and public policy as they vie with one
another for legitimacy in modern America. In this light he
considers the traditional beliefs of Native Americans about their
origins; the struggle for primacy-or even recognition as
science-between the disciplines of anthropology and archaeology;
and the mediating, interacting, and sometimes opposing influences
of external authorities such as government agencies, universities,
museums, and the press. Fossil remains from Mesa Verde, Clovis, and
other sites testify to the presence of First Americans. What
remains unsettled, as The Search for the First Americans makes
clear, is not only who these people were, where they came from, and
when, but also the very nature and practice of the science
searching for answers.
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