![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Human biology & related topics > Biological anthropology > General
Douglass, Ellison and Marley lived on racial frontiers. Their interactions with mixed audiences made them key figures in an interracial consciousness and culture, integrative ancestors who can be claimed by more than one group. An abolitionist who criticized black racialism; the author of Invisible Man, a landmark of modernity and black literature; a musician whose allegiance was to "God's side, who cause me to come from black and white." The lives of these three men illustrate how our notions of "race" have been constructed out of a repression of the interracial.
The Origins of Humankind gives a concise account of human evolution. It covers evolutionary theory, the primates, the human fossil story, the cultural evolution of humans and the origins of agriculture and civilisation. It begins with an account of the development of ideas about evolution, from pre-Darwinian theories through to the study of molecular evolution, and goes on to give detailed explanations of the physical and evolutionary stages leading to Homo sapiens.
To look upon a mummy is to come face to face with our past. This book presents the story of mummification as a practice worldwide. Mummies have been found on every continent, some deliberately preserved by use of a variety of complex techniques (as with the ancient Egyptians), others accidentally by dry baking heat, intense cold and ice, or by tanning in peat bogs. By examining these preserved humans, we can get profound insights into the lives, health, culture and deaths of individuals and populations long gone. The first edition of this book was acclaimed as a classic. This readable new edition builds on these foundations, investigating the fantastic new findings in South America, Europe and the Far East. It will be a must-have volume for anyone working in paleopathology and a fascinating read for all those interested in anthropology, archaeology, and the history of medicine.
Many wrongly believe that reproductive cycles are very similar among human females. In actuality, there are considerable variations among individuals and within the reproductive life of any given female. "Normal" reproductive cycles cover a wide range of examples, and the likelihood of successful monthly egg release and ensuing pregnancy can be modified by many factors. In this book, the variability of human fertility is examined by looking first at the physiological processes regulating reproduction. Interpopulation variation in normal ovarian function is then discussed, covering the importance of factors such as age and disease in the modification of ovarian function. The final part of this text covers issues of metabolic effects on reproduction. Researchers will welcome this definitive compilation of observations on fertility.
In this book, the authors assess the impact of "modernization" on various populations in the circumpolar regions. They examine the adaptations shown culturally, behaviorally, and physically by the indigenous peoples, and discuss the effect of changes in habitual activity, diet, and general life style due to more urban living patterns on body composition, pulmonary function and susceptibility to disease.
Der Sammelband, der Siebenburgen und Hermannstadt aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven erfasst, eroeffnet die Publikationsreihe des Zentrums fur linguistische, literarische und kulturelle Forschung (ZLLKF) an der Lucian-Blaga-Universitat. Thematisch greift der Band einige Traditionslinien der Hermannstadter Germanistik auf, die insbesondere der Erforschung der deutschsprachigen Literatur und Kultur in dieser Region gewidmet sind: Autobiografisches und Fiktionales in der Erzahlkunst rumaniendeutscher Autoren (Joachim Wittstock, Oskar Pastior, Paul Schuster, Iris Wolff), deren Rezeption, die Rolle der Lokalpresse in der Kulturvermittlung, der Einfluss der deutschen Kultur auf das Wirken namhafter Persoenlichkeiten und die Anfange des rumanischen Schulwesens in der Umgebung von Hermannstadt.
In this fascinating and authoritative work, acclaimed science writer Virginia Morell brings to vivid life the famous and infamous Leakey family, pioneers in the field of paleoanthropology: Louis Leakey, the patriarch, who persisted through initial scientific failures and scandal-ridden divorce to achieve spectacular success in digs throughout East Africa; Mary, his second wife, who worked alongside Louis as they made their outstanding discoveries at Olduvai Gorge and elsewhere; and Richard, their son, who ascended to the top of the field in his parents' wake, only to be threatened with both near-fatal illness and fierce professional rivalry. Morell transports us into the world of these compelling personalities, demonstrating how a small clan of highly talented and fiercely competitive people came to dominate an entire field of science and to contribute immeasurably to our understanding of the origins of humanity.
Many aspects of human activity involve energy transfer of some type. Human Energetics in Biological Anthropology examines some of the ways in which measurements of energy intake, expenditure and balance have been used to study human populations by biological anthropologists and human biologists. The book provides an integration of human adaptation and adaptability approaches, placing these issues in an ecological context by considering traditional subsistence economies in the developing world. This is the first volume to present such an integrated approach, and will be useful in the teaching of biological anthropology, human population biology, nutritional anthropology, and third world nutrition at senior undergraduate and graduate student level.
Modern laboratory and computing advances have made it possible to identify which genes are responsible for a disease (or other biological traits) and to identify those genes. This book presents a survey of the methods that are being used to generate these successes, especially to study disease in families. The methods of epidemiology and genetics are surveyed, and related to molecular genetic data, with examples from both pediatric and chronic disease. The pattern of variation that has been found is best understood from the evolutionary perspective. Because these methods and ideas apply to any biological trait, not just to disease, this is a general book about the genetic control of biological traits.
This book is about the process of doing research in human biology. Seasoned researchers share their experiences working on problems of interest to biological anthropologists, including environmental stresses, population genetics, parasitic vectors and vital records. They describe obstacles encountered and successful strategies employed in their own studies and in those of others that may be of use to beginning researchers in this area.
This volume offers a novel interdisciplinary view of the migration, mobility, ethnicity, and social identities of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples. In studies that combine bioarchaeology, ethnohistory, isotope data, and dental morphology, contributors demonstrate the challenges and rewards of such integrative work when applied to large regional questions of population history. The essays in this volume are the results of fieldwork in Honduras, Belize, and a variety of sites in Mexico. One chapter uses dental health data and burial rituals to investigate the social status of sacrificial victims during the Late Classic period. Another analyzes skeletal remains from multiple research perspectives to explore the immigrant makeup of the multiethnic city of Copan. Contributors also use strontium and oxygen isotope data from tooth enamel and dental morphological traits to test hypotheses about migration, and they incorporate ethnohistorical sources in an examination of ancient Maya understandings of belonging and otherness. Revealing how complementary fields of study can together create a better understanding of the complex forces that impact population movements, this volume provides an inspiring picture of the exciting collaborative work currently under way among researchers in the region. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen.
Discerning Palates of the Past analyzes the agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the Mature (ca. 2500 2000 B.C.) and Late Harappan (ca. 2000 1700 B.C.) cultures of Gujarat, Northwest India, the southernmost extension of the South Asian Harappan Civilization. The economic role of drought-resistant millet crops was reconstructed at Harappan sites using a three-pronged behavioral ecological approach which integrated ethnographic studies of crop processing, paleobotany, and carbon isotope analysis. The results reveal that simply recovering crop seeds from archaeological contexts does not prove local crop cultivation. Instead, this study establishes the interpretive strength of developing ethnographic models that distinguish signatures of local cultivation versus the consumption of grain from crops grown elsewhere. The implications of these results are further explored with respect to how agricultural production of millets for human food and for animal fodder may have been economically interwoven during the Harappan Civilization. The interpretive strength of developing ethnographic models to distinguish local cultivation from the consumption of grain grown elsewhere is demonstrated in this study, and new directions are provided for discerning archaeologically how pastoralism and agriculture may be integrated in complex economic systems."
The unique contribution made by biological anthropology to human welfare lies in the fundamental understanding it can provide of the dynamic interrelationships between physical and social factors. By understanding these patterns, we can interpret the significance of variation in such measures of human well-being in terms of the incidence of disease and mortality rates. Topics covered in this book include reproductive ecology and fertility, nutritional status in relation to health, and the effects of pollution on individual growth. In later chapters, the concepts of physiological adaptation and Darwinian fitness and their relation to individual physical fitness are explored.
Skin colour is perhaps the most decisive and abused physical characteristic of humankind. This book presents a multidisciplinary overview of how and why human populations vary so markedly in their skin colour. The biological aspects of the pigment cell and its production of melanin are reviewed. The functions of melanin in the skin, brain, eye and ear are considered, and the common clinical abnormalities of pigmentation, such as albinism, are described and illustrated. Detailed reflectance data from worldwide surveys of skin colour are also presented. The historical and contemporary background of the phenomenon is explored in relation to the so-called 'colour problem' in society. Finally, the possible evolutionary forces which shape human pigmentation are assessed. This fascinating account will be of interest to graduate students and researchers of biological anthropology, anatomy, physiology and dermatology, as well as medical practitioners.
An appreciation of the genetic and environmental determinants of tooth size is fundamental to an understanding of the metric variation of teeth in humans. Thus, besides imparting a sound knowledge of the theories of dental inheritance, development and evolution, this book has an important role in demonstrating the diverse practical applications of odontometrics. A particular feature of the book is the inclusion of numerous tables which bring together a vast body of information on tooth size in different population groups. Students of oral biology, orthodontics, physical anthropology, human biology, forensic science and archaeology will find this work of great value as a text and reference source. As Professor Phillip Tobias writes in the foreword, 'The breadth of Dr Kieser's reading, and his mastery of a staggering array of anthropological, evolutionary, embryological, orthodontic and statistical concepts shine through every page of this work'.
Since the inception of the New Archaeology in the 1960s anthropological archaeologists have been attempting to develop models that will let them better understand the evolution of human social organization. The vast majority of this research has focused specifically upon the development of so-called 'complex' societies, which frequently are characterized by institutionalized social inequality, craft specialization, and developed social hierarchy. Conversely, a good deal of research also has focused upon the variability exhibited by highly mobile hunting and gathering societies. Somewhere in our search for understanding how chiefdoms and states evolve, and how different those societies are from egalitarian 'bands', we have neglected to develop models that will help us understand the wide range of variability that exists between them. This volume attempts to fill this gap by exploring social organization in tribal - or 'autonomous village' - societies from several different ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological contexts - from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period in the Near East to the contemporary Jivaro of Amazonia. TBritish School at Rome
Since the inception of the New Archaeology in the 1960s anthropological archaeologists have been attempting to develop models that will let them better understand the evolution of human social organization. The vast majority of this research has focused specifically upon the development of so-called 'complex' societies, which frequently are characterized by institutionalized social inequality, craft specialization, and developed social hierarchy. Conversely, a good deal of research also has focused upon the variability exhibited by highly mobile hunting and gathering societies. Somewhere in our search for understanding how chiefdoms and states evolve, and how different those societies are from egalitarian 'bands', we have neglected to develop models that will help us understand the wide range of variability that exists between them. This volume attempts to fill this gap by exploring social organization in tribal - or 'autonomous village' - societies from several different ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological contexts - from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period in the Near East to the contemporary Jivaro of Amazonia. TBritish School at Rome
The last decade has witnessed a sophistication and proliferation in the number of studies focused on the evolution of human cognition, reflecting a renewed interest in the evolution of the human mind in anthropology and in many other disciplines such as cognitive ethnology and evolutionary psychology. The complexity and enormity of this topic is such that it requires the coordinated efforts of many researchers. This volume brings together the disciplines of palaeontology, psychology, anatomy, and primatology. Together they address a number of issues, including the evolution of sex differences in spatial cognition, the role of archaeology in the cognitive sciences, the relationships between brain size, cranial reorganization and hominid cognition, and the role of language and information processing in human evolution. Contributors include: A Martin Byers, Philip Chase, Iain Davidson, Francesco d'Errico, Deborah Forster, Gordon G Gallup Jr, Sean C Hoga, Trenton W Holliday, Harry Jerison, Philip Lieberman, William Noble, April Nowell, Richard Potts, Christopher B Ruff, Katerina Semendeferi, Shirley C Strum, Phillip Tobias, Erik Trinkaus, Anne H Weaver, and Thomas Wynn.
This book brings together internationally known scholars from a wide range of disciplines and theoretical traditions, all of whom have made significant contributions to the field of race and ethnic relations. As well as identifying important and persistent points of controversy, the collection reveals a complementary and multifaceted approach to theorisation. The theories represented include contributions from the perspective of sociology. These range from the established perspectives of Marx and Weber through to the more recent interventions of rational choice theory, symbolic interactionism and identity structure analysis.
Whether we realize it or not, we carry in our mouths the legacy of our evolution. Our teeth are like living fossils that can be studied and compared to those of our ancestors to teach us how we became human. In Evolution's Bite, noted paleoanthropologist Peter Ungar brings together for the first time cutting-edge advances in understanding human evolution with new approaches to uncovering dietary clues from fossil teeth. The result is a remarkable investigation into the ways that teeth-their shape, chemistry, and wear-reveal how we came to be. Traveling the four corners of the globe and combining scientific breakthroughs with vivid narrative, Evolution's Bite presents a unique dental perspective on our astonishing human development.
Now including numerous full colour figures, this updated and revised edition of Larsen's classic text provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of bioarchaeology. Reflecting the enormous advances made in the field over the past twenty years, the author examines how this discipline has matured and evolved in fundamental ways. Jargon free and richly illustrated, the text is accompanied by copious case studies and references to underscore the central role that human remains play in the interpretation of life events and conditions of past and modern cultures. From the origins and spread of infectious disease to the consequences of decisions made by humans with regard to the kinds of foods produced, and their nutritional, health and behavioral outcomes. With local, regional, and global perspectives, this up-to-date text provides a solid foundation for all those working in the field.
What kinds of expertise and knowledge relate to electricity, and where is the space for alternative voices? How can the new roles for electricity in social and cultural life be acknowledged? How can we speak about 'it' in its own right while acknowledging that electricity is not one thing? This book re-describes electricity and its infrastructures using insights from anthropology and science and technology studies, raising fascinating questions about the contemporary world and its future. Through ethnographic studies of bulbs, bicycles, dams, power grids and much more, the contributors shed light on practices that are often overlooked, showing how electricity is enacted in multiple ways. Electrifying Anthropology moves beyond the idea of electricity as an immovable force, and instead offers a set of potential trajectories for thinking about electricity and its effects in contemporary society. With new contributions on an emerging area of research, this timely collection will be of value to students and scholars of anthropology, science and technology studies, geography and engineering.
Daughters of Tunis is an innovative ethnography that carefully weaves the words and intimate, personal stories of four Tunisian women and their families with a statistical analysis of women's survival strategies in a rapidly urbanizing, industrializing Muslim nation. Delineating three distinct network strategies, Holmes-Eber demonstrates the "public" role of neighborhoods as informal social security systems, and the impact of women's education, class, and migration on women's resources and networks. An engaging, warm, and oftentimes humorous portrait of Muslim women's responses to development, Daughters of Tunis is an exciting new approach to ethnography: merging the historically disparate methods of both qualitative and quantitative analysis. |
You may like...
Tourism's New Markets - Drivers, details…
Philip Pearce, Antonia Correia
Hardcover
R3,125
Discovery Miles 31 250
Sustainable Tourism X
Stavros Syngellakis, Pablo Diaz Rodriguez
Hardcover
R2,073
Discovery Miles 20 730
|