![]() |
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
In this important theoretical contribution to the area of refugee studies based on ethnographic field work among Kurdish refugees, the author has uniquely combined empirical evidence and contemporary sociological theories of diasporas and transnationalism. The book provides essential reading for anybody looking for a comprehensive view of refugee resettlement issues and it will be of special interest to anybody concerned with the topical Kurdish question.
Through an unprecedented multidisciplinary and global approach, this book documents the dramatic several-thousand-year history of leprosy using bioarchaeological, clinical, and historical information from a wide variety of contexts, dispelling many long-standing myths about the disease. Drawing on her 30 years of research on the infection, Charlotte Roberts begins by outlining its bacterial causes, how it spreads, and how it affects the body. She then considers its diagnosis and treatment, both historically and in the present. She also looks at the methods and tools used by paleopathologists to identify signs of leprosy in skeletons. Examining evidence in human remains from many countries, particularly in Europe and including Britain, Hungary, and Sweden, Roberts demonstrates that those affected were usually buried in the same cemeteries as their communities, contrary to the popular belief that they were all ostracized or isolated from society into leprosy hospitals. Other myths addressed by Roberts include the assumptions that leprosy can't be cured, that leprosy is no longer a problem today, and that what is called "leprosy" in the Bible is the same illness as the disease with that name now. Roberts concludes by projecting the future of leprosy, arguing that researchers need to study the disease through an ethically grounded evolutionary perspective. Importantly, she advises against use of the word "leper" to avoid perpetuating stigma today surrounding people with the infection and resulting disabilities. Leprosy will stand as the authoritative source on the subject for years to come. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen.
To understand what is happening in the brain in the moment you decide, at will, to summon to consciousness a passage of Mozart's music, or decide to take a deep breath, is like trying to "catch a phantom by the tail". Consciousness remains that most elusive of all human phenomena - one so mysterious, one that even our highly developed knowledge of brain function can only partly explain. This book is unique in tracing the origins of consciousness. It takes the investigation back many years in an attempt to uncover just how consciousness might have first emerged. Consciousness did not develop suddenly in humans - it evolved gradually. In 'The Primordial Emotions', Derek Denton, a world renowned expert on animal instinct and a leader in integrative physiology, investigates the evolution of consciousness. Central to the book is the idea that the primal emotions - elements of instinctive behaviour - were the first dawning of consciousness. Throughout he examines instinctive behaviours, such as hunger for air, hunger for minerals, thirst, and pain, arguing that the emotions elicited from these behaviours and desire for gratification culminated in the first conscious states. To develop the theory he looks at behaviour at different levels of the evolutionary tree, for example of octopuses, fish, snakes, birds, and elephants. Coupled with findings from neuroimaging studies, and the viewpoints on consciousness from some of the key figures in philosophy and neuroscience, the book presents an accessible and groundbreaking new look at the problem of consciousness.
The Politics of Ethnic Consciousness criticizes essentialist and unitary notions of ethnicity and shows the complex interaction between historical processes, recent political developments and competing views within and about ethnic groups. Welcoming the social constructionist turn, the editors disagree with its overemphasis on the arbitrary character of ethnic identification and the neglect of political economy. Contributions on such diverse regions as Brazil, Ghana, Macedonia and Sri Lanka, examine the multivocal process of the construction and reconstruction of ethnic identities through time.
In Europe as well as in other parts of the world, xenophobia and
racism are among the unsolved problems of the ending 20th century.
Globalization, mass migration and unemployment as well as the need
to invent new supra- or crossnational identities require new
political answers concerning the problems of inclusion and
exclusion.
Humans are at a unique crossroads: never before have we had such a clear understanding of how our actions affect a changing climate, or how our settlement patterns along coastal environments put us at risk of rising sea levels. However, the science behind climate change (and solutions for it) are engulfed in political controversy. Dr. Christensen uses anthropological methods to illuminate the lived experience of families caring for elder relatives during climate related events: a unique conundrum facing increasing numbers of people living in coastal areas. As populations in industrialized countries grow older, they become more vulnerable to climate extremes. People over 65 are more likely to die in climate related events, such as heatwaves, hurricanes, and blizzards. Dr. Christensen presents the scientific evidence for climate change, the archaeological record on how humans responded to climatic shifts in the past, and explains how the current challenges are different. Using the theoretical framework of Singer's Syndemics, she explores how aging bodies are more vulnerable to increased environmental toxins, which is further exacerbated by climate fluctuations. A central question is: how do we value our environment, our elders, and make decisions about well-being throughout the life course?
This book concerns the use of the drug qat in North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic), a country lying on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. However, because this substance is so interwoven into the fabric of society and culture, it is also necessarily about Yemen itself. The history and culture of South Arabia are still relatively unknown to the rest of the world, and the drug qat, so widely used there, is equally unknown. Thus, the material we present here should be of interest to all of those concerned with drug use, those who wish to understand more about Yemen and the Middle East, and to the Yemenis themselves. Another purpose is to develop some general understandings about sub stance uses and their effects which are less clouded by the mass hysteria and political considerations which often obscure drug issues in our own society. Examination of drug-use patterns in a country where millions of people are users on a regular basis, and where there has been familiarity with the drug for several hundred years, offers an opportunity to achieve perspectives not possible in countries with different attitudes and without such histories. I am not sanguine about the prospects of our abilities to learn from others or from the past, but I do not think we should abandon hope of doing so."
Doing a doctorate in education is always a challenging and difficult process. Doing a doctorate in education that is based upon ethnographic research is even more so. This title draws together a series of semi-autobiographical reflexive accounts of the process of doing a doctorate using educational ethnography. The individual studies include research into school effectiveness, the experiences of Asian teenagers, sexual cultures in the primary school, mature students on Access courses, primary school management, the experiences of children with special educational needs, teachers' work intensification, the family and school experiences of Year 9 students and a Youth Training programme within English professional football. The range of topics shows how import ethnographic work has become in education. Most of the contributors are still at the early stage of their academic careers. Their writings have not yet attained "classic" status - although some may be on the way to such status. The doctoral process is still a vivid memory in their minds and they have been able to drawn upon their fieldnotes and recollections to construct accounts that shed light on their experience and help to demystify it. The book should be of value for those who are thinking of doing a doctorate, for others still struggling through the process and for their supervisors.
The management of cultural diversity is a major challenge in many states. This book follows up the theoretical analysis of "Ethnic Diversity and Public Policy", with detailed case studies from international experts on Malaysia, Tanzania, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Northern Ireland, Spain and the United States of America to discover what lessons can be learnt for policy makers in other divided societies.
The first Okinawan immigrants arrived in Honolulu in January 1900 to work as contract laborers on Hawai'i's sugar plantations. Over time Okinawans would continue migrating east to the continental U.S., Canada, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba, Paraguay, New Caledonia, and the islands of Micronesia. The essays in this volume commemorate these diasporic experiences within the geopolitical context of East Asia. Using primary sources and oral history, individual contributors examine how Okinawan identity was constructed in the various countries to which. Okinawans migrated, and how their experiences were shaped by the Japanese nation-building project and by globalization. Essays explore the return to Okinawan sovereignty, or what Nobel Laureate Oe Kenzaburo called an "impossible possibility," and the role of the Okinawan labor diaspora in Japan's imperial expansion into the Philippines and Micronesia.
This collection explores the way in which critical theory and practice can unite into a common vision of democratic hope. While each author has his or her own specialty, the thread of shared dreams is portrayed in a call for solidarity. The separate viewpoints are drawn together to constitute a democratic platform for an enlightened critical education agenda. From narrative to critical ethnography, case studies explore the multicultural and power struggles of states, districts, and schools. Intimately connected to all contributions in this collection is the commitment of each author to similarly share a common pregnancy of intention within a language of possibility.
What set our ancestors off on a separate evolutionary trajectory was the ability to flex their reproductive and social strategies in response to changing environmental conditions. Exploring new cross-disciplinary research that links this capacity to critical changes in the organization of the primate brain, Social DNA presents a new synthesis of ideas on human social origins - challenging models that trace our beginnings to traits shaped by ancient hunting economies, or to genetic platforms shared with contemporary apes.
This volume is designed to explore evolutionary, cross-cultural, physiological, environmental, and pathological influences on variation in human biological ageing. With use of models traditionally unique to anthropological research, contributors to this edited volume approach human biological ageing as a heterogeneous and variable process. An explicit emphasis on evolutionary biology and human variation results in a renewed perspective on human biological ageing as the end result of a set of co-adapted genetic complexes that were associated with successful growth, development, reproduction, and parenting of offspring during our species' evolutionary history. However, while examining human life span and life history parameters as population level phenomena, the book also emphasizes human phenotypic plasticity as the key to understanding human biological ageing. This broad evolutionary perspective on human biological ageing and life history patterns is unique in biological gerontology, a field generally reductionist in method and theory in keeping with current trends in biomedicine.
The objective of this book is to review the impact of genetic variation on risk of human disease at the different major levels of organization: cells, individuals, families, and populations. The volume begins with a discussion of sources and rates of mutation which ultimately give rise to the vast amount of extant genetic variation. This is followed by presentations of current understanding of how genetic variation is maintained within and among populations. The volume ends with discussions of the implications of such variation for understanding the evolution of our species. This collection gives an unusually broad treatment of the subject, with chapters from some of the leading workers in the field. James Neel's chapter on human consanguinity effects and M. Otake's on the genetic effects of radiation associated with the dropping of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs should be singled out for special emphasis. As an up-to-date overview of ongoing research, this work will be of interest to a wide range of workers in the fields of human population genetics, evolution, and epidemiology.
The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity is a comprehensive collection of the most significant articles to appear in this field. It presents the major ideas and approaches in this branch of sociology and covers the main themes in European debates as well as race-related questions in North America.Topics covered are: theories of racial and ethnicity division including rational choice, sociobiology and class approaches; the sociology of race, nationalism and colonialism; migration and ethnicity; the nature and causes of prejudice and racial discrimination; inter-ethnic conflict; racialisation and ethnic identity; race and social class in urban areas; multiculturalism and the problem of the political integration of immigrants.
Pigs are one of the most iconic but also paradoxical animals ever
to have developed a relationship with humans. This relationship has
been a long and varied one: from noble wild beast of the forest to
mass produced farmyard animal; from a symbol of status and plenty
to a widespread religious food taboo; from revered religious totem
to a parodied symbol of filth and debauchery.
Provides a critical and comprehensive overview of theorising and debate about the role of race and ethnicity in contemporary societies. This book intends to explore the evolution of race and ethnicity as subjects of both scholarly and political debate. It is of interest to students and scholars of race and ethnicity alike.
Provides a critical and comprehensive overview of theorising and debate about the role of race and ethnicity in contemporary societies. This book intends to explore the evolution of race and ethnicity as subjects of both scholarly and political debate. It is of interest to students and scholars of race and ethnicity alike.
This book uses the experiences and conversations of Black British women as a lens to examine the impact of discourses surrounding Black beauty shame. Black beauty shame exists within racialized societies which situate white beauty as iconic, and as a result produce Black 'ugliness' as a counterpoint. At the same time, Black Nationalist discourses present Black-white 'mixed race' women as bodies out of place within the Black community. In the examples analysed within the book, women disidentify from both the iconicities of white beauty and the discourses of Black Nationalist darker-skinned beauty, negating both ideals. This demonstration of Foucaldian counter-conduct can be read as a form of disalienation from the governmentality of Black beauty shame. This fascinating volume will be of interest to students and scholars of Black identity, Black beauty and discourse analysis.
Winner, 2020 Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, given by the Society for Medical Anthropology The troubling dynamic of the American home care industry where increased independence for the elderly conflicts with the well being of caregivers Paid home care is one of the fastest growing occupations in the United States, and millions of Americans rely on these workers to help them remain at home as they grow older. However, the industry is rife with contradictions. The United States spends a fortune on medical care, yet devotes comparatively few resources on improving wages, thus placing home care providers in the ranks of the working poor. As a result, the work that enables some older Americans to live independently generates profound social inequalities. Inequalities of Aging explores the ways in which these inequalities play out on the ground as workers, who are disproportionately women of color and immigrants, earn poverty-level wages and often struggle to provide for themselves and their families. The ethnographic narrative reveals how two of the nation's most pressing concerns-rising social inequality and caring for an aging population-intersect to transform the lives of older adults, home care workers, and the world around them. The book takes readers inside the homes and offices of people connected to two Chicago area home care agencies serving low-income and affluent older adults, respectively. Through intimate portrayals of daily life, Elana D. Buch illustrates how diverse histories, care practices, and social policies overlap and contribute to social inequality. Illuminating the lived experience of both workers and their clients, Inequalities of Aging shows the different ways in which the idea of independence both connects and shapes the lives of the elderly and the working poor.
Ethnographic studies trace the background to and impact of urbanisation and Christianisation, and the development of royal power, which stimulated the transition from the Viking age to the medieval period. Using the evidence of archaeology, poetry, legal texts and annals, this volume investigates the social, economic and symbolic structures of early Scandinavia at the time of the Viking expansion. The contributors provide an outlineethnograpjy, covering dwellings and settlements, kinship and social relations, law, political structures and external relations, rural and urban economies, and the ideology of warfare. The topics are discussed through case-studies from the contributors' recent research, illustrating the changing scholarly interpretations of this formative period in Scandinavian history. By addressing these key research questions, the contributions trace the background toand the impact of urbanisation and Christianisation, and the development of royal power, which stimulated the transition from the Viking age to the medieval period in Scandinavia. This book brings together for the first time in English a wealth of current Scandinavian archaeological, historical and cultural research. JUDITH JESCH is Reader in Viking Studies at the University of Nottingham. Contributors: LENA HOLMQUIST OLAUSSON, BENTE MAGNUS, E. VESTERGAARD, BIRGIT ARRHENIUS, STEFAN BRINK, LISE BENDER JORGENSEN, SVEND NIELSEN, FRANDS HERSCHEND, NIELS LUND, DAVID N. DUMVILLE, JUDITH JESCH, DENNIS H. GREEN.
An enlarged European Union introduces new opportunities for ethnic
remixing, bringing fears over potential minority return and even
sovereignty in some cases. How does a border-effacing EU impact
territory subject to ethnic cleansing? Why is potential minority
return considered a security threat in some recently 'unmixed'
areas, but not others?
U.S. Latinos have made important contributions to American society, and this biographical dictionary is devoted to celebrating those contributions. All 127 men and women profiled in this work have immigrated to or been born in the United States and have made major contributions to American life and culture. Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, and others of Spanish, South American, Central American and Caribbean heritage--more than one-third of them women--represent 35 fields of endeavor and all 50 states. From historical figures to the newest sports champion, figure-skater Rudy Galindo, this work provides profiles of both prominent and important but less-familiar people who have made significant contributions in their fields. Many of those profiled can be found in no other biographical source. A selection of photos complements the text. All biographies have been written by experts in their ethnic fields. Those profiled range widely from distinguished scientists to sports stars, from actors to activists, from businesswomen to political personalities, from literary luminaries to labor organizers. All are potential role models for young men and women, and many have overcome extreme odds to succeed. These colorfully written, substantive biographies detail their subjects' goals, struggles, and commitments to success and to their ethnic communities. Among the 127 people profiled are: Nobel Prize-winning scientist Luis Alvarez; Treasurer of the United States Romana Acosta Banuelos; actor/composer/activist Ruben Blades; classical dancer Fernando Bujones; baseball player Jose Canseco; U.S. Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos Jr.; writer Sandra Cisneros; fashion designer Oscar de la Renta; U.S. Congressman Lincoln DIaz-Balart; teacher Jaime Escalante; composer/singer Gloria Estefan; tennis players Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez; playwright Mara Fornes; U.S. Men's 1996 Figure Skating Champion Rudy Galindo; physician/political activist Hector GarcIa; Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta; labor leader Dolores Huerta; U.S. Ambassador MarIa-Luci Jaramillo; artist Marisol; civil-rights activist Vilma Socorro MartInez; businessman/politician Jorge Mas Canosa; federal judge Harold Medina; graphic artist Nicholasa Mohr; U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello; astronaut Ellen Ochoa; Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Severo Ochoa; TV personality Geraldo Rivera; U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; educational psychologist George I. Sanchez; newspaper editor Roberto Suarez; women's rights activist/businesswoman MarIa Elena Torano-PantIn; New York State Supreme Court Judge Edwin Torres; mystic Teresa Urrea; film producer/director Luis Valdez. For ease of use, the heading of each profile identifies ethnic group, field of endeavor, birthdate and, where appropriate, death date. Each profile concludes with a suggested reading list of books and periodical articles about the subject. An ethnic index, field of endeavor index, and a general index make research easy. This much needed reference work is essential for school and public libraries."
Foreword by Michael LambekThe death and destruction of war leave behind scars and fears that can last for generations. This book considers the connections between memory and violence in the wake of World War II.Covering the range of European experiences from East to West, Memory and World War II takes a long-term approach to the study of trauma at the local level. It challenges the notion of collective memory and calls for an understanding of memory as a fine line between the individual and society, the private and the public. International contributors from a range of disciplines seek new ways to incorporate local memory within national history and consider whether memories of extreme violence can be socially transformed. Personal testimony reveals the myriad ways in which communities react to and reconstruct the horrors of war. What we learn is that terrifying experiences reside not only in memories of the past but remain embedded in present-day lives. |
You may like...
The Bhilsa Topes, or, Buddhist Monuments…
Alexander Cunningham
Hardcover
R1,043
Discovery Miles 10 430
|