Having set aside age-old ways of mourning, how do people in the modern world cope with tragic loss? Using traditional mourning rituals as an instructive touchstone, Gail Holst-Warhaft explores the ways sorrow is managed in our own times and how mourning can be manipulated for social and political ends.

Since ancient times political and religious authorities have been alert to the dangerously powerful effects of communal expressions of grief--while valuing mourning rites as a controlled outlet for emotion. But today grief is often seen as a psychological problem: the bereaved are encouraged to seek counseling or take antidepressants. At the same time, we have witnessed some striking examples of manipulation of shared grief for political effect. One instance is the unprecedented concentration on recovery of the remains of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. In Buenos Aires the Mothers of the Disappeared forged the passion of their grief into a political weapon. Similarly the gay community in the United States, transformed by grief and rage, not only lobbied effectively for AIDS victims but channeled their emotions into fresh artistic expression.

It might be argued that, in contrast to earlier cultures, modern society has largely abdicated its role in managing sorrow. But in "The Cue for Passion" we see that some communities, moved by the intensity of their grief, have utilized it to gain ground for their own agendas.

Taking a uniquely interdisciplinary view of the Eastern Mediterranean region's water problems, this book considers some of the technical and regulatory solutions being proposed or implemented to solve the difficulties of diminished or polluted water supplies. Stressing the importance of traditional and historical cultural understanding in addressing the water crisis, the authors demonstrate that what is required is an integrated legal, social and scientific management system appropriate to each country's stage of development and their cultural heritage. Using case studies from Lebanon, Italy, Spain, Egypt, Greece, Jordan and Cyprus, the authors focus on the urgency of the present crisis faced by each country and the need for cooperation. The suggested solutions also serve as a paradigm for the rest of the world as it faces similar issues of water shortage.

The Classical Moment is a reexamination of the concept of a supreme moment in the literatures of Greece, Mesopotamia, India, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Taking the case of Greece as its starting point, it examines what such "moments" have in common, how they are created, and what effect they have on subsequent literary creation.

Taking a uniquely interdisciplinary view of the Eastern Mediterranean region's water problems, this book considers some of the technical and regulatory solutions being proposed or implemented to solve the difficulties of diminished or polluted water supplies. Stressing the importance of traditional and historical cultural understanding in addressing the water crisis, the authors demonstrate that what is required is an integrated legal, social and scientific management system appropriate to each country's stage of development and their cultural heritage. Using case studies from Lebanon, Italy, Spain, Egypt, Greece, Jordan and Cyprus, the authors focus on the urgency of the present crisis faced by each country and the need for cooperation. The suggested solutions also serve as a paradigm for the rest of the world as it faces similar issues of water shortage.

From the sixth century onward, legislation was introduced in Athens and a number of the advanced city states which restricted mourning the dead, particularly women's laments. "Dangerous Voices" investigates the threat which mourning posed to the society and the way in which the state attempted to subdue and subvert laments.
"Dangerous Voices" suggests that the loss of the traditional lament in Greece and other countries deprived women of their traditional control over the rituals of death and left them without a language to address the dead.
An investigation of laments from New Guinea to Greece suggests that they are essentially a female art form, one that gives women considerable power over the rituals of death. Women's prominence in the death rituals and their use of the public forum of the funeral to express grief and anger presented a powerful challenge to established social order. The state's need to raise a standing army meant that death in war had to be glorified, not lamented. At the same time, the existence of official law courts discouraged the cycle of private retribution which was inflamed by laments.

In ancient Greece, from the sixth century onwards legilation was introduced in Athens and a number of the more advanced city states which was specifically aimed at the restriction of mourning of the dead, particularly women's laments. THis book investigates the threat which such mourning posed ot the society and the way in which the state attempted to suvdue and subvert laments.
The author argues that laments are a complex art form that gives women a means to express not only pain, but frustration and anger. In the larger social unit of the ancient Greek polis, women's prominence in the death rituals and their use of the public forum of the funeral to express grief and anger presented a powerful challenge to established social order. The state's need to raise a standing army meant that death in war had to be glorified, not lamentd; at the same time the existence of official las courts discouraged the cycle of private retribution which was inflamed by laments.In fifth century Athens, the funeral oration and tragedy appropriated the function of and condemend the excesses of women's laments. Attempts ot curb women's laments in antiquity and the Byzantine period were only partly successful. Women's laments remained an essential part of the death rituals of rural Greece. The book ends with a chapter which discusses how the modern Greek men and women writers have dealt with the lament, concluding that the loss of the traditional lament in Greece and other countries not only deprives women of their traditional control over the rituals of death but leaves all mourners impoverished.