Best of
Anthropology

1987

The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future (Updated With a New Epilogue)


Riane Eisler - 1987
    The Chalice and the Blade tells a new story of our cultural origins. It shows that warfare and the war of the sexes are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. It provides verification that a better future is possible—and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting dramas of what happened in our past.

Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing


Michael Taussig - 1987
    . . will encourage ever more critical and creative explorations."—Fernando Coronil, [I]American Journal of Sociology[/I]"Taussig has brought a formidable collection of data from arcane literary, journalistic, and biographical sources to bear on . . . questions of evil, torture, and politically institutionalized hatred and terror. His intent is laudable, and much of the book is brilliant, both in its discovery of how particular people perpetrated evil and others interpreted it."—Stehen G. Bunker, Social Science Quarterly

Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred


Gregory Bateson - 1987
    Building on theories from his acclaimed Mind and Nature, Bateson goes beyond his earlier milestone work in this inquiry into the essence of science and the importance of the "sacred" in the natural world.

The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction


Emily Martin - 1987
    Contrasting the views of medical science with those of ordinary women from diverse social and economic backgrounds, anthropologist Emily Martin presents unique fieldwork on American culture and uncovers the metaphors of economy and alienation that pervade women's imaging of themselves and their bodies. A new preface examines some of the latest medical ideas about women's reproductive cycles.

Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook


Prudence M. Rice - 1987
    Prudence M. Rice uses pottery as a starting point for insights into people and culture and examines in detail the methods for studying these fired clay vessels that have been used worldwide from prehistoric times to the present. Pottery Analysis is a classic in its field as well as an invaluable reference for all students of archaeology and ancient culture.

Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians


Gilbert Livingstone Wilson - 1987
    My mothers were industrious women, and our family had always good crops; and I will tell now how the women of my father's family cared for their fields, as I saw them, and helped them." --Buffalo Bird Woman

The Lost Notebooks


Loren Eiseley - 1987
    Also included are poems, short stories, an array of Eiseley's absorbing observations on the natural world, and his always startling reflections on the nature and future of humankind and the universe.

Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art


Titus Burckhardt - 1987
    He is perhaps best known to the English-speaking public as the author of the following books: Sacred Art in East and West; Siena, City of the Virgin; Moorish Culture in Spain; and Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. A generation ago, he won much acclaim for producing and publishing the first successful, full-scale facsimiles of the Book of Kells and other ancient manuscripts. In more recent years, he acted as a specialist advisor to UNESCO, with particular reference to the preservation of the unique architectural heritage of Fez, which was then in danger. The present volume is a complete collection of Burckhardt s essays, originally published in a variety of German and French journals. They range from modern science in its various forms, through Christianity and Islam, to symbolism and mythology. It is a rich collection. Burckhardt blends an accessible style with a penetrating insight. He interprets the metaphysical, cosmological, and symbolic dimensions of these sacred traditions from the perspective of timeless, spiritual wisdom."

In Other Words: Essays Toward a Reflexive Sociology


Pierre Bourdieu - 1987
    His work, presented in over twenty books, lies on the borders of philosophy, anthropology and ethnology, and cultural theory.The present volume consists of diverse individual texts, produced between 1980 and 1986, which take two forms: interviews in which Bourdieu confronts a series of probing and intelligent interviewers, and conference papers that clarify and extend specific areas of his research. Now that Bourdieu's work has achieved wide diffusion and celebrity, this is an appropriate time for this volume, a pause for retrospection and resynthesis, for corrections of misreadings and extension of previous insights, and for projection of the next stages of his work. For this English edition, Bourdieu's celebrated inaugural lecture at the Collège de France, Leçon sur la Leçon, has been added.The texts fall into two fundamental areas. The first area provides an overview of Bourdieu's central concepts, never before clearly explained. The second area clarifies the philosophical presuppositions of Bourdieu's studies and gives an account of his relations with the series of thinkers who formulated the problems in social and cultural theory that still preoccupy us: Kant, Hegel, Marx, Durkheim, Wittgenstein, Weber, Parsons, and Lévi-Strauss. Bourdieu's visions of these figures is personal and penetrating, and in his vivacious, spontaneous responses one sees at work a mode of thought that can in itself be a liberating tool of social analysis. Bourdieu applies to himself the method of analyzing cultural works that he expounds, evoking the space of theoretical possibilities presented to him at different moments of his intellectual itinerary.

While the Gods Play: Shaiva Oracles and Predictions on the Cycles of History and the Destiny of Mankind


Alain Daniélou - 1987
     This prediction is only a fragment of the vast knowledge of Shaiva wisdom, author Alain Danielou as assimilated and reviewed essential concepts of the Shaiva philosophy and its predictions. Clearly expressed in the ancient teachings, these concepts are in accord with, yet surpass, the boldest scientific speculations about consciousness, time, the nature of life and matter, and the history and destiny of the human race. Inherent in this body of knowledge is an understanding of the cycles of creation and destruction which, in conjunction with astronomical phases, determine the life span of the species. Since 1939, humankind has been in the twilight of the Kali Yuga age, or at the end of a cycle. The impending cataclysm, Danielou explains, is brought on by our own errors, and its date will be determined by our present and future actions. While the Gods Play examines how the visionaries of ancient times defined our rose in creation. It explains why and how we have abandoned this role, and reflects on what action can be taken to consciously and creatively influence our own destiny. Included are chapters on The Religion of Nature and The Religion of the City, The Transmigrant Body, Sexual Rites, the Castes, Sacrifice, Magical Powers, Monastic Orders, and Forestalling the Final Day.

The Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Volume I: Theoretical Prerequisites


Ronald W. Langacker - 1987
    The central claim of cognitive grammar is that grammar forms a continuum with lexicon and is fully describable in terms of symbolic units (i.e. form-meaning pairings). In contrast to current orthodoxy, the author argues that grammar is not autonomous with respect to semantics, but rather reduces to patterns for the structuring and symbolization of conceptual content.

The Last Navigator


Stephen D. Thomas - 1987
    Explains how the Micronesian's ancient skills of navigation are at risk as its young people turn to Western ways.

Voices of Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire


Dhyani Ywahoo - 1987
    Trained by her grandparents, she is the twenty-seventh generation to carry the ancestral wisdom of the Ywahoo lineage. Charged with the duty to rekindle the fire of clear mind and right relationship in these changing times, she is a guide to all who walk the Beauty Road. In her first book she shares with readers these precious oral teachings of her people. Voices of Our Ancestors teaches practical ways of transforming obstacles to happiness and good relationships, fulfilling one's life purpose, manifesting peace and abundance, and renewing the planet. It includes meditations; healing rituals; instructions for working with crystals; and teachings on how to practice generosity and harmony. According to the ancient Native American calendar, we have recently entered a new cycle of Thirteen Heavens, a new age in which we have the opportunity to let go of aggression and fear and begin to live a life of enlightened consciousness. With a voice that is powerful, prophetic, and compassionate, Dhyani Ywahoo calls on us to become "Peacekeepers" in our hearts and in the world.

Visions of a Nomad


Wilfred Thesiger - 1987
    He is also the author of "Arabian Sands", "The Marsh Arabs" and "The Life of My Choice". His achievement as a travel photographer is equally impressive. This book is a collection of those photographs which most satisfy Thesiger. Rarely seen images from his Asian travels, a mixture of familiar and unknown pictures of the Arab world in which he found himself most, and most memorably at home, and images of Africa where he has now lived for almost 25 years.

Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society


Bruno Latour - 1987
    The conventional perception of science in Western societies has been modified in recent years by the work of philosophers, sociologists and historians of science. In this book Bruno Latour brings together these different approaches to provide a lively and challenging analysis of science, demonstrating how social context and technical content are both essential to a proper understanding of scientific activity. Emphasizing that science can only be understood through its practice, the author examines science and technology in action: the role of scientific literature, the activities of laboratories, the institutional context of science in the modern world, and the means by which inventions and discoveries become accepted. From the study of scientific practice he develops an analysis of science as the building of networks. Throughout, Bruno Latour shows how a lively and realistic picture of science in action alters our conception of not only the natural sciences but also the social sciences and the sociology of knowledge in general.This stimulating book, drawing on a wealth of examples from a wide range of scientific activities, will interest all philosophers, sociologists and historians of science, scientists and engineers, and students of the philosophy of social science and the sociology of knowledge.

Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record


Michael Brian Schiffer - 1987
    It shows how the past is accessible in practice by identifying variability introduced by the diverse effects of people and nature that in some sum, form the archaeological record.For students, it is intended as both an introduction and guide in method and theory, field work, and analysis. Practicing archaeologists will find it a valuable checklist of sources of variability when observations on the archaeological record are used to justify inferences.

The Wall: Images and Offerings from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial


Sal Lopes - 1987
    Full Page Color Illustrations

Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action


Walter R. Fisher - 1987
    This book addresses questions that have concerned rhetoricians, literary theorists, and philosophers since the time of the pre-Socratics and the Sophists: How do people come to believe and to act on the basis of communicative experiences? What is the nature of reason and rationality in these experiences? What is the role of values in human decision making and action? How can reason and values be assessed? In answering these questions, Professor Fisher proposes a reconceptualization of humankind as homo narrans, that all forms of human communication need to be seen as stories--symbolic interpretations of aspects of the world occurring in time and shaped by history, culture, and character; that individuated forms of discourse should be considered good reasons--values or value-laden warrants for believing or acting in certain ways; and that a narrative logic that all humans have natural capacities to employ ought to be conceived of as the logic by which human communication is assessed.

Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation


Walter Burkert - 1987
    These papers and conversations derive from a conference that pursued the possibility and utility of a general theory of religion and culture, especially one based on violence. The special value of this volume is the conversations as such -- the real record of working scholars engaged with one another's theories, as they make and meet challenges, and move and maneuver.

Tanaina plantlore, Dena'ina k'et'una


Priscilla Russell Kari - 1987
    Over five hundred years of maps depicting the North Pacific Ocean and the lands that border it—the United States, Canada, Alaska, Russia, Japan, Korea, and China—have been collected into this new atlas. From antique maps of the sixteenth century to modern satellite images, this volume covers all the major explorations, such as Magellan, Bering, Cook, and Vancouver; Perry's opening of Japan; and the U.S. North Pacific Exploring Expedition. It also includes modern maps that use the latest technology to show ocean currents, fault lines, and the seabed in astounding detail.

Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons


Shirley C. Strum - 1987
    Like our own ancestors, baboons had adapted to life on the African savannah, and Strum hoped that by observing baboon behavior, she could learn something about how early humans might have lived. Soon the baboons had won her heart as well as her mind, and Strum has been working with them ever since.Vividly written and filled with fascinating insights, Almost Human chronicles the first fifteen years of Strum's fieldwork with the Pumphouse Gang. From the first paragraph, the reader is drawn along with Strum into the world of the baboons, learning about the tragedies and triumphs of their daily lives—and the lives of the scientists studying them. This edition includes a new introduction and epilogue that place Strum's research in the context of the current global conservation crisis and tell us what has happened to the Pumphouse Gang since the book was first published.

The Interface Between the Written and the Oral


Jack Goody - 1987
    Whilst the fundamental significance of the spoken language for human interaction is widely acknowledged, that of writing is less well known, and in this wide-ranging series of essays Jack Goody examines in depth the complex and often confused relationship between oral and literate modes of communication.

Haa Shuká, Our Ancestors: Tlingit Oral Narratives


Nora Marks Dauenhauer - 1987
    The stories were recorded from the 1960s to the present by twelve tradition bearers who where passing down for future generations the accounts of haa shuka, which means "our ancestors." Their narratives tell of the origin of social and spiritual concepts and explain the complex relationships among members of a given clan to their relatives in other clans, to spirits of the land where the vents took place, to the spirits of departed ancestors, and to the spirits of various animals, including killer whale and bear.The focus here is on the stories and story tellers themselves, who lived amazingly different lives, reflecting in a small way the complexity of Tlingit life in the twentieth century, a period characterized by unprecedented political, economic, and social change. The stories were told in Tlingit and then transcribed from the tape recorded versions. The editors have attempted to write these stories the way they were told, and to then translate them into English keeping the unique Tlingit oral style.This book will be of interest to the general reader of Native American literature and comparative literature, as well as to folklorists, linguists, and anthropologists. Of special interest to linguist will be the new texts (transcribed in three different Tlingit dialects) containing many hitherto unattested grammatical forms.

Signifying Nothing: The Semiotics of Zero


Brian Rotman - 1987
    . . . Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, . . . Rotman builds a viable thesis for the semiotics of zero via a thorough examination of Montaigne’s Essays, Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Kabbalah, and Vermeer’s paintings.”—Choice

Why Suyá Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian People


Anthony Seeger - 1987
    In paperback for the first time, Anthony Seeger's Why Suyá Sing considers the reasons for the importance of music for the Suyá--and by extension for other groups-- through an examination of myth telling, speech making, and singing in the initiation ceremony.   Based on over twenty-four months of field research and years of musical exchange, Seeger analyzes the different verbal arts and then focuses on details of musical performance. He reveals how Suyá singing creates euphoria out of silence, a village community out of a collection of houses, a socialized adult out of a boy, and contributes to the formation of ideas about time, space, and social identity.   This new paperback edition features an indispensable CD offering examples of the myth telling, speeches, and singing discussed, as well as a new afterword that describes the continuing use of music by the Suyá in their recent conflicts with cattle ranchers and soybean farmers.

Wolves of Heaven: Cheyenne Shamanism, Ceremonies, and Prehistoric Origins


Karl H. Schlesier - 1987
    

Time: The Familiar Stranger (Tempus)


J.T. Fraser - 1987
    This wide-ranging, learned, and accessible book surveys the enormous variety of our understandings of time, both in the everyday world and in the specialized realms of the sciences and humanities. From the majestic visions of time and the timeless in major religions, derived from ordinary activity, J.T.Fraser offers the general reader a history of the idea and experience of time.

Uttermost Part of The Earth


E. Lucas Bridges - 1987
    

The Legacies of Literacy: Continuities and Contradictions in Western Culture and Society


Harvey J. Graff - 1987
    Katz"A remarkable volume of critical synthesis and passionate revisionism." --Journal of Economic History..". ambitious and stimulating... required reading not only for social historians but also for policy-makers and activists." --Histoire Sociale"Clearly an important book... marks a significant point in the history of literacy studies." --History of Education Quarterly"A stimulating challenge to traditional assumptions and scholarly commonplaces." --Journal of Communication

St. EOM in the Land of Pasaquan


Tom Patterson - 1987
    

Emptiness Yoga: The Tibetan Middle Way


Jeffrey Hopkins - 1987
    His presentation is based on Jang-gya's famous work—the original and translation are included. The reasonings used to analyze persons and phenomena to establish their true mode of existence are discussed in the context of meditative practice. This exposition includes a masterful treatment of the compatibility of emptiness and dependent-arising.

Primate Societies


Barbara B. Smuts - 1987
    It is a very richsource of ideas about other taxa. "A superb synthesis of knowledge about the social lives ofnon-human primates."—Alan Dixson, Nature

Anasazi Ruins of the Southwest in Color


William Ferguson - 1987
    The pueblos and cliff dwellings they built during their halcyon days between 1100 and 1500AD are the most spectacular ruins north of Mexico. In this book, all of the significant and accessible Anasazi ruins are photographed and described in detail. Special attention is paid to the magnificent sites of Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, and Kayenta. Also included are illustrations of rock art and examples of the delicate jewellery and beautiful ceramics that have survived.

Yaqui Deer Songs/Maso Bwikam: A Native American Poetry


Larry Evers - 1987
    It is through song that experience with other living things is made intelligible and accessible to the human community. Deer songs often take the form of dialogues in which the deer and others in the wilderness world speak with one another or with the deer singers themselves. It is in this way, according to one deer singer, that “the wilderness world listens to itself even today.”   In this book authentic ceremonial songs, transcribed in both Yaqui and English, are the center of a fascinating discussion of the Deer Song tradition in Yaqui culture. Yaqui Deer Songs/Maso Bwikam thus enables non-Yaquis to hear these dialogues with the wilderness world for the first time.

Living Maya


Walter F. Morris Jr. - 1987
    The book covers the heritage of the Maya people, including their myths, legends and songs - and especially their weaving, which has survived for over 2000 years.

African Art in the Cycle of Life


Roy Sieber Walker - 1987
    

Healing States: A Journey Into the World of Spiritual Healing and Shamanism


Alberto Villoldo - 1987
    From Simon & Schuster, Healing States is a journey into the world of spiritual healing and Shamanism.Healing States: A Journey Into the World of Spiritual Healing and Shamanism is a colorful and compelling examination of evidence for the mind's ability to heal, taking a step into the fascinating world of psychic healing and shamanism.

Death, Sex, and Fertility: Population Regulation in Pre-Industrial and Developing Societies


Marvin Harris - 1987
    Demographic anthropology. 2. Fertility, Human. 3. Birth control.

Sioux Indian Religion: Tradition and Innovation


Raymond J. Demallie - 1987
    These essays by tribal religious leaders, scholars, and other members of the Sioux communities in North and South Dakota deal with the more important questions about Sioux ritual and belief in relation to history, tradition, and the mainstream of American life.Contents:(1) "Lakota Belief and Ritual in the Nineteenth Century," by Raymond J. DeMallie;(2) "Lakota Genesis: The Oral Tradition," by Elaine A. Jahner;(3) "The Sacred Pipe in Modern Life," by Arval Looking Horse;(4) "The Lakota Sun Dance: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives," by Arthur Amiotte;(5) "The Establishment of Christianity Among the Sioux," by Vine V. Deloria, Sr.;(6) "Catholic Mission and the Sioux: A Crisis in the Early Paradigm," by Harvey Markowitz;(7) "Contemporary Catholic Mission Work Among the Sioux," by Robert Hilbert, S.}.;(8) "Christian Life Fellowship Church," by Mercy Poor Man;(9) "Indian Women and the Renaissance of Traditional Religion," by Beatrice Medicine;(10) "The Contemporary Yuwipi," by Thomas H. Lewis, M.D.;(11) "The Native American Church of Jesus Christ," by Emerson Spider, Sr.;(12) "Traditional Lakota Religion in Modern Life," by Robert Stead, with an Introduction by Kenneth Oliver; Suggestions for Further Reading; Bibliography.

Adventuring in the California Desert: The Sierra Club Travel Guide to the Great Basin, Mojave, and Colorado Desert Regions of California


Sierra Club Adventure Travel Guides - 1987
    Includes area maps, access and information on climate and gear. 10 black-and-white photographs. 11 line drawings. 10 maps.

Interpretation of Fairy Tales


Bengt Holbek - 1987
    

Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication


Lucy A. Suchman - 1987
    Lucy Suchman argues that the planning model of interaction favoured by the majority of AI researchers does not take sufficient account of the situatedness of most human social behaviour. The problems that can arise as a result are pertinently, and often amusingly, illustrated by the careful analysis of a recorded interaction between novice users and an intelligent machine, whose design has failed to accommodate essential resources of successful human communication. Plans and Situated Actions presents a compelling case for the re-examination of current models underlying interface design. Lucy Suchman's proposals for a fresh characterisation of human-computer interaction which also incorporates recent insights from the social sciences provides a challenge that everyone interested in machine intelligence will seriously need to consider.

Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music


Jean-Jacques Nattiez - 1987
    Asking such questions as what is a musical work and what constitutes music, Nattiez draws from philosophy, anthropology, music analysis, and history to propose a global theory for the interpretation of specific pieces, the phenomenon of music, and the human behaviors that music elicits. He reviews issues raised by the notion of the musical sign, and shows how Peircian semiotics, with its image of a chain or web of meanings, applies to a consideration of music's infinite and unstable potential for embodying meaning.In exploring the process of ascribing meaning to music, Nattiez reviews writings on the psychology of music, non-Western metaphorical descriptions, music-analytical prose, and writings in the history of musical aesthetics. A final analytical chapter on the Tristan chord suggests that interpretations of music are cast in terms of analytical plots shaped by transcendent principles, and that any semiological consideration of music must account for these interpretive narratives.

Doorways Through Time: The Romance of Archaeology


Stephen Bertman - 1987
    

Betwixt and Between: Patterns of Masculine and Feminine Initiation


Steven Foster - 1987
    The absence of these traditional supports creates problems in the lives of those who are caught in the void and lack definite expectations at various times of their lives. The chapters on masculine and feminine initiation provide new and creative concepts and practical possibilities for each of us. Initiation has been a missing component in the modern world and needs to be re-introduced with new understanding and consciousness.

The Biology of Moral Systems


Richard D. Alexander - 1987
    Prominent evolutionary biologists, for example, have described morality as contrary to the direction of biological evolution, and moral philosophers rarely regard evolution as relevant to their discussions.The Biology of Moral Systems adopts the position that moral questions arise out of conflicts of interest, and that moral systems are ways of using confluences of interest at lower levels of social organization to deal with conflicts of interest at higher levels. Moral systems are described as systems of indirect reciprocity: humans gain and lose socially and reproductively not only by direct transactions, but also by the reputations they gain from the everyday flow of social interactions.The author develops a general theory of human interests, using senescence and effort theory from biology, to help analyze the patterning of human lifetimes. He argues that the ultimate interests of humans are reproductive, and that the concept of morality has arisen within groups because of its contribution to unity in the context, ultimately, of success in intergroup competition. He contends that morality is not easily relatable to universals, and he carries this argument into a discussion of what he calls the greatest of all moral problems, the nuclear arms race.Crammed with sage observations on moral dilemmas and many reasons why an understanding of evolution based on natural selection will advance thinking in finding practical solutions to our most difficult social problems. � Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences Richard D. Alexander is Donald Ward Tinkle Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biology, and Curator of Insects, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan. A recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Alexander is the author of Darwinism and Human Affairs.

Spirit World: Pattern in the Expressive Folk Culture of New Orleans


Michael P. Smith - 1987
    Documents the thriving cultural richness of black New Orleans and captures the expressions of urban black folk culture.

Cities Of The United States: Studies In Urban Anthropology


Leith Mullings - 1987
    Utilizing the strengths of traditional ethnographic approaches, the authors of this provocative volume of original essays analyze contemporary urban problems in the United States.

False Faces of the Iroquois


William N. Fenton - 1987
    

Perspectives in Cultural Anthropology


Herbert Applebaum - 1987
    It provides a deeper understanding of the major theoretical orientations which have historically guided and currently guide anthropological research.

Battles of the Samurai


Stephen Turnbull - 1987
    126 pages with line drawing and full color etchings show and demonstrate exactly these most important battles of the Samurai Warrior.

The Lenape or Delaware Indians: The Original People of New Jersey, Southeastern New York State, Eastern Pennsylvania, Northern Delaware and Parts of Western Connecticut


Herbert Kraft - 1987
    Endorsed by teachers and Native Americans as the best source of its kind, it describes the Lenape culture as it was when European explorers and colonists first discovered it.

Gender and Kinship: Essays Toward a Unified Analysis


Jane Fishburne Collier - 1987
    

The Red Fez: On Art and Possession in Africa


Fritz Kramer - 1987
    In ways which may echo 19th-century European realism, they reveal the power of the detail: a feather, a car, or the eponymous red fez which runs like a leitmotif through spirit possession cults of the early colonial period. “The Red Fez” demonstrates not only the startling likenesses to ourselves and our culture, but also reflections of forms of knowledge which this civilization has submerged.

Human Birth: An Evolutionary Perspective


Wenda Trevathan - 1987
    No matter how it is told the primary characters are rarely mothers and infants. Darwin argued survival, but today we know that reproduction is what evolution is all about. Centering on this, Trevathan focuses on birth, which gives the study of human evolution a crucial new dimension.Unique among mammals, humans are bipedal. The evolution of bipedalism required fundamental changes in the pelvis and resulted in a narrow birth canal. Humans are also large-brained animals, which means that birth is much more challenging for our species than for most other animals. The result of this mismatch of large head and narrow pelvis is that women are highly dependent on assistance at birth and their babies are born in an unusually undeveloped state when the brain is still small. Human Birth discusses how the birth process has evolved and ways in which human birth differs from birth in all other mammals.Human Birth is also concerned with mother-infant interaction immediately after birth. While working as a midwife trainee, Trevathan carefully documented the births of more than one hundred women and recorded maternal and infant behaviors during the first hour after birth. She suggests ways in which the interactions served not only to enhance mother-infant bonding, but also to ensure survival in the evolutionary past. With clarity and compelling logic Trevathan argues that modern birth practices often fail to meet evolved needs of women and infants and suggests changes that could lead to better birth experiences. This paperback edition includes a new introduction by the author.

Parsing through Customs: Essays by a Freudian Folklorist


Alan Dundes - 1987
    Dundes’ work is unique in its symbolic analysis of the ordinary imagination. His data are children’s games, folktales, everyday speech, cultural metaphors for power and prestige, and rituals associated with childbirth.

Twice as Less: Black English and the Performance of Black Students in Mathematics and Science


Eleanor Wilson Orr - 1987
    This is her account of the program she established to help them reach their potential. In the light of the current debate over Ebonics, she has written an introduction for the reissue of this important study. "This book is not naive about Black English Vernacular and it is untainted by racism. It is a deeply thoughtful discussion of the possibility that subtle nonstandard understandings, or a simple lack of experience with standard understandings, of prepositions, conjunctions, and relative pronouns can impede comprehension of basic concepts in mathematics and science. Eleanor Wilson Orr has filled her book with evidence and so put the reader in a position to judge what conclusions are justified. This very original and possibly very consequential work deserves the close dispassionate study of sociolinguists, psycholinguists, educators, and everyone who cares about the advancement of Black Americans". —Roger Brown, Harvard University

American Media and Mass Culture: Left Perspectives


Donald Lazere - 1987
    Donald Lazere brings together selections from nearly forty of the most prominent Marxist, feminist, and other leftist critics of American mass culture-from a dozen academic disciplines and fields of media activism. The collection will appeal to a wide range of students, scholars, and general readers.

Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology


Gerhard Emmanuel Lenski - 1987