The Illustrated Tigers of India


Book Description

Once respected, feared, and revered across the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent where it roamed in majestic arrogance, the tiger in India is today an endangered species with its numbers dwindling alarmingly. In this situation the efforts of Valmik Thapar, one of India's foremost tiger conservationists, and others like him are isolated voices in the wilderness. The first section 'Introducing the Tiger', apart from discussing the origins of the tiger, provides interesting sidelights on tiger subspecies and global distribution. It sets the stage for the next chapter, 'Tiger Facts', a two-page visual representation of the unique physical attributes of the tiger which make it one of the most efficient hunters. The core of the book, 'The Life of the Tiger', explores the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of the Indian tiger as lived in the wild and also includes excerpts from writings by other tiger experts, past and present. the section 'The Future of the Tiger', while discussing the crisis of the tiger today links this to the cult of the tiger. Apart from the photos and line drawings of tigers and other animals interspersing the narrative, the 8 pp. colour section depicting the lifecycle of the tiger will be a special attraction for readers. Discussing the future of the tiger, Thapar makes an impassioned appeal for drastic measures to save this precious heritage of ours from disappearing through apathy.




Kinship in Europe


Book Description

Since the publication of Philippe Ariès' book, 'Centuries of Childhood', there has been great interest among historians in the history of the family and the household. The essays in this text explore two major transitions in kinship patterns - at the end of the Middle Ages and at the end of the 18th century.




Two Studies of Kinship in London


Book Description

In 1947 members of the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, under the leadership of Professor Firth, made a study of kinship in a South London borough. More recently, to provide comparative material, Professor Garigue investigated kinship patterns among Italian immigrants in London. The results of these two pioneering studies are here presented, with an introductory essay by Professor Firth. This book is an important contribution both to the intensive study of modern urban society, and to the more technical discipline of kinship, especially the relatively neglected problems of bilateral systems.




Family Forms in Historic Europe


Book Description

The family forms of historic Europe have been fascinating in their variety. Their importance for the historical development of our continent would be difficult to exaggerate; for our relationship with the peoples of the other continents of the world as well. This book is an attempt to recover the different familial systems and compare them with one another. The studies range from Russia, Poland, Hungary and Austria to Scandinavia, Flanders and Britain. All the influences which have affected the character and composition of European households are taken into account. The analysis covers their function as productive work groups, in the procreation and bringing up of children, and in the support of the elderly, and their relationship with the wider society and its norms along with its political organization, central and local. Claims that inheritance customs and inheritance practice and the occupation of the household head exerted a powerful influence on the size and composition of households are subjected to rigorous and systematic investigation.




The War of the Gods (RLE Myth)


Book Description

This structural analysis of myth, first published in 1985, focuses on social and political problems of Indo-European mythology. Dr Jarich Oosten tells how the ancient Indo-European gods competed for supreme power and the exclusive possession of the sacred potion of wisdom and immortality. In examining the social code of the wars of the gods, he reveals that there are remarkably consistent patterns in time and space: paternal relatives, equals at first, prove unable to share power, magic goods, etc; while some gods retain their divine status as an exclusive prerogative, their brothers or paternal cousins are transformed into demons; relatives by marriage, however, who are unequal at first, succeed in sharing power and magic goods, and thus become equal partners in the pantheon. Dr Oosten describes how the ancient mythological cycles were broken down and transformed into heroic sagas and epics, and shows how many traditionally related themes – the severed head, the magic cauldron – were preserved. Gradually the political problems of kingship came to overshadow the social problems of kinship, as in the development of the myths of King Arthur. Dr Oosten argues that the social code remains basically the same, and his analysis of this code gives a fascinating perspective on the development of Indo-European mythology from the oldest written sources to the comparatively recent faitytales.







Ancient Indo-European Dialects


Book Description

The first book to provide a rigorous and comprehensive view of the linguistic divisions of early Europe, Asia Minor, Northern India, and Chinese Turkestan. The unifying topic "Ancient Indo-European Dialects" was chosen with a view to utilizing to best advantage the many competences of the contributors int eh extinct languages and language groups of early Europe, the Near East, and Central Asia. In this book each specialist treats the subdivision particularly suited to his research interest, yet is always conscious of and conversant with the entire sweep and continuity oft he Indo-European language area. It is an effort at delimiting the historically and methodologically demonstrable subgroupings, including a critique of such time-worn combination as Italo-Celtic and Balto-Slavic, and incorporating the principles of modern dialectology in a diachronic application. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1966.




Social Transformations in Archaeology


Book Description

Social Transformations in Archaeology explores the relevance of archaeology to the study of long-term change and to the understanding of our contemporary world. The articles are divided into: * broader theoretical issues * post-colonial issues in a wide range of contexts * archaeological examination of colonialism with case studies from the Mediterranean in the first millenium BC and historical Africa.




Re-Thinking Kinship and Feudalism in Early Medieval Europe


Book Description

This is the second collection of studies by Stephen D. White to be published by Variorum (the first being Feuding and Peace-Making in Eleventh-Century France). The essays in this volume look principally at France and England from Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon times up to the 12th century. They analyze Latin and Old French discourses that medieval nobles used to construct their relationships with kin, lords, men, and friends, and investigate the political dimensions of such relationships with particular reference to patronage/clientage, the use of land as an item of exchange, and feuding. In so doing, the essays call into question the conventional practice of studying kinship and feudalism as independent systems of legal institutions and propose new strategies for studying them.