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Throughout his academic career, Anthony C. Yu has employed ... Read more

Throughout his academic career, Anthony C. Yu has employed a comparative approach to literary analysis that pays careful attention to the religious and philosophical elements of Chinese and Western texts. His mastery of both canons remains unmatched in the field, and his immense knowledge of the contexts that gave rise to each tradition supplies the foundations for ideal comparative scholarship. In these essays, Yu explores the overlap between literature and religion in Chinese and Western literature. He opens with a principal method for relating texts to religion and follows with several essays that apply this approach to single texts in discrete traditions: the Greek religion in Prometheus; Christian theology in Milton; ancient Chinese philosophical thought in Laozi; and Chinese religious syncretism in The Journey to the West. Yu's essays juxtapose Chinese and Western texts— Cratylus next to Xunzi, for example—and discuss their relationship to language and subjects, such as liberal Greek education against general education in China. He compares a specific Western text and religion to a specific Chinese text and religion. He considers the Divina Commedia in the context of Catholic theology alongside The Journey to the West as it relates to Chinese syncretism, united by the theme of pilgrimage. Yet Yu's focus isn't entirely tied to the classics. He also considers the struggle for human rights in China and how this topic relates to ancient Chinese social thought and modern notions of rights in the West. "In virtually every high-cultural system," Yu writes, "be it the Indic, the Islamic, the Sino-Japanese, or the Judeo—Christian, the literary tradition has developed in intimate—indeed, often intertwining-relation to religious thought, practice, institution, and symbolism." Comparative Journeys is a major step toward unraveling this complexity, revealing through the skilled observation of texts the extraordinary intimacy between two supposedly disparate languages and cultures. (10/1/09) Minimize

Higher education is increasingly international. The issues ... Read more

Higher education is increasingly international. The issues that affect universities in one country are important globally. There are a myriad of links among academic systems worldwide. Comparative Higher Education is the first book to systematically explore many of the most important implications of the globalization of higher education. It explores the links among universities, including foreign students and scholars, the impact of the Western higher education idea on universities throughout the world, and especially the current importance of American academic ideas worldwide, and the patterns of inequality among academic systems. Teachers and students are at the heart of the academic systems. Comparative Higher Education focuses on professors and students-especially the political involvement of both professors and students-and seeks to understand their roles in a comparative framework. The book concludes with a discussion of higher education development in the newly industrializing countries. These Pacific Rim nations are examples of how higher education has been used in the process of development. Comparative Higher Education reflects more than three decades of research in the field, and places key elements in the globalization of higher education in a useful framework. Worldwide examples are used to illustrate analyses of such key topics as international exchange, future trends in university development, the complex relationships among academic systems in the industrialized and developing countries, and related issues. Minimize

Arising independently in various parts of the world, early ... Read more

Arising independently in various parts of the world, early civilizations--the first class-based societies in human history--are of importance to social scientists interested in the development of complexity, while their cultural productions fascinate both humanists and the general public. This book offers the first detailed comparative study of the seven most fully documented early civilizations: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang China, the Aztecs and their neighbors, the Classic Maya, the Inca, and the Yoruba. Unlike previous studies, equal attention is paid to similarities and differences in their sociopolitical organization, their economic systems, and their religious beliefs, knowledge, art, and values. Many of this study's findings are surprising and provocative. They challenge not only current understandings of early civilizations but also the theoretical foundations of modern archaeology and anthropology. Rival cultural and ecological approaches are demonstrated to be complimentary to one another, while a comprehensive understanding of human behavior is shown to require that more attention be paid to psychology and the neurosciences. Bruce G. Trigger is James McGill Professor in the Department of Anthropology at McGill University. He received his PhD from Yale University and has carried out archaeological research in Egypt and the Sudan. His current interests include the comparative study of early civilizations, the history of archaeology, and archaeological and anthropological theory. He has received various scholarly awards, including the Prix Leon-Gerin from the Quebec government, for his sustained contributions to the social sciences. He is an honarary fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and an honarary member of the Prehistoric Society (U.K.). His numerous books include Sociological Evolution (Blackwell, 1998), Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context (Amer. Univ in Cairo, 1993), A History of Archaeological Thought (Cambridge, 1989), and The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (McGill-Queens Univ., 1976). Minimize

"Comparative literature," Earl Miner writes, "clearly invol ... Read more

"Comparative literature," Earl Miner writes, "clearly involves something more than comparing two great German poets, and something different from a Chinese studying French literature or a Russian studying Italian literature." But what would a true intercultural poetics be? This work proposes various ways to "study something other than what are, all things considered, the short and simple annals of one cultural parish at one historic moment."The first developed account of theories of literature from an intercultural standpoint, the book shows that an "originative" or "foundational" poetics develops in cultures with explicit poetics when critics define the nature and conditions of literature in terms of the then most esteemed genredrama, lyric, or narrative. Earl Miner demonstrates that these definitions and inferences from them constitute useful bases for comparative poetics. Minimize

With a foreword by Professor Erwin H. Epstein.A unique intr ... Read more

With a foreword by Professor Erwin H. Epstein.A unique introduction to this important field, providing a comprehensive overview of the key themes, including:- defining comparative and international education- how comparative studies in education have developed- methodological approaches to comparative and international education research- the relationship between education and national development- the power of comparative studies in investigating student achievement and school effectiveness- what comparative studies have taught us about educational issues such as policy borrowing, processes of transition, post-conflict education, education in small states, pedagogy, and citizenship. Minimize

Free Worldwide Delivery : Comparative and International Edu ... Read more

Free Worldwide Delivery : Comparative and International Education : Paperback : Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. : 9781847060594 : 1847060595 : 20 Mar 2008 : Combines introductory coverage of both 'comparative' and 'international' education for Masters and PhD students. This book provides an overview of the themes, including defining comparative and international education; how comparative studies in education have developed; and the relationship between education and national development. Minimize

This core text meets the needs of those involved in courses ... Read more

This core text meets the needs of those involved in courses relating to the British political system. The author examines the institutions and practices of British government and politics and makes selective comparisons with the experience of other countries, mainly liberal democracies.In each chapter, there is a general comparative analysis of the theme, followed by a thorough examination of the situation in Britain. Three examples from overseas are then briefly explored.Key Features:• accessibly written, reliable and up-to-date• offers an interesting and penetrating analysis of the political scene in Britain• uses information and examples derived from the 2005 election• informs the discussion of British politics by making appropriate international comparisons (July 2010) Minimize

The preparation, serving and eating of food are common feat ... Read more

The preparation, serving and eating of food are common features of all human societies, and have been the focus of study for numerous anthropologists - from Sir James Frazer onwards - from a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives. It is in the context of this previous anthropological work that Jack Goody sets his own observations on cooking in West Africa. He criticises those approaches which overlook the comparative historical dimension of culinary, and other, cultural differences that emerge in class societies, both of which elements he particularly emphasises in this book. The central question that Professor Goody addresses here is why a differentiated 'haute cuisine' has not emerged in Africa, as it has in other parts of the world. His account of cooking in West Africa is followed by a survey of the culinary practices of the major Eurasian societies throughout history - ranging from Ancient Egypt, Imperial Rome and medieval China to early modern Europe - in which he relates the differences in food preparation and consumption emerging in these societies to differences in their socio-economic structures, specifically in modes of production and communication. He concludes with an examination of the world-wide rise of 'industrial food' and its impact on Third World societies, showing that the ability of the latter to resist cultural domination in food, as in other things, is related to the nature of their pre-existing socio-economic structures. The arguments presented here will interest all social scientists and historians concerned with cultural history and social theory. Minimize

Americans like to believe that theirs is the land of opport ... Read more

Americans like to believe that theirs is the land of opportunity, but the hard facts are that children born into poor families in the United States tend to stay poor and children born into wealthy families generally stay rich. Other countries have shown more success at lessening the effects of inequality on mobility possibly by making public investments in education, health, and family well-being that offset the private advantages of the wealthy. What can the United States learn from these other countries about how to provide children from disadvantaged backgrounds an equal chance in life? Making comparisons across ten countries, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting brings together a team of eminent international scholars to examine why advantage and disadvantage persist across generations. The book sheds light on how the social and economic mobility of children differs within and across countries and the impact private family resources, public policies, and social institutions may have on mobility. In what ways do parents pass advantage or disadvantage on to their children? Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting is an expansive exploration of the relationship between parental socioeconomic status and background and the outcomes of their grown children. The authors also address the impact of education and parental financial assistance on mobility. Contributors Miles Corak, Lori Curtis, and Shelley Phipps look at how family economic background influences the outcomes of adult children in the United States and Canada. They find that, despite many cultural similarities between the two countries, Canada has three times the rate of intergenerational mobility as the United States possibly because Canada makes more public investments in its labor market, health care, and family programs. Jo Blanden and her colleagues explore a number of factors affecting how advantage is transmitted between parents and children in the United States and the United Kingdom, including education, occupation, marriage, and health. They find that despite the two nations having similar rates of intergenerational mobility and social inequality, lack of educational opportunity plays a greater role in limiting U.S. mobility, while the U.K. s deeply rooted social class structure makes it difficult for the disadvantaged to transcend their circumstances. Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook examine cognitive and behavioral school readiness across income groups and find that pre-school age children in both the United States and Britain show substantial income-related gaps in school readiness driven in part by poorly developed parenting skills among overburdened, low-income families. The authors suggest that the most encouraging policies focus on both school and home interventions, including such measures as increases in federal funding for Head Start programs in the United States, raising pre-school staff qualifications in Britain, and parenting programs in both countries.A significant step forward in the study of intergenerational mobility, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting demonstrates that the transmission of advantage or disadvantage from one generation to the next varies widely from country to country. This striking finding is a particular cause for concern in the United States, where the persistence of disadvantage remains stubbornly high. But, it provides a reason to hope that by better understanding mobility across the generations abroad, we can find ways to do better at home. Minimize

Four popular translations in one convenient volume * NIV, ... Read more

Four popular translations in one convenient volume * NIV, King James Version, NASB Updated, and Amplified side-by-side * A powerful resource for studying God's word * Clear, easy-to-read print When you don't want to lose anything in the translation, the Comparative Study Bible is a tool that lets you explore all the rich nuances and shades of meaning in the Bible text without having to learn the original biblical languages. It sets four popular translations side-by-side for you to compare and contrast: the trustworthiness and versatility of the New International Version, the time-honored authority of the King James Version, the word-for-word accuracy of the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition, and the scholarly detail of the Amplified Bible. Passages and verses from the four versions are aligned in parallel columns on facing pages for ease of study. Each translation offers insight on different facets of meaning in the text, giving you the benefit of the work of different groups of scholars to help you understand and interpret the Bible for yourself. The Amplified Bible helps you take your study a step further, offering a format that gives you access to the shades of meaning in the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. A valuable resource for gaining insight into scriptural truths, the Comparative Study Bible helps you compare translations at a glance and is an excellent resource for in-depth Bible study. Bringing New Meaning To Your Bible Study Features include: Each two-page spread contains a complete Scripture portion from these versions: New International Version King James Version New American Standard Bible, Updated Amplified Bible Double-column format 8-point type You don't have to take a Greek or Hebrew class to enjoy the benefits of understanding the nuances and meanings of biblical words and phrases. The Comparative Study Bible brings four popular translations together into one convenient volume. Featuring the bestselling New International version, the classic King James Version, the 1995 New American Standard Bible, Updated, and the Amplified Bible, this parallel Bible helps you compare and contrast the strengths of four of the most trusted translations. And the special features of the Amplified Bible help you unlock the original meaning of key words and phrases. When you want to study the Bible in depth, comparing different Bible translations helps you discover the different nuances of meaning in the text. The translation committees for each Bible version chose different ways of translating the original Scripture texts into English. By comparing them, you can get a more complete understanding of what the original writers intended without having to learn Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Emphasizing the importance of the words the original writers used, as well as their context, the Comparative Study Bible gives you access to translations that allow you to read the Bible without commentary, yet enables you to compare key words that expand on what the text is saying. The word-for-word translations of the King James Version and the New American Standard Bible, Updated, let you see English rendering of the words the original Bible authors used, while the New International Version represents the best balance of word-for-word and thought-for-thought translation, communicating the meaning more clearly to modern readers. And the Amplified Bible's unique system of punctuation, italics, and references helps you take your study a step further, allowing you to unlock subtle shades of meaning found in the original languages. The Comparative Study Bible offers easy access to four distinctive translations in clear, easy-to-read print. Comparative Study Bible includes: New International Version: Today's bestselling translation, offering a unique combination of scholarly accuracy and easy readability. The balance of word-for-word and thought-for-thought approach to translation allows today's r Minimize

This is the first full-scale comparative study of the natur ... Read more

This is the first full-scale comparative study of the nature of slavery. In a work of prodigious scholarship and enormous breadth, which draws on the tribal, ancient, premodern, and modern worlds, Orlando Patterson discusses the internal dynamics of slavery in sixty-six societies over time. These include Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, China, Korea, the Islamic kingdoms, Africa, the Caribbean islands, and the American South. Slavery is shown to be a parasitic relationship between master and slave, invariably entailing the violent domination of a natally alienated, or socially dead, person. The phenomenon of slavery as an institution, the author argues, is a single process of recruitment, incorporation on the margin of society, and eventual manumission or death. Distinctions abound in this work. Beyond the reconceptualization of the basic master-slave relationship and the redefinition of slavery as an institution with universal attributes, Patterson rejects the legalistic Roman concept that places the "slave as property" at the core of the system. Rather, he emphasizes the centrality of sociological, symbolic, and ideological factors interwoven within the slavery system. Along the whole continuum of slavery, the cultural milieu is stressed, as well as political and psychological elements. Materialistic and racial factors are deemphasized. The author is thus able, for example, to deal with "elite" slaves, or even eunuchs, in the same framework of understanding as fieldhands; to uncover previously hidden principles of inheritance of slave and free status; and to show the tight relationship between slavery and freedom. Interdisciplinary in its methods, this study employs qualitative and quantitative techniques from all the social sciences to demonstrate the universality of structures and processes in slave systems and to reveal cross-cultural variations in the slave trade and in slavery, in rates of manumission, and in the status of freedmen. Slavery and Social Death lays out a vast new corpus of research that underpins an original and provocative thesis. Minimize

This extraordinary collection of essays recasts prevailing ... Read more

This extraordinary collection of essays recasts prevailing understandings of the role of violence in the formation of the modern world. By illuminating the links between exceptional ruptures and the routine maintenance of social order, the collection expands and redefines our understanding of political violence.By means of a combination of detailed historical studies and imaginative reflection, this book explores the often unrecognized violent foundations of modern nations. Focusing on the relations between the state and the domestic order, it directs attention to contests over the establishment and representation of meanings and addresses the impact of state-centered categories and narratives on the organization and collective remembering of violence. The essays cover a wide range of regions, time periods, and processes, including the Middle East, South Asia, Latin America, the United States, and Europe, and span violent uprisings as well as the quotidian administration of the law. As its title suggests, States of Violence brings together the stable and the transient, the institutional and the experiential, the state sanctioned and the insurgent, inviting recognition of the multiple intersections of practices of governance and processes of feeling."Few scholars have managed as effectively as these to denature the place of violence in modern social life and thought. They make it abundantly plain that the frank brutality, often associated with colonial contexts, is inseparable from less acknowledged forms of "peaceful violence" that pervade much of our contemporary political life."-Jean Comaroff, Bernard E. and Ellen C. Distinguished Service Professor, University of ChicagoFernando Coronil, a Venezuelan citizen, is Associate Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Michigan and Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. His research focuses on contemporary historical transformations in Latin America and on theoretical issues concerning the state, modernity, and postcolonialism. His numerous publications include The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela; "Beyond Occidentalism: Towards Non-Imperial Geohistorical Categories"; and the introductory essay in Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, by Fernando Ortiz. He is completing a book on the coup against President Chávez of Venezuela.Julie Skurski teaches in the Departments of Anthropology and History at the University of Michigan and is the Associate Director of the Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History. Her research concerns the intersections of national, racial, and gender relations in Latin America, with a focus on popular religiosity. Her publications include "The Ambiguities of Authenticity in Latin America: Doña Bárbara and the Construction of National Identity," in Becoming National, G. Eley and R. Suny, eds. She is currently completing Civilizing Barbarism, a book on gender, mestizaje, and the state in Venezuela. Minimize

WINNER OF THE 2007 CHLA BOOK AWARD! Children's literature h ... Read more

WINNER OF THE 2007 CHLA BOOK AWARD! Children's literature has transcended linguistic and cultural borders since books and magazines for young readers were first produced, with popular books translated throughout the world. Emer O'Sullivan traces the history of comparative children's literature studies, from the enthusiastic internationalism of the post-war period – which set out from the idea of a supra-national world republic of childhood – to modern comparative criticism. Drawing on the scholarship and children's literature of many cultures and languages, she outlines the constituent areas that structure the field, including contact and transfer studies, intertextuality studies, intermediality studies and image studies. In doing so, she provides the first comprehensive overview of this exciting new research area. Comparative Children's Literature also links the fields of narratology and translation studies, to develop an original and highly valuable communicative model of translation. Taking in issues of children's 'classics', the canon and world literature for children, Comparative Children's Literature reveals that this branch of literature is not as genuinely international as it is often fondly assumed to be and is essential reading for those interested in the consequences of globalization on children's literature and culture. Minimize

The volume is the first annual of CLCWeb: Comparative Liter ... Read more

The volume is the first annual of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, a thematic volume with selected papers from material published in the journal in volumes 1.1-4 of 1999 and 2.1-4 of 2000. The papers are with focus on theories and histories of comparative literature and the emerging field of comparative cultural studies. Contributors are Kwaku Asante-Darko on African postcolonial literature, Hendrik Birus on Goethe's concept of world literature, Amiya Dev on comparative literature in India, Marian Galik on interliterariness, Ernst Grabovszki on globalization, new media, and world literature, Jan Walsh Hokenson on the culture of the context, Marko Juvan on literariness, Karl S.Y. Kao on metaphor, Kristof Jacek Kozak on comparative literature in Slovenia, Manuela Mourao on comparative literature in the USA, Jola Skulj on cultural identity, Slobodan Sucur on period styles and theory, Peter Swirski on popular and highbrow literature, Antony Tatlow on textual anthropology, William H. Thornton on East/West power politics in cultural studies, Steven Totosy on comparative cultural studies, and Xiaoyi Zhou and Q.S. Tong on comparative literature in China. The papers are followed by a bibliography of scholarship in comparative literature and cultural studies, compiled by Steven Totosy, Steven Aoun, and Wendy C. Nielsen and an index. Minimize

This regulations and codes title is designed to assist conf ... Read more

This regulations and codes title is designed to assist conflict of laws teachers in taking a comparative approach to the subject. International commercial transaction have become commonplace. Many injuries and deaths have their causes or their victims abroad. It is therefore imperative that the course in conflict of law include study of how foreign countries treat the course's major topics of judicial jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition and enforcement of judgments. Interesting patterns emerge. Many choice-of-law codes and regulations have, as an exception to applying the law of the place of injury to torts, the law of the common domicile of the parties. In family-law related matters, there is much adherence to citizenship as a party's personal law.domicile of the parties. Many examples could be given of the need for a comparative approach to conflict of laws. These materials, treaties, regulations, and codes from around the world, with questions and comments, will assist in taking that approach. For example, service of process abroad is controlled by a Hague convention. The sanction for not effecting service in accordance with the convention is dismissal of the action. In the landmark opinion setting due process standards for personal jurisdiction, Justice O Connor stated that an important factor in asserting jurisdiction over a foreign defendant is the Federal interest in Government's foreign relations policies. (Asahi Metal Ind. v. Superior Court, 480 U.S. 102, 115, 107 S.Ct. 1026, 1034 (1987).) A United States court should not give offense to a friendly foreign country by exercising jurisdiction considered exorbitant in the foreign defendant's country. To know whether the basis for jurisdiction is deemed unreasonable in the defendant's country or by widely accepted international standards, it is necessary know the law of that country and those standards. The Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the American Law Institute proposed a new master choice-of-law provision for the Uniform Commercial Code. State after state rejected the proposed section. The Commissioners and the Institute withdrew the section and reverted to the former provision, which was drafted in the 1950's. The European Union has a carefully crafted regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations. Perhaps using the EU regulation as an example would have avoided the fatal flaws in U.C.C.'s aborted choice-of-law provision and would permit a substitute provision more satisfactory than one that was drafted sixty years ago. Minimize

This landmark collection brings together a range of excitin ... Read more

This landmark collection brings together a range of exciting new comparative work in the burgeoning field of hemispheric studies. Scholars working in the fields of Latin American studies, Asian American studies, American studies, American literature, African Diaspora studies, and comparative literature address the urgent question of how scholars might reframe disciplinary boundaries within the broad area of what is generally called American studies. The essays take as their starting points such questions as: What happens to American literary, political, historical, and cultural studies if we recognize the interdependency of nation-state developments throughout all the Americas? What happens if we recognize the nation as historically evolving and contingent rather than already formed? Finally, what happens if the "fixed" borders of a nation are recognized not only as historically produced political constructs but also as component parts of a deeper, more multilayered series of national and indigenous histories? With essays that examine stamps, cartoons, novels, film, art, music, travel documents, and governmental publications, Hemispheric American Studies seeks to excavate the complex cultural history of texts and discourses across the ever-changing and stratified geopolitical and cultural fields that collectively comprise the American hemisphere. This collection promises to chart new directions in American literary and cultural studies. Minimize

The work presented in the volume in fields of the humanitie ... Read more

The work presented in the volume in fields of the humanities and social sciences is based on 1) the notion of the existence and the describability and analysis of a culture (including, e.g., history, literature, society, the arts, etc.) specific of/to the region designated as Central Europe, 2) the relevance of a field designated as Central European Holocaust studies, and 3) the relevance, in the study of culture, of the comparative and contextual approach designated as comparative cultural studies. Papers in the volume are by scholars working in Holocaust Studies in Australia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Serbia, the United Kingdom, and the US. Minimize

In this bold theoretical work, Bruce Lincoln explores the w ... Read more

In this bold theoretical work, Bruce Lincoln explores the ways in which myth, ritual, and classification hold human societies together--and how, in times of crisis, they can be used to take a society apart and reconstruct it. Without overlooking the role of coercive force in the maintenance (or overthrow) of social structures, Lincoln argues his thesis with compelling illustrations drawn from such diverse areas as Platonic philosophy, the Upanishads of India, ancient Celtic banquets, professional wrestling, and the Spanish Civil War. This wide-ranging interdisciplinary study--which draws on works in history, semiotics, anthropology, sociology, classics, and indology--offers challenging new insights into the complex dynamics of social cohesion and change. Minimize

Arising independently in various parts of the world, early ... Read more

Arising independently in various parts of the world, early civilizations--the first class-based societies in human history--are of importance to social scientists interested in the development of complexity, while their cultural productions fascinate both humanists and the general public. This book offers the first detailed comparative study of the seven most fully documented early civilizations: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang China, the Aztecs and their neighbors, the Classic Maya, the Inca, and the Yoruba. Unlike previous studies, equal attention is paid to similarities and differences in their sociopolitical organization, their economic systems, and their religious beliefs, knowledge, art, and values. Many of this study's findings are surprising and provocative. They challenge not only current understandings of early civilizations but also the theoretical foundations of modern archaeology and anthropology. Rival cultural and ecological approaches are demonstrated to be complimentary to one another, while a comprehensive understanding of human behavior is shown to require that more attention be paid to psychology and the neurosciences. Bruce G. Trigger is James McGill Professor in the Department of Anthropology at McGill University. He received his PhD from Yale University and has carried out archaeological research in Egypt and the Sudan. His current interests include the comparative study of early civilizations, the history of archaeology, and archaeological and anthropological theory. He has received various scholarly awards, including the Prix Leon-Gerin from the Quebec government, for his sustained contributions to the social sciences. He is an honarary fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and an honarary member of the Prehistoric Society (U.K.). His numerous books include Sociological Evolution (Blackwell, 1998), Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context (Amer. Univ in Cairo, 1993), A History of Archaeological Thought (Cambridge, 1989), and The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (McGill-Queens Univ., 1976). Minimize

These interdisciplinary studies address pre-1900 non-Wester ... Read more

These interdisciplinary studies address pre-1900 non-Western urban growth in the African Sudan, Mexico, the Ottoman Middle East, and South, Southeast, and East Asia. Therein, primary and secondary cities served as functional societal agents that were viable and potentially powerful alternatives to the diversity of kinship-based local or regional networks, the societal delegated spaces in which local and external agencies met and interacted in a wide variety of political, economic, spiritual, and military forms. They were variously transportation centers, sites of a central temples, court and secular administration centers, fortified military compounds, intellectual (literary) activity cores, and marketplace and/or craft production sites. One element of these urban centers' existence might have been more important than others, as a political capital, a cultural capital, or an economic capital. In the post-1500 era of increasing globalization, especially with the introduction of new technologies of transport, communication, and warfare, non-Western cities even more became the hubs of knowledge, societal, and cultural formation and exchange because of the location of both markets and political centers in urban areas. New forms of professionalism, militarization, and secular bureaucratization were foundational to centralizing state hierarchies that could exert more control over their networked segments. This book's authors consciously attempt to balance the histories of functional urban agency between the local and the exogenous, giving weight to local activities, events, beliefs, institutions, communities, individuals, and historical narratives. In several studies, both external and internal societal prejudices and the inability of key decision makers to understand indigenous reality led to negative consequences both in the local environment and in the global arena. Minimize

Rightly fearing that unscrupulous rulers would break them u ... Read more

Rightly fearing that unscrupulous rulers would break them up, seize their resources, or submit them to damaging forms of intervention, strong networks of trust such as kinship groups, clandestine religious sects, and trade diasporas have historically insulated themselves from political control by a variety of strategies. Drawing on a vast range of comparisons over time and space, Charles Tilly asks and answers how, and with what consequences, members of trust networks have evaded, compromised with, or even sought connections with political regimes. Minimize

The comparative study of law and the institutions of law ha ... Read more

The comparative study of law and the institutions of law have enriched our understanding of the role law plays in our society by comparing law and legal institutions in different countries, but we have lacked a strong theoretical structure. Scholars studying the role of law in society by applying economic theories have offered a parsimonious theoretical structure with which to understand the relationship between law and society but have tended to focus only on American legal issues. Ugo Mattei joins insights from both areas of scholarship in a productive relationship that furthers our understanding of why societies adopt different laws and why some societies share similar laws.Mattei shows how concepts from economics can be applied to the study of comparative law. He then applies the concepts to several significant problems in comparative law, including the history and sources of law, differences between civil and common law systems, and the reasons for legal change and the movement of law from one country to another. He looks at specific problems in property, contracts, and trust law. Finally he uses the insights he has developed to understand the issues involved in changing law in developing countries and in formerly socialist countries.This book will be of interest to scholars of law, economics, and development, as well as those interested in transformation in formerly communist states.Ugo Mattei is Alfred and Hanna Fromm Professor of International and Comparative Law, Hastings College of Law, University of California; and Professor of Civil Law, University of Trento. Minimize

Kinship, religion, and economy were not natural to humans, ... Read more

Kinship, religion, and economy were not natural to humans, nor to species of apes that had to survive on the African savanna. Society from its very beginnings involved an uneasy necessity that often stood in conflict with humans ape ancestry; these tensions only grew along with later, more complex eventually colossal sociocultural systems. The ape in us was not extinguished, nor obviated, by culture; indeed, our ancestry continues to place pressures on individuals and their sociocultural creations. Not just an exercise in history, this pathbreaking book dispels many myths about the beginning of society to gain new understandings of the many pressures on societies today. Vividly written for scholars and students alike. Minimize

Transcending ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries, ... Read more

Transcending ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries, early empires shaped thousands of years of world history. Yet despite the global prominence of empire, individual cases are often studied in isolation. This series seeks to change the terms of the debate by promoting cross-cultural, comparative, and transdisciplinary perspectives on imperial state formation prior to the European colonial expansion.Two thousand years ago, up to one-half of the human species was contained within two political systems, the Roman empire in western Eurasia (centered on the Mediterranean Sea) and the Han empire in eastern Eurasia (centered on the great North China Plain). Both empires were broadly comparable in terms of size and population, and even largely coextensive in chronological terms (221 BCE to 220 CE for the Qin/Han empire, c. 200 BCE to 395 CE for the unified Roman empire). At the most basic level of resolution, the circumstances of their creation are not very different. In the East, the Shang and Western Zhou periods created a shared cultural framework for the Warring States, with the gradual consolidation of numerous small polities into a handful of large kingdoms which were finally united by the westernmost marcher state of Qin. In the Mediterranean, we can observe comparable political fragmentation and gradual expansion of a unifying civilization, Greek in this case, followed by the gradual formation of a handful of major warring states (the Hellenistic kingdoms in the east, Rome-Italy, Syracuse and Carthage in the west), and likewise eventual unification by the westernmost marcher state, the Roman-led Italian confederation. Subsequent destabilization occurred again in strikingly similar ways: both empires came to be divided into two halves, one that contained the original core but was more exposed to the main barbarian periphery (the west in the Roman case, the north in China), and a traditionalist half in the east (Rome) and south (China).These processes of initial convergence and subsequent divergence in Eurasian state formation have never been the object of systematic comparative analysis. This volume, which brings together experts in the history of the ancient Mediterranean and early China, makes a first step in this direction, by presenting a series of comparative case studies on clearly defined aspects of state formation in early eastern and western Eurasia, focusing on the process of initial developmental convergence. It includes a general introduction that makes the case for a comparative approach; a broad sketch of the character of state formation in western and eastern Eurasia during the final millennium of antiquity; and six thematically connected case studies of particularly salient aspects of this process. Minimize

A new examination of contemporary federalism and federation ... Read more

A new examination of contemporary federalism and federation, which delivers a detailed theoretical study underpinned by fresh case studies. It is grounded in a clear distinction between 'federations', particular kinds of states, and 'federalism', the thinking that drives and promotes them. It also details the origins, formation, evolution and operations of federal political interests, through an authoritative series of chapters that: analyze the conceptual bases of federalism and federation through the evolution of the intellectual debate on federalism; the American Federal experience; the origins of federal states; and the relationship between state-building and national integration explore comparative federalism and federation by looking at five main pathways into comparative analysis with empirical studies on the US, Canada, Australia, India, Malaysia, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the EU explore the pathology of federations, looking at failures and successes, the impact of globalization. The final chapter also presents a definitive assessment of federal theory. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of federalism, devolution, comparative politics and government. Minimize

Free Worldwide Delivery : Comparative Theology : Paperback ... Read more

Free Worldwide Delivery : Comparative Theology : Paperback : John Wiley and Sons Ltd : 9781405179744 : 1405179740 : 16 Mar 2010 : Drawing upon the author's three decades of work in comparative theology, this is a pertinent and comprehensive introduction to the field, which offers a clear guide to the reader, enabling them to engage in comparative study. Minimize

This book traces the development of artistic talent from ea ... Read more

This book traces the development of artistic talent from early childhood to adolescence through a series of studies that look comparatively at development in talented and less-talented populations. It presents a model of artistic talent that attributes individual differences to the figurative abilities of talented children. The model proposes that artistic talent results from the continual coordination of heightened figurative abilities with conceptual processes throughout a period critical in semiotic development. The studies focus on the development of form, spatial relationships and composition. Milbrath's theory is richly supported by original examples of children's artwork. Minimize