Book Description
This book traces the evolution of Maya civilization through the Pre-Columbian era, a span of some 2,500 years from the origins of complex society within Mesoamerica to the end of the Pre-Columbian world with the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. The sixth edition presents new archaeological evidence and historical studies and offers the most extensive revisions of this classic work to date. The result is the most thorough and incisive study of the origins and development of ancient Maya civilization ever published.
Customer Reviews:
dense piece of trash.......2007-10-04
What I am finding really amazing about a lot of these textbooks, is how they get reviewed here on Amazon.com. It is as if someone is taking advantage of the rating system to pump up the image of this book. Look at most of the reviews here. The tend to all be the same length and are mysteriously boastful of the quality of the text. Maybe it is just me, but I find that all the reviews have a similar slant to them.
Anyway
I am a student at McMaster University, and I found this book to be an incoherant collection. Its dense with complicated wording
Its was obviously written by an expert, but the quality of writing is lacking. Its as if Sharer just started filling up page after page with words with no regard for structure or comprehension. Its as if the goal was "hey, lets create a university text we can sell... universities needs texts for this subject and there doesn't seem to be an existing text available...we can make some money if we write one."
Its hard to really capture the essence of the book here.
but
I was really excited to take the Mayan course and learn about this ancient civilization. This textbook really just made the course a chore.
What would have been more interesting would have been a course-pack filled with independently written articles. This textbook (like most university textbooks) is a catch-all tome of meandering.
poor quality!
Don't become a victim of the university textboo industry. For those interested in the subject search for some more popular reading.
terrible!
"If I'd had more time, I'd have written a shorter book.".......2007-07-23
Had this book been less than half its size readers would end up learning much more about the Maya from it. Unfortunately, there's much too much that belongs in an Archeology 101 class here and by the time you get to some discussion of the Maya, you're half asleep. Those of us who are not reading archeology for the first time will wish the author had just kept his discussion to the Maya, as the title suggests he will, and assumed we understood the basics.
Personally, I'm still looking for a book on the Maya so that as I travel from site to site in Quintanaroo, Yucatan, Guatemala and Honduras, I will have a basic understanding of the site I'm driving to. I just booked a trip that will book me in the area of Chac Mool soon. I'll see what I can find.
Very Imformative.......2007-07-10
By far the most thorough book on the Ancient Maya I have ever seen. It covers all the history and gives a great deal of arceological information. There is also a lot of information on the religious, social, and economic life of the Maya. The book covers in great deal the history of each Mayan polity and it is very well organized. If there is anything you want to know about the Maya it will be in this book.
A Brilliant Survey of Maya Civilization.......2007-05-25
Mormons have been hitting this review. They don't want you to read what a world renown authority on the Maya says. Your positive votes are appreciated. Thanks.
Robert J. Sharer is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of the American Section of the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His fascinating and heavy book analyses the Maya from every angle. Although Sharer does not mention the Book of Mormon, he does give a devastating answer to those who would link Meso-American civilization with the ancient Hebrews, placing such theories squarely in the 19th century.
For example, Sharer writes: "After more than a century of gathering and analyzing archaeological evidence, we have discovered nothing to support the idea of intervention by people from the Old World." "This is not to say that accidental contacts between the Old and New World peoples could not have occurred before the age of European exploration" (p. 6).
"On the basis of the available evidence, then, the courses of cultural development in the New and Old Worlds seem clearly independent of each other and devoid of significant contact until 1492" (intro., p. 7).
The ancient Maya civilization, Sharer continues, "are to be `explained' not as a product of transplanted Old World civilization, but as the result of the processes that underlie the growth of any culture, including those that develop the kind of complexity we call civilization."
"The idea, which either explicitly or implicitly asserts that the peoples of the New World were incapable of shaping their own destiny or developing sophisticated cultures independently of Old World influence, is still popular in quarters." "But this is but one more popular myth devoid of fact, for the evidence points unmistakably toward the evolution of civilization in the New World independently of developments in the Old World."
The descriptions of Maya civilization given by Sharer stand in marked contrast with the civilizations described in the Book of Mormon. Sharer writes: "Several painted pottery vessels graphically depict the use of an enema apparatus in apparently ritual settings; the direct introduction of alcoholic or hallucinogenic substances into the colon results in immediate absorption by the body, thereby hastening the effect." The purpose was to induce visions in the Maya temples and elsewhere. The hallucinogenic substances used by the Maya included morning glory and the poison glands from tropical toads.
Further, nowhere in the North or South America did the civilizations have horses, cattle, sheep, steel weapons, swords, or chariots mentioned in the Book of Mormon.
I became fascinated with the ancient Maya when some Mormon missionaries showed me "Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, by Milton R. Hunter." Because this book (2 vols) presented evidence that was the exact opposite of what I had learned in my basic anthropology class, I investigated Dr. Hunter's sources. Alas, they did not check out.
One example was Hunter's "valuable Book of Mormon evidence" that showed him standing by a wall pointing to a Maya carving on the Temple of the Wall Panels at Chichen Itza, Mexico. The carving was supposed to represent a "horse." After much research, and not finding any reference to a carving of a horse at Chichen Itza, I discovered that the carving was the damaged portion of a backwards figure "S" jaguar serpent (a feather is the horse's head).
A detailed rubbing of the stone can be seen in the "Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel," by Ralph Roys (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1967), plate 1.
Further, nowhere in the North or South America did the civilizations have horses, cattle, sheep, steel weapons, swords, or chariots mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The Maya of real history were so ignorant of horses that when Cortes left his lame horse in the care of the Itza Maya, they fed it meat. The animal, of course, died from this strange diet.
Terrified, the Maya erected a statue in the shape of a tapir, the closest approximation to a horse in their environment. They worshipped this "horse" as Tzimin Chac, after Tzimin, the tapir, whose profile roughly resembles a horse, no other animal save the deer even approximating the alien animal.
In short, every Mormon and non-Mormon should read Sharer's book. Two other books on archaeology that I highly recommend are: "The Mound Buiders: The Archaeology of a Myth," by Robert Silverberg, and "Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth and Method in the Study of the American Indians," by Robert Wauchope. Click on the following links, then scroll down to my review. Mound Builders
Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents Myth Method in the
Please check my one-star reviews of books by Mormon writers and my non-Mormon listmania.
Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon
Your comments--positive or negative--are appreciated. Thanks.
a great text.......2007-05-05
This is the best textbook on the Ancient Maya available today. It is a large book, but it is the most comprehensive text.
Book Description
This second edition of a highly acclaimed and interdisciplinary book which quickly established itself as a seminal text in its field investigates the way in which travel writing has constructed an image of the world beyond Europe for European readerships.
Focusing on writing about South America and Africa in relation to the political and economic expansion of Europe, this long-awaited second edition of
Imperial Eyes:
- is updated throughout, including a new preface, an updated introduction and a postscript reflecting critically on the category of the `postcolonial' and how it has changed since the first edition was published in 1992
- contains new material, which reads well-known Latin American texts through the concept of neocoloniality and continues to discuss more general questions of the postcolonial in relation to the Americas and new ways of expressing late twentieth-century experiences of migration and displacement
- contains new illustrations of relevant documents and artefacts discussed within the text.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic book.......2006-05-05
Vituperative, scathing truths about the world they don't teach you in high school make this an excellent book for anyone who likes to uncover the scandal beneath social, economic, and political realities formed in history. Pratt's poignant and stinging language drives home every point in a very sophistocated and flowing discourse. If you haven't taken a college course in Sociology, Africana, or Latin American Studies or similar, this language may be new to you but Pratt makes it as easy as watching an on-the-edge-of-your-seat sports match.
Seminal book in the field.......2004-04-07
While I understand this book presents a challenge to the reader, it is a seminal book in several fields: Mary Louise Pratt's prose is clear for a literary theorist and her vocabulary/jargon is appropriate to the subject. _Imperial Eyes_ takes the reader through several stages of European travel writing, and the effects these works have upon European representations and constructions of the "other." Pratt's strongest arguments deal with Mary Kingsley and Africa, in my personal opinion, but her work on Linneaus is important and relevant to history and to identity studies as well. As a professor, I would assign this book to an upper-division undergraduate course, and would expect students to have the ability to grapple with her argument and her prose. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a better understanding of the formation of modern European identity, the ideological underpinnings of colonialism, and the construction of the "other."
Refreshing perspective, but obscurity overpowers message.......2000-03-13
Mary Louise Pratt has a lot of fresh and important things to say, but her writing style makes this book tough to read. I consider myself a good reader, I can usually pick out main ideas and meanings quite easily, but I found this book really frustratingly hard to read! Pratt flip-flops between a readable, clear style and one in which she employs almost indeciperable sentences. I think her message is really important and structurally, "Imperial Eyes" is smartly organized, but it takes a lot of patience and re-reading to understand it.
Book Description
Havana: Autobiography of a City takes readers from the Plaza de Armas, the tree-lined square where Havana was founded by conquistadors in 1519, to the Malecón, the elegant boulevard along the shore where Fidel Castro rode a Russian tank in triumph. Estrada portrays the adventurers and dreamers who left their mark on Havana, including José Martí, martyr for Cuban independence; and Ernest Hemingway, the most American of writers who became an unabashed Habanero. The book is a deeply personal account of a love affair with a city, as well as an entertaining portrait of a place not easily forgotten.
Book Description
Cuba: A Short History brings together four chapters from Volumes 3, 5, and 7 of The Cambridge History of Latin America to provide for scholars, students and general readers a concise history of this important island nation. Contributors, top scholars in the field, trace the political, economic, and social development of Cuba from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present day. The concluding chapter, updated for this volume, considers the dilemmas and challenges that Castro's Cuba faces in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Each chapter is accompanied by a bibliographical essay that many readers will find useful.
Customer Reviews:
Only Academic Historians Could Make Cuba this Boring!.......2002-10-11
I used this book in a Cuban history course that I taught last year, and man did the students hate it. This collection of 4 articles from the multi-volume Cambridge History of Latin America is meant to provide a concise overview of Cuban history. But they begin in the 1600s, missing the first several hundred years, and end in the 1970s, missing the last two pivotal decades. The articles themselves are informative enough, but so boring and poorly written as to make the reader weep. This is an awful book.
There is such a thing as a TOO SHORT HISTORY.......1999-10-20
I was surprised to find a so-called history book should skip the first two hundred years of any country. At the beginning of this "history" we are hurtled into the mid-eighteenth century with absolutely no preamble; no background as to what came before. Where is the history of the discovery of the island, the natives who inhabited it, the process by which we arrived at the 18th century? Add to this the fact that each successive event is treated so lightly, with scant detail and such pompous, overblown language, and you can understand why I simply put it down after a few chapters and have not picked it up since. My advise?: If you really want to learn about Cuba, don't bother with this comic book sketch.
Average customer rating:
- happy customer
- revolutionary appeal for decolonization
- A Passionate Argument Against Colonialism
- For the US, an Eyeopener with our involvement with IRAQ
- good perception
|
Discourse on Colonialism
Aimé Césaire ,
Joan Pinkham , and
Robin D.G. Kelley
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Civil Rights & Liberties
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Relations
| International
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Emigration & Immigration
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Imperialism & Independence
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Nonfiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
History
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Wretched of the Earth
-
The Colonizer and the Colonized
-
Black Skin, White Masks
-
Culture and Imperialism
-
A Dying Colonialism
ASIN: 1583670254
Release Date: 2001-01-01 |
Book Description
"Césaire's essay stands as an important document in the development of third world consciousness--a process in which [he] played a prominent role."
--Library Journal
This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English,
Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements and has sold more than 75,000 copies to date.
Aimé Césaire eloquently describes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage," "uncultured," or "primitive." Here, Césaire reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality are extremely complex. . . . It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society." An interview with Césaire by the poet René Depestre is also included.
Customer Reviews:
happy customer.......2007-09-22
the quality of the product was the very best. it also arrived when i expected it too. i needed it in a crunch time and it came through beautifully.
revolutionary appeal for decolonization.......2007-07-16
This is a fascinating book for folks interested in the international decolonization movement of the 50s and 60s, and its relation to the Black Power movement in the States. The Discourse is beautifully written and passionately argued. The interview helps clarify Cesaire and Senghor's concept of "Negritude" as an early form of Black pride, rather than racial essentialism. The essay introduction is worthwhile since it puts the book in relation to Cesaire's poetic work and the Surrealist movement in France, America, and the Antilles. It's unduly dismissive of Cesaire's Marxist politics, especially since it goes against the spirit of the interview appended at the end.
A Passionate Argument Against Colonialism.......2005-12-25
This was a required text for a class I took this past semester, Introduction to African Studies. The author, Aime Cesaire, is known in Africa and France for his moving poetry, but he was also a politician. Born and raised in Martinique, a Caribbean island that was then a colony of France and is now a "departement", Cesaire studied in Paris on a scholarship. While he was there, he met Sedar Senghor and Leon Damas, and together they founded the Negritude movement, which rejected French colonialism in favor of a transnational black identity. After World War II, Cesaire was elected to the French National Assembly to represent Martinique, as a member of the French Communist Party. But he eventually became disillusioned, both with the Communist Party's lack of effort to address race issues and with the idea that Martinique continued on as a French colony. It was around this time, in 1955, that he published Discourse on Colonialism. This is Cesaire's attempt to describe the far-reaching impact colonialism has on both the oppressor and the oppressed. He also stresses the idea of one black identity, encompassing the peoples of Africa, African Americans in the United States, and those that live in the Caribbean. Cesaire's writing is very strong and passionate, and what I thought was most interesting about his arguments is that he uses the very words of notable European writers and philosophers to demonstrate how the colonizers' efforts often resulted in barbarization rather than civilization. It is very easy to see why this book had such a great impact on the pan-African and civil rights movements in America. Five stars for both writing and enjoyment.
For the US, an Eyeopener with our involvement with IRAQ.......2005-03-14
In Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism," She very blatantly voices her opinion that a (European) civilization that is:
...incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to the most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. [and finally] A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization. (31)
As well as applying for both Britain's presence in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, and France's colonial presence in Africa and the Caribbean, this powerful statement could become an equation for the line drawn between one country's involvements with another.
For example, here is an unmistakable connection here to the US' involvement in Iraq. Are we as a nation decadent? Stricken? Dying? The over $155B spent in Iraq (...) instead of other national priorities. Cesaire's points are very relevant to the times as she brings further knowledge and past histories into the damage of Colonialism: "...at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe...being only surpassed...by the barbarism of the United States" (47).
She talks about the `gangrene' of impartiality, in regards to the French hearing stories that are disturbing and pornographic. "Colonization, I repeat, dehumanizes even the most civilized man" (Césaire 41). A theme prevalent in films such as Black Girl, Chocolat, and Xala. It is easy to be impartial when one is ignorant.
good perception.......2004-01-23
I read Cesaire's 'discours sur le colonialisme' in one afternoon at a coffe place and it was captivating in how intellectually he wrote, with tinges of attitude in the words. A lot of the things he wrote about I already knew from studying a lot about Africa before and what ethnocentricism vs. ethno relativism means when applying yourself and perceptions of other cultures. This book is as applicable in the 1950's as today, I found that America seems to be the new France and Britain, as far as imperialism goes.
This book has so many good points about how one must look at the non Occidental world. Whenever I hear people talking about Africa in a degrading way in that the continent needs the Western world to give it medicine, schools, etc . . .it infuriates me with the lack of research these people have done. Although one can't expect everyone to know, but they would at least get a glimpse if they read this. They would see that it is the fault of the Occidentaux which is why Africa is in the state it is now. Before Europeans went there, the people of this rich, great continent had their own cultures, laws, languages, writing, religions that worked very well for them. Because they were different than Europes ways, they were viewed as primitive and uncivilized, but you can't measure a civilization by the same standards of another, far different one. Just because they didn't write their history down, doesn't mean they didn't have it. They used oral tradition for this, which is just one example of the European's prejudice. If Europe never went there, these African civilizations very well could have flourished and become great as the passage of time went along.
Colonization has done it's damage, Cesaire talks about decolonizing our minds, I wonder how long that will take to accomplish? I would recommend this short read to anyone who wants to try to get out of their own cultural shell and think about the way the world is viewed from the viewpoint of others.
Frantz Fanon is a more compelling read though, try "black skin, white masks" or "l'an V de la revolution algerienne/a dying colonialism"
Amazon.com
In 1789 the French colony of Saint Domingue was the most profitable real estate in the world. These profits came at a price: while its sugar plantations supplied two-thirds of France's overseas trade, they also stimulated the greatest individual market for the slave trade. The slaves were brutally treated and died in great numbers, prompting a never-ending influx of new slaves.
The French Revolution sent waves all the way across the Atlantic, dividing the colony's white population in 1791. The elites remained royalist, while the bourgeoisie embraced the revolutionary ideals. The slaves seized the moment and in the confusion rebelled en masse against their owners. The Haitian Slave Revolt had begun. When it ended in 1803, Saint Domingue had become Haiti, the first independent nation in the Caribbean.
C.L.R. James tells the story of the revolt and the events leading up to it in his masterpiece, The Black Jacobins. James's personal beliefs infuse his narrative: in his preface to a 1962 edition of the book, he asserts that , when written in 1938, it was "intended to stimulate the coming emancipation of Africa." James writes passionately about the horrific lives of the slaves and of the man who rose up and led them--a semiliterate slave named François-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture. As James notes, however, "Toussaint did not make the revolution. It was the revolution that made Toussaint."
With its appendix, "From Toussaint L'Ouverture to Fidel Castro," The Black Jacobins provides an excellent window into the Haitian Revolution and the worldwide repercussions it caused. --Sunny Delaney
Book Description
A classic and impassioned account of the first revolution in the Third World.
This powerful, intensely dramatic book is the definitive account of the Haitian Revolution of 1794-1803, a revolution that began in the wake of the Bastille but became the model for the Third World liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of master toward slave was commonplace and ingeniously refined. And it is the story of a barely literate slave named Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the black people of San Domingo in a successful struggle against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces and in the process helped form the first independent nation in the Caribbean.
Customer Reviews:
Too much Marx.......2007-06-03
'The Black Jacobins', by C.L.R. James, is so sodden with Marxist cant as to be nearly useless. He can't get the story straight through all the verbiage. A far better account of Toussaint is found in Richard Gillespie's book, Papa Toussaint.
The other problem with James' book is he almost completely ignores military engagements. One can read the entire book and almost never learn of the War of the Knives. Given Toussaint's obvious military genius, this is a serious weakness. Again, Gillespie has the correct balance.
I've written a book set in modern Haiti, though it is fictional. It's entitled Naked in Haiti: A sexy morality tale about tourists, prostitutes & politicians. It's about politics & sex tourism, but mostly it is meant as entertainment.
Caribbean person's review of Black Jacobins.......2007-02-09
My interest the book was kindled by Michener's reference to it in his book 'THe Caribbean' which I only read recently.
When I would see black people holding high office in the US army I would see it as evidence of the enlightened attitude of the American society. I now know that that 'enlightenment' wast the result of a lesson taught by Haitians since the 1790's.
An excellent work which should be read by all especially Caribbean blacks!
TOUSSAINT AND THE BLACK LIBERATION STRUGGLE .......2007-01-24
The French Revolution, as all great revolutions, had effects on world politics and the struggle of other peoples whom awoken to political life in the afterglow of that event. The fight for freedom in French Santo Domingo (now Haiti, the name that I will use to avoid confusion hereafter) led by Toussaint to a point just short of independence is a prime example of that effect. Without the revolution in the metropolis it is very unlikely that at that time the struggle in Haiti could have been successful. The history of the times was replete with unsuccessful slave rebellions. Why it was successful in Haiti and how that success was accomplished, mainly under the leadership of Toussaint in its decisive phases, is the subject of the eccentric Marxist, later Pan-Africanist historian C.L.R. James. Although originally written in 1938 Black Jacobin is still the best biography of Toussaint in English.
The freedom struggle in Haiti, a tropical island well suited to intensive agricultural development for the new international market in those goods necessary for the embryonic industrial system, was above all the struggle for the abolition of slavery. The fight against that servile condition that even many revolutionaries, white and black, and former revolutionaries of the time broke their teeth on. Today that freedom struggle, successful in its way in the Haiti of the early 19th century, remains a shining example of the only really successful fight against slavery by the slaves. So it pays to pay particular attention to the fight.
The forces which pushed the French Revolution forward in the metropolis had their its own set of priorities, among them the fight to move the population from a condition of subjugation to a monarch to citizens of a democracy. I have noted elsewhere how important that changed social status was to the historical and psychological development of modern humankind. Nevertheless that same psychology applies to the struggle in Haiti although even more so under conditions of chattel slavery. Thus, the events in French had their reflection in the colonies particularly in Haiti. One can observe in France the changes in attitude and policy from the early revolutionary days when all classes were good fellows and true through the rise of the leftist Robespierre regime based on the plebian masses, its eventually overthrow and establishment of the Directory and then the various manifestations of the regimes of Napoleon. That regime and its treacherous colonial policy attempting was a very far drop down hill from the early heady days when even moderate revolutionaries were in both places prepared to go quite far to eliminate slavery in Haiti.
There is something of a truism in the statement that great revolutions throw up personalities fit for the times. Certainly revolutions shake up the traditional order of things and let some who might have stayed dormant rise to the occasion. That is the case with Toussaint. For most of his life he was a middle level functionary on his master's estate respected by not slated for greatness. Early on, as the struggle against slavery heated up among the black slaves he exhibited the military, social, political diplomatic and other skills that would eventual thrust him into the leadership of the liberation struggle, This is really saying something special about the man because in the context of that Haitian revolution with the initial disputes between British Spanish and French interests and then the conflicting interests on the island itself between white, black and mulatto would have driven a lesser man around the bend. That it did not do so and that in his errors that which at times were grievous, especially around his seemingly obsessive commitment to maintain the French connection, does not take away from the grandeur of the experience. A cursory look at the latter developments on the island and the seemingly never ending series of tin pot despots who in their turn devastated the island only brings out Toussaint's fascinating role, warts and all, in the earlier liberation struggle in broader relief.
Hermetic Scholarship.......2007-01-23
I've read a number of books on the Caribbean and was taught about the Haitian revolution in school. The latter cursorily in comparison to James's work. His analysis of race and class are concurrent as the Haitian dymanics necessitate such. One of the most salient things was the bizarreness of the social arrangements in Haiti: Great Whites, Small Whites, Mulattoes (even more stratification in this class) and Africans. Maybe the events that transpired were ineluctable. Here are these variant races and classes in the midst of an African revolution with a French Revolution correlate and interface. This political climate produced some of the most intelligent, heroic and proficient men in History: Toussaint, Dessalines, Moise, Petion and Christophe. James's work is flawless and timeless.
Good but too much marxism.......2006-12-29
This is an older account of how San Domingo became Haiti and the rode to freedom from slavery. Be warned it carries a Marxist slant throughout the whole book but once you ignore that then the story is very compelling. It is one of the best accounts of what happened on San Domingo and you get a sense for how the French Revolution influenced what was happening the Caribbean. If you are just starting out on Caribbean history this is the perfect book to start with. It shows how the cultural identity began to take shape and what happened to the French Caribbean possessions.
Book Description
Cuba is much more than cigars, classic automobiles, and Castro. This remarkable nation has had a long history of relations with larger political powers that were drawn to the island because of its valuable resources and strategic location. Ties between Cuba and the United States have been strong since the mid-nineteenth century, and the theme of U.S. dominance over the island and its people is a primary historical influence. Cuba's history is told in eight chronological chapters, from its earliest days as a Spanish colony, through its wars for independence and the U.S. occupation in the twentieth century to Batista, the Cold War, and the so-called "Special Period," when Cuba faced the crisis of the downfall of the Soviet Union. With special emphasis on the twentieth century, the Castro era, and U.S.-Cuba relations, this is the most accessible and current history of Cuba available.
Customer Reviews:
Short and Sweet.......2006-01-05
I walked into this book knowing virtually nothing about Cuba, and this book did an excellent job of providing a short overview of modern Cuba. The history begins with the war for independence from Spain, and proceeds through all of the revolutionary movements, through to Castro's takeover, the Soviet relationship with Cuba, and Castro's changing policies. I found it very enlightening, a quick read, and well worth an afternoon! I would have given it a higher rating if it had more unique information, but it keeps the readers interest, and gives a reasonable overview of the politics and economics of the country.
Book Description
In 1982, Harvard-trained ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled into the Haitian countryside to research reports of zombies—the infamous living dead of Haitian folklore. A report by a team of physicians of a verifiable case of zombification led him to try to obtain the poison associated with the process and examine it for potential medical use.
Interdisciplinary in nature, this study reveals a network of power relations reaching all levels of Haitian political life. It sheds light on recent Haitian political history, including the meteoric rise under Duvalier of the Tonton Macoute. By explaining zombification as a rational process within the context of traditional Vodoun society, Davis demystifies one of the most exploited of folk beliefs, one that has been used to denigrate an entire people and their religion.
Customer Reviews:
Revealing the truth behind zombies and voodoo!.......2006-02-16
Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie by Dr. Wade Davis, 1988.
Preface by Dr. Richard Evens Schultes (Harvard).
We have all seen the stereo-typical archetypes of the zombie portrayed on TV, in the movies, in video games, etc. But what if zombies are real? Dr. Wade Davis has given us the science of fact behind the mythological tales of the Haitian zombie.
Dr. Davis provides evidence beyond reasonable doubt for documented cases of zombies. As a student of the famed Dr. Richard Evens Schultes of Harvard's Botanical Museum, Dr. Davis sets out to uncover the mysterious history, pharmacology, anthropology (enthobiology) and socio-political motivations behind zombies.
As it turns out, the history of creating zombies is a political one. The slaves brought with them from Africa to Haiti their shamanic knowledge of powerful poisons as well as their systems of punishment, law, politics, government and secret societies (Bizango) that formed from the maroons. It is herein revealed that the Vodoun religion of Haiti is as much a political structure as it is a religious one. Part of the magic dealt by bokers and houngan of the Bizango societies of that of law and order, and sometimes punishment is dealt to the guilty in the form of zombification.
However, in Haiti, and juxtaposed to foreign concepts of zombies, the people actually fear becoming zombies, not being attacked by them. This is because the pariahs of society, the criminals, repeat thieves, rapists, those who take advantage of others for their own gain, those who don't properly share land with kin according to need and family size, are those who will be targeted for zombification. Zombification is not dealt out on a whim by evil sorcerers. It is only dealt after and public tribunal and hearing in which a member of the group is found guilty.
Davis here lays down the foundation of exactly how these zombies are created. A houngan or boker is appointed executioner by the Bizango society. These are people who have great knowledge of plant irritants and animal poisons such as tetrodotoxin of various puffer fish species (also known as fugu), frogs, etc. The guilty person is then, and often unknowingly slowly poisoned with a mixture of these deadly toxins. Depending on the sentence dealt by Bizango, if the sentence isn't death by poisoning, then it's often zombification. The poison places the victim in a catatonic state where heart rate slows, breath is almost non-existent, and to the best medical experts, the victim eventually appears dead. Due to the warm tropical climate of Haiti, the dead are normally buried within 24 hours. The victim in his catatonic state is buried (while fully conscious) in a coffin where the houngan who "killed" him will dig him up within a few days. He will cart the victim off while dazed to another location where the victim is forced to eat Datura for long periods to further confuse, disorientate, and scramble the mind of the victim who will then typically be enslaved - a true zombie.
The practice of the Vodoun religion is here shown as a sound, practical and important part of Haitian society and political self determination. Vodoun is here proven as a practice that has brought these people their well earned freedom and self determination for over 200 years, and will hopefully continue to do so with the present onslaught of colonialist invaders.
An important side note here is the fantastic information within this book on the secret societies themselves. This information is certainly important for anthropological examination of the origins of other secret societies.
Five stars!
Excellent Works; Good Groundwork.......2005-05-07
Passage of Darkness seems to be the technical book of Wade Davis's findings after the field research was complete. SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW was the more popular version of the same material.
For anyone interested in this field, the work bears up under multiple readings. As to why "no followup"... take a look at Wade Davis's collected essays: the man is a polyglot in a marvelous sense. His current projects are absolutely essential, and he documents some cultures that are dying out. He has laid the groundwork for probably a number of Phd theses.
Check out :
Haiti: Guide to the Periodical Literature in English, 1800-1990 (Bibliographies and Indexes in Latin American and Caribbean Studies)
by Frantz Pratt (Compiler)
for more source material on Haiti. Wade Davis's Books including this one, PASSAGE OF DARKNESS, provide a great list of material to study a very significant culture.
Great work - He also did the leg work.......2000-04-29
I actually met Wade Davis when he came to Haiti to do his research on his book, and I know personnaly manny of the characters in the book. Wade did an excellent job in portraying what goes on in the underworld of Haiti.
The chapter when he talks about the driver of the commandant of St Marc who was actually a secret society leader and actually had more power and influence than his boss is really key point in the balance of power in Haiti. Those who seem to be nobodies sometimes have more power than presidents
Interesting, informative.......1999-03-27
While the information in the book can be gotten elsewhere these days, Davis' text holds together quite well, and without caving in to any commercial artiface. The term "ethnobiology" seems a little much, however -- I am not sure that any new theoretical ground has been surveyed.
Fascinating, but why no follow up.......1997-02-23
This is an excellent well written and well researched book that gripped my like few non-fiction books ever have, yet, it leaves science minded people hanging. After all the research Davis conducted it makes no sense that he failed to follow up with experimentation using tetrodotoxin in a laboratory setting. It seems that he comes so close to finding a new use for this sodium blocking drug but fails to follow up. Maybe he has and I just haven't been able to find it despite extensive efforts. If you know of any follow-up please e-mail me
Book Description
A splendid piece of work written on a remarkable, dynamic and indigenous movement by one of its ardent followers. In this book, Mack unfolds the one true binding tenet of the Rastafari concept.
Customer Reviews:
Dread History.......2006-07-03
For someone like myself, who knows a little about Rasta, and would like to know more this is a great starting point.
Douglas Mack really was there, on both missions to Africa, and at Sellasie's visit to Jamaica.
The intro is a little long, and covers in brief everything that is covered in more detail in the book itself.
In many caes it is more interesting to read between the lines to guess what DM isn't saying. Especially on the second visit to Africa when you get the distinct feeling that the Rasta's weren't that welcome in some countries.
Also the relationship with the other delegates on the missions seem strained at times.
It's a shame DM doesn't include the history of the wearing of dreadlocks, and some more events after the sixties.
All in all a good starting point in Dread history, well written, and well worth a look.
scattered thoughts..........2006-03-27
I think a better and more thorough discussion of the rastafarian movement is The Rastafarians by Sr., Leonard E. Barrett. Douglas's thoughts seem to jump around in the book with long lists of individuals whose signifigance and part in the rastafarian movement needs more clarity.
Very informative!.......2001-06-15
I love this book. It's very insightful and gives a well-rounded historical view of Rastafari. I felt a sense of overstanding of what Rasta elders went through. Naturally, I highly recommend it as an excellent resource.
babylon and rastafari.......2000-08-02
Very good source of information on the genesis of Rastafarianism and it's impact on Jamaica. However it is a little heavy on name dropping, and would have been better if it had more information on the philosophy rather than the biography. The descriptions of the early 'Rasta Camps' was great, but it left me wanting for a description of what was discussed at them. Still I would recommend this book to anyone deeply interested in the 'I'story.
Back to the Roots.......2000-05-24
This text reveals one of the most important aspect of the Rastafari culture : repatriation. The author was one of the jamaican "elders" who participate to the "Mission to Africa" in 1963 with Filmore Alvaranga and Mortimo Planno. The Rasta ideology is closely linked to the Back-To-Africa movement. This text explains the fondamental concept of this carribean way of life.
Books:
- The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking : How to : Win an Argument, Defend a Case, Recognize a Fallacy, See Through a Deception,
- The Battle of Alamein: Turning Point, World War II
- The Bermuda Triangle (Unsolved Mysteries)
- The Bewitched Viking (Wink & a Kiss, 1)
- The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
- The Book of Air and Shadows
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (New Press People's History)
- The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street
- The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- OBJECTION!: HOW HIGH-PRICED DEFENSE ATTORNEYS, CELEBRITY DEFENDANTS, AND A 24/7 MEDIA HAVE HIJACKED
- Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society
- Signalling from Internalised Growth Factor Receptors. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology,
- The Northern Renaissance: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575
- Yosemite and the High Sierra
- Color Atlas of Turfgrass Diseases
- Ask the Vet about Dogs: Easy Answers to Commonly Asked Questions, a Dog Fancy Book
- The Dark Interval: Towards a Theology of Story
- The Packaging Designer's Book of Patterns
- Letters from the Pacific Front: My Father's Adventures from Guadalcanal to Okinawa
A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya
The Maya, Seventh Edition (Ancient Peoples and Places)
Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (Fifth Edition)
An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs
