From women's medicine and the writings of Christine de Pizan to the lives of market and tradeswomen and the idealization of virginity, gender and social status dictated all aspects of women's lives during the middle ages.
A cross-disciplinary resource, Women and Gender in Medieval Europe examines the daily reality of medieval women from all walks of life in Europe between 450 CE and 1500 CE, i.e., from the fall of the Roman Empire to the discovery of the Americas. Moving beyond biographies of famous noble women of the middles ages, the scope of this important reference work is vast and provides a comprehensive understanding of medieval women's lives and experiences. Masculinity in the middle ages is also addressed to provide important context for understanding women's roles. Entries that range from 250 words to 4,500 words in length thoroughly explore topics in the following areas:
· · Art and Architecture
· Countries, Realms, and Regions
· Daily Life
· Documentary Sources
· Economics
· Education and Learning
· Gender and Sexuality
· Historiography
· Law
· Literature
· Medicine and Science
· Music and Dance
· Persons
· Philosophy
· Politics
· Political Figures
· Religion and Theology
· Religious Figures
· Social Organization and Status
Written by renowned international scholars, Women and Gender in Medieval Europe is the latest in the Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages. Easily accessible in an A-to-Z format, students, researchers, and scholars will find this outstanding reference work to be an invaluable resource on women in Medieval Europe.
Granted, several pleasant aspects deserve to be mentioned. The author offers a very broad geographical perspective, dealing with women from the Nordic countries to Byzantium. She even goes so far as to include entries on Chinese women, such as Yang Kuei-fei (8th century), mistress to the Chinese Emperor Hsuean-Tsung the Brilliant, but particularly in those cases no secondary sources are mentioned. In an extensive appendix, Lawler presents a large number of genealogical charts that allow the reader to identify individual women. However, no information about the origin of these charts is given. All biographical dates are missing, which considerably reduces the actual value of these charts. The volume concludes with a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and an index
Despite Lawler's laudable intentions and her hard work to produce this encyclopedia, its scholarly value is very questionable and even troublesome. All entries that I examined more carefully proved to be riddled with mistakes, wrong concepts, and misunderstandings. The author knows very little of the Middle Ages and of the individual personalities and issues dealt with here. The discussions of literary figures prove that Lawler did not read the relevant texts and has no understanding of the role played by these women. The entries were obviously compiled quickly, drawing from a variety of more or less trustworthy or relevant sources, but the author has mostly failed to acquire full understanding herself. Some entries would pass muster and indeed collect the basic facts, but most entries are simply poorly written and misdirect the readers so badly that any library would do a disservice to its readers if they purchased this volume. The grammatical mistakes are astounding. Unfortunately, the attractive cover, the nice printing of this book, and the popularity of its theme might mislead many (school and public) libraries to acquire this book as an easy reference work. The catastrophic consequences, however, which will result from this encyclopedia cannot be underestimated. The proverbial blind would lead the blind. Actually, this reference work would not deserve to be reviewed considering its poor quality, but a clear warning about this book must be issued.
Cult figures (e.g., the Virgin Mary). Medieval women in the principal stages of life, both mortal and spiritual, are also covered in entries on childhood, virginity, marriage, widowhood, penitentials, hagiography, and relics. This illustrated encyclopedia also includes a general bibliography, index, and guide to related topics.
Book Description
"Human beings," the acclaimed Egyptologist Jan Assmann writes, "are the animals that have to live with the knowledge of their death, and culture is the world they create so they can live with that knowledge." In his new book, Assmann explores images of death and of death rites in ancient Egypt to provide startling new insights into the particular character of the civilization as a whole. Drawing on the unfamiliar genre of the death liturgy, he arrives at a remarkably comprehensive view of the religion of death in ancient Egypt.
Assmann describes in detail nine different images of death: death as the body being torn apart, as social isolation, the notion of the court of the dead, the dead body, the mummy, the soul and ancestral spirit of the dead, death as separation and transition, as homecoming, and as secret. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt also includes a fascinating discussion of rites that reflect beliefs about death through language and ritual.
Book Description
Through a series of intriguing case studies including the study of relativity, cold fusion, the "memory" in worms, and the sex life of lizards, this book debunks the view that scientific knowledge is a straightforward outcome of competent theorization, observation, and experimentation. The first edition generated much debate and controversy. This second edition contains a substantial new Afterword that responds to some of the criticisms made by scientists. A distinction is made between the responses of scientific fundamentalists who maintain the myth of scientific certainty and more serious-minded critics. In dialogue with these latter critics The Golem attempts to build an island of reasoned debate between the two cultures. It seeks to replace the "Science Wars" with mutual understanding.
Customer Reviews:
A Golem built on sand.......2001-05-21
Another book in the sociology of science and science and technology studies genre that tries to throw into question scientific methods or rational reconstructions of various theories or episodes in the history of science. The authors argue that science, controversial research and experiments undertaken to prove certain scientific theories, are resolved or left unresolved simply by majority consensus--even though ostensibly, convincing evidence to the contrary is presented by a lone experimenter or experimenters. In some cases, scant or questionable evidence was used to support major theories; or the authority of the scientists overruled evidence to the contrary. Credibility is usually at stake in these controversies and it is at this cusp of scientific controversy that one starts to see the real workings of science. According to Collins and Pinch then, Nature imposes less of a constraint in scientific debates than previously supposed.
After going through the book though, I'm unconvinced by the authors' arguments and conclusions drawn from their eight examples. First off, I think that selectively sampling from the history of science in order to draw conclusions about how science is done generally tells us more about what direction the authors are trying to steer their arguments--rather than give us anything definite about the workings of science. In spite of the fact that the authors say they are doing 'interpretative history', their arguments and conclusions are simply unwarranted. In my view, what they are really pointing out is that the process of discovery in science is a messy and complex business; but this really has no bearing on scientists' justifications in their acceptance or rejection of theories. Saying that deeply-disputed science is never resolved by better experimentation or evidence is contradicted in their solar neutrino and gravity wave detection examples. As of June 2001, physicists from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom announced that the solar neutrino problem has been solved. (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999897) Additionally, resonant-mass gravitational wave detectors are currently on-line and free-mass gravitational wave detectors monitored with laser interferometers are being built in five locations around the world. If the scientific community didn't think these expensive observatories would produce data that would go into answering or resolving some key questions, why would they go through all the trouble of securing financing and building these facilities then?
In the cold fusion, molecular memory and the spontaneous-generation-of-life examples (the Pasteur-Pouchet debate), Collins and Pinch fail to mention conceptual implausibilites with these examples. In the spontaneous generation example, conceptual difficulties and hard questions arise. If life appears spontaneously, how does it manage to do this? Shouldn't life always arise in any material--no matter what you do to it? Why would life bother to reproduce itself if it could just arise de novo? Where would the available energy come from to produce this spontaneous life? Why would a process such as fermentation stop? How can complex single-celled organisms assemble themselves from mercury for example? Pasteur also carried out decisive experiments that lent support to his claims; and Koch and others added to, and corroborated Pasteur's bacteriological discoveries. Nature favored Pasteur.
As for cold fusion, why do Fleischmann and Pons need the approval of the scientific community? Why not just build a cold fusion cell, put it in your car and start selling them... if cold fusion works. It has been 15 years since their announcement: where are the commercial applications? According to physicists, cold fusion is contrary to everything that has been empirically well-established in nuclear physics. Contrary to what the authors say, we don't get science as normal; we get questionable results and a breach of proper scientific protocol. Turf protection is irrelevant; the phenomenon doesn't exist.
Molecular memory is another of their examples loaded with conceptual problems. How are our literally 100,000s of memories stored chemically? And how do we retrieve, or 'read off' these 'chemical memory bits' neurologically?
In the relativity example, other previous lines of confirming evidence, the unification of previous successful theories and the consistency of the mathematical arguments will affect the interpretation of new evidence or experiments that go into corroborating a new theory (as in general relativity). If the authors looked at all the above-mentioned factors in dealing with their relativity example--and this was pointed out to them in the criticisms at the back of their book by Mermin (Physics Today; March 1996, April 1996), I think their case is substantially weaken. Was Eddington's data, and his interpretation of it, questionable? Perhaps. In Eddington's Space, Time and Gravitation (1920), the data seemed to point towards Einstein. (I would say that Eddington's results couldn't be any weaker than what the authors present here.) Their arguments about the unresolved existence of the ether--based on Miller's ambiguous data--is just wrong. Collins and Pinch never really explain why Eddington's data is weak while Miller's data is plausible. Einstein got it right. It had nothing to do with the end of the Great War.
Finally, throughout the book there is a continual conflation of science with its application or technology. And because technology has spawned endless disasters, science becomes guilty by association. But technological abuse really has nothing to do with science proper. (The more sinister example of that classic mushroom cloud is always mistakenly paired up with E=mc2. But the equation simply states a matter-energy equivalence. What could be `bad' about it? How it is used is a completely different question.) One has to wonder how to take analyses of science history episodes by academics who don't seem to have a clear grasp of the actual science content being discussed (Special and general relativity example is alongside the cold fusion example). Their lumbering Golem metaphor depiction of science is simply disingenuous. ...
The "Scientific Principle".......2001-01-15
"The Golem: What You Should Know About Science" by Collins and Pinch can be recommended to any present and future scientist. The cases laid out by the authors demonstrate how much science and scientific results can be hidden under personal interests, believes (superstition is a better word), wishes and inaccuracy. One example is the "proof" of Einstein's gravitaion theory by Sir Arthur Eddington by systematically dismissing data in conflict with the theory.
Nonetheless, I cannot say that I got the message of the book. In all cases finally the "scientific principle" worked out nicely, i.e. the claims and conclusions of researchers have been controlled by other scientists. Since we are all human beings, one must be naive to believe that scientists were immune against a personal bias of their work, and, of course, influece, leadership (more or less due to competency) and the way how data and criticism are presented has an impact on how scintific findings are being discussed. It is important to remind oneself to be as objective as possible in scientific work, but there is no reason to discard the present scientific system.
interesting but ultimatly pointless.......2000-06-01
This book is very interesting and would be very valuable if it had stayed with criticism of the History of Science and how it's presented in text books. However, the authors' insistence that scientific fact is built by consensus independent of the facts of the world is contradicted by their fear that defense lawyers can deconstruct sciencetific evidence. I don't see why they would be worried about jury's ignoreing evidence unless they are affraid guilty people are being set free. And why would they think those poeple were guilty if they didn't believe in the independent truth of the scientific "facts" that point to guilt?
Case studies in science -- lucid, approachable, fascinating.......1999-02-24
Depending on your intentions, this book, and its companion volume The Golem at Large: What You Should Know about Technology, could be indespensible. They comprise a number of case studies in contemporary (i.e. 20th century) scientific discoveries and controversies that can be read in any order. The studies are couched between an introduction and conclusion that express the authors' aims -- to show science in action as messy and controversial but nontheless a powerful means for generating knowledge. These slender volumes are ideally suited for a course in the history or philosophy of science.
By exploring how scientists actually conduct themselves and describing the scientific and extra-scientific stakes, the authors (two sociologists of science) dispel many scientific myths in a lucid, approachable style. Even with casual study, they can bolster scientific understanding. The books are of potentially special value to undergraduate and graduate students studying and doing science themselves. I'm tempted to say that if you're a young scientist, these books cannot fail to make you a better one. Even if you're not a scientist, and never intend to be one, these are fascinating stories.
Of course, many scientists have known for a long time what Collins and Pinch have tried to convey. J.B.Conant was such a scientist. His case studies, published in 1957, provide historical examples in the same mold as Collins and Pinch, who explicitly admit to having drawn inspiration from The Harvard Case Studies in Experimental Science edited by J.B.Conant
Book Description
In the widely discussed first volume in the Golem series, The Golem: What You Should Know About Science, Harry Colllins and Trevor Pinch likened science to the Golem, a creature from Jewish mythology, a powerful creature which, while not evil, can be dangerous because it is clumsy. In this second volume, the authors now consider the Golem of technology. In a series of case studies they demonstrate that the imperfections in technology are related to the uncertainties in science. The case studies cover the role of the Patriot anti-missile missile in the Gulf War, the Challenger space shuttle explosion, tests of nuclear fuel flasks and of anti-misting kerosene as a fuel for airplanes, economic modeling, the question of the origins of oil, analysis of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the contribution of lay expertise to the analysis of treatments for AIDS. Anyone who views technology with a wary eye will love The Golem at Large. Harry Collins is Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University and Director for the Study of Knowledge Expertise and Science at the University of Wales. His other books include the forthcoming The One Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2001) and (with M. Kusch) The Shape of Actions (MIT, 1998). nTrevor Pinch is a founding member of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University, where he is now chair. He is co-editor (with Wiebe E. Bijker) of The Social Construction of Technological Systems (MIT, 1989).
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In the very successful and widely discussed first volume in the Golem series, The Golem: What You Should Know About Science, Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch likened science to the Golem, a creature from Jewish mythology, a powerful creature which, while not evil, can be dangerous because it is clumsy. In this second volume, the authors now consider the Golem of technology. In a series of case studies they demonstrate that the imperfections in technology are related to the uncertainties in science described in the first volume. The case studies cover the role of the Patriot anti-missile missile in the Gulf War, the Challenger space shuttle explosion, tests of nuclear fuel flasks and of anti-misting kerosene as a fuel for airplanes, economic modeling, the question of the origins of oil, analysis of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the contribution of lay expertise to the analysis of treatments for AIDS.
Customer Reviews:
Science isn't always a Super Hero.......2000-10-02
For some, science is a super hero. It helps to save lives with developments like incubators, surgeries, and medicines. Science brings tools like computers, cordless phones, and DVDs into existence. Others, however, view science as a monster that brings with it pollution, greed, and destruction. Science, as explained in this book, is a very human activity with the full range of problems and possibilities of which man himself is capable. Explained within this book, is the findings of science and exactly how science goes about making progress. This is a very interesting and insightful read. I highly recommend it to pracitioners of science and to students who are studying any type of science. I also recommend it to the layman who wishes to know more about how science really works.
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- Searching for common ground
- Useful and Inspired Writing
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Reclaiming The Native Home Of Hope
Robert B Keiter
Manufacturer: University of Utah Press
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ASIN: 0874805589 |
Customer Reviews:
Searching for common ground.......2006-03-28
Environment. Controversial issues for decades, and for decades to come. Ranchers, farmers, oil and gas industries, conservationists, endangered species act, economy, etc. all play major roles in how we should (or to some should not) safeguard our outside world.
Being an advocate of protecting our natural areas, I was greatly informed through these 18 essays on the different modes of thinking and how to reach conformity among such a divisive group of people and customs.
Although a few of the articles were overly academic, the majority of the essays were insightful on management, recreating, preservation, restoration and sustaining landscapes.
As Francis Parkman, author of "The Oregon Trail" said in the 1800's, "The buffalo are gone, and all his millions, nothing is left but bones". The same could be said of our western wild areas if some sort of accordance is not established.
If we continue treating the earth with disrespect for generation after generation, no longer will there be wild places to comfort the soul and spirit in all of us. Flora, fauna, uncommon landforms, historical trails, air, water, sacred Native American sites, etc., too much is at risk here.
Useful and Inspired Writing.......2003-01-13
Reclaiming the Native Home of Hope delivers a top-notch set of essays and case studies on western ecosystems, species re-introduction, land management, and conservation. The majority of the setting is focused on the Utah wilderness with other stories spiraling out to the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau areas.
The essays challenge the traditional thinking about the best uses for these remote and relatively unpopulated areas (e.g., mining and ranching) and bring the natural qualities to the top of the list. The book's arguments to preserve ecosystems of the west are balanced with constructive thoughts on ways to preserve jobs and private land.
Stephen Trimble sums up the motivation for spending time in open, natural spaces in an essay called "Letting Go of the Rim." The kind of story that would have left Wallace Stegner smiling.
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- A history of Cambridge University Press. Volume 2: scholarship and commerce, 1698-1872.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Australian Library Journal
- A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809: In which is included, some account of the proceedings ... Jones ... to the court of the King of Persia
- A physician's counsels to his professional brethren. By a practising physician.
- Acadian Redemption: From Beausoleil Brossard to the Queen's Royal Proclamation
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- AIDS Conspiracy Theories: Tracking The Real Genocide
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