Prophets Without Honour: Freud, Kafka, Einstein, and Their World (Kodansha Globe Series)

Customer Reviews:

a GIANT SLEEPER in the world of science.......2005-05-05

For those people who like to read and do a lot of reading, this is one of those books that you find quite by accident and wonder why you never read it in high school or college. The overall argument of the book lends profound insight into the study of animal behavior (ethology i believe) and answered so many questions I had about my personal daily observations. This book also attempts to make a link between animal behavior and human behavior. Those who believe that humans are not animals, but higher than animals may want to skip this title if you don't have the courage. Keep in mind however that it was Carl Sagan who called for an alliance between religion and science and Pope John Paul II who said "Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish...Such bridging ministries must be nurtured and encouraged."

Lastly, it's worth would be justified merely by the bibliography of books it provides throughout its pages. No doubt, this is a dying field of science (mostly thanks to religion's inability to adapt to the facts) in a country that is mentally decaying itself. That should not, however, diminish the importance of ardrey's work and his wonderful writing style. 5 stars, no doubt.

"If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if they citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us." -Carl Sagan

-B

Ardrey's book is an eye-opener for those willing to see.......2001-01-24

My book is the 1966 edition by Atheneum. The theme is devoted to the right of an animal to its territory, and expresses the interesting fact that the possessor is usually the victor if and when confronted with an intruder. After reading Ardrey's work, I have watched with interest my 17 pound bundle of fluff, chase a much larger dog from our property. It was no contest. Just as the one knows his rights and the bounds within which they can be excercised, so too, does the other realize that, as an intruder, he has no right to contest that right. One needs to keep in mind that man is no less an animal than those studied by Ardrey who, although his writing is good, tends to be a bit tedious until he gets to the point of his discussion; namely, that man is no less territorial than lesser beasts. Within certain social groups this truth is more revelent than in others. Immigrants to the U.S. stake out their "turf," as they say, and woe be to the trespasser, not a few of whom have been killed. Readers who take seriously what Ardrey reveals should be able to point to areas on earth where his thesis is in full bloom, and is the cause of considerable consternation and death. I would rate the book five-star were it not that it takes awhile for the casual reader to appreicate what is being written. It is a work which every Secretary of State should read and discuss with the President and membes of his cabinet before allowing the United States to become actively involved in national affairs, which is not to suggest that the U.S. should remain aloof from affairs that deal with decency and terrirotial righteousness.

Clarifying and driven by examples. An overlooked classic!.......2000-07-28

I spent many a long hour reading philosophy on the nature of property, possession and place. Also, I have spent many an hour reading the history and politics of nations for their respective histories of territorial aspirations. The mystery and problems of the human connection to particular places still eluded me.

I picked up this book at a flea market and began reading. I learned more and gained more insight into the nature of Nature's territorial inhabitants than all my previous reading. Through carefully observed case studies of animals, conservative conclusions are drawn. Light on theory, and heavy on examples of particular territorial behaviours of our fellow creatures, `The Territorial Imperative' is must read for any person interested in the way of Nature and ourselves.

The Territorial Imperative.......2000-01-26

When I first read this book after being graduated from Boston University as a science major, I was stunned by the depth and perception of observation by the author. It, the book, has made a profound impact on my life and scientific beliefs.

"A worm, a god!".......1997-01-27

Who are human beings? What they are? How do we deal with the reality of what human beings are? Anyone who has ever put these and similar questions will read the book by Robert Ardrey with great interest. People are both biological and social beings, and these two natures are ineradicable in them. While human social life has become the subject of studies in the social sciences, human biology has become, to great degree, exclusively the subject of medicine. R.Ardrey's aim was to draw a bridge over the "no man's land" between the natural and social sciences, since in his own words, "no man or other animal lives as other as a whole thing." Attachment to a certain territory, which Ardrey has defined as the "territorial imperative", is a most deeply rooted feature of all living beings, from a worm to a human. R.Ardrey begins his book with the definition of this central notion: "A territory is an area of space, whether of water or earth or air, which an animal or group of animals defends as an exclusive preserve. The word is also used to describe the inward compulsion in animate beings to possess and defend such a space." Of course, the most inventive of animals - the human species - have extended their "territories" far beyond their appartments or garden plots to spheres of influence in business and politics, empoyment, etc. In the book by R.Ardrey a reader will find answers and clues to the question: "Why do things happen in human everyday life and history as they happen and not according to the precepts of the most enlightened minds?" His answers are more informative than many volumes of writings about "man and society". A human being is not good or bad, all of its features are products of nature and these features have strong and rooted biological foundations regardless of the value judgements, lamentations and appraisals of moralists. It is not possible either to understand the driving forces of an individual or a society, nor to put them into a more friendly shape unless first, these obvious things are taken into account. Thirty years have passed from the first publication of Ardrey's book, and these years have provided more evidence to support his basic assertions. Those readers who fear that this may be yet another unintelligible scientific book, laden with indecipherable jargon, may put their fears aside. Ardrey's book serves to show that it is possible to speak clearly and convincingly of human nature, that most profound and intricate thing.

Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church

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Go behind the headlines
Eye-Opening Book
Just the Facts
Excellent resource
A Crisis of Man, not Faith

Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church
The Investigative Staff of the Boston Globe
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Child Abuse | Family Relationships | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

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Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

ASIN: 0316776750

Book Description

Brought completely up to date in this new paperback edition, this groundbreaking book provides a detailed, devastating account of the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up that has left millions of American Catholics shocked, angry, and confused. Encompassing the story in its entirety-as it has unfolded throughout the U.S. and throughout the Church hierarchy-Betrayal brings into focus the scores of abusive priests who preyed upon innocent children, and the cabal of senior Church officials who covered up their crimes. - One of the most resonant and influential works of investigative journalism since Woodward and Bernstein's reporting on Watergate. - Astonishing court documents, secured through the efforts of Globe journalists, are reproduced in an appendix. - An essential, insightful, helpful text for the Church leaders, both lay and clergy, who have already begun charting a new course for the Catholic Church in America.

Customer Reviews:

Go behind the headlines.......2007-03-29

This very well-researched and well-written book takes the reader behind all of the headlines and media bytes from the revelations in the early Aughts about the widespread problem of pedophile priests. Though the focus is on priests from the Boston area, seeing as how Boston is one of the largest Catholic cities in America and that this book was put together by the Boston Globe, before long it had become obvious that this wasn't just a problem in Boston, but a problem in America as well, and even in the world. The book examines so many issues and questions, such as the nature of faith, Catholic culture, the push for change by a majority of American Catholics even though the higher-ups still insist on remaining the same, what it is that caused so many priests to molest children (but more often teenage boys), the history and nature of celibacy (it wasn't made law till the 11th century, and then only for political reasons), how former Cardinal Bernard Law could have condoned the actions of priests like John Geoghan by just shuttling them from parish to parish, and most of all the profound betrayal felt by so many Catholics who loved the Church dearly and who had trusted these priests to take care of their children instead of violating their bodies and souls.

While there have been instances of clergy of other faiths abusing children they were supposed to be mentoring or looking after, there have never been such scandals attached to those cases because they are usually isolated incidences. Rabbis, Protestant ministers, and Eastern Orthodox priests are allowed to get married, after all, and generally don't live in communities detached from the outside world and the common people. Many people have pointed to this being a uniquely Catholic problem because of the celibacy of priests, and feel that if celibacy were made optional, perhaps they wouldn't seek sexual gratification through minors. When many of these abusers were ordained, the screening process they have today was not in place. This was a time when seminaries were overflowing, but almost anyone was admitted, even if not all of those candidates were truly qualified. This was also an era when the average seminarian was much younger than he is today; many priests first went to a junior seminary at all of 13 or 14 years old, and if they didn't, then they would usually enter the seminary proper fresh out of highschool, with no time to test their calling, to live in the real world, to develop and mature at a normal rate instead of being stuck at the level of a sexually immature inexperienced young teenager who never got any information or advice about dealing with the normal natural sexual feelings that the majority of people have. Had they gotten counseling on how to deal with these urges instead of being trained as though they weren't sexual beings, they might not have gone to these young boys who were at the same stunted level as they were.

Because of the trust these faithful Catholics placed in their priests and bishops, they just reported the abuse to them instead of going to the police like one would expect a concerned angry parent to do. They expected the Church to handle the problem. The Church in turn stressed things like respect for canon law, the importance of the hierarchy, and protecting the "good names" of these abusive priests, not about the young victims whose lives would never be the same again. They were more concerned about protecting and covering up for predators like Geoghan than with counseling the children and putting the abusers in jail or at least serious counseling (many of the so-called rehabilitation centers described sounded more like vacation resorts or slaps on the wrist than places for actual psychological counseling and attempted rehabilitation, though the studies show that most child abusers will offend again). They would excommunicate the 72 year old nun Jeannette Normandin (who has since passed away) for having baptised two boys (only men are allowed to baptise people in Catholicism), for putting her hands on their foreheads and annointing them with holy water, yet would coddle and sympathise with a predator like John Geoghan after he touched the genitals of young boys and performed sex acts on them. They would tell people that things like divorce, birth control, premarital sex, and eating meat on Fridays were sins, some of which were Hell-worthy, yet never treated real sins like child abuse as being serious of condemnation, excommunication, and being shunned by the community. Above all, we get a picture of a hierarchy sorely out of touch with what the majority of American Catholics believe in, an insistence on this black and white authoritarian conformist world that might have worked beautifully 50 or 60 years ago, but which just isn't possible anymore because of how much society has evolved.

In spite of this crisis and betrayal, however, the Catholic Church is still going strong. Though there were many people who left it after how they were treated or who stopped donating money to it after these revelations, there are still many faithful believing Catholics out there who dearly love the Church and are willing to stick by it through thick and thin, to work through this crisis together, to fight for change (such as the new screening process used by seminaries to weed out potential troublemakers and pedophiles) and modernisation (such as the ordination of women, optional priestly celibacy, and acceptance of gay parishioners). Something of this magnitude probably will not be able to occur again because of all of the knowledge gained during this crisis and because the need for some fundamental changes seems so great and overdue that the voice of the majority can't be ignored forever.

Eye-Opening Book.......2006-10-31

I was raised Catholic and am stunned by this book. The research was thorough and complete. My hope is that this book is the final chapter in a dark era for the Church.

Just the Facts.......2003-08-08

[Let my put my conflicts of interests right up front. I am a Catholic who converted from Methodist six years ago. Since that time I have worked actively in my parish in Fort Worth, Texas and now am the director of the RCIA program (the program for adults who want to join the church) in my parish. In addition, althouth I am not aware of any abuse by priests in my parish or diocese, the liturgy director at my parish, a lay person, was convicted this year of sexual conduct with a minor that occured about ten years ago.]

In my opinion, the most fascinating person in a true crime story is not the person who is obviously sick and evil, but the one who aids and abbets in the crime. For instance, several years ago in Chicago there was a young woman who was desparate to have a child. She hatched a plan to steal a child by cutting the child out of another woman's womb. If the story ended there, it would only be one of an obviously sick woman who needed alot of help, but it didn't. She convinced a man she new to actually carry out this plan. How does that happen? How does the man listen to the ravings of this deranged woman and say, "Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. I'll do it."?

I have the same questions about the crisis in the Catholic Church. I have no problem with understanding that the likes of John Geoghan, Joseph Birmingham, Paul Shanley, and Robert Trupia are sick and evil men. They each have molested scores of young boys and seem to have no comprehension of the impact of their actions. What I don't understand is why did the bishops they worked for and knew of accusations of molestation against them think it was a good idea to move them to a new set of victims? Why do some men of God become complicit in evil?

Unfortunately this book has no answer for those questions. It is written by the group of reporters from the Boston Globe who pried the story from the secretive Boston diocese. As such, it primarialy answers who, what, when, and where, but not why. The gory details of the molestors' activities are given and the pain and anger of many of the victims, too. But in one unforgetable story, the Christlike actions of one victim is told. A victim of Birmingham confronted him after many years of pain and suffering and said, "I've come here to ask you to forgive me for the hatred and resentment that I heve felt toward you for the last twenty-five years."

Much of the book is devoted to the problems in and around Boston, as may be expected. However, the reporters do touch on similar cases in other areas. Although the full extent of the crisis is not known, and may not be known without many more reporters in other dioceses investigating their local church, these reporters note that almost 200 sitting priests have been removed around the country and many more have been removed around the world. The problem of failing to respond to evil in the midst of the Catholic Church is definately not specific to Cardinal Law or even to the United States.

Excellent resource.......2003-05-29

The authors have a done a fine job compiling the facts about the sexual abuse crisis that is rocking the Catholic Church. Although the authors present the facts in a balanced way, you will be morally outraged by what "responsible" people of the church are capable of. A must read for anyone who has any doubt about the authoritarian, anti-intellectual, and medieval nature of the Catholic Church.

A Crisis of Man, not Faith.......2003-02-12

Ripped from headlines that have been contemporary for more than a year, "Betrayal ..." is the Boston Globe newspaper's investigative staff product of the problem of pedophiles and molesters (and there's a significant distinction between the two) in the Catholic priesthood. What may sound like editorializing seems to be verified by supporting documentation of priests who victimize boys of all from adolesence to young adulthood, and the book reads more like an elongated newspaper article, not that that's bad. But, at its heart, "Betrayal ..." maps out what a convincing argument that an inordinate number of child molesters seem to be in the clergy. If you can get past the sheer devastation of divine trust shattered and totally destroyed and the childhoods literally decimated, "Betrayal ..." also posits the question of why the child abuse crisis exists. One plausible theory, though certainly not justification for sex with children, is that the celibate nature of the priesthood perverts sexual desire to the expression of child molesting. That one sounds, and one would hope, more plausible than the terrifying other possibility that the priesthood attracts what "Betrayal ..." classifies as homosexuals. With that theory, however, the unfair and inaccurate implication that homosexuals are also child molesters isn't satisfactorily explored and dismissed. On this count, "Betrayal ..." might be serving the hopefully unintended fears that fuel homophobia. More fully, though, the book states clearly what is indeed a crisis by any standard. The non-Catholic whose church is not under fire may not be as moved by the sense of betrayal that the Catholic faithful may inevitably suffer. However, "Betrayal ..." and the priests who offer their commentary are barely spared from coming off as a crisis of faith and, instead, must be read as a crisis of man and not the God of worship. In the end, the Catholics among us cannot help but feel betrayed by the men in whom we have entrusted our children. And by remembering the crisis is man-made, we don't have to lose our faith in the God of our worship. In the end, those of us who are Catholic may conclude that our church's heirarchy has to be dismantled, accountability institutionally implemented and the demons of our children prosecuted along with being treated.

The Way We Are: The Astonishing Anthropology of Everyday Life (Kodansha Globe)

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About the Book-

The Way We Are: The Astonishing Anthropology of Everyday Life (Kodansha Globe)
Margaret Visser
Manufacturer: Kodansha America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Customs & Traditions | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1568361866

Customer Reviews:

About the Book-.......2004-11-17

From Editorial Reviews, in hopes this may be helpful...

The Way We Are: The Astonishing Anthropology of Everyday Life

FROM THE CRITICS

Katherine Whittemore:
Montaigne and Emerson and Trillin may be great essayists, but they aren't verbs. "To visser," however, is the coinage of the realm for fans of Margaret Visser, the esteemed Toronto food writer. South African by way of the Sorbonne, ex-classics professor and essayist, since 1988, for the Canadian magazine Saturday Night, she has a singular attack. It's arch, quirky, far-ranging and pedagogic: Miss Jane Brodie meets Margaret Mead. The Way We Are includes 60 short pieces, each with a bibliographic chaser. A piece about spitting, for instance, primly lists ten sources, from Xenophon to Erasmus to an 1897 treatise entitled, The Saliva Superstition in Classical Literature.

To visserize is to take the quotidian -- chewing gum, menus, gloves, stripes, the Easter Bunny -- and cast a little scholarly sunshine upon it. "I refuse to accept the ordinary as dull," Visser writes. Quite so. In her take on bells, we discover they were rung to "tell the townsfolk to cover their fires and retire for the night. (The word in French was couvre-feu, which becomes curfew in English.)" Or that men shake hands with their right hands because "it showed peace and benevolence: you had no intention of drawing your sword." Or that long ago, the wedding cake was broken over the bride's head. "This invoked fertility," writes Visser, "as where brides. . .are showered with rice, 'many small things,' signifying a fecund future."

Visser's essays don't always delight for their prose alone -- she often becomes so dazzled by these info-jewels that she forgets to make her sentences gleam. (Her endings, in particular, usually trail off instead of punch home.) One should sip The Way We Are, not toss it down; reading the collection straight through would be like working down a Trivial Pursuit deck. Still, it charms. This is The Joy of Facts, blessed by a distinct, warm and (it must be said) visseral glow. --Salon

Yanoama: The Story of Helena Valero, a Girl Kidnapped by Amazonian Indians (Kodansha Globe)

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One of the most interesting stories I've ever read!
A tremendous inside view of Yanoama emotions and life
An invaluable document
A must read
A World Apart From Civilization as We Know It

Yanoama: The Story of Helena Valero, a Girl Kidnapped by Amazonian Indians (Kodansha Globe)
Helena Valero , Ettore Biocca , and Luigi Cocco
Manufacturer: Kodansha America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1568361084

Customer Reviews:

One of the most interesting stories I've ever read!.......2006-07-17

I read many of the anthropological books on the "Yanoama" (uncommon spelling used in book) first but I learned more from this book than all the rest put together. She just tells her story, in great detail, and all the emotion and humanity comes out in the story. The people come across as individual people, not a monolithic species to be observed and catalogued in an anthropological zoo.

It takes some time to get through and I never did keep track of which tribe was which and who's trying to kill whom, but you really feel for her and she really brings you into her world. Why this isn't #1 on the Yanamami reading list, or Amazon tribe reading list for that matter, is beyond me. It's maybe the most fascinating biography I've ever read.

A tremendous inside view of Yanoama emotions and life.......2005-01-26

This book is so rich and important, it is hard to say how rich and important it is. Helena Valero, a white captive amongst the Yanoama of the Orinoco, told her story to Ettore Biocca, an Italian anthropologist, and they both did a magnificent job.

Let us consider the value of just one aspect of it: what we learn of Helena Valero's husband, Fusiwe. He was a headman of Yanoama people in Venezuela. (In Brazil the tribe is called Yanomami, a much better known term, and have been studied most notably by Napoleon Chagnon.)

A while ago, I wrote about Fusiwe for an Aesthetic Realism seminar on the issues of men. My title for the paper was "How Much Feeling--and What Kind--Should a Man Have?" I saw that the dilemma of Fusiwe is in men everywhere, today--and we can learn from his victories and travails.

I see the book of Helena Valero as a virtually unrivalled window into the feelings of people living a primeval life, hunting and gathering. Not the least of its virtues is Helena Valero's exquisite memory for many, many details and her fine-grained intimate descriptions of loves and hates, loyalties and falsities--and many more feelings. She presents a picture of the inner lives of present-day tribal people with texture, perception, and truthfulness. What a treasure this book is!

Under stringent and stressful conditions she observed clearly and felt a great deal. I respect her very much.

In the paper I mention above, I tried to show, as an anthropologist with an Aesthetic Realism education, things that Fusiwe had in common with men and women of today in the U.S. and elsewhere. What Fusiwe told Helena Valero about himself reveal a man who was both tender and hard, and couldn't make sense of these opposing forces in himself. And so, in his utterly unique way, he was like other men, including myself.

Here he was, a strong man of a culture seemingly so different from culture in an American or European city, and yet he had the dilemma we have!

So as part of this review, permit me to quote a few paragraphs from my paper:

-----------------------------------------------

Men of the Yanomami, like men of Manhattan or Michigan, want to show they don't have feelings: they're hard, they can't be intimidated, and they can defeat other men. In Yanomami, the word for this hardness and ability to defeat others is "waitiri." In Spanish--and now English has adopted the word--it is "machismo." But, writes Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism, in his work Self and World:

"...the self does not want to be strong by the weakness of others....Power is not just the ability to affect or change others; it is likewise the ability to be affected or changed by others."

It is immensely touching to see how a man of the Yanomami was not only hard but desired to be gentle. Here he was, living in an ancient Native American culture where people live by warfare, by hunting with bow and arrow, and by forest agriculture.

And he had the dilemma that Eli Siegel spoke to me about, as to my own life, in an Aesthetic Realism lesson. He put this dilemma in a rhymed couplet:

I have been troubled oft
By the problem of hard and soft.

This problem of hard and soft is dealt with in a notable custom of Yanomami culture. It has been described by a number of male anthropologists, including Napolean Chagnon, with fascination and some horror--because, in my opinion, every man sees his own toughness and vulnerability, desire to defeat and even to be defeated, in this custom.

Helena Valero describes it (pages 144-5) and I summarize:

When men, or a group of men, get in a quarrel and are angry at each other--and yet see themselves as friends--they stand facing one another formally, in the sight of all the people of the community. Each is armed with a heavy wood club called a nabrushi. The first man lowers his head and shows a shaved part and the second man hits him there with the wooden nabrushi. The first man returns the blow. They continue. Each tries to be as indifferent to the staggering blows as possible. There is blood. Valero writes,

"While they struck they said to each other, 'I...call you to see whether you are a real man. If you are a man, let us now see if we become friends again and our anger passes....' The other replied, 'hit me, and we'll be friends again.'" [p. 144]

Fusiwe, the tushaua (or head man) was able to withstand more blows than nearly anyone else, and give heavier ones, and it is clear that his authority depended, in part, on the ability to win these contests.

One sees something resembling this contest in American business, in politics, in war, and even in the academic world. If one can have contempt for, and defeat, one's enemies, if one can have little feeling about hurts or injuries to oneself, one is likely to succeed in "getting ahead."

But a man doesn't just want to be hard and "win." Even as I tried to be tough and eagerly tried to defeat other people intellectually--I also longed to experience tender feelings, which so often I did not have when I wanted them.

That is, even as men think what they most want is power, victory, prestige, hardness, it isn't the only thing we want.

For example, in "The Aesthetic Method in Self-Conflict," a chapter of Self and World, Mr. Siegel writes of "Louis Robinson...of Syracuse, New York." He,

"like all people, talks to, with, and about himself. Sometimes, in these thoroughly intimate conversations, Louis Robinson asserts: "To hell with other people. I'm out of Number One." On other occasions, the somewhat civilized Mr. Robinson says: "This is too bad, thinking of myself all the time; why don't I forget myself and become interested in other things?" (page 100).

Fusiwe was like Robinson--and me. He didn't want only to "win out" over other people. Helena Valero describes numerous times when he did "forget [him]self and become interested in other things." She tells how Fusiwe, when their child was sick, stayed up night after night to watch over him; praying hard and asking help of the forest and mountain spirits to heal the child. He expressed tenderness, and a respect for the forces of reality.

And Helena Valero herself, a white child inducted the hard way into native American culture, describes how the older Fusiwe would tell her stories--and we feel he had love for these, and a tender desire for her to know something beautiful about his people, the way a father might have....

-----------------------------------------------------

My account of this book is continued (as I wrote above) on my website. The story of the way Fusiwe wanted to be hard, victorious, triumphant through war, and yet wanted to be tender and did not like himself, is a huge sub-drama within the larger drama of Helena Valero's own captivity, privations, experiences. It is an important drama, a moving drama, and a rare opportunity to know a deep individual whose culture both fitted him and didn't fit him--which can be said of everyone in some fashion.

You can see more of my paper online: . In it, I try to show the depth of Fusiwe, and how representing all humanity, he illuminates the opposing qualities, the philosophic opposites, that are in all of us. I think he would be glad to know we are learning from him.

For the life of Fusiwe, whom Helena Valero worked very hard to write about justly, shows that even the most warlike of men have a desire to like themselves--and if they cannot make sense of their desires to be tough and gentle, vengeful and kind, they will not successfully like themselves.

In Self and World, Eli Siegel deals with the conflict in every person between the desire to take care of ourselves alone and the desire to be fair to "all that is not ourselves"--the very conflict that Fusiwe had. And we learn how this conflict, and its resolution, is of the utmost importance to the future of humanity.

For the narrative by Helena Valero when studied by means of the Aesthetic Method, as provided by Eli Siegel, presents us with a most important conclusion: War is not inevitable amongst human beings, for there is something better in us than the desire to defeat others.

Read the book and in a moving way you will see how this is true.

An invaluable document.......2004-09-28

This is not an entertaining biography in the form of a novel, but a book written for science rather than sales. For people wanting a pleasant read and a nice story, look elsewhere; this is a serious book.

Helena Valero, abducted from her parents by the Yanomamo, experiences all the extremes that a stone-age life could bring. She is shot twice with arrows, has her arm broken by her husband, is forcibly abducted from one village, almost killed in another attempted abduction, and watches her husband being killed by his enemies.

This book not merely supports the work of Napoleon Chagnon concerning the Yanomamo, if anything, this book presents an even more dangerous and difficult environment in which Valero and her sons fight for their lives on numerous occasions.

One of the most valuable documents available reflecting what life would be like fifty thousand years ago. A must for anyone interested in human origins.

A must read.......2003-11-20

An incredible first hand story of a world probably gone forever. In the 1930's a White Amazon river trader's daughter is kidnapped by the Yanoama, a tribe of Amazonian Indians. This pre-teen is adopted by the tribe and assimilates into the Stone Age culture over the succeeding twenty years. The lifestyle, experiences, and culture are fascinating and bizarre. Helena Valero never forgot her roots. She eventually escaped along with one of her children to a Salesion mission. Her original white family rejected her. She lived her life doing menial work at the mission, making sure her child received an education at the mission school. She had had a hard life in the forest, beaten, and bartered, but effected her own rescue only to be rejected by her original family and told to get a job and start supporting herself and child. At the mission she was looked upon as just another native inhabitant trying to acquire western ways. I am a little suspicious of this story because there seems to be a total lack of notoriety. If a Helena Valero were to walk out of the Amazonian forest today she would be deluged with book and movie deals. I believe the truth of the story comes out in the details. The facts of her story and her intimate knowledge of tribal life seem to bear out the truth.

A World Apart From Civilization as We Know It.......2002-03-29

Yanoama tells the story of a young girls coming of age in a world apart from civilization as we know it. Helena Valero was taken from her parents by the native Yanoama Indians of Venezuela while a preteen girl. She struggled to learn their language and strongly gave her own opinions to those who whished to keep her as their property. Helena lived on her own in the tropical rainforest, was bitten and chased by large snakes, survived poisoned arrows, beatings, and starvation. Her will to survive above all else kept her alive. The Yanoama are what we would call primitive peoples who practice indocanibalism, take more than one wife, wear no clothes and practice rituals that seem unreal to people of the "civilized world". This is the true story of Helenas capture and eventual escape. Life in the rainforest was not east for Helena along the Rio Negro, but as she grew older and had children her resolve strengthened to survive and escape with those whom she loved into a better life where the Yanoaman tribes would not constantly be threatening to kill them. While this is an excellent source for anthropology it is more important as the documentation of the human will to survive.

Scent: The Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell (Kodansha Globe)

Average customer rating:

Intriguing, thought-provoking, and universal!

Scent: The Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell (Kodansha Globe)
Annick Le Guerer
Manufacturer: Kodansha America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Physiological Aspects | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Physiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Smell: The Secret Seducer
The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell
A Natural History of the Senses
Essence and Alchemy

ASIN: 156836024X

Customer Reviews:

Intriguing, thought-provoking, and universal!.......2000-03-30

This book provides much intriguing and fascinating information on the role of scent and smell over history. It's captivating to find the emphasis past cultures and time periods had on scent and smells - and how much of that we have lost. Particularly interesting are the sections on scent as it relates to seduction and magic. A bit "scholarly" but understandable and educational!

South from Granada (Kodansha Globe Series)

Average customer rating:

A Mastery of English
A book of remarkable insight and information .
Excellent Look at an Facinating People
Life in Las Alpujarras
An anecdotal remembrance of life in a Andalusian village

South from Granada (Kodansha Globe Series)
Gerald Brenan
Manufacturer: Kodansha International (JPN)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Customs & Traditions | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain
The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War (Canto)
South From Granada
Iberia
The Rough Guide to Andalucia - Edition 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

ASIN: 156836184X

Customer Reviews:

A Mastery of English.......2003-05-02

This book surely has its ethnographic merits, but there's another great reason to read it. Gerard Brenan is one of the most elegantly simple writers in the English language. The economy of his prose that never feels hurried perfectly suits the man for his observations of the unhurried, simple life he describes.

A book of remarkable insight and information ........2002-02-21

As a British ExPat, living in rural Andalucia, I find Brenan's observations of the Spanish character and way of life still very relevant and curiously haunting in this, the first decade of the third millenium.
The Historical movements of ancient peoples from Andalucia to Northern Europe, and their relevance to modern racial makeup, prove also fascinating.
Altogether; a somewhat 'dry' book, but well worth reading especially if you have an interest, and some knowlege, of Southern Spain.

Excellent Look at an Facinating People.......2000-05-02

I bought this book in preparation for a trip to Andalucia this summer. What I found was one of the best character studies I have ever read. This would be the father of the "Year in Provence" type of book set in a facinating section of Southern Spain amid white-washed Berber homes and olive groves. Don't worry about the chapters on the visits from various famous writers (Virginia Wolfe, etc.) as they can be skipped without dimishing from the work at all. Nonetheless, I enjoyed them despite having absolutely no interest in Lytton-Strachy, et al.

Life in Las Alpujarras.......2000-03-29

At once a travel memoir, a work of anthropological observation, and an account of becoming a writer, Brennan's account of life in a Spanish Village in the 1920's is acutely observed. Rich in its account of the culture of the region, South from Granada also contains wry descriptions of the visits of various members of the Bloomsbury group (Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, Leonard and Virgina Woolfe) who, with varying degrees of adaptability, are confronted with the rather basic ammenities of the village. Strong, clear writing makes for an evocative read.

An anecdotal remembrance of life in a Andalusian village.......1999-02-25

This work is more an anecdotal remembrance than a seamless flowing memoir. I wouldn't recommend this book as a first book about Spain, but I do think it is valuable for its knowledge about small Andalusia pueblo life in the twenties. In this it is very well written. The author is at his best describing the life, social mores and incredible natural panorama of the Sierra Nevada. I found the chapters dealing with his various visitors (English intellectual figures) uninteresting. I'll speculate that when it was published in the 50's that this was probably of more interest- now, with the exception of Virginia Woolf, these individuals are dimly remembered personages.

Biogeochemical Investigations of Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Wetland Ecosystems across the Globe (Advances in Global Change Research)

Average customer rating:

Biogeochemical Investigations of Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Wetland Ecosystems across the Globe (Advances in Global Change Research)
R. Kelman, Ed. Wieder
Manufacturer: Kluwer Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Geochemistry | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Science | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1402018142
Release Date: 2007-05-25

Product Description

xThis volume contains reviewed papers from BIOGEOMON, The Fourth International Symposium on Ecosystem Behavior, held at the University of Reading in August 2002, and attended by over 260 participants from 25 countries. The papers in this volume focus on themes that have always been strong at BIOGEOMON, such as:

- catchment monitoring and manipulations,

- catchment and regional-scale modeling,

- nitrogen transformations and processes,

- stable and radiogenic isotopes in the environment.

Beyond these traditionally emphasized themes, other papers focus on:

- mercury and metal dynamics,

- phosphorus,

- terrestrial DOC and soil organic matter,

- scaling of biogeochemical processes,

- biogeochemistry of restored ecosystems.

Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers in biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, global change, and anthropogenic pollution, as well as to natural resource managers and policy specialists.

Earth Science (Janus Life, Earth and Physical Science)

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Earth Science (Janus Life, Earth and Physical Science)
Globe Fearon
Manufacturer: Globe Fearon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0835913864

Globe Fearon Exercise Books - Characteristics of Life - Science Tests Practice

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Globe Fearon Exercise Books - Characteristics of Life - Science Tests Practice

Manufacturer: Globe Fearon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0130240524

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