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Over the next half century, the human population, divided by culture and economics and armed with weapons of mass destruction, will expand to nearly 9 billion people. Abrupt climate change may throw the global system into chaos; China will emerge as a superpower; and Islamic terrorism and insurgency will threaten vital American interests. How can we understand these and other global challenges? Harm de Blij has a simple answer: by improving our understanding of the world's geography.De Blij demonstrates how geography's perspectives yield unique and penetrating insights into the interconnections that mark our shrinking world. Centuries ago a surge of climate change halted China's maritime plans; more recently, environmental calamity altered the course of geopolitical events in East Asia; today, terrorists look for failed and malfunctioning states to base their operations--and some of these are in our own hemisphere.Preparing for climate change, averting a cold war with China, defeating terrorism: all of this requires geographic knowledge. In Why Geography Matters, de Blij makes an urgent call to restore geography to America's educational curriculum. He shows how and why the U.S. has become the world's most geographically illiterate society of consequence--and demonstrates that this geographic illiteracy is a direct risk to America's national security. In this personal and engaging book, de Blij provides a geographer's perspective on the challenges of this new century. As he states, "We are crossing the threshold to a century that will witness massive environmental change, major population shifts, persistent civilizational conflicts [and] while geographic knowledge by itself cannot solve these problems, they will not be effectively approached without it." ... Read more

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Learn about Whales with iMindsJNR learning series for younger minds.

Whales may seem like the biggest fish in the ocean, but they’re actually not fish at all. Whales and dolphins are actually mammals, just like us! In fact, we’re more similar than you might think. Scientists believe that millions of years ago, whales lived on land and spent most of their time fishing in shallow water. Eventually they developed flippers instead of legs and started to live in the water!Now, whales can be found in all of the earth’s oceans.

Perfect to engage, entertain and broaden young thinkers.. iMindsJNR brings targeted knowledge to your eReading device with short information segmentsto whet your mental appetite and broaden young minds.

iMindsJNR offers 6 main categories for ages 7-14years including General Knowledge, Geography & Nature, Famous People, Science & Maths, The Arts and History.Clear, concise and engaging, open young minds to a love of learning. ... Read more

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The port city of Liverpool, England, is home to one of the oldest Black communities in Britain. Its members proudly date their history back at least as far as the nineteenth century, with the global wanderings and eventual settlement of colonial African seamen. Jacqueline Nassy Brown analyzes how this worldly origin story supports an avowedly local Black politic and identity--a theme that becomes a window onto British politics of race, place, and nation, and Liverpool's own contentious origin story as a gloriously cosmopolitan port of world-historical import that was nonetheless central to British slave trading and imperialism.This ethnography also examines the rise and consequent dilemmas of Black identity. It captures the contradictions of diaspora in postcolonial Liverpool, where African and Afro-Caribbean heritages and transnational linkages with Black America both contribute to and compete with the local as a basis for authentic racial identity. Crisscrossing historical periods, rhetorical modes, and academic genres, the book focuses singularly on "place," enabling its most radical move: its analysis of Black racial politics as enactments of English cultural premises. The insistent focus on English culture implies a further twist. Just as Blacks are racialized through appeals to their assumed Afro-Caribbean and African cultures, so too has Liverpool--an Irish, working-class city whose expansive port faces the world beyond Britain--long been beyond the pale of dominant notions of authentic Englishness. Dropping Anchor, Setting Sail studies "race" through clashing constructions of "Liverpool." ... Read more

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This text provides a theory about one of the Arctic's great unsolved mysteries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

For obsessed Franklin fans
This is a must have follow up to Woodman's "Unravelling The Franklin Mystery" of a few years earlier. It examines the Inuit testimony of possible Franklin survivors on Melville Peninsula and the surrounding area. I suggest reading "Unravelling The Franklin Mystery" before you read this book due to the Inuit language used (for names) and once you do read it, "Strangers Among Us" will have that much more of an impact.Dan Woodman has done his homework and reasearch on the Franklin mystery and his books are a must have if yiu are an obsessed Frenklin researcher.

Strangers Among Us
I read this book despite not being overly familiar with the details of the Franklin expedition or Inuit culture, so I am not in a position to argue whether or not the author's conclusions are valid.But I have to say that I found the author's arguments to be quite compelling and, provided that Charles Francis Hall accurately intepreted the stories that his Inuit friends told him, it would seem that survivors of the Franklin expedition managed to survive for several years by living off the land.

Eye-witness testimony to the Franklin Expedition
. . . and others . . .

When Charles Francis Hall went looking for the Franklin expedition he heard exciting but contradictory evidence from the Inuit natives he encountered.Years after Hall, David Woodman's carefulanalysis of Inuit narratives does much to separate lines of history fromcomplex story-telling.This book describes the ways in which the Inuittestimony can be validated and what things it has to report to us aboutwhat may have happened to the Franklin expedition.As such it containswhat may be the first real "new" information about the Franklinexpedition that we are likely to obtain absent startling new finds in theregion.

Though Scott Cookman's new study "Ice Blink" hasgenuine insights to offer on the possible reasons for the evidentdeterioration of the Franklin expedition after its first year in the ice,Woodman's "Strangers Among Us" ultimately provides moreinformation on exactly what happened -- and invaluable information fromInuit hunting peoples about why it might have happened at that time and inthat place.

If you are interested in the historical mysteries of thethird Franklin expedition this book should not be missed. ... Read more

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Political geography has produced some of the most radical and innovative ideas in human geography in the past twenty years. The meaning and significance of traditional political subdivisions, such as the state, have had to be fundamentally re-evaluated in the face of the globalisation of society and economy and this has forced political geographers to look for new ways of explaining the dynamics of the world system.

Political Geography provides a stimulating and concise introduction to the key themes of the subdiscipline, which moves beyond the study of the state to encompass the spatial consequences of power at all levels.It is divided into three sections:
- Process and Patterns, considers how and why societies allocate and manage territory and why exclusive control over defined areas has become such an overwhelming preoccupation. The main vehicle for this is the state and the different ways in which states are organised and the preconditions for their political success are the main focus for this section.
- Ideology and Geopolitical Visions, looks beyond the state to evaluate critically the geopolitical strategies of successful expansionist powers that have enabled them to stamp their values and influence beyond their immediate political boundaries. Of growing importance in this regard at the present time is the ruthless political struggle to achieve dominance over the world's oceans.
- Beyond the State, extends the argument further to examine the impact that globalisation has had on political structures and on political relationships across the globe. In particular, it addresses issues such as the inequalities in the distribution of wealth and the apparent inability of existing political institutions to remedy the situation.

In the conclusion, the book asks whether the existing concepts and models used by political geographers are sufficiently robust to be able to contribute usefully to the analysis of the new world order in the 21st century.This student friendly textbook is a valuable and accessible introduction to the broad themes of political geography

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A Companion to Political Geography presents students and researchers with a substantial survey of this active and vibrant field.

• Introduces the best thinking in contemporary political geography.
  
• Contributions written by scholars whose work has helped to shape the discipline.
  
• Includes work at the cutting edge of the field.
  
• Covers the latest theoretical developments.

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No description available ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

great sale
I received this book in a very timely manner and it arrived in great shape. Pleasure doing business with this sender. I appreciate it. ... Read more

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a selection from the introductory:

Customer Reviews (1)

Miracle year
Of the three great books published 1922/23--Ulysses, The Wasteland, and Geography and Plays--I rate Stein's work the highest.It is a bit daunting at first, though you will probably be amused at least by the wit on every page.But for experiments in poetry, plays, and prose, it by far outstrips Joyce and Eliot.The one essential modernist work.So advanced it is actually postmodernist in its approach to its audience, including, as it does, echoes of what is happening now around her so as to achieve a release from time and to become essentially timeless.Try it and see.This is a great investment.The first edition in four separate bindings is worth seeking out, though Stein tends to be pricey.But just read it in any edition.You'll love it.Bob Finley ... Read more

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A Companion to Economic Geography presents students of human geography with an essential collection of original essays providing a key to understanding this important subdiscipline. The contributions are written by prominent international scholars offering a wide-ranging overview of the field.The authors provide the reader with an understanding of the tradition of geographic research in all the relevant topics of economic geography whilst focusing on the developments of the last twenty years. All the entries provide critical assessments of the state of the field and highlight the contribution of each approach to an understanding of economic geography. The Companion is ideally suited to undergraduates and first year graduates and will provide them with a comprehensive review of economic geography in a clear and accessible format. ... Read more

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This book covers many topics that are crucial to military planning but often receive only passing mention in histories or briefings. Collins, a former Army officer, stresses land geography, but he does not stint oceans, the atmosphere, or interplanetary space. His discussions of urban areas are too brief, given the increasing amount of large-scale violence in cities since the end of World War II. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Goes Way Beyond Hold the High Ground
Any amateur reader of military science and history knows a few maxims of military geography -- hold the high ground and let the enemy come to you for instance. But that is not the way that a professional military officer/geographer knows about the military aspects of geography.

This book is an extremely interesting mix of general discussion about military geography combined with detailed discussions of the situation at specific places where the US military has had to go.

Of particular interest to me was the chapter on the beaches in Normandy. Among all the descriptions of the physical geography is a description of the obstacles (which modify geography) such as beach fortifications. In talking about these his comment is: 'The aggregate could best be described as awesome.' This leads on to the construction of airfields in Normandy in the days after D-Day, seven airfields were operational by D+20.

I suspect that the military has books and courses on geography for their own use, but for the amateur interested in the details about military geography I can't recommend this book to highly.

Simple? Complex? Indepth or superficial? How about all four.
When I think of this book, I do not think of the word "compendium". This is a "comprehensive compendium" of all things related to geography and warfare. The first chapters are much like a textbook introduction to physical and cultural geography. But interspersed are such interesting drawings as the effect of wave action on ship stability. The chapter on inner and outer space was especially interesting in light of the news reports of North Korea's interest in nuclear weapons to cripple command, control and communications using gamma "BOMBS". This is a book for people who forgot what was taught in, or never took a college geography course, and who know nothing about ground, sea or air forces. Since that would include most people, one might conclude that it is a good "read" for the target audience as specified in the Forward, the Preface and the Author's Introduction. The layout is a bit challenging. As a geographer, I might be tempted to skip the chapters on geographic features, but right in the middle of the chapter is a discussion of ship response to wave action. And so it is throughout the book. And the field of combat is far too complex and specialized to think this book can give an in depth review of what constitutes WAR or COMBAT or STRATEGY. Curious tidbits of information on military equipment, weather effects, weapons effects are interspersed throughout the text, albeit in a logical fashion. The best chapters are those providing analysis of a complete battle or campaign. There all of the pieces are brought together in a discussion integrating the effects of geographic phenomenon with the application of the war fighter. This is a great book for serious study. I might not, however, try to read it while watching Monday Night Football. To get the most out of it, it must be studied, likely not as a section in a more complex class, but rather in a class of it's own with additional research sections on strategy, Sun Tzu, logistics, or the evolution of war based on new equipment and trends.

Packed Full of Information
The title is as basic as you can get yet has a deep insight into the geography of military operations and deployment. Its the nuts and bolts of how the military deploys its resources and moves them. If you are tired of military maps that show arrows of armies moving across a barren map, this book gives depth to how the military moves. Most interesting was space operations and the term "Gravity Wells" and Strategic Space Locations. This book should interest anyone seeking information about military planning and operations and infrastructure.

A well crafted overview of Military Geography
Because the author has chosen to cover a very broad subject in a single volume each subject is given but a brief overview. For professionals in the field this book provides a good review. For those with a casual interest the book gives insight into avenues for further study.

Awesome in Its Simplicity
This is a tremendous book for anybody wanting in-depth information on geography and warfare but who does not have the technical background of a geographer or military analyst.It is full of excellent, high-quality photographs, and three-dimensional drawings that supplement the text in an excellent fashion.Maps are drawn, not reproduced from older texts, and the clarity and detail is beyond reproach.Chapters are organized by subject matter and the book even contains simplified explanations of satellite reconaisance and outer space applications.This is an excellent book. ... Read more

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At the dawn of the twenty-first century, all of us consider ourselves to be citizens of something - but of what? Nation-states, Regions, Ethnic groups, Corporations. An accomplished set of meditations by one of Europe's leading Americanists, "Them and Us" is a rich comparative study of European and American cultural traditions and their influence on conceptions of community. In contrast with the ethnic and nationalist allegiances that historically have splintered Europe, Rob Kroes identifies a complex of cultural practices that have mitigated against ethnically rooted divisions in the United States. He argues that the American approach - articulated by a national rhetoric emphasizing openness rather than closure, diversity rather than uniformity - has much to offer a Europe where the nationalist and ethnic conflicts that spawned two world wars continue to sow terror and destruction. Kroes discusses European and American attitudes toward the welfare state, the human rights tradition in the United States, and the role of regionalism in shaping conceptions of national identity.He also considers new, transnational forms of cultural membership that are emerging to take the place of nation-based citizenship. He contends that the frame of reference Europeans now use to make sense of their collective situation draws on ingredients provided by the worldwide dissemination of American mass culture. He investigates the way this emerging world culture, under American auspices, affects the way people in their local and national settings structure their sense of the past and conceive of their citizenship. Imagining a new set of cultural relationships that could serve as the basis for global citizenship, "Them and Us" is an insightful consideration of the types of solidarity that might weave humankind together into a meaningful community. ... Read more

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They Came To Save Us is the saga of an Appalachian family in Eastern Kentucky during the fifties and early sixties. It is based upon the true-life experiences of the author.The narrative weaves a tale of good against evil, imagination challenging reality and triumph through tragedy.The story is filled with laughter, sorrow, drama and a bit of mystery.It is a must read for the millions of Eastern Kentucky Highlanders who have relocated elsewhere over the last century or are associated with a Kentucky creek, branch or hollow. Who knows when the sleeping urge to return may awaken with galactic magnetism.Perhaps some singular Memorial Day weekend it will happen to all of us and we will have a grand reunion.Until then our dreams must suffice.Enjoy ... Read more

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Here is a guide to finding and presenting places that bring new visibility to women's lives and illuminate their goals.Some of these sites, such as city hall, are not generally associated with women; some are sites of long-forgotten women's activities; others, such as kitchens, usually assumed to be women's domain, reflect unexpected complexities of meaning.Eleven essays explore possibilities for using women's history and feminist analysis to look at familiar places through the lens of gender.Case studies become guides for interpreting or reinterpreting similar places.The text also containslists of suggested sources pertaining to the subjects presented. The sites analyzed here include homes, gardens, factories, cemeteries, business districts, and even entire communities.They are places to learn about women running millinery shops, surviving in a new country by working in another woman's kitchen, stripping tobacco leaves in a factory in the South, laboring for slave owners, commemorating achievement, and mourning the dead. This collection of essays is designed to be useful to teachers and historical societies searching their own communities for new sites significant to the history of women. The essays also will interest those who want to use local and national historic sites as windows into women's history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A "reader friendly" guide to places and sites
Collaboratively compiled and edited by Polly Welts Kaufman and Katharine T. Corbett, Her Past Around Us: Interpreting Sites For Women's History is an impressive and "reader friendly" guide to places and sites historically and culturally important to the subject of Women's History. Eleven articulate and informative essays explore the use of women's history and feminist analysis to reexamine familiar places (ranging from family kitchens to city halls) through the lens of gender. Individual case studies are utilized to interpret (or re-interpret) homes, gardens, factories, cemeteries, business districts, even entire communities with respect to their import for Women's History. Highly recommended for Women's Studies and American History reference collections, Her Past Around Us will also prove exceptionally useful reading for anyone interested in incorporating local and national historic sites to illustrate and enhanced a Women's History class course curriculum. ... Read more

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Long ago the ancestors of the Greeks, Romans, and Hindus were one people living on the Eurasian steppes. At the core of their religion was the "shamanic trance," a natural state but one in which consciousness achieves a profound level of inner awareness. Over the course of millennia, the Indo-Europeans divided and migrated into Europe and the Indian subcontinent. The knowledge of shamanic trance retreated from everyday awareness and was carried on in the form of myths and distilled into spiritual practices--most notably in the Indian tradition of yoga. J. Nigro Sansonese compares the myths of Greece as well as those of the Judeo-Christian tradition with the yogic practices of India and concludes that myths are esoteric descriptions of what occurs within the human body, especially the human nervous system, during trance. In this light, the myths provide a detailed map of the shamanic state of consciousness that is our natural heritage.

This book carries on from the works of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell to show how the portrayal of consciousness embodied in myth can be extended to a reappraisal of the laws of physics; before they are descriptions of the world, these laws--like myths--are descriptions of the human nervous system.Amazon.com Review
In a philosophical corner of the universe somewhere in the same quadrant as David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous and Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth shines this brilliantly original, if somewhat confounding, investigation into the origin and meaning of myth. Never again will the reader be forced to ponder, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Sansonese spells it out so that even the least enlightened among us can understand--that is, if we have enough power of concentration to follow his highly complex explanations. The clapping of one hand is the sound of our own listening--the actual noises of outer space and inner place. An exploration of shamanic trance and pranayama yoga unravels mysteries of consciousness leading Sansonese to discover the sacred geography whence myth arose--it is in priopreception (subconscious physiological self-perception) that we first heard the stories and the allegories. The bulk of the book is devoted to Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian prehistorical legends as they sprang from our ancestors' anatomy. This is a fascinating read for the epistemologically curious among us, and certainly for the self-absorbed. One imagines Pogo commenting, "We have met the origins of our mythology, and he is us." --P. Randall Cohan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Not for every reader.
Sansonese explores the idea that the ancient myths were not mere stories, but rather coded teachings on shamanic trance.This is not a how-to book on shamanic trance; readers seeking such a book should look elsewhere.

The good:The book itself is of beautiful quality--one of the nicest paperbacks I've held in my hands in a long time.The paper in particular is amazing, heavy and smooth.The author has a nice style of writing, scholarly and yet clear and brisk.His arguments are logical and progress well throughout the book.

The bad:Not all of the author's brilliant observations are as brilliant as he seems to think they are.For example, he begins by telling us that--gasp!--the Zen koans weren't just wacky little metaphysical riddles but were, like the myths, coded teachings.He informs us that "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" refers to the ears and, by extension, to the internal sounds one hears during meditation.Well, fine, but it seems to have escaped him that the heart has several valves that "clap" open and shut like little solitary hands and which create the internal sounds--the heartbeat, the rush of the blood through the veins--that one hears.There were many such questionable bits in the book.I also found the book far too long, unnecessarily so.

The ugly:I was especially annoyed by something that is described by Dr. Andrew Weil as "medical hexing," namely the tendency of patients who are told by some authority figure such as a doctor that there is no hope for recovery to curl up and die--sort of the reverse of the placebo response.The author comes from a background of decades of raja yoga and he insists that shamanic trance, and the breakthrough into enlightenment, are not only horribly physically painful but also require a lifetime of instruction from a qualified teacher.That is his POV, not the only POV, and rather than letting yourself be hexed into believing that the pursuit of enlightenment has to be that awful I suggest buying some books on Dzogchen Buddhism.Don't misunderstand me, I'm not knocking yoga in any way.What I'm saying is that if you want to suffer and spend decades studying a discipline, do it because you want to and not because someone made you think it had to be so.

The good review:I recommend this book highly for scholars.The author is rigorous and scientific, and he takes shamanic trance out of the realm of mumbo-jumbo and places it firmly in science.

The bad review:General readers should probably start elsewhere.

The beautiful:The cover art is fascinating.At first glance we see a man in a trance.On further study we see that the folds of the man's robes are in fact flocks of birds clinging to sheer cliffs above the sea.The artist, Jim Harter, deserved more recognition than just his name in tiny print at the bottom of the back cover.

the body of Myth:Mythology, Shamanic Trance and the Sacred Geometry of the Body
There is a certain swath of thinkers out there right now who are trying to piece together the very themes that this outstanding book addresses:the yogic mind, the spirit of trance, and the significance of sacred geometry in relation to the human energy field.This treasure serves all of us who have somehow embarked upon this particular (epic) journey.In these pivotal astrological times, we must re-visit the ancient mythical stories that unlock the secrets to our soul evolution as well as our place in contemporary history.This book offers many break through ideas and offers a solid context by which we can re-interpret the myths that matter and know ourselves better in the process.All of you mystically minded scientists, be prepared for a book that you will leave you wondering, "what took me so long to find this book?".

The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, and the Sacred Geography of the Body
The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, and the Sacred Geography of the Body examines the notion that much of the body of mythology, religion, and oral tradition has been created as a mnemonic about breath as a means to transcend human reality. This version of breath is akin to Buddhist awareness meditation and to trance of various earth and shamanic belief systems. The author explores a variety of Greek and Roman mythological elements as well as Christian Biblical accounts to illustrate the common underlying symbolism held within these stories and found within the basic tenets of these belief systems.

I found this book absolutely fascinating, very well researched, and full of though provoking information. I do not believe, however, that everyone will find this book as interesting as the work is set in standard textbook format. Moreover, in order to understand much of the book, the reader should be well acquainted with basic theories of the anthropology of religion and mythology as well as basic Buddhist philosophy. The reader should also have some basic knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology and literature as well as some knowledge of Christian Biblical accounts.

Brilliant in its own eccentric way
A brilliant piece of work - closely argued, coherent, occasionally inaccurate but nevertheless staggeringly insightful. Sansonese brings together biology, physics and literary criticism with the theory and pratice of meditation to create a most enigmatic reading of Homer, one which by extension can be used to open up the whole world of myth to a rather more far-reaching understanding. In essence what he suggests is that ancient Indo-European myth is a kind of encoded description of the intensely acute perceptions and maniplulations of internal bodily processes that take place during deep meditative concentration of the type achieved during in such practices as raja yoga etc... far-out yes, but see how he argues it himself - it is done persuasivley I assure you...

I recommend Jeremy Narby's "The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge" as a sort of appendix to Sansonesse. I notice may people are disatisfied with the quality of argument in Narby. Sansonese's work undoubteldy provides the necessary basis with which to ground Narby's hypothesesis - despite it's general loopiness of course...

Yoga, the Human Body, and Mythology
"The Body of Myth" proposes a thoroughly original theory for the origins of myth in prehistory. The basic idea is quite straightforward: myths are esoteric descriptions of "trance states." Because he needs a frame of reference within which to introduce the dynamics of trance, Sansonese turns to the work of Patanjali, an Indian yogi and adept of the second century BC , but he makes clear that his discussion of trance is not intended to apply primarily to Hindu mythology.

His main subjects are the myths of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions. Patanjali's classic work, "The Yoga-Sutra," is adopted as a concise description of trance that, Sansonese claims, can be applied cross-culturally to any "bija" or "object [of contemplation]." Of course, because both the Greeks and the Hindus are definitely known, on philological grounds, to have been a single people (the Indo-Europeans) in the very long ago, it should not be a surprise if their religio-mythical beliefs share a common "deep structure."

Patanjali's work, in this view, represents a highly technical elaboration of much more "primitive" shamanic trance practices and an investigation, through yoga, of the techniques of focusing awareness that continued for at least a millennium after the Indo-European peoples separated. The Greek tradition has left us no such intensive, systematic scrutiny of trance, yet the common shamanic origins survive in myth. In Sansonese's view, the bija is the human body experienced principally, but not exclusively, as awareness is focused on breathing, particularly on the experience of the effects of breathing on the skull and even within the brain itself. The breath is described as a sort of "blindman's cane" with which the shaman/yogi stimulates various organs of the body and nervous system to "feel" (Sansonese uses the term "proprioceive") his way into the organism, searching for the source of the divine presence within. Many such attempts, when rendered esoterically, become myths: A MYTH IS AN ESOTERIC DESCRIPTION OF A HEIGHTENED PROPRIOCEPTION. The clarity and comprehensiveness of this definition is "a Columbian discovery," to quote Georg Feuerstein, critically acclaimed translator of Patanjali's "Yoga-Sutra."

Different cultures used different narrative ingredients. The warlike Indo-Europeans resorted often to the tale of a siege of a sacred city (Troy and Thebes, both of which are "seven-gated" and, in Sansonese's hermeneutics, esoteric descriptions of the seven openings of perception in the medial band of the human skull), the perilous search for the Holy Grail, the struggle of Sisyphus, an onomatopoësis for the sound of respiration in the nose, to raise the stone and be released from Hell, and so on. The Hebraic tradition was somewhat more irenic: the skull is described as an "Ark," in which the sacred objects (the Showbread, the Torah, etc.) are kept hidden from profane eyes. Descended from this tradition, is the tale of the Christ and his Crucifixion at the "Place of the Skull." Cross-cultural similarities are eerie. Though Sansonese does not point this out in his extended discussion of Sisyphus, who describes the slowing rise and fall of the breath as the shaman approaches trance, there is a startling parallel with Jesus (whose name is also sibilant, especially in Hebrew: "Yehoshua"), who falls three times on his way to the summit of Golgotha, and who is taken down from the Cross (the space between the eyes) by Joseph [of Arimathea], another highly sibilant name in Hebrew. Symbolism plays very little part here. As Sansonese repeats several times: "Myths are DESCRIPTIONS," attempts at putting into words ACTUAL EXPERIENCES, not abstract theology or psychology. This book is certainly the best book on mythology of the past quarter century because it takes the argument in an entirely new direction. ... Read more

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Paul Shepard has been one of the most brilliant and original thinkers in the field of human evolution and ecology for more than forty years. His thought-provoking ideas on the role of animals in human thought, dreams, personal identity, and other psychological and religious contexts have been presented in a series of seminal writings, including Thinking Animals, The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game, and now The Others, his most eloquent book to date.

The Others is a fascinating and wide-ranging examination of how diverse cultures have thought about, reacted to, and interacted with animals. Shepard argues that humans evolved watching other animal species, participating in their world, suffering them as parasites, wearing their feathers and skins, and making tools of their bones and antlers. For millennia, we have communicated their significance by dancing, sculpting, performing, imaging, narrating, and thinking them. The human species cannot be fully itself without these others.

Shepard considers animals as others in a world where otherness of all kinds is in danger, and in which otherness is essential to the discovery of the true self. We must understand what to make of our encounters with animals, because as we prosper they vanish, and ultimately our prosperity may amount to nothing without them.Amazon.com Review
Paul Shepard was an ecologist with a Yale Ph.D. who spent morethan 40 years studying human evolution. With The Others: HowAnimals Made Us Human Shepard, who died in 1996, wrote a masterfulbook about the relationship we've always had with animals. The ideabehind the book, that humans have always depended on animals, and thatthe dependence has greatly affected what we are, seems simple atfirst. But Shepard combined prodigious scholarship with eloquentwriting to produce a very entertaining and informative look at thatspecial relationship. Among the topics covered in The Othersare the role animals have played in myth and folklore, the uses towhich humans have put animals, and even the role of animals in thecartoons of GaryLarson. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Shepard's THE OTHERS is wonderful
A brilliant book.Immensely learned, wide-ranging, daring in style, challenging in conception, Herculean in vocabulary.Shepard's in-your-face style is both urgent and circumspect.Understanding what human beings are must begin with a careful study of this grand book about what animals mean to our species.

An Ecologist Shepard is but he is not a psychologist, etymologist, classicist, mythologist, historian, or anything else.
Due to the grievous amount of typos, factual errors, absolute statements, poorly (or more aptly undefined) words of interest, and anti-Semiticism, Shepard compiled something that can only be called a book because of its physicality. With that said, Shepard is no doubt an extremely intelligent guy, but he extends his wisdom past its due (i.e. ecology). Most if not all the references to classical Greek mythology are wrong (for example: there is no evidence anywhere to support that Chrusaor is a centaur, Hermes was not raised by the Thriai nor was taught divination by them (it was in fact Apollo who was raised by the Thriai and taught divination to Hermes), Artemis was not the Bear goddess, and it can only be speculated that she had anything to do with bears because of an isolated cult that dates back to the neolithic age (hardly anywhere near Greek society), the melissaewere not called bee maidens because of Artemis was a bear goddess but because of an alcoholic drink they consumed made of honey). Furthermore, his etymologies for bear, to bear, beer, and dog are wrong. His assertion that in classical society the seat of life was thought to be held in the head is wrong (the Greeks thought it resided in the thumos, phren, and noos, all located somewhere in the chest. His Norse Mythology is factual wrong as well. Shepard also refuses to define words that are of relevant such as intelligence, fear, habituation, domestication, etc. Shepard offers his interpretations of Hebrew stories that are made vastly out of context and holds that they are true. Which brings me to my final critic, the levels of anti-Semiticism not only make the book hard to read for Jews (being one myself) but also prove sic et non arguments in Shepard's book. On pages 254-255 he says that it is against Judaic law to own 12,000 horses because it is idolatrous, but on the next page he argues that Jews promulgated horse worship. How can something be worshipped and forbidden as idolatrous at the same time? Because of these errors (I'm only an under-grade so there are bound to be more that I missed), I don't think Shepard's can be read as anything other than fiction masquerading as well researched ecology/philosophy.

To conclude, Shepard is a smart ecologist, but he utterly fails at everything else he tries to incorporate into his book, twisting myth, fact, etymology, and religious practice to fit whatever narrow view he is espousing.

Shepard shreds all
This is one of Shepard's most complete, potent and piercing works. The descriptions of "dense" from other reviewers is a lesson in a culture of boredom that sweeps modernity to the core. In a subject that needs to be articulated so well to affectively challenge the entire foundation of domestication/civilization, you best be prepared to read and absorb so the same rudimentary, arrogant ideologies don't keep appearing time after time, even into levels of academia.

Chapters like "Hounding Nature: The Nightmares of Domestication" cut straight through the bone on our exclusive love for dogs and horses as "man's best friend".

Easily one of the most important philosophers for the future of humanity, who was way "ahead" and "behind" his time.

To understand animals is to understand yourself
Paul Shepard's book, The Others: how animals made us human, is a thoughtful analysis of how animals played a role in determining who and what we are as human animals.As in discussions of religion and politics, you will not agree with everything Professor Shepard writes.However, you will agree that he has developed a credible case that you cannot understand people, whether 10,000 years ago or today, without a better understanding of how Homo erectus and Homo sapiens interacted with both food and predatory animals 100,000 or 1,000,000 years ago.It will make you think, and that, not manipulation, is Professor Shepard's goal.

Disappointing. Hunter perspective.
The layout is attractive and promising, with the beginning of each chapter accompanied by an 1800's steel-engraving of anthropomorphic animals (from children's books or political cartoons) and an appropriate quote or two, some of which are very wise. However, it is completely different from my expectations.

In the introduction, the author greets us as being a masculine hunter, fascinated by the concept of "sacred prey," who views animals in a very utilitarian fashion ("user and the used") despite how his boyhood was spent in not a farm (where a utilitarian viewpoint usually results from) but a suburb (where he grew fond of animals through hobbies such as butterfly collections, egg collecting, and something about small animals and a BB gun.)

Quote from page 7: "The only way I could resolve this contradiction of both loving and killing animals was, on the one hand, to try to understand 'native' cosmologies (or their traces in the modern unconcious) in which killing and eating animals was a positive quality and, on the other hand, to seek the flaws in the 'humane' movement in all its forms."

At this point I can say with certainty that this is, without a doubt, NOT a book for PETA or vegetarians, since clearly he'll be attacking those viewpoints. It is also not for those who want to view animals as sacred in a happy, friendly everyone-gets-along sort of way, since this is quite dark and grotesque with some troubling mental images that you might not be comfortable with. (Poetic descriptions of death throes, for example.) If you are the sort of person who resonates with the concept of "sacred prey" and wants to learn more about it, and can deal with the gritty reality of predation, go ahead and read it. ... Read more

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This reader introduces students to examples of the most important research contributions to economic geography in recent years. In its structure and content, it mirrors Blackwell’s Companion to Economic Geography and it can be used either to complement that volume or as a stand-alone text.

The reader opens with an editorial introduction, summarising the nature of contemporary economic geography, explaining the volume’s structure, and discussing what it means to take a critical approach to geography. The readings themselves are grouped into five sections, each of which is also prefaced by an editorial commentary, placing them within a critical framework. Suggestions for further reading are included to enable students to investigate particular topics further. The editors are all highly respected international authorities on economic geography. ... Read more