Van den Berghe contends that intergroup relations are reducible to individuals competing for scarce resources. While social classes are grouped according to common material interests, ethnic groups are organized by real or punitive common descent--ultimately on the basis of common interests. The author argues that ethnic nepotism is, at its very foundation, biological. This new approach is expanded further, taking into account how ethnicity is responsive to a wide spectrum of environmental factors. He analytically relates his own ideological biases to the substance of his work. What results is an intensely personal book of monumental scope and admirable intellectual honesty.
Every year, millions of tourists scan the world for exotic locales where they can escape their own world and encounter the other. One such place is San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas, Mexico, where you can observe German tourists struggling with chopsticks in a Chinese restaurant, to the accompaniment of pseudo-Chinese music played on an African thumb piano by a black American from San Francisco. While eating, diners may purchase bows and arrows from Lacandon Indians pushed out of their native forests by the hum of chain-saws and advancing herds of Brahman cattle. San Cristobal is one of the frontiers of ethnic tourism where the privileged, moneyed, and leisured meet the poor, struggling, and exotic. Pierre van den Berghe, who first visited San Cristobal in 1959, found that between his visits in 1977 and 1987 the town had moved from seeing a small daily volume of mostly back-pack tourists to accommodating a daily flow of hundreds of tourists of all descriptions. He decided to investigate the impact of tourism in the area, and the result is the first study of its kind dealing with Mexico, as well as the first book-length study of ethnic tourism - tourism motivated by an active search for the "ethnically exotic". Van den Berghe skillfully combines interviews, statistics, observation, and analysis to produce a vivid and insightful picture of the interaction between tourists, the indigenous Maya population, and the ladinos who act as the middlemen between the other two groups. The Quest for the Other contains many implications for tourism policy, both specifying the conditions of success and warning of potential dangers. San Cristobal is, in many ways, a best-case scenario. Almosteveryone is better off, if only marginally, through the development of tourism. "Ethnic tourism", writes the author, "not only debases and destroys what it touches, it also renews and transforms it in profoundly creative ways. The staged authenticity of tourist shows can sometimes become the authentic stage of a cultural revival. At the very least, one should suspend negative value judgments as to the impact of tourism on indigenous cultures".
To the best of the author's knowledge, this study, conducted from July, 1968 to June, 1969, is the first comprehensive sociological survey of an African university. This study did not begin with a set of specific hypotheses to be tested, nor does the research include everything of conceivable relevance to the University of Ilosho (U .I.). Instead, the focus is on the political structure of U.I., on social stratification and mobility, and on problems of ethnicity. These closely interrelated problems are of great importance to the development of Nigeria, where U .I. is located.
To the best of the author's knowledge, this study, conducted from July, 1968 to June, 1969, is the first comprehensive sociological survey of an African university. This study did not begin with a set of specific hypotheses to be tested, nor does the research include everything of conceivable relevance to the University of Ilosho (U .I.). Instead, the focus is on the political structure of U.I., on social stratification and mobility, and on problems of ethnicity. These closely interrelated problems are of great importance to the development of Nigeria, where U .I. is located.
Van den Berghe contends that intergroup relations are reducible to individuals competing for scarce resources. While social classes are grouped according to common material interests, ethnic groups are organized by real or punitive common descent--ultimately on the basis of common interests. The author argues that ethnic nepotism is, at its very foundation, biological. This new approach is expanded further, taking into account how ethnicity is responsive to a wide spectrum of environmental factors. He analytically relates his own ideological biases to the substance of his work. What results is an intensely personal book of monumental scope and admirable intellectual honesty.
The field of cytokine research is expanding at a rapid pace Contributions from the major leading groups in the world on the structure and biological properties of cytokine and cytokine receptors, as well as integrated reviews on cytokines in various physiological and pathological conditions were presented in three issues of International Reviews of Immunology This collection of articles provided a unique source of information However, important discoveries are emerging very rapidly and some of the reviews written in 1997 are already outdated In this book, the editors assemble reviews that have been updated by their authors to include all the recent publications and unpublished data from the authors' laboratories This volume should serve as an excellent reference source for all those concerned by the multiple faces of cytokines in basic research and in the clinic
In African American Pioneers of Sociology, Pierre Saint-Arnaud examines the lasting contributions that African Americans have made to the field of sociology. Arguing that science is anything but a neutral construct, he defends the radical stances taken by early African American sociologists from accusations of intellectual infirmity by foregrounding the racist historical context of the time these influential works were produced. Examining key figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Edward Franklin Frazier, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, Horace Roscoe Cayton, J.G. St. Clair Drake, and Oliver Cromwell Cox, Saint-Arnaudreveals the ways in which many aspects of modern sociology emerged from these authors' radical views on race, gender, religion, and class. Beautifully translated from its original French, African American Pioneers of Sociology is a stunning examination of the influence of African American intellectuals and an essential work for understanding the origins of sociology as a modern discipline.
Around 550 B.C.E. the Persian people—who were previously practically unknown in the annals of history—emerged from their base in southern Iran (Fars) and engaged in a monumental adventure that, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great and his successors, culminated in the creation of an immense Empire that stretched from central Asia to Upper Egypt, from the Indus to the Danube. The Persian (or Achaemenid, named for its reigning dynasty) Empire assimilated an astonishing diversity of lands, peoples, languages, and cultures. This conquest of Near Eastern lands completely altered the history of the world: for the first time, a monolithic State as vast as the future Roman Empire arose, expanded, and matured in the course of more than two centuries (530–330) and endured until the death of Alexander the Great (323), who from a geopolitical perspective was “the last of the Achaemenids.” Even today, the remains of the Empire-the terraces, palaces, reliefs, paintings, and enameled bricks of Pasargadae, Persepolis, and Susa; the impressive royal tombs of Naqsh-i Rustam; the monumental statue of Darius the Great-serve to remind visitors of the power and unprecedented luxury of the Great Kings and their loyal courtiers (the “Faithful Ones”). Though long eclipsed and overshadowed by the towering prestige of the “ancient Orient” and “eternal Greece,” Achaemenid history has emerged into fresh light during the last two decades. Freed from the tattered rags of “Oriental decadence” and “Asiatic stagnation,” research has also benefited from a continually growing number of discoveries that have provided important new evidence-including texts, as well as archaeological, numismatic, and iconographic artifacts. The evidence that this book assembles is voluminous and diverse: the citations of ancient documents and of the archaeological evidence permit the reader to follow the author in his role as a historian who, across space and time, attempts to understand how such an Empire emerged, developed, and faded. Though firmly grounded in the evidence, the author’s discussions do not avoid persistent questions and regularly engages divergent interpretations and alternative hypotheses. This book is without precedent or equivalent, and also offers an exhaustive bibliography and thorough indexes. The French publication of this magisterial work in 1996 was acclaimed in newspapers and literary journals. Now Histoire de l’Empire Perse: De Cyrus a Alexandre is translated in its entirety in a revised edition, with the author himself reviewing the translation, correcting the original edition, and adding new documentation. Pierre Briant, Chaire Histoire et civilisation du monde achémenide et de l’empire d’Alexandre, Collège de France, is a specialist in the history of the Near East during the era of the Persian Empire and the conquests of Alexander. He is the author of numerous books. Peter T. Daniels, the translator, is an independent scholar, editor, and translator who studied at Cornell University and the University of Chicago. He lives and works in New York City.
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