Presents the latest archaeological and historical research on all aspects of Maya society, from its earliest beginnings to the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century.
“Astonishing. . . . [Satyamurti’s Mahabharata ] brings [the] past alive . . . as though it were a novel in finely crafted verse.”?Vinay Dharwadker Originally composed approximately two thousand years ago, the Mahabharata tells the story of a royal dynasty, descended from gods, whose feud over their kingdom results in a devastating war. But it contains much more than conflict. An epic mast…
It should be more widely appreciated that literature is a kind of scientific tool that can be used to shed light on consciousness. The argument is that the richest description of the phenomenon of human experience come from our finest writers, who are capable of capturing moments in time in exquisite detail from multiple perspectives. In this view, there is no …
Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction considers a subject that falls in the gap between arts and science, on the edges of which fascinating discoveries and important problems are found. Beginning with the oldest, ‘arts’ end of the subject, it moves chronologically through to the newest research — the ‘science’ aspects. Themes included are: the prehistory of languages and their common…
This Very Short Introduction answers four basic questions: what is Geography, how do geographers work, why is Geography important, and where is the discipline of Geography heading? Geography has always been important, though it has had only a short history as an academic discipline and is much misunderstood. Modern Geography has come a long way from its historical roots in exploring foreign lan…
This user-friendly book is aimed at helping students of Mandarin Chinese learn and remember Chinese characters. At last--there is a truly effective and enjoyable way to learn Chinese characters! This book helps students to learn and remember both the meanings and the pronunciations of over 800 characters. This otherwise daunting task is made easier by the use of techniques based on the psych…
At the same time, archaeologists, anthropologists and historians have begun to explore the deep-time origins and early development of social inequality, articulating trends and patterns through analysis of material attributes such as size and complexity of household dwellings, access to storage space and variation in quantity and type of grave goods, on the basis that the pervasiveness of inequ…
This ultimate dictionary explains, defines and depicts more than 33,000 terms from the parts of a volcano to the components of an engine and offers detailed explanations and annotations of each.
Full-color photos. "Here is everything readers will ever desire to know about trees. Every imaginable aspect of the life of a tree is examined. Anatomy, physiology, reproduction, growth, and development are described using the best photos in botanical literature and succinct, lively captions. Each page is a delight to the eye. Of particular note is the coverage of tree diseases, including acid …
But Virchow’s understanding of politics was very particular, as revealedin the second and less well-known part of his statement. After character-izing politics as medicine on a larger scale, Virchow went on to write,‘Medicine as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obli-gation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution;the politician, the practical …