Considering their imposing nature, this study thus aims to find out how the communities coped with the investments associated with manufacturing the buildings. Analysing the cost of large-scale construction for a society has been researched before (e.g. Abrams and Bolland 1999, who focused on Central America), but few have made Mycenaean Greece the primary focus of such…
It is a curious situation that technologies we now take for granted have, when first introduced, so often stoked public controversy and concern for public welfare. At the root of this tension is the perception that the benefits of new technologies will accrue only to small sections of society, while the risks will be more widely distributed. Drawing from nearly 600 years of technology histor…
Song of Exile: A Cultural History of Brazil’s Most Popular Poem, 1846–2018 is the first comprehensive study of the influence of Antônio Gonçalves Dias’s “Canção do exílio.” Written in Coimbra, Portugal, in 1843 by a homesick student longing for Brazil, “Song of Exile” has inspired thousands of parodies and pastiches, and new variations continue to appear to this day. Every ge…
In this book we share the rich documentary and photographic sources from the early years of the Oenpelli mission. Though it consists mainly of records produced by non-Indigenous missionaries, we consider this book a book of Aboriginal history. Why? The letters, reports and photographs that form its core were produced by missionaries who sought to convert and change Aboriginal peop…
This book brings together recent research on the end of the Cold War in the Third World and engages with ongoing debates about regional conflicts, the role of great powers in the developing world, and the role of international actors in conflict resolution. Most of the recent scholarship on the end of the Cold War has focused on Europe or bilateral US-Soviet relations. By contrast, relatively l…
This book corrals global scholarship on ancient writing systems from China, Mesopotamia, Central America, the Mediterranean, to more recent newly created scripts such as the Rongorongo from Easter Island, the Caroline Island scripts, as well as the alphabet. The aim is to dig into the foundations of writing and showcase the complexities and varieties of scripts, from their invention to the pote…
This landmark collection of essays makes a major contribution to the globally burgeoning f ield of broadside ballad study by extending our gaze to include the largely underexplored treasure trove of some 100,000 Central/Eastern European broadside ballads of the Czech Republic, from the beginning of the sixteenth to the end of the nineteenth centuries. Czech broadside ballads, when viewed within…
"Paganism" is an evocative word that even today conjures up deep-seated emotions and prejudices. Until recently, it was primarily a derogatory term used by Christians to describe the non-Christian cultures vanquished by their churches. For some it evokes images of sacrifice and barbaric behavior, while for others it symbolizes a peace-loving, nature-worshipping spiritual relationship with the e…
In an era of extractivist economies, climate change, and forced mobil-ity, who and what belongs? Who and what does not? What can be learned from sitting with a plant you germinated from seed? One of the most significant voices to emerge in recent years, Brazil-born Maria 'lhereza Alves has focused precisely on such questions in her twenty-year art project Seeds o/Change that has spanned contine…
A recent report by the World Meteorological Organization updated to January 2022 showed that around 11% of the world’s population has no access to sufficiently safe sources of water. In addition, drought in some regions of Africa, Central Asia and the American continent is hastening the expansion of the desert belts and is causing serious difficulties in a growing…