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An entertaining compendium of owls that depicts the birds’ secret lives with both accuracy and grace, Owls of the World will appeal to birdwatchers, nature lovers, and dedicated owl aficionados alike.
In this original work James Duncan explores the transformation of Ceylon during the mid-nineteenth century into one of the most important coffee growing regions of the world and investigates the consequent ecological disaster which erased coffee from the island. Using this fascinating case study by way of illustration, In the Shadows of the Tropics reveals the spatial unevenness and fragmentation of modernity through a focus on modern governmentality and biopower. It argues that the practices of colonial power, and the differences that race and tropical climates were thought to make, were central to the working out of modern governmental rationalities. In this context, the usefulness of Foucault's notions of biopower, discipline and governmentality are examined. The work contributes an important rural focus to current work on studies of governmentality in geography and offers a welcome non-state dimension by considering the role of the plantation economy and individual capitalists in the lives and deaths of labourers, the destabilization of subsistence farming and the aggressive re-territorialization of populations from India to Ceylon.
The Army of Tennessee was officially designated November 20, 1862. But that was not the beginning of the Confederate main fighting force in the Civil War's Western Theater. Before that date it was known as the Army of Mississippi (or the Army of the West), a command organized on March 5, with its area of operations between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. That army was formed of the Army of Central Kentucky, the Army of Louisiana and elements of the Army of Pensacola, following the Confederate disaster at Fort Donelson. The force was led by a succession of commoners--P.G.T. Beauregard, Albert Sydney Johnston and Braxton Bragg--and had a series of defeats, from Shiloh to Corinth to Perryville, before winning a spectacular victory at Chickamauga. Based on the Official Records, this book details the often neglected army's organization, strength and casualties during its three year history.
In Mississippian Culture Heroes, Ritual Regalia, and Sacred Bundles, archaeologists analyze evidence of the religious beliefs and ritual practices of Mississippian people through the lens of indigenous ontologies and material culture. Employing archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric evidence, the contributors explore the recent emphasis on iconography as an important component for interpreting eastern North America’s ancient past. The research in this volume emphasizes the animistic nature of animals and objects, erasing the false divide between people and other-than-human beings. Drawing on an array of empirical approaches, the contributors demonstrate the importance of understanding beliefs and ritual and the significance of investigating how people in the past practiced religion and ritual by crafting, circulating, using, and ultimately decommissioning material items and spaces, including ceramic effigies, rock art, sacred bundles, shell gorgets, stone figurines, and symbolic weaponry.
Spatial and cultural analysis have recently found much common ground, focusing in particular on the nature of the city. Place/Culture/Representation brings together new and established voices involved in the reshaping of cultural geography. The authors argue that as we write our geographies we are not just representing some reality, we are creating meaning. Writing becomes as much about the author as it is about purported geographical reality. The issue becomes not scientific truth as the end but the interpretation of cultural constructions as the means. Discussing authorial power, discourses of the other, texts and textuality, landscape metaphor, the sites of power-knowledge relations and notions of community and the sense of place, the authors explore the ways in which a more fluid and sensitive geographer's art can help us make sense of ourselves and the landscapes and places we inhabit and think about.
A fascinating introduction to the biology, life cycle, and behavior of owls Illustrated with gorgeous watercolor paintings and full-color photography Features an identification guide to all North American species Owls have always occupied a special place in the popular imagination, regarded throughout history as both harbingers of doom and symbols of wisdom. In this newest title in Stackpole's Wild Guide series, author Cynthia Berger explores the lives of these mysterious creatures, including their fearsome hunting abilities, their surprisingly tender courtship rituals, and, of course, their haunting vocalizations. Also included is an identification guide covering the full range of North American species-from the tiny Elf Owl to the imposing Great Gray Owl-as well as tips for observing owls in the wild. There are even instructions for building your own nest box to attract these remarkable birds to your backyard.
James and Nancy Duncan look at how the aesthetics of physical landscapes are fully enmeshed in producing the American class system. Focusing on an archetypal upper class American suburb-Bedford in Westchester County, NY-they show how the physical presentation of a place carries with it a range of markers of inclusion and exclusion.
How certain Southern indigenous viewed themselves from prehistory to decimation by Europeans was already a significant subject of study fifty years ago, but more recent scholarship has proven that what was once considered a single cult was actually a complex of cults, with myriad adaptations of myths and artifacts. This collection of 12 articles details archeological findings and analysis of how this warrior-based set of precepts and practices developed and grew into elaborate ceremonial places and burial grounds. Topics include the implications of recent analysis of sites, early evidence of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) and its contexts, the role of time in development of the SECC, material and iconographic evidence of the SECC in Erowah culture, evidence from Moundville potsherds, SECC ritual regalia in the southern Appalachians and other regions, the role of sex in SECC, and future directions of research.