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The eight case studies in this book -- each a synthesis of available knowledge about the origins of agriculture in a specific region of the globe -- enable scholars in diverse disciplines to examine humanity's transition to agricultural societies. Contributors include: Gary W. Crawford, Robin W. Dennell, and Jack R. Harlan.
This book examines Max Weber's understanding of bureaucracy by applying his ideas to the development of officialdom from the ninth century to the present in six territories: England, Sweden, France, Germany, Spain, and Hungary. Edward Page takes a broad view of bureaucracy that includes not only officials in important central or national institutions but also those providing goods and services locally. The 'scorecard' is based on expected developments in four key areas of Weber's analysis: the functional differentiation of tasks within government, professionalism, formalism, and monocracy. After discussing the character of officialdom in the ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-first centuries, the book reveals that Weber's scorecard has a mixed record, especially weak in its account of the development of monocracy and formalism. A final chapter discusses alternative conceptions of bureaucratic development and sets out an account based on understanding processes of routinization, institutional integration, and the instrumentalization of law.
“[This] book reflects an effective integration of archaeological data with an urban history and can be model for the study of any pre-modern Muslim city.” —Jere Bacharach, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Washington, and author of Islamic History through Coins: An Analysis and Catalogue of Tenth-Century Ikhshidid Coins Set along the Sahara’s edge, Sijilmasa was an African El Dorado, a legendary city of gold. But unlike El Dorado, Sijilmasa was a real city, the pivot in the gold trade between ancient Ghana and the Mediterranean world. Following its emergence as an independent city-state controlling a monopoly on gold during its first 250 years, Sijilmasa was incorporated i...
Before the Arabs conquered northwest Africa in the seventh century, Ramzi Rouighi asserts, there were no Berbers. There were Moors (Mauri), Mauretanians, Africans, and many tribes and tribal federations such as the Leuathae or Musulami; and before the Arabs, no one thought that these groups shared a common ancestry, culture, or language. Certainly, there were groups considered barbarians by the Romans, but "Barbarian," or its cognate, "Berber" was not an ethnonym, nor was it exclusive to North Africa. Yet today, it is common to see studies of the Christianization or Romanization of the Berbers, or of their resistance to foreign conquerors like the Carthaginians, Vandals, or Arabs. Archaeolog...
After decades of innovative scholarship that galvanized a field and shattered a world of preconceptions, the study of gender now appears to languish. It has been a long while since the publication of a provocative and influential text like Judith Butler's Gender Trouble . Kath Weston argues that the problem is one of time. For too long gender studies has been preoccupied with the visual, with ample attention given to issues of performativity and embodiment, all at the expense of time. Gender in Real Time makes a provocative and important new argument that will revolutionize the field of gender studies. Introducing temporality into the equation and examining the ways gender exists, Weston use...
The first dynasty to mint gold dinars outside of the Abbasid heartlands, the Aghlabid (r. 800-909) reign in North Africa has largely been neglected in the scholarship of recent decades, despite the canonical status of its monuments and artworks in early Islamic art history. The Aghlabids and their Neighbors focuses new attention on this key dynasty. The essays in this volume, produced by an international group of specialists in history, art and architectural history, archaeology, and numismatics, illuminate the Aghlabid dynasty’s interactions with neighbors in the western Mediterranean and its rivals and allies elsewhere, providing a state of the question on early medieval North Africa and...
A-Z organised Entries are written by an international team of 127 experts in the field Includes 29 b+w illustrations including 23 half-tones Contains cross references, suggestions for further reading and a comprehensive index
For over 200 years the Library of Congress has served as our national library. Since its establishment in 1800, thirteen librarians have served as the institution's head librarian. Sadly, little is known about most of them. The Librarians of Congress is the first book to contain the biographies of all these librarians. Beginning with a brief history of the Library of Congress, the book then contains short biographies of each of the thirteen Librarians of Congress, beginning with John J. Beckley and ending with James H. Billington. Each biography is accompanied by a photograph. A subject index concludes this work.
First Published in 1993.This book is a user-friendly introduction to the interface between archaeology and the natural sciences. It is intended as a secondary textbook for undergraduates in interdisciplinary courses in anthropology, archaeological science, museum studies, or materials science. This title will also be useful to graduate students taking a course outside their major field, and to archaeologists, curators, and scientists in a variety of settings who are engaged in interdisciplinary research. Each chapter includes references and suggested readings; a glossary of technical terms concludes the volume.