BiblioVault - Books about Perspectives

Labored in Papyrus Leaves

Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus (P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309)

Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

Harvard University Press, 2004

This colloquium volume celebrates a new Hellenistic epigram collection attributed to the third-century B.C.E. poet Posidippus, one of the most significant literary finds in recent memory. Included in this collection are an unusual variety of voices and perspectives: papyrological, art historical, archaeological, historical, literary, and aesthetic. These texts are considered as individual poems and as collective artifact, an early poetry book. The volume will be of interest to readers of Greek and Latin epigram, students of the Hellenistic period, and all readers interested in the aesthetics of poetry collection and the evolution of the poetry book in antiquity.

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Land, Memory, Reconstruction, and Justice

Perspectives on Land Claims in South Africa

Cherryl Walker

Ohio University Press, 2010

Land is a significant and controversial topic in South Africa. Addressing the land claims of those dispossessed in the past has proved to be a demanding, multidimensional process. In many respects the land restitution program that was launched as part of the county’s transition to democracy in 1994 has failed to meet expectations, with ordinary citizens, policymakers, and analysts questioning not only its progress but also its outcomes and parameters.

Land, Memory, Reconstruction, and Justice brings together a wealth of topical material and case studies by leading experts in the field who present a rich mix of perspectives from politics, sociology, geography, social anthropology, law, history, and agricultural economics. The collection addresses both the material and the symbolic dimensions of land claims, in rural and urban contexts, and explores the complex intersection of issues confronting the restitution program, from the promotion of livelihoods to questions of rights, identity, and transitional justice.

A valuable contribution to the field of land and agrarian studies, both in South Africa and internationally, it is undoubtedly the most comprehensive treatment to date of South Africa’s postapartheid land claims process and will be essential reading for scholars and students of land reform for years to come.

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Landscapes of Movement and Predation

Perspectives from Archaeology, History, and Anthropology

Brenda J. Bowser and Catherine M. Cameron

University of Arizona Press, 2024

Landscapes of Movement and Predation is a global study of times and places where people were subject to brutality, displacement, and loss of life, liberty, livelihood, and possessions. Extensive landscapes of predation emerged in the colonial era when Europeans expanded across much of the world, appropriating land and demanding labor from Indigenous people, resulting in the enslavement of millions of Africans and Indigenous Americans.

Landscapes of predation also developed in precolonial times in places where people were subjected to repeated ruthless attacks and dislocation. With contributions from archaeologists and a historian, the book provides a startling new perspective on an aspect of the past that is often overlooked: the role of violence in shaping where, how, and with whom people lived. Using ethnohistoric, ethnographic, historic, and archaeological data, the authors explore the actions of both predators and their targets and uncover the myriad responses people took to protect themselves.

Contributors
Fernando Almeida
Thomas John Biginagwa
Brenda J. Bowser
Catherine M. Cameron
Charles Cobb
Robbie Ethridge
Thiago Kater
Richard M. Leventhal
Lydia Wilson Marshall
Cliverson Pessoa
Neil Price
Ben Raffield
Andrés Reséndez
Samantha Seyler
Fabíola Andréa Silva

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Learning to Dance

Advancing Women’s Reproductive Health and Well-Being from the Perspectives of Public Health and Human Rights

Alicia Ely Yamin

Harvard University Press

This book promotes understanding of how the fields of health and human rights can better work together, including both addressing human rights implications of reproductive health interventions and fostering rights-based policies and laws relating to sexuality and reproductive health. A decade after the groundbreaking Cairo Conference on Population and Development a serious gap remains between the reproductive health and human rights fields. Too often, despite using the same language, the two fields do not seem to share the same understanding or strategies. In order to better understand the links and synergies between reproductive health and human rights as well as the continuing gaps between the two fields, this book brings together twelve experts to compare how each field traditionally approaches a situation that presents both public health and human rights implications. Six case studies, illustrating a range of issues in sexual and reproductive health, are analyzed by both a public health expert and a human rights expert, and a separate essay synthesizes the convergences and divergences between the two approaches and points to ways forward.

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Linguistic Issues in Language Technology Vol 9

Perspectives on Semantic Representations for Textual Inference

Edited by Cleo Condoravdi, Valeria de Paiva, and Annie Zaenen

CSLI, 2014

Linguistic Issues in Language Technology (LiLT) is an open-access journal that focuses on the relationships between linguistic insights and language technology. In conjunction with machine learning and statistical techniques, deeper and more sophisticated models of language and speech are needed to make significant progress in both existing and newly emerging areas of computational language analysis. The vast quantity of electronically accessible natural language data (text and speech, annotated and unannotated, formal and informal) provides unprecedented opportunities for data-intensive analysis of linguistic phenomena, which can in turn enrich computational methods. Taking an eclectic view on methodology, LiLT provides a forum for this work. In this volume, contributors offer new perspectives on semantic representations for textual inference.

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Linking Literacies

Perspectives on L2 Reading-Writing Connections

Diane Belcher and Alan Hirvela, Editors

University of Michigan Press, 2001

Linking Literacies provides the most up to date theoretical overview of the connection between reading and writing in second language acquisition. Belcher and Hirvela have brought together the definitive collection of developments in reading-writing relations research and pedagogy. Papers are organized into these parts:
Ground Practice: Theory, Research, and History
In the Classroom: Teaching Reading as Writing and Writing as Reading
(E)Merging Literacies and the Challenge of Textual Ownership
Technology-Assisted Reading and Writing.
In addition to examining the ways in which L1 influences have affected the development of L2 reading-writing theory and pedagogy, Linking Literacies looks at how L2 reading-writing scholarship has created an identity separate of an L1 framework. Linking Literacies examines a broad range of questions and concerns within the structure of L2 reading-writing connections and L2 academic literacy through discussions of theory, research, and

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Living in the Plastic Age

Perspectives from Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences

Edited by Johanna Kramm and Carolin Völker

Campus Verlag, 2022

A comprehensive discussion on the complex role of plastics in society-nature relationships.

The anthology Living in the Plastic Age focuses on the multidimensional facets of plastics and microplastics from different disciplinary angles. Small plastic fragments (microplastics) and larger plastic waste can be found even on the remotest island. Plastic waste all over the planet is the visual footprint of humanity’s consumerism and mass production. Plastics shape the relationship between society and nature in such a profound way that we can today speak of the “Plastic Age.” This anthology aims to question the role of plastics in our society and the implications plastics have for the environment and human health. The detection of this emergent contaminant opens up a new field of scientific engagement for natural sciences on the effects of (micro-) plastics for the environment and the social sciences on new governance regimes on marine litter as well as on solution strategies to combat plastic waste.

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The Living Tradition

Perspectives on Modern Indian Art

K. G. Subramanyan

Seagull Books, 2024

An engaging exploration of the quest for individuality within the rich tapestry of artistic traditions, by one of India’s best-known artists.

“The fulfillment of a modern Indian artist's wish to be part of a living tradition, i.e. to be individual and innovative, without being an outsider in his own culture, will not come of itself, it calls for concerted effort.”

In Living Tradition, a critical study of modern Indian art as it has evolved through continuous interaction with several traditions—foreign and indigenous—K. G. Subramanyan, one of India's most celebrated artists, offers a theoretical groundwork for that “concerted effort.” In the course of his study, he explores the distinctions between Indian and European traditions, the continuities in India's folk traditions, and the attempts of several thinkers and artists to identify an Indian artistic tradition or to deny it altogether in a quest for personal expression or universality. With over seventy-five illustrations in color complementing Subramanyan's thought-provoking essay, Living Tradition provides readers with a visually engaging exploration of the vibrant tapestry of Indian art.

Subramanyan played a pivotal role in shaping India’s artistic identity after Independence. Mani-da, as he was fondly called, seamlessly blended elements of modernism with folk expression in his works, spanning paintings, murals, sculptures, prints, set designs, and toys. Beyond his visual artistry, his writings have laid a solid foundation for understanding the demands of art on the individual. In the year of his centenary, Seagull is proud to publish his writings in special new editions.

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