List of Monographs
A flat p&p charge of £1.00 will be added to the cost of each monograph purchased online.
[Monographs marked with an asterisk can be downloaded for free.]
No. 1 * Vico's Theory of the Causes of Historical ChangeNo. 2 * Some Unusual Aspects of Communication
No. 3 * The Indian Guru and his Disciple
No. 4 * Exploring Human Behaviour in Groups
No. 5 * Education and Elitism in Nazi Germany
No. 6 * Cultural Imperialism
No. 7 * The Sokodae: A West African Dance
No. 8 * My Years with the Arabs
No. 9 * Some Effects of Music
No. 10 * Science, Technology and the Quality of Life
No. 11 * Physiological Studies of Consciousness
No. 12 Purposes in Education
No. 15 An Eye to the Future
No. 16 East and West, Today and Yesterday
No. 17 * Science and the Paranormal
No. 18 * Sufic Traces in Georgian Literature
No. 19 * Rembrandt and Angels
No. 20 * Biological and Cultural Evolution
No. 21 * The Age of Anxiety: a Reassessment
No. 22 Goethe’s Scientific Consciousnes
No. 23 * The Healing Within: Medicine, Health and Wholeness
No. 24 * A Clash of Cultures: The Malaysian Experience
No. 25 * Evaluating Spiritual and Utopian Groups
No. 26 Malta's Ancient Temples and Ruts
No. 27 * Cults in 19th Century Britain
No. 28 * Black Culture and Social Inequality in Colombia
No. 29 * Urban Legends and the Japanese Tale
No. 30 * The Role of 'Primitive' People in Identifying and Approaching Human Problems
No. 31 * The Use of Omens, Magic and Sorcery for Power and Hunting
No. 32 * Ritual from the Stone Age to the Present Day
No. 33 * Problem-solving and the Evolution of Human Culture
No. 34 * Cultural Identity: Solution or Problem?
No. 35 * Inventions and Inventing: Finding Solutions to Practical Problems
No. 36 * Problems, Myths and Stories
No. 37 * Modern Primitives: The Recurrent Ritual of Adornment
No. 38 * The Pagan Saviours: Pagan Elements in Christian Ritual and Doctrine
No. 39 * The Marketing of Christianity: The Evolution of Early Christian Doctrine
No. 40 * The Press Gang: The World in Journalese
No. 41 * Taboos: Structure and Rebellion
No. 42 * Paranormal Perception? A Critical Evaluation
No. 43 * The Unseen World: The Rise of Gods and Spirits
No. 44 * Godmakers: The First Idols
Monograph Series No. 1 *
Vico's Theory of the Causes of Historical Change
Leon Pompa, M.A., Ph.D.
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-92-7
Hard copy price: £5.00
This monograph deals with aspects of the thought of the 18th century Italian historian and philosopher Giambattista Vico and how they can help us in trying to understand the human condition.
Leon Pompa was Professor of Philosophy, 1977–1997 (now Professor Emeritus), in the University of Birmingham. His many publications include: Vico: A study of the 'New Science' (Cambridge University Press, 1975; revised and enlarged, CUP, 1990); Vico: Selected writings, ed. and trans. (CUP, 1982); Human Nature and Historical Knowledge: Hume, Hegel and Vico (CUP, 1990; first paperback ed. CUP, 2002); Vico: The First New Science, ed. and trans. (CUP, 2002).
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Monograph Series No. 2 *
Some Unusual Aspects of Communication
Edward Campbell
paperback, 16 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-23-1
Hard copy price: £5.00
Drawing on the author’s experiences of zoos and circus performers, this piece presents some examples of the depth and subtlety of communication possible between men and wild beasts.
Edward Campbell was formerly Literary Editor of the London Evening News. He began his journalistic career in the late 1930s with Kemsley Newspapers in Glasgow. At the same time, he was able to pursue a passion for animals by working in a small zoo under Glasgow Central Station. There he demonstrated that animals, in this case three lions and a bear, can be trained to high commercial circus standards without resort to any form of cruelty.
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Monograph Series No. 3 *
The Indian Guru and his Disciple
Peter L. Brent
paperback, 28 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-04-0
Hard copy price: £5.00
An examination of the relationship between the Indian guru and his (or her) disciples, based on extensive periods of study of Indian gurus in the field.
Peter Brent was the author of many books, among them a major biography of Darwin (Charles Darwin: A Man of Enlarged Curiosity); also two studies of the mystical and religious traditions of the East (Godmen of India and Healers of lndia), of which this monograph was a forerunner.
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Monograph Series No. 4 *
Exploring Human Behaviour in Groups
A. John Allaway
paperback, 18 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-94-1
Hard copy price: £5.00
The author describes this piece as an account of 'adventures in the study of intra- and inter-group relationships and transactional behaviours and the exploration of ways in which the learnings gained through their study may be brought to bear on everyday living'.
A. John Allaway was Professor of Adult Education in the University of Leicester. His pioneering work in human group behaviour is well known on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Monograph Series No. 5 *
Education and Elitism in Nazi Germany
Robert Cecil
paperback, 6 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-05-7
Hard copy price: £5.00
An account of the Nazis' reshaping of the German educational system for the purposes of political indoctrination.
Robert Cecil, CMG, MA was Chairman of the Graduate School of Contemporary European Studies, University of Reading (1976–8), and Chairman of the Institute for Cultural Research, for which he edited an anthology, The King's Son (Octagon Press, 1980). His other published works include Life in Edwardian England (1969), The Myth of the Master Race: Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology (1972), Hitler's Decision to Invade Russia (1975), A Divided Life: a biography of Donald Maclean (1988), and The Masks of Death: Changing Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century (1991).
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Monograph Series No. 6 *
Cultural Imperialism
Robert Cecil
paperback, 7 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-06-4
Hard copy price: £5.00
An account of the impact of Anglo-Saxon and French imperialism on the culture of North America, India and Africa.
Robert Cecil, CMG, MA was Chairman of the Graduate School of Contemporary European Studies, University of Reading (1976–8), and Chairman of the Institute for Cultural Research, for which he edited an anthology, The King's Son (Octagon Press, 1980). His other published works include Life in Edwardian England (1969), The Myth of the Master Race: Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology (1972), Hitler's Decision to Invade Russia (1975), A Divided Life: a biography of Donald Maclean (1988), and The Masks of Death: Changing Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century (1991).
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Monograph Series No. 7 *
The Sokodae: A West African Dance
Drid Williams
paperback, 12 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-95-8
Hard copy price: £5.00
Dr. Williams is an anthropologist who has done extensive field-work on the dance. This examination of the nature and role of a West African dance is based on original materials collected in the course of over three years' study in Ghana.
Drid Williams was a professional dancer for thirty years before becoming a social anthropologist. She completed graduate degrees from St. Hugh's College, Oxford, in 1976. She has recently completed a book for the University of Illinois Press entitled Anthropology and The Dance: Ten Lectures (Urbana-Champaign, 2004). She has done fieldwork among Carmelite nuns, Dominican friars and the Royal Ballet Company in England and among Aboriginal communities in Northern Queensland. She has taught at Moi University in Kenya; at the University of Sydney, Australia; and New York and Indiana Universities in the United States. She is founder of the Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement (JASHM), first published in 1980, and she is the architect of a theory of human actions called semasiology.
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Monograph Series No. 8 *
My Years with the Arabs
General Sir John Glubb
paperback, 27 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-96-5
Hard copy price: £5.00
A personal view of Arab history and culture by the well-known soldier and writer.
Lieutenant-General Sir John Glubb, KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC, was celebrated as Chief of General Staff, The Arab Legion, a post he held from 1939 to 1956. He was the author of many books on Arab history and culture and on Middle East affairs.
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Monograph Series No. 9 *
Some Effects of Music
Professor D.B. Fry
paperback, 28 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-97-2
Hard copy price: £5.00
Professor Fry shows here how electronics enables science to record the most subtle links between physics, physiology and psychology in the performance and hearing of music.
Dennis Fry was Professor Emeritus of Experimental Phonetics in the University of London. His publications include Learning to Hear (with Edith Whetnall, Heinemann, 1970); Homo Loquens (Cambridge, 1977); The Physics of Speech (Cambridge, 1979). He founded and edited the quarterly Language and Speech and contributed widely to other journals in his field. He combined his academic life with another as an active semi-professional musician: he was an experienced string player, possessed a fine baritone voice for lieder, oratorio and opera, and conducted small orchestras and operatic groups. He was for 20 years a Governor of the Sadler’s Wells Foundation.
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Monograph Series No. 10 *
Science, Technology and the Quality of Life
Dr. Alexander King
paperback, 8 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-98-9
Hard copy price: £5.00
Dr. King discusses here the major problems of humanity and its environment in the light of the far-reaching effects of modern technology and indicates that their solution and, in fact, the continued survival of humanity may depend on a fundamental change of attitude to life.
Alexander King, CMG, CBE, DSc was born 1909 in Glasgow. He read science in the universities of London and Munich, later becoming a Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Imperial College, London. In World War 2 he was a science adviser to the Minister of Production and later head of The British Central Scientific Office and Councillor at the British Embassy in Washington. After the war he was head of the Central Scientific Secretariat and Science Adviser to the Lord President, during the Atlee Administration. Later he became Director of the European Productivity Agency during the reconstruction. Then, until his retirement in 1974, he was Director General for Science, Technology and Education at the OECD in Paris. He co-founded the Club of Rome in 1968 of which he is now President Emeritus after 10 years of travel worldwide, lecturing, advising and negotiating. He was awarded the Erasmus Prize for cultural services to Europe.
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Monograph Series No. 11 *
Physiological Studies of Consciousness
Robert Ornstein
paperback, 20 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-00-2
Hard copy price: £5.00
A review of some of the history of the lateralisation of brain function and description of two related experiments.
Psychologist Robert Ornstein's work has won awards from more than a dozen organizations, including the American Psychological Association and UNESCO. His research on the specialization of the brain advanced our understanding of how we think. He has published 26 books on the human mind and brain and their relationship to thought, health and individual and social consciousness, which have sold over six million copies and been translated into a dozen other languages. Dr. Ornstein has taught at the University of California Medical Center and Stanford, and lectured at 200 universities. He is the president of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), which brings important discoveries on human nature to the public.
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Monograph Series No.12
Purposes in Education
Dr F.D. Rushworth, K.R. Minogue, Sir John Wolfenden
paperback, 38 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-01-9
Hard copy price: £5.00
This monograph contains the text of three separate studies made by men who are or have been deeply involved in secondary and higher education. Each examines from his standpoint some current notions of what education is for.
Contributors:
Dr. F.D. Rushworth: formerly Headmaster, Holland Park School, London
K.R. Minogue: now Emeritus Professor of Political Science, London School of Economics
Lord Wolfenden: formerly Director of the British Museum and Chairman of the University Grants Committee.
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Monograph Series No. 15
An Eye to the Future
Dr. Alexander King, Dr. Martin Holdgate, Eugene Grebenik, Dr. Kenneth Mellanby, George McRobie
paperback, 60 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-91-0
Hard copy price: £5.00
This is a collection of five presentations made to the Institute by these distinguished and expert contributors. Each surveys a different field and the five texts cover: energy, ecology, population, agriculture and technology.
Contributors:
Alexander King, CMG, CBE, DSc: Chairman, The International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study; Formerly Director General for Scientific Affairs, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Founder-Member of the Club of Rome.
Martin Holdgate, PhD: Director. The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, National Environment Research Council.
Eugene Grebenik, MSc (Econ): Principal, The Civil Service College: Joint-Editor, Population Studies; Member of the Population Panel, 1971–73.
Kenneth Mellanby, CBE, ScD: Director, Monks Wood Experimental Station, 1961–74.
George McRobie, BSc (Econ): Director (Communications), Intermediate Technology Development Group.
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Monograph Series No. 16
East and West, Today and Yesterday
Sir Stephen Runciman, Patrick O’Donovan, Peter Brent, Sir Roger Stevens, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Iris Butler, Prof. G.M. Carstairs, Richard Harris
paperback, 112 pages, ISBN 978-0-950002-99-6
Hard copy price: £6.00
Eight assessments by eminent scholars and writers on the theme of the interaction between the culture of the East and the West, as revealed through direct personal experience and through a study of the history of East-West interchange.
Contributors:
Sir Steven Runciman, FBA, FSA: Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and formerly Professor of Byzantine Art and History in the University of Istanbul, he was a leading authority on the history and culture of Byzantium.
Patrick O'Donovan: Foreign Correspondent of The Observer from 1947, television script-writer and broadcaster; he worked in China, Palestine, Malaya, Korea, the Congo and the United States.
Peter Brent: Author of two studies of the mystical and religious traditions of the East (Godmen of India and Healers of lndia) and of many other books, Mr Brent gave particular attention to the relationships between the cultures of East and West.
Sir Roger Stevens, GCMG: Formerly British Ambassador to Iran; Deputy Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office and then until 1970 Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University. His book, The Land of the Great Sophy, deals with the dawn of relationships between Persia and Europe.
Nirad C. Chaudhuri, FRSL: A native of Bengal, he was formerly First Assistant Editor of The Modern Review (Calcutta) and later secretary to Sarat Base, leader of the Congress Party. He was the author of several distinguished books of which perhaps the best known is his Autobiography of an Unknown Indian.
Iris Butler: Born in India, she lived and then worked in the country for thirty-seven years. She was the author of several historical studies, including Rule of Three (a life of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough) and The Eldest Brother (on the Marquess Wellesley).
Professor G.M. Carstairs, MD, FRCPE, FRCPsych: Born in India, he was formerly Professor of Psychiatry at Edinburgh University; Vice-Chancellor of the University of York from 1974 until1978, then returning to continue his social and scientific work in India. His books include The Twice Born and The Great Universe of Kota.
Richard Harris: Born and brought up in China, he was formerly Deputy Foreign Editor of The Times and a specialist in Chinese and general Asian affairs.
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Monograph Series No. 17 *
Science and the Paranormal
Leonard Lewin, D.Sc.
paperback, 16 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-07-1
Hard copy price: £5.00
In this penetrating review of some of the publications of the Committee for the Scientific Investigations of Claims for the Paranormal, Professor Lewin points to ways out of the impasse created by the application of ‘scientific’ methods to the observations of events which may transcend the limitations of those methods.
Leonard Lewin was born in 1919 in Essex, England. During World War 2 he worked at the British Admiralty on radar. In 1946 he joined Standard Telecommunications Laboratories (now Nortel), and became head of the Microwave Department. He is author of 40 patents and some 200 publications, including 12 books. One of these, The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West, won an award from the UNESCO 1972 International Book Year. In 1962 he won the International Microwave Prize, moved to the USA and became a professor at the University of Colorado, where he taught microwaves and telecommunications. He also set up Sufi study groups and other enterprises for the promotion of Sufi ideas. In 1987 he taught at the University of Auckland, and gave the New Zealand IEE Prestige Lecture on education. In 1991 he was an invited speaker to the International Conference of Mathematicians, Kyoto, Japan. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado.
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Monograph Series No. 18 *
Sufic Traces in Georgian Literature
Katharine Vivian
paperback, 36 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-17-0
Hard copy price: £5.00
Katharine Vivian here takes up in a wider context some of the Sufic threads revealed in two of the great classics of Georgian literature: Shota Rustaveli's Knight in Panther Skin and Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani's A Book of Wisdom and Lies.
Katharine Vivan has translated several Georgian classics, notably Rustaveli's The Knight in Panther Skin, Orbeliani's Book of Wisdom and Lies and a section of The Georgian Chronicle. She has also contributed to symposia on the literature and culture of Georgia in London, Bari and Tbilisi.
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Monograph Series No. 19 *
Rembrandt and Angels
Michael Rubinstein
paperback, 48 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-18-7
Hard copy price: £5.00
A penetrating analysis of some of the motifs, visual, allegorical and spiritual, to be found in an important group of Rembrandt’s paintings.
Michael Rubinstein was until 1994 an eminent London solicitor specialising in defending the interests of authors and publishers, most notably Penguin Books for the publication in 1960 of the unexpurgated text of Lady Chatterley's Lover. He was a man of wide interests, with a special leaning toward music, having been a director of Youth and Music, a governor of the Purcell School, and Vice-President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music. He was a prolific letter-writer to the broadsheet press. His publications include: Wicked, Wicked Libels (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972); Malta's Ancient Temples and Ruts (ICR, 1984, with Rowland Parker); Music to my Ear (Quartet Books, 1985); and Nasrudin on his Toes and other Feats (privately published, 1999).
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Monograph Series No. 20 *
Biological and Cultural Evolution
Mary Midgley
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-08-8
Hard copy price: £5.00
Mary Midgley discusses whether there is such a thing as cultural evolution, paying particular attention to the ideas of sociobiology.
Mary Midgley is a professional philosopher whose special interests are in the relations of humans to the rest of nature (particularly in the status of animals), in the sources of morality, and in the relation between science and religion (particularly in cases where science becomes a religion). She was formerly Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Newcastle on Tyne, UK, and has written many books, notably Beast and Man, Science as Salvation and Science and Poetry. She still lives in Newcastle and has three sons.
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Monograph Series No. 21 *
The Age of Anxiety: a Reassessment
Malcolm Lader
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-09-5
Hard copy price: £5.00
Professor Lader considers the prevalence and possible significance of anxiety states in present-day British society.
Professor Malcolm Lader, OBE, DSc., PhD, MD, FRCPsych, FMedSci, is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychopharmacology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, University of London. Professor Lader was also an Honorary Consultant at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospital (a Postgraduate Teaching Hospital) and conducted and supervised clinics dealing with anxiety, sleep and depressive disorders and drug treatment problems for many years. His experience in psychiatry and clinical pharmacology now extends to over 40 years. His main research interest is the drugs used in psychiatry, in particular antidepressants and anxiolytics. These researches have resulted in the publication of 15 books and about 640 scientific articles. Professor Lader advises the UK Ministry of Transport, is a member of other national and regional advisory committees and is on the advisory boards of about 30 international scientific journals. He has been Vice-president of the International College of Psychopharmacology, President of the Society for the Study of Addiction and President of the British Association for Psychopharmacology. Professor Lader trained in physiology with biochemistry, medicine, pharmacology and psychiatry and has formal qualifications in each of these disciplines. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and of the prestigious Academy of Medical Sciences.
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Monograph Series No. 22
Goethe’s Scientific Consciousnes
Henri Bortoft
paperback, 100 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-24-8
Hard copy price: £7.00
In this fascinating analysis, Mr. Bortoft compares Goethe’s methods of scientific investigation with the quantitative approach developed by Galileo and Newton. He shows how they relate to some of the most advanced ideas current in the philosophy of science and in cognitive psychology, suggesting a way of seeing in science that is profoundly different from the methods of empiricism.
Henri Bortoft is an independent researcher in the philosophy of science. Author of a comprehensive book on Goethe's way of science, The Wholeness of Nature, he lectures and gives seminars and workshops on Goethean science and the development of the modern scientific consciousness.
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Monograph Series No. 23 *
The Healing Within: Medicine, Health and Wholeness
Robin Price
paperback, 20 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-11-8
Hard copy price: £5.00
The author surveys the present situation in orthodox medicine, identifies some of the more prominent complementary therapies and suggests how the two are gradually coming together.
Robin Price was Deputy Librarian (1967–96) and Secretary of Friends (1992–97) at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. At the Royal Society of Medicine, he was President of the Open Section (1982–84), President of the History Section (1997–98) and Councillor (1994–98). He has held, or still holds, a number of positions of distinction, many with bodies concerned with Medicine and its history. Among these are: the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London; the Harveian Society of London; the British Society for the History of Medicine.
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Monograph Series No. 24 *
A Clash of Cultures: The Malaysian Experience
David Widdicombe, Q.C.
paperback, 22 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-12-5
Hard copy price: £5.00
An examination of the long-standing antagonism between Malays, Chinese and Indians in Malaysia. The author traces its origins and identifies the difficulties such hostility creates, both locally and in a wider context.
David Widdicombe is an eminent Queen's Counsel who is also qualified to practice at the Californian Bar. He has worked and travelled widely in South East Asia and the Far East where he has been able to examine the racial position from a distinctive viewpoint. He is now (2006) retired.
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Monograph Series No. 25 *
Evaluating Spiritual and Utopian Groups
Arthur J. Deikman, M.D.
paperback, 16 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-13-2
Hard copy price: £5.00
How can we judge the authenticity of groups claiming to represent genuine spiritual and utopian traditions? Professor Deikman suggests that we can discriminate very clearly by attending to how far such groups’ activities are suited to their stated aims.
Arthur Deikman graduated from Harvard and Harvard Medical School and is now Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He has made a particular study of the relationship between the mystical tradition and modern psychotherapy. His publications include Personal Freedom (1976); The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy (1982); The Wrong Way Home – Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society (1986); and Them and Us – Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat (2003).
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Monograph Series No. 26
Malta's Ancient Temples and Ruts
Rowland Parker & Michael Rubinstein
paperback, 70 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-14-9
Hard copy price: £7.00
Among the great megalithic monuments of the world are the temples of Malta and Gozo. They pose many problems for archaeologists, as does the extraordinary network of ruts which appears on the surface of both islands. Including 5 maps and many illustrations and drawings.
Rowland Parker was born in 1912 of farming stock established in North Lincolnshire. Graduating at Nottingham University, he taught French at a school in Cambridge until his retirement in 1972, interrupted only by War Service in North Africa, Italy, Egypt, Syria and Palestine. Interest in history and archaeology resulted in his first book The Common Stream (1975), which one of many enthusiastic reviewers described as containing ‘original material in amazing proliferation'. His other published books include Men of Dunwich (1978) and Town and Gown (1983).
Michael Rubinstein met Rowland Parker at a Royal Artillery OCTU in 1940. He was an eminent London solicitor of the third generation in a family specialising in literary law. He edited and contributed to a book on defamation, Wicked, Wicked Libel (1972); his published works include a monograph, Rembrandt and Angels (ICR, 1982), and a book on the uses of music and the pleasure of listening to it, Music to my Ear (1985). He first visited Malta and Gozo in 1967, and spent many hours over the years studying archaeological sites on both islands.
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Monograph Series No 27 *
Cults in 19th Century Britain
Robert Cecil
paperback, 20 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-15-6
Hard copy price: £5.00
We tend to think of cults as late 20th century phenomena associated with current interest in Eastern philosophies and religions, but Robert Cecil’s essay reveals a rich brew of cult activity throughout the 19th century.
Robert Cecil, CMG, MA was Chairman of the Graduate School of Contemporary European Studies, University of Reading (1976–8), and Chairman of the Institute for Cultural Research, for which he edited an anthology, The King's Son (Octagon Press, 1980). His other published works include Life in Edwardian England (1969), The Myth of the Master Race: Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology (1972), Hitler's Decision to Invade Russia (1975), A Divided Life: a biography of Donald Maclean (1988), and The Masks of Death: Changing Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century (1991).
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Monograph Series No. 28 *
Black Culture and Social Inequality in Colombia
Peter Wade
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-16-3
Hard copy price: £5.00
Latin America has acquired a reputation as an area in which black and white have become so intermixed that problems of racial discrimination based on colour no longer exist. The author has observed that, far from being dead, discrimination against blacks as a distinct group is widespread, but so woven into the fabric of society as to have become almost invisible.
Peter Wade did a PhD in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, focusing on the black population of Colombia. He was a Research Fellow at Queens' College Cambridge (1985–1988), before becoming a Lecturer in Geography and Latin American Studies at the University of Liverpool (1988–1995). He is currently Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. His publications include Blackness and Race Mixture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), Race and Ethnicity in Latin America (Pluto Press, 1997), Music, Race and Nation: Música Tropical in Colombia (Chicago University Press, 2000), and Race, Nature and Culture: An Anthropological Perspective (Pluto Press, 2002).
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Monograph Series No. 29 *
Urban Legends and the Japanese Tale
David Schaefer
paperback, 32 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-19-4
Hard copy price: £5.00
The author, who has lived and worked in Japan, uncovers many close and fascinating similarities in motifs and basic character between the modern urban legend and the tales of medieval Japan.
David Schaefer graduated, cum laude, in Japanese literature from Columbia University, New York. He has worked for the Japanese government and as a company director in Tokyo, London and New York. He is currently teaching European and Far-Eastern languages in a secondary school in England, and plays semi-professional Flamenco guitar.
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Monograph Series No. 30 *
The Role of 'Primitive' People in Identifying and Approaching Human Problems
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 22 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0-904674-20-0
Hard copy price: £5.00
This monograph examines the urge to innovate and push out the frontiers of knowledge which has been a characteristic of human thought from man’s earliest days. It shows how people – from the most 'primitive' to the most 'advanced' – have dealt with human problems in similar ways. This course, set so early in our evolution, has contributed not only to our survival, but to the capacity of the human mind to make startling conceptual leaps.
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Monograph Series No. 31 *
The Use of Omens, Magic and Sorcery for Power and Hunting
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-21-7
Hard copy price: £5.00
Early man can, perhaps be called fully human only from the moment he developed his capacity for symbolic and analogical thought. This monograph examines the impact of this breakthrough, focussing on the development of a system of 'magical' thinking, which man has consistently attempted to apply. It discusses the processes behind the remarkably durable and constant ‘laws’ of magic and it looks at residues of magical thinking which have remained up to the present day.
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Monograph Series No. 32 *
Ritual from the Stone Age to the Present Day
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0-904674-22-4
Hard copy price: £5.00
In the modern world, our lives are imbued with the residues of rituals which would amaze us if we knew the antiquity of their origins. However, the structure of this fundamental pattern of human thought is poorly understood. This monograph examines the origins and role of ritual throughout history and in the foundations underpinning our lives today – and uncovers the startling fact that some rituals may predate the origin of modern man himself.
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Monograph Series No. 33 *
Problem-solving and the Evolution of Human Culture
Stephen Mithen
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-25-5
Hard copy price: £5.00
This paper takes an archaeologist’s perspective and traces the role of the adaptation to new problems in the development of human culture. It shows how one major solution – for instance the rise of agriculture – in turn created a myriad of new problems to be solved.
Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory and Head of the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at the University of Reading. He studied subjects ranging from fine art to computer science at the Universities of London, Sheffield and York, before specialising in archaeology at Cambridge. Since moving to the University of Reading in 1992, he has directed excavations in western Scotland and southern Jordan, used computer simulation for archaeological research and become a leading figure in the development of 'cognitive archaeology'. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include Thoughtful Foragers: A Study in Prehistoric Decision Making (1990), The Prehistory of the Mind (1996), Creativity in Human Evolution and Prehistory (1998), Hunter-Gatherer Landscape Archaeology (2000), After the Ice (2003) and The Singing Neanderthals (2005).
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Monograph Series No. 34 *
Cultural Identity: Solution or Problem?
Peter Wade
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-26-2
Hard copy price: £5.00
Cultures were once seen as stable and unchanging. During the past century anthropologists have gradually moved away from this view to one of cultures as flexible and shifting. Ironically their earlier findings have often been absorbed by the very cultures they studied and used by them in defining their own identity.
Peter Wade did a PhD in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, focusing on the black population of Colombia. He was a Research Fellow at Queens College Cambridge (1985–1988), before becoming a Lecturer in Geography and Latin American Studies at the University of Liverpool (1988–1995). He is currently Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. His publications include Blackness and Race Mixture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), Race and Ethnicity in Latin America (Pluto Press, 1997), Music, Race and Nation: Música Tropical in Colombia (Chicago University Press, 2000), and Race, Nature and Culture: An Anthropological Perspective (Pluto Press, 2002).
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Monograph Series No. 35 *
Inventions and Inventing: Finding Solutions to Practical Problems
Kevin Byron
paperback, 30 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-27-9
Hard copy price: £5.00
Dr. Byron traces the history of invention and its landmarks from very early times to the present day with its unprecedented network of innovative interaction. He considers the creative process itself and the circumstances in which it flourishes.
Kevin Byron graduated from the University of Salford in 1970 and received his doctorate in Applied Physics at the University of Hull in 1974. He joined Nortel Network's Harlow Laboratories (formerly Standard Telecommunications Laboratories) in 1974 where he was engaged in research into lasers and optical communications technology. He has published some 60 papers and has 40 patents to his name. He is currently working in technology communications.
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Monograph Series No.36 *
Problems, Myths and Stories
Doris Lessing
paperback, 20 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-28-6
Hard copy price: £5.00
In the present-day West, stories are often regarded as mere entertainment. In other times and other places we find a different view: stories provide instruction for the young and are part of a general education, often conveying what cannot be conveyed by other means. Here is a huge treasure-house of literature which has helped to make us what we are.
Doris Lessing was born in Persia, now Iran, brought up in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and has lived in London since 1949. She has written novels, short stories, essays and plays. Her best-known books are probably The Golden Notebook, The Children of Violence sequence and the Canopus in Argos sequence. She has won major literary prizes in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. The second volume of her autobiography, Walking in the Shade, came out in October 1997. This monograph has since been included in the collection Time Bites.
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Monograph Series No. 37 *
Modern Primitives: The Recurrent Ritual of Adornment
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 20 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-29-3
Hard copy price: £5.00
This study sees present-day forms of body adornment – piercing, tattooing, branding – as part of an unbroken tradition practised by tribal groupings over centuries and in all parts of the world. It examines what these practices may have signified in the cultures in which they originated and how they are to be understood in modern Western society.
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Monograph Series No. 38 *
The Pagan Saviours: Pagan Elements in Christian Ritual and Doctrine
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-30-9
Hard copy price: £5.00
The development of Christian ritual owed much to the pagan mystery cults (e.g. Mithraism) of ancient Greece and Rome. In this paper many of the extraordinary similarities are identified and the question of how ritual may prove more durable than its original context is discussed.
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Monograph Series No. 39 *
The Marketing of Christianity: The Evolution of Early Christian Doctrine
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0-904674-31-6
Hard copy price: £5.00
The form that Christianity takes today, its doctrines and dogma, owes an untold amount to the personalities and disagreements of the Apostles. In this monograph, we see how in its early days this major religion would have taken quite other directions and how these were gradually marginalised and eventually lost, thanks mainly to the outstanding persuasive skills of one man: St. Paul.
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Monograph Series No. 40 *
The Press Gang: The World in Journalese
Philip Howard
paperback, 22 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-32-3
Hard copy price: £5.00
Many people read and read more in newspapers than in any other print medium. In a witty essay, Philip Howard of The Times draws on years of experience as a journalist to identify and analyse the nature of this almost universal literary style: Journalese.
Philip Howard is a leader writer and columnist for The Times. He often writes the third (whimsical, arty, jokey) leaders. His columns include the daily Word Watching quiz and Modern Manners (etiquette and jokes). He has written several books of general history and social affairs, as well as several about the changing English language.
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Monograph Series No. 41 *
Taboos: Structure and Rebellion
Lynn Holden
paperback, 28 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-33-0
Hard copy price: £5.00
Dr. Holden looks at the origins and variety of taboos in many cultures and traces their persistence and influence in present-day societies.
Lynn Holden is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh (Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies). Her PhD (Edinburgh University) is in Comparative Mythology and her first degree (Stirling University) in English Literature and Folklife Studies. Previous publications include Forms of Deformity: a Motif Index of Abnormalities, Deformities and Disablities of the Human Form in Traditional Literature (Sheffield Academic Press, 1991). Her latest book, Encyclopaedia of Taboos (ABC-CLIO) was published in 2000. Recent articles include 'The Double' and 'The Phantom Lover'. She continues research on ghost literature.
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Monograph Series No. 42 *
Paranormal Perception? A Critical Evaluation
Christopher C. French
paperback, 28 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-34-7
Hard copy price: £5.00
The author describes different types of paranormal experience and argues that, whether ESP exists or not, we should nonetheless expect it to be widely and often reported.
Chris French is a Professor of Psychology and Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths College, University of London (http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/apru). Anomalistic psychology may be defined as the study of extraordinary phenomena of behaviour and experience, including (but not restricted to) those which are often labelled 'paranormal'. It is directed towards understanding bizarre experiences that many people have without assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved. Professor French is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He has published over 80 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics within psychology, including publications in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, The Lancet, Emotion, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, and the British Journal of Psychology. In addition to academic activities, such as conference presentations and invited talks in other departments, he frequently appears on radio and television, casting a sceptical eye over paranormal claims.
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Monograph Series No. 43 *
The Unseen World: The Rise of Gods and Spirits
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-35-4
Hard copy price: £5.00
This monograph examines ways in which, over thousands of years, human beings have attempted to answer questions about the nature of reality. It considers some of the solutions, religious, magical and other, which they have devised. Many of these solutions, despite having lost their usefulness, survive even into the present day.
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Monograph Series No. 44 *
Godmakers: The First Idols
Contributed by Cultural Research Services
paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-36-1
Hard copy price: £5.00
People have always used images to embody gods and spirits, no doubt in an effort to give form to the intangible and render it more comprehensible. This paper looks at some of the many ways in which human beings have tried to do this and what they have derived from the endeavour.
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Autumn 2008 Lecture Series
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