This compelling book is an extended case study of the social and legal ramifications of a homicide in a Tiwi community. The author gives a detailed account of the life of the victim and the events surrounding his murder, and describes the cycle of mortuary and seasonal rituals with their elaborate songs and dances. He also looks at the dramatic changes in Tiwi society over the last 100 years, and examines how the Tiwi have responded to the intervention of Western culture. In many areas, he finds, they have adapted and retained their own value system. Venbrux's account of the investigation and trial following the homicide provides timely and important insights into the issue of Aboriginal People, traditional law and the Australian criminal justice system. Through the strong narrative thread of this book we are presented with an incisive picture of a culture amid conflict and change.
Time for a Heart-to-Heart is not your typical memoir, but is rather eclectic in tone — at times philosophical, poetic, poignant, uplifting, confessional, hysterically funny, and nostalgic. But most o
Medical ethicist Callahan suggests some ways of bringing the legal and policy issues in the care of the dying and critically ill back into closer contact with some of the oldest questions of human exi
How do companies sell life insurance in a country where death is a taboo subject? In Marketing Death, Cheris S.C. Chan explores both how and why the life insurance industry has managed to emerge in Ch
Traces the life and death of Joe Slowinski, a renowned herpetologist who had been a foremost expert on Asia's venomous snakes, in a thoroughly researched profile that documents his ground-breaking wor
Traces the life and death of Joe Slowinski, a renowned herpetologist who had been a leading expert on Asia's venomous snakes, in a thoroughly researched profile that documents his ground-breaking work
Traces the life and death of Joe Slowinski, a renowned herpetologist who had been a leading expert on Asia's venomous snakes, in a thoroughly researched profile that documents his ground-breaking work
Max Beerbohm was widely celebrated as the wittiest mind of his age. And it was a very long age indeed: he became famous in the mid-1890s and remained so until his death in 1956. His wit manifested its
Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here Lawrence M. Krauss, himself a theoretical physicist and best-selling author, offers a unique scientific biography: a rollicking narrative coupled with clear and novel expositions of science at the limits. An immensely colorful persona in and out of the office, Feynman revolutionized our understanding of nature amid a turbulent life. Krauss presents that life—from the death of Feynman’s childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his reluctant rise as a scientific icon—as seen through the science, providing a new understanding of the legacy of a man who has fascinated millions. An accessible reflection on the issues that drive physics today, Quantum Man captures the story of a man who was willing to break all the rules to tame a theory that broke all the rules.
In 1859 John Langdon Sibley projected and began a series of biographical sketches of all Harvard graduates; at his death in 1885 he had published three volumes, covering the Classes from 1642 through
For modern people, ghost stories are no more than thrilling entertainment. For those living in antiquity, ghosts were far more serious beings, as they could affect the life and death of people and cause endless fear and anxiety. How did ancient societies imagine what ghosts looked like, what they could do, and how people could deal with them? From the vantage point of modernity, what can we learn about an obscure, but no less important aspect of an ancient culture? In this volume, Mu-chou Poo explores the ghosts of ancient China, the ideas that they nurtured, and their role in its culture. His study provides fascinating insights into the interaction between the idea of ghosts and religious activities, literary imagination, and social life devoted to them. Comparing Chinese ghosts with those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, Poo also offers a wider perspective on the role of ghosts in human history.
Depicts the life of the renowned Nobel Prize-winning physicist who had a colorful, turbulent life, from the death of his childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his rise as an icon in the
Depicts the life of the renowned Nobel Prize-winning physicist who had a colorful, turbulent life, from the death of his childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his rise as an icon in the
Depicts the life of the renowned Nobel Prize-winning physicist who had a colorful, turbulent life, from the death of his childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his rise as an icon in the
