Book Description
Martha Quest, the embodied heroine of the Children of Violence series, has been acclaimed as one of the greatest fictional creations in the English language. In a Ripple from the Storm, Doris Lessing charts Martha Quest's personal and political adventures in race-torn British Africa, following Martha through World War II, a grotesque second marriage, and an excursion into Communism. This wise and starling novel perceptively reveals the paradoxes, passions, and ironies rooted in the life of twentieth-century Anglo-Africa.
A Ripple from the Storm is the third novel in Doris Lessing's classic Children of Violence sequence of novels, each a masterpiece in its own right, and, taken together, an incisive and all-encompassing vision of our world in the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
This woman!, I've named my daughter after her: DORIS.......2004-07-13
This woman!, I've named my daughter after her: DORIS
So few reviews for such a great book.......2003-12-09
Trying to understand the mid-20th century? Race relations, facism, colonials, communism, sexual politics? Take a ride with Doris Lessing through her strange and fictional small town in southern Africa. This was probably my favorite book of the Children of Violence series, perhaps because in it, Martha actually takes some action. Admittedly, she and her friends are running around like rabbits and will never accomplish anything substantial in the field of race relations, but they're trying, desperately, as they marry the latest currents in European liberal thinking to the absurdities of colonial life.
Steal this book!
the story of a ripple.......2000-09-19
Lessing presents us here to a third (or forth) phase in the life of Martha Quest, a white woman in "Zambezia", a colonialist state in Africa. "children of violence" which consists the present book is a highly recommended series as a whole, but the whole is to be differentiated as the fifth book belongs to a different genre if to any existing one. the former books, this one included, on the other hand, make an important contribution to female bildungsroman, as Lessing tells us with what i heard to be a tone of apology, in the end of the fifth book. "a ripple in the storm", specifically, suggest some more categories. it faces us with a small comunist group in "Zambezia" through world war 2 which implies all the domain of questions from justice to power in its external and internal spheres, to the state of an individual inside a storm. the story is rich, clever, subtle. it leads us to the continuance of changing and growing of Martha (the author seems to hold a certain popular enough judgement of comunism as something to grow of personally and historically, though not without retaining something of it). it leads us there as if by ourselves. it's not that you want to be or feel yourself to be Martha, actually Martha is half hidden - to herself too - in the turbulence of activity, this is part of the story. it is that you can imagine your shade appearing there in the little rooms. another point,one gets a sad description of the status of women in an example of an ideologically egalitarian organization. this fact is made clear thoroghly by description. one might believe the author doesn't even know this fact (but of course, one shouldn't).
Product Description
4 Trade Paperback Titles in Children of Violence Series By Lessing - A Proper Marriage - Landlocked - A Ripple From the Storm - Martha Quest
Book Description
Since its first publication in English in 1954, The Gift, Marcel Mauss's groundbreaking study of the relation between forms of exchange and social structure, has been acclaimed as a classic among anthropology texts.
Download Description
When first published, The Gift served as nothing less than an onslaught on contemporary political theory. This edition confirms the continuing relevance of Mauss's highly original perspective.
Customer Reviews:
Gifts and giving.......2005-10-24
People living in the modern world often have an impression of life being simpler, easier, and less complicated in primitive, tribal societies, especially those without money, credit cards, mortgage bills and other forms of financial exchange. Those who think so should read this book by the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss.
This book examines the practice of exchanging gifts in many non-industrial societies, and looks to see why gifts are given, how they are exchanged, who are involved in these exchanges, what is exchanged, when and where the gifts are exchanged, and how these exchanges factor into the greater fabric of society. What the author discovers and shows to the reader is that gift giving is actually a very complicated and highly political process, that the way it is done affects relationships within villages, between villages, and can end/being hostilities, family fueds, marriages, and alliances. In essence, the roles of many of the business and political institutions present in industrialized societies are all wrapped up in gift-giving and gift-receiving in pre-industrial societies, or archaic societies as the author denotes them. As such, gift exchange is an ever-present ritual at major ceremonies in many tribes, such as births, deaths, marriages, the building of a new house, the clearing of new land, etc, etc... And to not participate in the gift-exchange can lead to social exclusion, isolation, and possibly even banishment.
Overall, a good book and one that lends insight into the behaviour of people. The book is not that easy to read though, as it was first written in the mid-1900s.
Social Science Man.......2002-02-01
In his The Gift, Marcel Mauss attempts to explain and understand gifts in primitive societies. Mauss first decides to show that the motives behind giving gifts are more complicated than commonly believed to be. In modern day society, gifts are often thought of as something given out of good will and without the expectance of something in return. Mauss shows us that in many tribal and native cultures, this is not necessarily true. In discussing the Maori, he says, "They had a kind of exchange system, or rather one of giving presents that must ultimately either be reciprocated or given back" (10). The principle of gift giving is governed by the concept of mana, which is the authority, honor, and prestige derived from the wealth and glory of being a superior gift giver. One must give gifts in order to maintain and increase mana and reciprocates them in order to prevent oneself from losing it. The obligations to give and receive are both very important. To reject a gift leads to two problems. Initially, Mauss states that to do so "is to reject the bond of alliance and commonality" (13). To reject such an important bond in a society that so heavily values communal identity is "tantamount to declaring war" (13). The second problem is that of losing mana and being viewed as afraid to accept gifts because one is unable to reciprocate them. The concept of gift giving as one that has the motives of power and authority involved displaces the common belief of gift giving. Durkheim's influence on Mauss is apparent in Mauss' discussion of the contract and sacred qualities. The sacred quality of exchange and contracts also has a relationship to appeasing the gods according to Mauss, or so it is viewed in primitive societies (and according to Durkheim the remnants of such beliefs continue in today's society). Mauss says that the ideal of the gift as distributive justice arises from the belief that the gods punish those with great wealth who are not generous. Therefore, if a gift are given out of generosity and to promote justice, does that mean that those with less wealth have not only less honor and authority, but also a lower level of justness because they are unable to give great gifts?
Gift giving appears to be a "total" social phenomenon or service because of how it works on not only economic levels, but also social levels. The motives for gift giving are not as magnanimous as one may believe because as Mauss says concerning exchange-gifts, "They are kept for the sheer pleasure of possessing them" (23). He seeks to understand the blind accumulation of wealth and says that it is motivated by "competition, rivalry, ostentatiousness, the seeking after the grandiose" (28). To him, these are somewhat negative motives, although he does not explicitly say so. Mauss shows how gift giving evolves with the Native Americans where the concept of honor is more exaggerated and the idea of "credit" and a time limit on the reciprocation of gifts is highlighted. A gift is essentially given with the motive that not only does one gain honor, respect, and authority from it, but that one will also receive something in return. Now if this something received in return is usually paid "with interest" so to speak as it is expected to be of greater value than the original gift. If Mauss is indeed correct, then why is there not a greater disparity of wealth in these primitive societies? If one is wealthy, then one could seek to continuously extend one's own authority and wealth at the same time by giving all the time, since accepting the gift is virtually required, a wealthy person could do so and gain interest on all the gifts given.
Overall, it's interesting and provocative. It is helpful to have read Durkheim's Professional Ethics and Civic Morals (then you realize that Mauss is just following in Durkheim's footsteps). What kind of society do they propose? It's not too clear. I'm still trying to figure that one out, but nonetheless, it's a provocative book, as is Durkheim's.
The Gift.......2000-06-12
Mauss' book is a part sociological, part anthropological study of the practice of gift exchange. First, he explores the various forms this practice takes in distinct ethnographic settings. In each case, one catches a glimpse of what Mauss calls the 'total social fact': the notion that exchanging gifts signifies, beneath its voluntary and individualistic façade, a complex social affair. On the one hand, bonds of solidarity are created/maintained between implicated social groups; on the other, political relations of subordination (in which the donor often, if not always, occupies the dominant position) are reproduced/contested. Second, Mauss moves on to problematize the notion that the thing exchanged is merely an 'inert and lifeless object' and the synchronic view of gift exchange as a short-lived act devoid of temporality. Working his way through his ethnographic observations, Mauss unearths the historical dimension of the gift, which now appears to possess a 'spiritual' power irredemiably related to the donor and a historicity (and story) beyond the momentary encounter between donor and recipient. What follows from these two complementary arguments is that gift exchange, contrary to the individualistic notion that it merely involves the persons exchanging the gifts, establishes a wider social/political nexus, connecting the social groups the donor and recipient are members of. Finally, Mauss returns to the present and redeems the gift from its 'archaic' context to explore its potential as a social-democratic tool against 'unbridled' capitalist exchange.
Book Description
When Meanne, a princess of the realm, runs away from her father's castle and an unwanted suitor, little does she realize the hardships and difficulties that lie ahead of her. Loneliness is the worst part - until she finds a fellow refugee, a boy named Wisp. Together they must make new lives for themselves. Yet they both have secrets - hidden pasts and magical powers that can tear them apart!
Customer Reviews:
It is what it is.......2007-03-03
Well, I picked this little number up years ago because my local bookstore had reduced it to a dollar in its post-holiday sale, and it languished on my shelf for nearly a decade before I finally decided to look into it. It wasn't quite I was expecting, which is not necessarily either a good or bad thing.
My initial observation: it's shorter than it looks, which, since it resembles a pamphlet, is really saying something. The print is large, and the pages are elaborately, though repetitively, decorated. The result is that what one might assume is a short novel (given the trade paperback format) turns out to be a long short story, and the bottom line is that it isn't really worth it. For a story this short, the visual presentation would have to be more elaborate and outstanding than it is to justify the price.
Oh, the story? It's not bad. Some of the reviewers are referring to it as a children's story. That's a little ambiguous; I, at least, never got the impression that it was intended solely for children. It is a fairy tale, no question about that, though a little longer and more involved than most, and it's generally nonironic and therefore is susceptible to the predictability of the form. For what it is, though, it's well-done. My understanding is that McCaffrey has a few more of these sorts of books. I think the reader would react more positively if they had all been combined into a single volume and appropriately priced.
In short: read it, but don't buy it at full price.
If I had only known ..........2006-08-29
Very good book for kids - and quite pleasant for adults but If I had understood it was a kids book I might not have bought it.
another great.......2006-06-25
This is one of McCaffrey's shorter stories for juveniles. It is about a princess who runs away to avoid an arranged marriage with a much older man. The princess uses her knowledge of flora and fauna in order to escape and survive - but her knowledge is all gleaned from books, so it is more difficult than she believes. However, she perseveres, and she is joined by a waif of a boy who has been beaten and starved. They form a friendship that enables them to survive in the woods on their own - but without either knowing the other's past. I took this to be a story about trust, faith, and love.
The Best of Anne McCaffrey.......2004-10-04
This was the first Anne McCaffrey book I read. It's my favorite book by her so far. The plot is absorbing and different. Meanne and Wisp both hide their pasts from each other (for good reason), and yet if they had revealed their histories things might not have turned out better after all. The language and art are intricate yet delicate. Absolutely stunning.
This deseves a better customer rating!.......2002-08-11
I think this was an enchanting and charming short story. I normally don't read short stories, but the description was quite intriguing. It a little over 90 pages so I finished it rather quickly, but I loved it nontheless. I bought the book as soon as I had put it down. I admit MeAnn and Wisp's characters could have been expanded to make them more realistic, but the setting was beautifull described and the plot was completely original. This was the first Anne McCaffrey book I ever read, although some of my other family members have read many of her Dragonrider series. This book got me interested in her as an author and her other works. I wish the story could have been longer, but it stands out as it is. I highly recommend it to anyone.
Book Description
When we think of giving gifts, we think of exchanging objects that carry with them economic or symbolic value. But is every valuable thing a potentially exchangeable item, whose value can be transferred? In The Enigma of the Gift, the distinguished French anthropologist Maurice Godelier reassesses the significance of gifts in social life by focusing on sacred objects, which are never exchanged despite the value they possess.
Beginning with an analysis of the seminal work of Marcel Mauss and Claude Lévi-Strass, and drawing on his own fieldwork in Melanesia, Godelier argues that traditional theories are flawed because they consider only exchangeable gifts. By explaining gift-giving in terms of sacred objects and the authoritative conferral of power associated with them, Godelier challenges both recent and traditional theories of gift-giving, provocatively refreshing a traditional debate.
Elegantly translated by Nora Scott, The Enigma of the Gift is at once a major theoretical contribution and an essential guide to the history of the theory of the gift.
Average customer rating:
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Gift-Giving in Japan: Cash, Connections, Cosmologies
Katherine Rupp
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
Cultural | Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Customs & Traditions | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Ethnic Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0804747040
Release Date: 2003-06-10 |
Book Description
Gift-giving is extremely important in Japanese society, not only at personal and household levels, but at the national and macroeconomic levels as well. This book is the first in English to document the extraordinary scale, complexity, and variation of giving in contemporary Japan.
Gift-Giving in Japan is based on eighteen months' fieldwork in the Tokyo metropolitan area, as well as short-term research in other parts of Japan. The core of the study is the experience of family representatives of different ages, classes, genders, occupations, neighborhoods, and religions. The author also interviewed experts, including the author of gift-giving etiquette books, Buddhist and Shinto priests, department store and funeral home employees, and workers at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. She participated in neighborhood festivals, election rallies, house-building rites, and other ceremonies of which gift-giving was an integral part.
Recent anthropological interest in drawing a strong contrast between commodities and gifts both reflects and reinforces the conception of the gift as part of the giver and the related distinction between the realm of the gift and the realm of the marketplace. The author argues that Japanese practices of giving and receiving challenge assumptions related to this idea of the gift.
Book Description
The Poison in the Gift is a detailed ethnography of gift-giving in a North Indian village that powerfully demonstrates a new theoretical interpretation of caste. Introducing the concept of ritual centrality, Raheja shows that the position of the dominant landholding caste in the village is grounded in a central-peripheral configuration of castes rather than a hierarchical ordering. She advances a view of caste as semiotically constituted of contextually shifting sets of meanings, rather than one overarching ideological feature. This new understanding undermines the controversial interpretation advanced by Louis Dumont in his 1966 book, Homo Hierarchicus, in which he proposed a disjunction between the ideology of hierarchy based on the "purity" of the Brahman priest and the "temporal power" of the dominant caste or the king.
Average customer rating:
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Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute (Methodology and History in Anthropology, V. 1)
Manufacturer: Berghahn Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Scientists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Social Theory | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
History of Ideas | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1571817050 |
Average customer rating:
- Good lessons to be learned
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Erik's Christmas Gift Exchange
Manufacturer: Kregel Kidzone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Christian | Fiction | Religions | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Ages 4-8 | Christianity | Religions | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Fiction | Values | Social Situations | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0825436605 |
Book Description
When Erik draws Todd's name for the Christmas gift exchange, Erik can't wait for it to be over. But he later learns a valuable lesson about giving and the importance of Jesus' birth.
Customer Reviews:
Good lessons to be learned.......2006-12-27
Christmas is coming, and it's time for the children to draw names for the gift exchange. Erik draws Todd's name and is unhappy about the prospect of choosing a gift for a classmate that he doesn't like very much.
When Erik and his school friends go to the mall to buy their gifts, they decide they should have a Christmas play on the day of the gift exchange.
Erik searches for a gift and finds a spectacular car--for himself. He purchases the car and has a meager amount left to buy something for Todd. He chooses an inexpensive, small hard ball.
On the day of the exchange, Erik overhears Todd talking to the teacher about Jesus' love for Todd. Erik is sad. Todd wasn't a mean boy; he just wasn't sure about God's place in his life.
Erik makes a decision about the ball and car he purchased and decides the best thing to do is give the good present to Todd. When Erik opens his own gift, he discovers something special about the gift and the giver.
Armchair Interviews says: Erik's Christmas Gift Exchange is a life lesson about the true meaning of Christmas. And it's one that younger and middle-reader children will easily understand and be able to incorporate into their lives.
Average customer rating:
- A Must Read for Christians of All Denominations
- Religious Reform of Convenience
- Unity Through Relativism
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The Ecumenical Gift Exchange (Zacchaeus Studies: Theology)
Margaret O'Gara
Manufacturer: Liturgical Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Catholic | Theology | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Ecumenism | Theology | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0814658938 |
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read for Christians of All Denominations.......2002-03-26
In this work, Ms. O'Gara, a widely-read and well-informed author, provides glimpses of the path that the Spirit may use to effect the Christian unity for which Christ prayed so fervently. No obstacle as difficult at the role of the papacy has ever surfaced, and yet, even this role is examined in ways and from points of view through which the final achievement of unity -- one witness in solidarity with the Gospel among all Christians -- can be imagined and, God willing, actualized. This is a particular must read for Roman Catholics. God bless Ms. O'Gara in her continuing work in ecumenism. I hope to read more from her.
-- Fr. James I. Colburn, Chancellor, Mar Thoma Orthodox Church, Fresno, CA.
Religious Reform of Convenience.......2002-01-05
The book offers a series of essays on reform in the Church. Unfortunately the book is a subjective approach to reform that does not take into account the actual teachings of the various Christian denominations.The Catholic Church for example teaches that all Churches "subsist" in the Catholic Church. O'Gara,who is a professed Catholic, does not support this teaching in the book. Without acceptance of this teaching there can be no authentic unity. O'Gara's seeks primarily to advance her own views and not those of the various Christian denominations.The book is not for those serious about reform.
Unity Through Relativism.......2002-01-03
Margaret O'Gara writing as a Catholic theologian strangely misrepresents the Catholic position in her book. Misinterpretations of key theological terms, for example, such as "reception" leads O'Gara to denounce the Catholic view that the bishops are the true successors of the apostles.The book ultimately ends up being little more than an exercise in empty rhetoric.Those serious about ecumenical dialogue will be disappointed at O'Gara's efforts at relativizing religion.It seems she is not really interested in the true teachings of the various Christian denominations as much as she is intent on bringing them together under a common denominator - regardless of what that may mean. Those interested in learning what the Catholic church really teaches should read the numerous papal encyclicals on the various topics.
Book Description
Arguing with Anthropology is a fresh and wholly original guide to key elements in anthropology that teaches the ability to think, write, and argue critically. Using the classic "question of the gift" as a master-issue for discussion, and drawing on a rich variety of Pacific and global ethnography, this new book provides a unique course in methods, aims, knowledge, and understanding. The book's highly original hypothetical approach takes gift-theory--the science of obligation and reciprocity--as the paradigm for a virtual inquiry that explores how the anthropological discipline has evolved historically, how it is applied in practice, and how it can be argued with critically. By asking students to participate in projected situations and dilemmas and in arguments about the form and nature of inquiry, it offers working practice of dealing with the obstacles and choices involved in anthropological study.
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- Best Lesbian Erotica 2001 (Best Lesbian Erotica Series)
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Books Index
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