Download or read book African Dream Machines written by Anitra Nettleton and published by Wits University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African headrests are treated as art objects in this historical study African Dream Machines takes African headrests out of the category of functional objects and into the more rarefied category of "art" objects. Styles in African headrests are usually defined in terms of Western art and archaeological discourses, but this book interrogates these definitions and demonstrates the shortcomings of defining a single formal style model as exclusive to a single ethnic group. This book has been in the making for fifteen years, starting with research on the traditional woodcarving of the Shona-and Venda-speaking peoples of Zimbabwe and South Africa. Among the artifacts made by South African peoples, headrests were the best known and during a year spent in Europe in 1975 and 1976, Anitra Nettleton discovered museum stores full of unacknowledged masterpieces made by speakers of numerous Southern African languages. A Council Fellowship from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1990 enabled the writer to develop an archive in the form of notes, photographs, and sketches of each and every headrest she encountered. Many examples from South African collections were added from the early 1990s onwards, expanding the field vastly. Nettelton executed drawings of each and every headrest encountered, and they became a major part of the project in their own right. African Dream Machines questions the assumed one-to-one relationship between formal styles and ethnic identities or classifications. Historical factors are used to demonstrate that "authenticity," in the form sought by collectors of antique African art, is largely a construct.
Download or read book Material Explorations in African Archaeology written by Timothy Insoll and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How people engaged with materials such as clay or stone, why people dug features such as pits, why they decorated their bodies, or treated their dead in certain ways, were all meaningful in the African past. However, these are subjects that have been generally neglected by archaeologists working in Africa until recently. Material Explorations in African Archaeology examines materiality in African archaeology by exploring concepts of material agency and material engagement and entanglement in relation to their manifest presence in persons, animals, objects, substances, and contexts. It investigates the magnificent and complex world of past African materiality by considering a range of case studies. These include, for example, why standing stones were erected, the potential meanings of bodily alteration practices such as scarification and dental modification, and why, recurrently, Africans in the past gave ritual importance to objects, materials, and locations thought of as exotic or different. Adopting a multidisciplinary focus, the volume draws not only on archaeology but also, among other areas, ethnography and history, discussing themes such as bodies, landscape, healing and medicine, and divination, as well as concepts such as memory and biography, transformation, and metaphor and metonym.
Download or read book Print Text and Book Cultures in South Africa written by Andrew van der Vlies and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An explanation of the unique role of the book and book collecting in South Africa due to the apartheid This book explores the power of print and the politics of the book in South Africa from a range of disciplinary perspectives- historical, bibliographic, literary-critical, sociological, and cultural studies. The essays collected here, by leading international scholars, address a range of topics as varied as: the role of print cultures in contests over the nature of the colonial public sphere in the nineteenth century; orthography; iimbongi, orature and the canon; book- collecting and libraries; print and transnationalism; Indian Ocean cosmopolitanisms; books in war; how the fates of South African texts, locally and globally, have been affected by their material instantiations; photocomics and other ephemera; censorship, during and after apartheid; books about art and books as art; local academic publishing; and the challenge of 'book history' for literary and cultural criticism in contemporary South Africa.
Download or read book Speaking of Objects written by Constantine Petridis and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lavishly illustrated selection of highlights from the Art Institute of Chicago’s extraordinary collection of the arts of Africa Featuring a selection of more than 75 works of traditional African art in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection, this stunning volume includes objects in a wide variety of media from regions across the continent. Essays and catalogue entries by leading art historians and anthropologists attend closely to the meanings and materials of the works themselves in addition to fleshing out original contexts. These experts also underscore the ways in which provenance and collection history are important to understanding how we view such objects today. Celebrating the Art Institute’s collection of traditional African art as one of the oldest and most diverse in the United States, this is a fresh and engaging look at current research into the arts of Africa as well as the potential of future scholarship.
Download or read book The African Dream written by Brian Gardner and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sublime Dreams of Living Machines written by Minsoo Kang and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-28 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the dawn of European civilization to the twentieth century, the automaton—better known today as the robot—has captured the Western imagination and provided a vital lens into the nature of humanity. Historian Minsoo Kang argues that to properly understand the human-as-machine and the human-as-fundamentally-different-from-machine, we must trace the origins of these ideas and examine how they were transformed by intellectual, cultural, and artistic appearances of the automaton throughout the history of the West. Kang tracks the first appearance of the automaton in ancient myths through the medieval and Renaissance periods, marks the proliferation of the automaton as a central intellectual concept in the Scientific Revolution and the subsequent backlash during the Enlightenment, and details appearances in Romantic literature and the introduction of the living machine in the Industrial Age. He concludes with a reflection on the destructive confrontation between humanity and machinery in the modern era and the reverberations of the humanity-machinery theme today. Sublime Dreams of Living Machines is an ambitious historical exploration and, at heart, an attempt to fully elucidate the rich and varied ways we have utilized our most uncanny creations to explore essential questions about ourselves.
Download or read book Machine Dreams written by Philip Mirowski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economics. It shows how 'history of technology' can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of postwar economics in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. It links the literature on 'cyborg' to economics, an element missing in literature to date. The treatment further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents, arguing that neoclassical economics has participated in the deconstruction of the integral 'self'. Finally, it argues for an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism.
Download or read book Mapping Modernisms written by Elizabeth Harney and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-16 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mapping Modernisms brings together scholars working around the world to address the modern arts produced by indigenous and colonized artists. Expanding the contours of modernity and its visual products, the contributors illustrate how these artists engaged with ideas of Primitivism through visual forms and philosophical ideas. Although often overlooked in the literature on global modernisms, artists, artworks, and art patrons moved within and across national and imperial borders, carrying, appropriating, or translating objects, images, and ideas. These itineraries made up the dense networks of modern life, contributing to the crafting of modern subjectivities and of local, transnationally inflected modernisms. Addressing the silence on indigeneity in established narratives of modernism, the contributors decenter art history's traditional Western orientation and prompt a re-evaluation of canonical understandings of twentieth-century art history. Mapping Modernisms is the first book in Modernist Exchanges, a multivolume project dedicated to rewriting the history of modernism and modernist art to include artists, theorists, art forms, and movements from around the world. Contributors. Bill Anthes, Peter Brunt, Karen Duffek, Erin Haney, Elizabeth Harney, Heather Igloliorte, Sandra Klopper, Ian McLean, Anitra Nettleton, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Ruth B. Phillips, W. Jackson Rushing III, Damian Skinner, Nicholas Thomas, Norman Vorano
Download or read book Tribal Art written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quarterly journal of the art, culture and history of traditional peoples and Old World civilizations.
Download or read book Archaeology of Spiritualities written by Kathryn Rountree and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-05-23 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology of Spiritualties provides a fresh exploration of the interface between archaeology and religion/spirituality. Archaeological approaches to the study of religion have typically and often unconsciously, drawn on western paradigms, especially Judaeo-Christian (mono) theistic frameworks and academic rationalisations. Archaeologists have rarely reflected on how these approaches have framed and constrained their choices of methodologies, research questions, hypotheses, definitions, interpretations and analyses and have neglected an important dimension of religion: the human experience of the numinous - the power, presence or experience of the supernatural. Within the religions of many of the world’s peoples, sacred experiences – particularly in relation to sacred landscapes and beings connected with those landscapes – are often given greater emphasis, while doctrine and beliefs are relatively less important. Archaeology of Spiritualities asks how such experiences might be discerned in the archaeological record; how do we recognize and investigate ‘other’ forms of religious or spiritual experience in the remains of the past?. The volume opens up a space to explore critically and reflexively the encounter between archaeology and diverse cultural expressions of spirituality. It showcases experiential and experimental methodologies in this area of the discipline, an unconventional approach within the archaeology of religion. Thus Archaeology of Spiritualities offers a unique, timely and innovative contribution, one that is also challenging and stimulating. It is a great resource to archaeologists, historians, religious scholars and others interested in cultural and religious heritage.
Download or read book The African Dream written by Che Guevara and published by Harvill Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emesto "Che" Guevara was one of the greatest exemplars of the revolutionary 1960s, an essential player in the Cuban Revolution whose legend fired the imaginations of a whole generation. In 1965, amid worldwide conjecture, Guevara left Cuba, where he was a minister in Fidel Castro's post-revolutionary government, and traveled incognito to the heart of Africa. People's hero Patrice Lumumba had been assassinated, and Guevara was sent to put his theories of guerrilla warfare into use, helping the oppressed people of the Congo throw off the yoke of Western imperialism. The first task was to assist the young Laurent Kabila in his struggle against Mobutu and Tshombe, the two key figures in the newly independent nation.
Download or read book Dreams for Lesotho written by John Aerni-Flessner and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Dreams for Lesotho: Independence, Foreign Assistance, and Development, John Aerni-Flessner studies the post-independence emergence of Lesotho as an example of the uneven ways in which people experienced development at the end of colonialism in Africa. The book posits that development became the language through which Basotho (the people of Lesotho) conceived of the dream of independence, both before and after the 1966 transfer of power. While many studies of development have focused on the perspectives of funding governments and agencies, Aerni-Flessner approaches development as an African-driven process in Lesotho. The book examines why both political leaders and ordinary people put their faith in development, even when projects regularly failed to alleviate poverty. He argues that the potential promise of development helped make independence real for Africans. The book utilizes government archives in four countries, but also relies heavily on newspapers, oral histories, and the archives of multilateral organizations like the World Bank. It will interest scholars of decolonization, development, empire, and African and South African history.
Download or read book The African Dream written by Pat Patterson and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-11-19 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SECOND EDITION.....Better formatted, revised margins, more Photos and other changes!!! AFRICA on BICYCLES? You must be CRAZY! Cat and Pat Patterson say, "When you have a DREAM, something that is hovering at the top of your bucket list and you're in your senior years, you'd better get rollin'." So, roll they did, over 265 days they pedaled 4,918 miles through 17 countries in AFRICA! The Pattersons sold their flourishing business, their cars and house, opted for early Social Security benefits, left family and friends and pedaled away from home and into an incredible journey of adventure and enlightenment. Through their stories in The African Dream, you will find lessons learned and lessons taught, myths debunked and mysteries of the Dark Continent exposed. Are there natives dressed in loin cloths carrying spears or big game animals roaming the roads? Will Muslims in Islamic Kingdoms or Republics be friendly or threatening? You'll find the answers to these and other often asked questions on the pages of their book. It is true that great swatches of jungle, arid lands and the vast Sahara Desert remain as they have been for centuries. Life in small villages is very simple. Yet, you will also find modern cities of glass and steel skyscrapers. If you have an AFRICAN DREAM, a bucket list itch to travel to Africa, don't wait until it's too late! There are as many ways to visit and explore Africa as there are people and places usually seen only on the pages of the National Geographic magazine. You may agree, AFRICA on BICYCLES is CRAZY. However, whether you go by bike, boat, plane or train, the journey is bound to fulfill your bucket and allow you to check a great experience off your list and into your memories. And, best of all, the people of Africa. Through the Patterson's stories and 400 photos you will meet a cross section of the many different cultures, customs and personalities that make up the rainbow nations of Africa. The Pattersons hope that seeing AFRICA through their eyes, stories and photos will instill the confidence you need to live your AFRICAN DREAM!
Download or read book Tell the Machine Goodnight written by Katie Williams and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FINALIST FOR 2018 KIRKUS PRIZE NAMED ONE OF THE "BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2018' BY KIRKUS REVIEWS "Sci-fi in its most perfect expression…Reading it is like having a lucid dream of six years from next week, filled with people you don't know, but will." —NPR "[Williams’s] wit is sharp, but her touch is light, and her novel is a winner." – San Francisco Chronicle "Between seasons of Black Mirror, look to Katie Williams' debut novel." —Refinery29 Smart and inventive, a page-turner that considers the elusive definition of happiness. Pearl's job is to make people happy. As a technician for the Apricity Corporation, with its patented happiness machine, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She's good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion? Meanwhile, there's Pearl's teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of "pursuit of happiness." As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett--but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job--not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either. Told from an alternating cast of endearing characters from within Pearl and Rhett's world, Tell the Machine Goodnight delivers a smartly moving and entertaining story about the advance of technology and the ways that it can most surprise and define us. Along the way, Katie Williams playfully illuminates our national obsession with positive psychology, our reliance on quick fixes. What happens when these obsessions begin to overlap? With warmth, humor, and a clever touch, Williams taps into our collective unease about the modern world and allows us see it a little more clearly.
Download or read book The African Book Publishing Record written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Dream Machine written by M. Mitchell Waldrop and published by Stripe Press. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the man who instigated the work that led to the internet—and shifted our understanding of what computers could be. Behind every great revolution is a vision and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time, personal computing, is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. He did not design the first personal computers or write the software that ran on them, nor was he involved in the legendary early companies that brought them to the forefront of our everyday experience. He was instead a relentless visionary that saw the potential of the way individuals could interact with computers and software. At a time when computers were a short step removed from mechanical data processors, Licklider was writing treatises on "human-computer symbiosis", "computers as communication devices", and a now not-so-unfamiliar "Intergalactic Network." His ideas became so influential, his passion so contagious, that Waldrop called him "computing's Johnny Appleseed. In a simultaneously compelling personal narrative and comprehensive historical exposition, Waldrop tells the story of the man who not only instigated the work that led to the internet, but also shifted our understanding of what computers were and could be. Included in this edition are also the original texts of Licklider's three most influential writings: 'Man-computer symbiosis' (1960), which outlines the vision that inspired the personal computer revolution of the 1970s; his 'Intergalactic Network' memo (1963), which outlines the vision that inspired the internet; and "The computer as a communication device" (1968, co-authored with Robert Taylor), which amplifies his vision for what the network could become.
Download or read book The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert written by Hans Barnard and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last quarter century has seen extensive research on the ports of the Red Sea coast of Egypt, the road systems connecting them to the Nile, and the mines and quarries in the region. Missing has been a systematic study of the peoples of the Eastern Desert--the area between the Red Sea and the Nile Valley--in whose territories these ports, roads, mines, and quarries were located. The historical overview of the Eastern Desert in the shape of a roughly chronological narrative presented in this book fills that gap. The multidisciplinary perspective focuses on the long-term history of the region. The extensive range of topics addressed includes specific historical periods, natural resources, nomadic survival strategies, ancient textual data, and the interaction between Christian hermits and their neighbors. The breadth of perspective does not sacrifice depth, for all authors deal in some detail with the specifics of their subject matter. As a whole, this collection provides an outline of the history and sociology of the Eastern Desert unparalleled in any language for its comprehensiveness. As such, it will be the essential starting point for future research on the Eastern Desert. Includes a CD of eleven audio files with music of the Ababda Nomads, and six short videos of Ababda culture.
