Download or read book Prickly Pear written by William Beinart and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An explanation of how an invasive cactus from Mexico became a source of income in Africa While there are many studies of the global influence of crops and plants, this is perhaps the first social history based around a plant in South Africa. Plants are not quite historical actors in their own right, but their properties and potential help to shape human history. Plants such as prickly pear tend to be invisible to those who do not use them, or at least on the peripheries of people's consciousness. This book explains why they were not peripheral to many people in the Eastern Cape and why a wild and sometimes invasive cactus from Mexico, that found its way around the world over 200 years ago, remains important to African women in shacks and small towns. The central tension at the heart of this history concerns different and sometimes conflicting human views of prickly pear. Some accepted or enjoyed its presence; others wished to eradicate it. While commercial livestock farmers initially found the plant enormously valuable, they came to see it as a scourge in the early twentieth century as it invaded farms and commonages. But for impoverished rural and small town communities of the Eastern Cape it was a godsend. In some places it still provides a significant income for poor black families. Debates about prickly pear - and its cultivated spineless variety - have played out in unexpected ways over the last century and more. Some scientists, once eradicationists, now see varieties of spineless cactus as plants for the future, eminently suited to a world beset by climate change and global warming. The book also addresses central problems around concepts of biodiversity. How do we balance, on the one hand, biodiversity conservation with, on the other, a recognition that plant transfers - and species transfers more generally - have been part of dynamic production systems that have historically underpinned human civilizations. American plants such as maize, cassava and prickly pear have been used to create incalculable value in Africa. Transferred plants are at the heart of many agricultural systems, as well as hybrid botanical and cultural landscapes, sometimes treasured, that are unlikely to be entirely reversed. Some of these plants displace local species, but are invaluable for local livelihoods. Prickly Pear explores this dilemma over the long term and suggests that there must be a significant cultural dimension to ideas about biodiversity. The content of Prickly Pear is based on intensive archival research, on interviews conducted in the Eastern Cape by the authors, as well as on their observations of how people in the area use and consume the plant.

Download or read book Postharvest Technology written by Md Ahiduzzaman and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2022-04-28 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Postharvest management of food crops is an important part of food safety and security across the supply chain. It includes processing of agricultural produce, storage, packaging and coating, postharvest disease management, extending shelf life, and maintaining food quality and safety. Postharvest Technology - Recent Advances, New Perspectives and Applications discusses some important aspects of postharvest technologies. Chapters address such topics as postharvest preservation technology, postharvest disease management, and postharvest processing and packaging.

Download or read book Anthropology and Sexual Morality written by Carles Salazar and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of sexual morality in Ireland has been traditionally associated with repression. In the last two decades, however, repression seems to have given way to its exact opposite. But where did this "repression" originate? And how can we account for this sudden and sweeping transformation in sexual mores? Based on solid ethnographic and historical analysis of sexual morality in rural Ireland, augmented by comparative data from Papua New Guinea, and being informed by from Freud's emblematic concept of repression, the author draws new conclusions that not only apply to the specific case of his Irish material but shed new light on the specific nature of an anthropological approach to the study of human societies.

Download or read book Silence written by Maria-Luisa Achino-Loeb and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about silence and power and how they interact. It argues that only by studying how silence works—how it is implicated in the construction of meaning—can we arrive at the elusive roots of power in all its dimensions. Silence becomes the currency of power by delineating the margins or what we perceive and through a sleight of hand wherein behaviors undertaken in the service of self-interest appear instead as inevitable and devoid of human agency. The theoretical load of this argument is carried by vivid ethnographic material dealing with music, linguistic behavior, racial conflicts, work dislocations, and the construction of anthropological subjects and texts.

Download or read book The Last Frontier War written by Jacobus Adriaan Du Pisani and published by Rozenberg Publishers. This book was released on 2010 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Coming Mexico written by Joseph King Goodrich and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Land Chiefs Mining written by Andrew Manson and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land, Chiefs, Mining explores aspects of the experience of the Batswana in the thornveld and bushveld regions of the North-West Province, shedding light on defi ning issues, moments and individuals in this lesser known region of South Africa. Some of the focuses are: an important Tswana kgosi (chief ), Moiloa II of the Bahurutshe; responses to and participation in the South African War and its aftermath, 1899-1907; land acquisition; economic and political conditions in the reserves; resistance to Mangope’s Bophuthatswana; the impact of game parks and the Sun City resort; rural resistance and the liberation struggle; and African reaction to the platinum mining revolution. Written in a direct and accessible style, and illustrated with photographs and maps, the book provides an understanding, for a general reader ship, of the region and its recent history. At the same time it opens up avenues for further research. The authors, Andrew Manson and Bernard Mbenga, both based at North-West University, Mahikeng Campus, have, for some thirty years, been studying and writing on the region’s past.

Download or read book Prickly Pear Blossoms written by William Hamilton Codrington Nation and published by . This book was released on 1893 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book In a Sunburned Country written by Bill Bryson and published by Anchor Canada. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deliciously funny, fact-filled and adventurous, In a Sunburned Country takes us on a grand tour of Australia. It's a place where interesting things happen all the time, from a Prime Minister lost — yes, lost — while swimming at sea, to Japanese cult members who may (entirely unnoticed) have set off an atomic bomb on their 500,000 acre property in the great western desert. Australia is the only island that is also a continent, and the only continent that is also a country. Its aboriginal people, a remote and mysterious race with a tragic history, have made it their home for millennia. And despite the fact that it is the most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents, it teems with life. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else: sharks, crocodiles, the planet's ten most deadly poisonous snakes, fluffy yet toxic caterpillars, sea shells that actually attack you, and the unbelievable box jellyfish (don't ask). The dangerous riptides of the sea and the sun-baked wastes of the outback both lie in wait for the unwary. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide. In a Sunburned Country offers the best of all possible introductions to what may well be the best of all possible nations. Even with those jellyfish.

Download or read book The Road to Democracy in South Africa written by South African Democracy Education Trust and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-12-02 with total page 1154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In South Africa, the decade of 1980–1990 not only saw the mobilisation of the popular masses, but also the marked escalation of the armed struggle inside the country, initiated and waged by the African National Congress (ANC). The liberation movement, headed by the ANC-led Congress Alliance, took major strides which finally broke the backbone of white supremacist rule. This book examines and analyses the events leading to the settlement of democracy in South Africa during this period. Amongst other topics, the subject matter of this book also includes a discussion of – The apartheid regime ANC underground, armed actions and popular resistance Liberation struggle in the 1980s in the Eastern Cape Bophuthatswana and the role of the UDF in the Western Transvaal Trade Unionism Print editions not for sale in Sub-Saharan Africa. This book is part of Routledge’s co-published series 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa, in collaboration with UNISA Press, which reflects on the past years of a democratic South Africa and assesses the future opportunities and challenges.

Download or read book Isabel s Texas Two Step written by Annie Bryant and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-10-21 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Isabel's sister Elena Maria is turning fifteen, and the Martinez family is planning her quinceañera -- at Uncle Hector's ranch in San Antonio!

Download or read book People of the Fire written by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2009-11-03 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is a time of fire. A small band of pioneers struggle valiantly to keep their ancestors' dreams alive in an unforgiving, drought-stricken land. Driven by the promise of an awesome vision, a heroic young dreamer and a fearless woman warrior unite to lead their people to a magnificent destiny. A towering epic filled with tragedy and triumph, courage and conflict, People of the Fire is the second compelling novel in a majestic saga of America's first peoples. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book People of the Fire written by W. Michael Gear and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-11-03 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of years ago, small hunting bands crossed the fragile land bridge linking the Eurasian continent to the Americas and discovered a land untouched by humankind. Over the centuries that followed, their descendents spread throughout this land. Bestselling authors and award-winning archaeologists W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear bring the stories of these first North Americans to life in this magnificent, multi-volume saga. Seven thousand years ago, major climactic change was ushering in a 3,500 year drought. For a small band of pioneers in what is now Wyoming and the Montana Mountains, it was a time of fire. As they struggled valiantly to keep their ancestors’ dreams alive in an unforgiving, drought-stricken land, a heroic young dreamer and a fearless woman warrior united to lead their people to a magnificent destiny.

Download or read book Desert Gold written by Zane Grey and published by BEYOND BOOKS HUB. This book was released on 2023-07-15 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Face haunted Cameron — a woman's face. It was there in the white heart of the dying campfire; it hung in the shadows that hovered over the flickering light; it drifted in the darkness beyond. This hour, when the day had closed and the lonely desert night set in with its dead silence, was one in which Cameron's mind was thronged with memories of a time long past — of a home back in Peoria, of a woman he had wronged and lost, and loved too late. He was a prospector for gold, a hunter of solitude, a lover of the drear, rock-ribbed infinitude, because he wanted to be alone to remember. A sound disturbed Cameron's reflections. He bent his head listening. A soft wind fanned the paling embers, blew sparks and white ashes and thin smoke away into the enshrouding circle of blackness. His burro did not appear to be moving about. The quiet split to the cry of a coyote. It rose strange, wild, mournful — not the howl of a prowling upland beast baying the campfire or barking at a lonely prospector, but the wail of a wolf, full-voiced, crying out the meaning of the desert and the night. Hunger throbbed in it — hunger for a mate, for offspring, for life. When it ceased, the terrible desert silence smote Cameron, and the cry echoed in his soul. He and that wandering wolf were brothers. Then a sharp clink of metal on stone and soft pads of hoofs in sand prompted Cameron to reach for his gun, and to move out of the light of the waning campfire. He was somewhere along the wild border line between Sonora and Arizona; and the prospector who dared the heat and barrenness of that region risked other dangers sometimes as menacing. Figures darker than the gloom approached and took shape, and in the light turned out to be those of a white man and a heavily packed burro. “Hello there,” the man called, as he came to a halt and gazed about him. “I saw your fire. May I make camp here?” Cameron came forth out of the shadow and greeted his visitor, whom he took for a prospector like himself. Cameron resented the breaking of his lonely campfire vigil, but he respected the law of the desert. The stranger thanked him, and then slipped the pack from his burro. Then he rolled out his pack and began preparations for a meal. His movements were slow and methodical. Cameron watched him, still with resentment, yet with a curious and growing interest. The campfire burst into a bright blaze, and by its light Cameron saw a man whose gray hair somehow did not seem to make him old, and whose stooped shoulders did not detract from an impression of rugged strength. “Find any mineral?” asked Cameron, presently. His visitor looked up quickly, as if startled by the sound of a human voice. He replied, and then the two men talked a little. But the stranger evidently preferred silence. Cameron understood that. He laughed grimly and bent a keener gaze upon the furrowed, shadowy face. Another of those strange desert prospectors in whom there was some relentless driving power besides the lust for gold! Cameron felt that between this man and himself there was a subtle affinity, vague and undefined, perhaps born of the divination that here was a desert wanderer like himself, perhaps born of a deeper, an unintelligible relation having its roots back in the past. A long-forgotten sensation stirred in Cameron's breast, one so long forgotten that he could not recognize it. But it was akin to pain...FROM THEBOOKS

Download or read book The Zane Grey Super Pack written by Zane Grey and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 9396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 - October 23, 1939) was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the American frontier, including the novel Riders of the Purple Sage, his best selling book. These are his stories.

Download or read book Wild Seasons written by Kay Young and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nature lovers as well as cooks, there's plenty to whet the appetite in this unique field guide-cum-cookbook. Starting with the first plants ready for eating in the early spring (watercress and nettles) and following the sequence of harvest through the late fall (persim-mons and Jerusalem artichokes), Kay Young offers full, easy-to-follow directions for identifying, gathering, and preparing some four dozen edible wild plants of the Great Plains. And since most of the plants occur elsewhere as well, residents of other regions will find much of interest here. ø 'This is not a survival book," writes the author; "only those plants whose flavor and availability warrant the time and effort to collect or grow them are included." The nearly 250 recipes range from old-time favorites (poke sallet; catnip tea; horehound lozenges; hickory nut cake; a cupboardful of jams, jellies, and pies) to enticing new creations (wild violet salad, milkweed sandwiches, cattail pollen pancakes, day-lily hors d'oeuvres, prickly-pear cactus relish). ø Reflecting the author's conviction that just as we can never go back to subsisting wholly on wild things, neither should we exclude them from our lives, this book serves up generous portions of botanical information and ecological wisdom along with good food.

Download or read book Race Relations Survey written by and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 1080 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: