John L. Kessell’s Spain in the Southwest presents a fast-paced, abundantly illustrated history of the Spanish colonies that became the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. With an eye for human interest, Kessell tells the story of New Spain’s vast frontier--today’s American Southwest and Mexican North--which for two centuries served as a dynamic yet disjoined periphery of the Spanish empire. Chronicling the period of Hispanic activity from the time of Columbus to Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, Kessell traces the three great swells of Hispanic exploration, encounter, and influence that rolled north from Mexico across the coasts and high deserts of the western borderlands. Throughout this sprawling historical landscape, Kessell treats grand themes through the lives of individuals. He explains the frequent cultural clashes and accommodations in remarkably balanced terms. Stereotypes, the author writes, are of no help. Indians could be arrogant and brutal, Spaniards caring, and vice versa. If we select the facts to fit preconceived notions, we can make the story come out the way we want, but if the peoples of the colonial Southwest are seen as they really were--more alike than diverse, sharing similar inconstant natures--then we need have no favorites.
"Combining existing scholarly literature, historical data, theoretical breadth, analytic innovation, and, most important, their own rich and extensive survey data, the authors come to three main conclusions. The first is that the events of a campaign do have an impact on the final vote. Journalists and candidates take this as a fundamental premise, but until recently, few political scientists concurred. Campaigns, it has long been argued, at most reminded voters about fundamental issues (such as the economy) and voters' long-term predispositions." "Second, the authors assert that history sets the stage for campaigns and constrains their possibilities. Some constraints are shown to be more binding than others and some historical periods to impose more constraints than others. This analysis leads to the construction of a general theory of campaigns, one that can predict when campaigns will and will not be important." "Third, the authors conclude that campaigns can do more than determine which party will hold power; they can also be the occasion for a fundamental realignment. The authors support this view by reference both to their research results and to basic theories of social choice."--BOOK JACKET.
This incisive and elegantly written examination of Chicano antiwar mobilization demonstrates how the pivotal experience of activism during the Viet Nam War era played itself out among Mexican Americans. ¡Raza Sí! ¡Guerra No! presents an engaging portrait of Chicano protest and patriotism. On a deeper level, the book considers larger themes of American nationalism and citizenship and the role of minorities in the military service, themes that remain pertinent today. Lorena Oropeza's exploration of the evolution, political trajectory, and eventual implosion of the Chicano campaign against the war in Viet Nam encompasses a fascinating meditation on Mexican Americans' political and cultural orientations, loyalties, and sense of status and place in American society.
This study presents three ideal-typic models for analyzing inequality in kin-based, non-stratified societies that are commonly described as bands, tribes or ranked societies (but not chiefdoms). Each model discusses the organization of inequality associated with a particular way of validating marriages. The book is a serious and complex attempt to understand the bases and dynamics of inequality in classless societies. It offers a sophisticated argument for the position that there is a culturally-structured basis for women's universal subordination. An important strength of Collier's theoretical interpretation is that it makes the case for universality of subordination without slipping into biological reductionism.
The discovery of the fascinating and richly documented story of Sister Benedetta Carlini, Abbess of the Convent of the Mother of God, by Judith C. Brown was an event of major historical importance. Not only is the story revealed in Immodest Acts that of the rise and fall of a powerful woman in a church community and a record of the life of a religious visionary, it is also the earliest documentation of lesbianism in modern Western history. Born of well-to-do parents, Benedetta Carlini entered the convent at the age of nine. At twenty-three, she began to have visions of both a religious and erotic nature. Benedetta was elected abbess due largely to these visions, but later aroused suspicions by claiming to have had supernatural contacts with Christ. During the course of an investigation, church authorities not only found that she had faked her visions and stigmata, but uncovered evidence of a lesbian affair with another nun, Bartolomeo. The story of the relationship between the two nuns and of Benedetta's fall from an abbess to an outcast is revealed in surprisingly candid archival documents and retold here with a fine sense of drama.
This book is not a descriptive monograph, but an essay in cultural analysis, one which views culture as a system of symbols and which takes form under the impact of modern structural theory. A theme which runs throughout is the concept of dual organization, a structure which once characterized ten to fifteen percent of all known human societies, and which is found in a highly developed form among the Tewa today. Defined as "a system of antithetical institutions with the associated symbols, ideas, and meanings in terms of which social interaction takes place," a dual organization is for the Tewa a natural result of adapting to an environment comprised of opposites--two extremes of weather during the year; two means of subsistence, hunting in winter and farming in summer; and two periods and directions of migration in the origin myth.
This is a complete, systematic treatment of the marine algae (seaweeds) flora of California. The 726 species treated are each illustrated by a detailed line drawing made from an actual specimen. The two authors have drawn upon their phycological research to offer a definitive representation of benthic marine algae from the Californian coast. The floristic treatment in this first paperback edition should aid accurate and speedy identification of flora due to the improved keys, descriptions, illustrations and more detailed coverage of taxa, and should enhance the reader's knowledge of Californian macro-algae.