The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City, Volume 2
The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City, Volume 2

Author: Paul Wheatley

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published:

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 020236769X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

These two volumes elucidate the manner in which there emerged, on the North China plain, hierarchically structured, functionally specialized social institutions organized on a political and territorial basis during the second millennium b.c. They describe the way in which, during subsequent centuries, these institutes were diffused through much of the rest of North and Central China. Author Paul Wheatley equates the emergence of the ceremonial center, as evidenced in Shang China, with a functional and developmental stage in urban genesis, and substantiates his argument with comparative evidence from the Americas, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Yoruba territories. The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City seeks in small measure to help redress the current imbalance between our knowledge of the contemporary, Western-style city on the one hand, and of the urbanism characteristic of the traditional world on the other. Those aspects of urban theory which have been derived predominantly from the investigation of Western urbanism, are tested against, rather than applied to ancient China. The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City examines the cosmological symbolism of the Chinese city, constructed as a world unto itself. It suggests, with a wealth of argument and evidence, that this cosmo-magical role underpinned the functional unity of the city everywhere, until new bases for urban life began to develop in the Hellenistic world. Whereas the majority of previous investigations into the nature of the Chinese city have been undertaken from the standpoint of elites, The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City has adopted a point of view closer to that of the social scientist than the geographer. Paul Wheatley was professor and chairman of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He was most famous for his work dealing with comparative urban civilization. Some of his books include The Places Where Men Pray Together: Cities in Islamic Lands, 7th to 10th Centuries; Nagara and Commandery, Origins of the Southeast Asian Urban Traditions; and The Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore (with K. S. Sandhu).

Demography: Analysis and Synthesis, Four Volume Set
Demography: Analysis and Synthesis, Four Volume Set

Author: Graziella Caselli

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2006-01-03

Total Pages: 2857

ISBN-13: 012765660X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This four-volume collection of over 140 original chapters covers virtually everything of interest to demographers, sociologists, and others. Over 100 authors present population subjects in ways that provoke thinking and lead to the creation of new perspectives, not just facts and equations to be memorized. The articles follow a theory-methods-applications approach and so offer a kind of "one-stop shop" that is well suited for students and professors who need non-technical summaries, such as political scientists, public affairs specialists, and others. Unlike shorter handbooks, Demography: Analysis and Synthesis offers a long overdue, thorough treatment of the field. Choosing the analytical method that fits the data and the situation requires insights that the authors and editors of Demography: Analysis and Synthesis have explored and developed. This extended examination of demographic tools not only seeks to explain the analytical tools themselves, but also the relationships between general population dynamics and their natural, economic, social, political, and cultural environments. Limiting themselves to human populations only, the authors and editors cover subjects that range from the core building blocks of population change--fertility, mortality, and migration--to the consequences of demographic changes in the biological and health fields, population theories and doctrines, observation systems, and the teaching of demography. The international perspectives brought to these subjects is vital for those who want an unbiased, rounded overview of these complex, multifaceted subjects. Topics to be covered: * Population Dynamics and the Relationship Between Population Growth and Structure * The Determinants of Fertility * The Determinants of Mortality * The Determinants of Migration * Historical and Geographical Determinants of Population * The Effects of Population on Health, Economics, Culture, and the Environment * Population Policies * Data Collection Methods and Teaching about Population Studies * All chapters share a common format * Each chapter features several cross-references to other chapters * Tables, charts, and other non-text features are widespread * Each chapter contains at least 30 bibliographic citations

The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City
The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City

Author: Paul Wheatley

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 1351477919

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

These two volumes elucidate the manner in which there emerged, on the North China plain, hierarchically structured, functionally specialized social institutions organized on a political and territorial basis during the second millennium b.c. They describe the way in which, during subsequent centuries, these institutes were diffused through much of the rest of North and Central China. Author Paul Wheatley equates the emergence of the ceremonial center, as evidenced in Shang China, with a functional and developmental stage in urban genesis, and substantiates his argument with comparative evidence from the Americas, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Yoruba territories. The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City seeks in small measure to help redress the current imbalance between our knowledge of the contemporary, Western-style city on the one hand, and of the urbanism characteristic of the traditional world on the other. Those aspects of urban theory which have been derived predominantly from the investigation of Western urbanism, are tested against, rather than applied to ancient China. The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City examines the cosmological symbolism of the Chinese city, constructed as a world unto itself. It suggests, with a wealth of argument and evidence, that this cosmo-magical role underpinned the functional unity of the city everywhere, until new bases for urban life began to develop in the Hellenistic world. Whereas the majority of previous investigations into the nature of the Chinese city have been undertaken from the standpoint of elites, The Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City has adopted a point of view closer to that of the social scientist than the geographer.

Creolization and Diaspora in the Portuguese Indies
Creolization and Diaspora in the Portuguese Indies

Author: Stefan Halikowski Smith

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2011-09-23

Total Pages: 471

ISBN-13: 9004190481

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines the sizeable Portuguese community in Ayutthaya, the chief river-state in Siam, during a period in which Portuguese power in the region declined. The analysis turns on the creolization and diaspora that affected this community, as well as problems with international trade, the Christian conversion process, and European rivalries.

Myanmar in the Fifteenth Century
Myanmar in the Fifteenth Century

Author: Michael A. Aung-Thwin

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2017-05-31

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0824874110

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

When the great kingdom of Pagan declined politically in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, its territory devolved into three centers of power and a period of transition occurred. Then two new kingdoms arose: the First Ava Dynasty in Upper Myanmar and the First Pegu Dynasty in Lower Myanmar. Both originated around the second half of the fourteenth century, reached their pinnacles in the fifteenth, and declined before the first half of the sixteenth century was over. Their story is the only missing piece in Myanmar’s mainstream historiography, a gap this book is designed to fill. Renowned historian Michael Aung-Thwin reconstructs the chronology of this nearly two-hundred-year period while challenging a number of long-held beliefs. Contrary to conventional histories, he contends that Ava was the continuation of an old kingdom (Pagan) led by its traditional ethno-linguistic group, the Burmese speakers, while Pegu was a new kingdom led by more recent arrivals, the Mon speakers. Although both kingdoms shared many cultural components of the “classical” Pagan tradition, Ava was inland and agrarian, while Pegu was maritime and commercial, so that each was shaped by very different geopolitical and economic environments. In that difference rests the dynamism of their “upstream-downstream” relationship, which, thereafter, became a regular historical pattern in Myanmar history, represented today by inland Naypyidaw and “coastal” Yangon. Original in conception and impressive in scope, this well written book not only fills in the history of early modern Myanmar but places it in a broad interpretive context based on years of familiarity with a wealth of primary sources. Full of arresting anecdotes and colorful personalities, it represents an important contribution to Myanmar studies that will not easily be superseded.

Burma, Kipling and Western Music
Burma, Kipling and Western Music

Author: Andrew Selth

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-11-03

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1317298896

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For decades, scholars have been trying to answer the question: how was colonial Burma perceived in and by the Western world, and how did people in countries like the United Kingdom and United States form their views? This book explores how Western perceptions of Burma were influenced by the popular music of the day. From the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824-6 until Burma regained its independence in 1948, more than 180 musical works with Burma-related themes were written in English-speaking countries, in addition to the many hymns composed in and about Burma by Christian missionaries. Servicemen posted to Burma added to the lexicon with marches and ditties, and after 1913 most movies about Burma had their own distinctive scores. Taking Rudyard Kipling’s 1890 ballad ‘Mandalay’ as a critical turning point, this book surveys all these works with emphasis on popular songs and show tunes, also looking at classical works, ballet scores, hymns, soldiers’ songs, sea shanties, and film soundtracks. It examines how they influenced Western perceptions of Burma, and in turn reflected those views back to Western audiences. The book sheds new light not only on the West’s historical relationship with Burma, and the colonial music scene, but also Burma’s place in the development of popular music and the rise of the global music industry. In doing so, it makes an original contribution to the fields of musicology and Asian Studies.

Development Centre Studies The World Economy Volume 1: A Millennial Perspective and Volume 2: Historical Statistics
Development Centre Studies The World Economy Volume 1: A Millennial Perspective and Volume 2: Historical Statistics

Author: Maddison Angus

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2006-09-18

Total Pages: 657

ISBN-13: 9264022627

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The World Economy brings together two reference works by Angus Maddison: The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective (2001) and The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003). This new edition contains Statlinks, so that readers can access the underlying data in Excel format.