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Mother-Daughter Wisdom: Creating a Legacy of Physical and Emotional Health
Christiane Northrup
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ASIN: 0553105736
Release Date: 2005-02-22 |
Amazon.com
It's a rare book that delivers so completely on such a broad promise. Mother-Daughter Wisdom is written to connect the dots between a number of separate parts: logical and emotional morality, physical and mental health, friends and family, and in an overarching sense, the relationship between being a woman's daughter and raising a daughter of your own.
Because of the scope of information presented, it can be tricky to pick up the book and look for quick guidance on a particular topic such as adolescent weight issues or childhood asthma; more use, and more pleasure, will be found if you add it to your permanent reference shelf to look through in stages. Author Dr. Christiane Northup (Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom) seamlessly blends personal stories with clear research in a way that creates a compelling read from start to finish, even if the specific topic isn't necessarily one that concerns you. Information is a welcome mix of old school medical advice and new school nutrition and stress relief. In Northup's world, whole foods and loving communication can play just as important roles as antibiotics.
The book is categorized somewhat loosely by age, beginning with pregnancy and labor, and continuing through infancy, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. Each section is quite specifically tuned to relating to daughters: Mothers of sons will get some use out of sections on breastfeeding, vaccinations and the like, but emotional concerns and physical recommendations are tailor-made for women and girls, right down to the resource guide that ends the book. By itself, that resource guide is an excellent starting point for further reading, both online and in print. When added to the whole, it is just one more reason you'll reach for the book on a regular basis. Jill Lightner
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Applying the unique holistic approach that made Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause such transforming forces in the lives of millions of readers, Dr. Northrup has created an uplifting, enlightening, entirely new map of female development. Mother-Daughter Wisdom blends soulful truths with groundbreaking clinical discoveries to help women of all ages thoroughly rebuild their health. Whether coming to terms with a painful memory, letting go of harmful beliefs about themselves, or celebrating the love that is passed down from mother to daughter, generation after generation, readers of this book will come to see this intimate bond in a completely new light. Dr. Northrup has provided Amazon.com customers with exclusive discussion topics and questions, intended to enrich your reading of this important and inspiring book. Download Amazon.com exclusive content now.
More by Christiane Northrup, MD
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom |
The Wisdom of Menopause |
Mother-Daughter Wisdom (Audio CD)
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Book Description
With such groundbreaking bestsellers as
Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and
The Wisdom of Menopause, Dr. Christiane Northrup is one of today’s most trusted and visionary medical experts. Now she presents her most profound and revolutionary approach to women’s health. . . .
The mother-daughter relationship sets the stage for our state of health and well-being for our entire lives. Because our mothers are our first and most powerful female role models, our most deeply ingrained beliefs about ourselves as women come from them. And our behavior in relationships—with food, with our children, with our mates, and with ourselves—is a reflection of those beliefs. Once we understand our mother-daughter bonds, we can rebuild our own health, whatever our age, and create a lasting positive legacy for the next generation.
Mother-Daughter Wisdom introduces an entirely new map of female development, exploring the “five facets of feminine power,” which range from the basics of physical self-care to the discovery of passion and purpose in life. This blueprint allows any woman—whether or not she has children—–to repair the gaps in her own upbringing and create a better adult relationship with her mother. If she has her own daughter, it will help her be the mother she has always wanted to be.
Drawing on patient case histories and personal experiences, Dr. Northrup also presents findings at the cutting edge of medicine and psychology. Discover:
•How to lay the nutritional foundation to prevent eating disorders and adult diseases
•The truth about the immunization controversy–and the true meaning of immunity
•How we can change our genetic health legacy
•Why financial literacy is essential to women’s health
•How to foster healthy sexuality and future “love maps” in our daughters
•How to balance independence with caring, and individual growth with family ties
Written with warmth, enthusiasm, and rare intelligence,
Mother-Daughter Wisdom is an indispensable book destined to change lives and become essential reading for all women.
Customer Reviews:
Dissappointing.......2007-05-08
I have so enjoyed Christians & Mona Lisa's tapes on Intuitive Healing, I thought that this would be just as good. After listening to 2 of the CD's I switched them off, they were so full of negative stuff, that someone having a baby for the first time, would be so fearful of the process. I know when having my own first child, I stopped reading the information, simply becasue we are "wired" to think the worst, instead of what we need to think "It's OK"
AMAZING BOOK.......2007-05-03
This book is amazing. If you have a daughter or not this is a must read!
Some good advice, but a lot of misleading information..........2007-03-11
Christiane Northrup is not a psychologist, as another reviewer commented, but she sure tries to act like one. And she uses her own life experience as her only basis for many of her claims. If this book were just a memoir, I think I would have less of a problem with it. Much of the health advice in this book is either questionable in safety and value (such as consuming large amounts of soy, which is increasingly being shown to be dangerous, or not vaccinating your children at all) or is obvious to anyone with common sense (don't make an issue about how much your daughter eats, eat regular meals with the family, blah, blah). And all of the talk about menstrual cycles and celebrating your femininity and kundalini rising really rubbed me the wrong way. I am all for questioning traditional medicine and healing yourself in natural ways, but I need real science to back things up, not anecdotes from "intuitive healers" (aka psychics.) However, here and there sprinkled throughout the book there are interesting bits of information and interesting perspectives on the mother-daughter relationship. You just have to be a very critical reader while going through this book, and I definitely don't accept Dr. Northrup's authority unquestioningly.
Easy to understand.......2007-01-19
I have other books by Christiane Northrup and I wasn't disappointed with this one. There are so many issues and points that are relevant, I seem to jump around and read what I want - but its easy to read and digest. Thank you!
Freeing, insightful, helpful.......2007-01-17
This book is one of the most helpful books I have ever read. It offered so much insight and I identified with it so much! If you want to be enlightened about your womanhood, your relationships, your childhood, your health, this is a must read! Definitely recommend it.
Amazon.com
In the follow-up to his bestseller, Genome, Matt Ridley takes on a centuries-old question: is it nature or nurture that makes us who we are? Ridley asserts that the question itself is a "false dichotomy." Using copious examples from human and animal behavior, he presents the notion that our environment affects the way our genes express themselves.
Ridley writes that the switches controlling our 30,000 or so genes not only form the structures of our brains but do so in such a way as to cue off the outside environment in a tidy feedback loop of body and behavior. In fact, it seems clear that we have genetic "thermostats" that are turned up and down by environmental factors. He challenges both scientific and folk concepts, from assumptions of what's malleable in a person to sociobiological theories based solely on the "selfish gene."
Ridley's proof is in the pudding for such touchy subjects as monogamy, aggression, and parenting, which we now understand have some genetic controls. Nevertheless, "the more we understand both our genes and our instincts, the less inevitable they seem." A consummate popularizer of science, Ridley once again provides a perfect mix of history, genetics, and sociology for readers hungry to understand the implications of the human genome sequence. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
Following his highly praised and bestselling book Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley has written a brilliant and profound book about the roots of human behavior. Nature via Nurture explores the complex and endlessly intriguing question of what makes us who we are.
In February 2001 it was announced that the human genome contains not 100,000 genes, as originally postulated, but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave: we must be made by nurture, not nature. Yet again biology was to be stretched on the Procrustean bed of the nature-nurture debate. Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes, too, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.
Published fifty years after the discovery of the double helix of DNA, Nature via Nurture chronicles a revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. Nature via Nurture is an enthralling,up-to-the-minute account of how genes build brains to absorb experience.
Customer Reviews:
An interesting, light read.......2007-05-10
In "The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture" (previously published as "Nature via Nurture") Matt Ridley explores how the modern understanding of the genome recasts the boundaries of the age-old nature versus nurture debate. Nature versus nurture is a long, intense and often highly charged, intellectual debate but Ridley shows it to be a false dichotomy. The two sides are not mutually exclusive. Genes (on the nature side of the equation) enable the acquisition of environmental influences (nurture) and the environmental influences in turn exert their effects by changing the patterns of gene expression. Ever since the work of Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod at the Institut Pasteur on the genetic control of enzyme synthesis in E. coli bacteria, it has been appropriate to think about genes in terms of 'switches'. Jacob and Monod had shown that in the absence of lactose (a milk sugar) the E. coli bacterium does not bother to produce the enzyme which processes lactose. This is because the gene for that enzyme is effectively turned off by what's called a `repressor protein'. However, in the presence of lactose this repressor protein is inactivated and the gene in question begins to churn out the required enzyme. This work showed that the control of gene expression could be tuned by the bacterium's environment. The gene was not just a template for the production of proteins - it was also a switch. As the psychologist Gary Marcus has pointed out, genes function like IF-THEN lines of code in a computer program. The IF refers to the regulatory portion of the gene and THEN refers to the protein template region.
Ridley's book is an interesting historical look at the nature-nurture debate and how either one or the other extreme has waxed and waned in popularity - from Francis Galton and the eugenics movement to the ideological blank slate views of 20th century social scientists to modern developments in evolutionary psychology which attempt to balance the debate and bring it in line with our current knowledge of how genes work. He also discusses some of the most interesting findings to emerge from the study of the genome, particularly as these findings pertain to issues of behavioral genetics. This includes an overview of the CREB genes which are necessary for the modification of neural circuits in learning and memory, the FOXP2 gene whose mutation in humans has been implicated in the development of language, the role of the BDNF gene in neuroticism and many others. The writing is accessible to a general audience as it does not delve into the biochemical details of how these genes perform their work but rather discusses the implications of the findings. Ridley also lightens the reading with anecdotal details about some of the scientists involved and the ways in which some of the discoveries were made.
As in "The Genome", Ridley appears to stumble a bit when he attempts to discuss the really big philosophical issues like free will. His attempt to explain how genes enable free will is not convincing and the argument that he tries to make does not seem all that clear even to Ridley himself. It is also of some interest that Ridley, like several others, paints Freud as an 'environmentalist'. The extent to which Freud's was a blank slate world is certainly debatable. The historian of science, Frank Sulloway, in his book "Freud, Biologist of the Mind" shows how Freud was far less of a `blank slater' than some might think.
All in all Ridley's book is a light and highly accesible read on an interesting and still controversial topic. It is a bit skimpy on the details and it is far from being an exhaustive treatment on the subject but as far as popular science writing is concerned, it is recommended.
Sheds light on various nature versus nurture arguments.......2006-11-10
Science writer Matt Ridley is a must read for anyone wanting to understand new discoveries about genes, and how they influence us throughout our lives. "The Agile Gene" is not as illuminating and captivating as the other Matt Ridley books (his best works are "The Origins of Human Virtue" and "The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature"). You'll get a broader and deeper understanding of nature vs. nuture from the other books if you are interested in understanding how genes effect human relations in societies, and civilizations. This book, however, is of particular interest if you want to understand how genes can effect an individual throughout ones life.
For example, the book is dedicated to supporting Ridley's comments like the following: "the influence of genes increases and the influence of shared environment gradually disappears with age. The older you grow, the less your family background predicts your IQ and the better your genes predict it." or "the shared environment plays only a small and non-significant role in the creation of personality differences in adults."
If you are interested in knowing how Ridley can support such statements, and his arguments either way, then this book is for you.
Nature through Nurture through Nature in an Endless Series of Adaptations.......2006-08-02
Note: This book was originally published as "Nature via Nurture."
Ridley is a journalist with an impeccable and broad understanding of "sociobiology." He is capable of distilling a broad array of sociobiological phenomena so that the layman can grasp what science is doing behind those polysyllabic and arcane words. This is yet another of his home runs.
Another Ridley home run! He's batting a thousand. Not bad for a popularizer of science.
Don't let the book's title fool you. If Ridley merely resolved the nurture/nature debate, which most of us already know, the book might be a bust. However, Ridley's means of resolution is an unsuspected, yet dramatic, one. The book's strengths lie in applying the resolution of this dilemma to other dilemmas. Not that this approach "answers" these dilemmas; indeed, maybe the reverse, it seems to complicate them. Therein lies the book's brilliance and novelty, while being entirely scientific.
For example, 18th C. philosopher David Hume raised doubts about humans' causal inferences, i.e., "cause-and-effect." E.g. The light goes out (effect). Caused by what: the filament, the glass, the wiring, the switch, the panel, or maybe something else? Many people, including scientists, dismissed Hume's skepticism as extreme and anti-scientific. Ridley's Fourth Chapter vindicates Hume, more dramatically than Hume himself (or Popper in 1944). The subject for discussion is "schizophrenia." The perennial nature/nurture debate and the theories its drawn are investigated, and given Ridley's insight and science's "evidence," the putative "cause(s)" of schizophrenia are all found wanting. How wanting? Incredibly wanting. But ironically, it's not all wrong. Mostly wrong. And it's revealed in, through, and by the prism of nature/nurture dispute, seen through the topic of schizophrenia. (The subject of causality in human behavior makes an important reappearance later.)
[N.B. A cautionary note. Chap. 3 seemed uncharacteristically long-winded and redundant. It passes and never recurs.]
Ridley's encyclopedic knowledge (what field of knowledge does he not know?) is breathtaking. His ability to coordinate all this diverse, even disparate, knowledge in defense of this thesis is extraordinary. To keep all the scientific jargon on an accessible level is masterful. To use an artful device with elegant prose adds creativity and imagination. The implications of these insights are even more stunning. Science does not get better than this!
Educational.......2006-07-11
The main thesis of this book was nothing new to me. The flow of concepts and explanations was often difficult for me to follow and I had to read them over a number of times before I felt I comprehended them - maybe his writing wasn't as clear as it could have been, or maybe because I'm getting older my mind isn't as sharp as it used to be. At any rate, I felt I learned a lot from reading this book. I hadn't realized that genes (or their resultant enzymes) might have such varying functions. The first bit of information which stood out in my mind was that Oxytocin could be the Love chemical. I was familiar with Oxytocin's function of precipitating the birth of a baby. The idea that it might be secreted by the pituitary during intercourse and thus result in the two individuals falling in love was new to me, and fascinating indeed. Or that it's presence might result in males being the faithful type rather than skirt chasers was also very interesting. There were a number of specific genes mentioned and how they played a part in talents, illnesses, or behavior. This information made me think and even modify some of my beliefs about what determines character. I've been leaning on the nurture side and now feel I am seeing better the part that nature plays (in conflicts, for example). So I feel this book has been very important to me. A disappointment was his pages on Free Will. I couldn't understand what the heck he was saying about this. Daniel Dennett is much easier to understand. Personally I don't feel that this knowledge about genes implies anything about questions like: Is there a God? What is consciousness? or Does Free Will exist? This book seems to me to be more about how living things function, regardless of the answers to such questions. How nature works and how living things function is fascinating stuff, and after reading this book I feel I have a clearer idea.
I should add that the results of studies he cites should be taken with a grain of salt. Mr. Ridley's writing is not that of a rigorous scientist. But even though he writes as though the conclusions he draws from the studies cited are clear and definite, and even though there is much room for doubt, his general positions as to what the genes do are in the ballpark of the functioning of the genes/enzymes which for me was the main value of this exposition.
Maddenly Engaging.......2006-07-10
Another Ridley home run! He's batting a thousand. Not bad for a popularizer of science.
Don't let the book's title fool you. If Ridley merely resolved the nurture/nature debate, which most of us already know, the book might be a bust. However, Ridley's means of resolution is an unsuspected, yet dramatic, one. The book's strengths lie in applying the resolution of this dilemma to other dilemmas. Not that this approach "answers" these dilemmas; indeed, maybe the reverse, it seems to complicate them. Therein lies the book's brilliance and novelty, while being entirely scientific.
For example, 18th C. philosopher David Hume raised doubts about humans' causal inferences, i.e., "cause-and-effect." E.g. The light goes out (effect). Caused by what: the filament, the glass, the wiring, the switch, the panel, or maybe something else? Many people, including scientists, dismissed Hume's skepticism as extreme and anti-scientific. Ridley's Fourth Chapter vindicates Hume, more dramatically than Hume himself (or Popper in 1944). The subject for discussion is "schizophrenia." The perennial nature/nurture debate and the theories its drawn are investigated, and given Ridley's insight and science's "evidence," the putative "cause(s)" of schizophrenia are all found wanting. How wanting? Incredibly wanting. But ironically, it's not all wrong. Mostly wrong. And it's revealed in, through, and by the prism of nature/nurture dispute, seen through the topic of schizophrenia. (The subject of causality in human behavior makes an important reappearance later.)
[N.B. A cautionary note. Chap. 3 seemed uncharacteristically long-winded and redundant. It passes and never recurs.]
Ridley's encyclopedic knowledge (what field of knowledge does he not know?) is breathtaking. His ability to coordinate all this diverse, even disparate, knowledge in defense of this thesis is extraordinary. To keep all the scientific jargon on an accessible level is masterful. To use an artful device with elegant prose adds creativity and imagination. The implications of these insights are even more stunning. Science does not get better than this!
Average customer rating:
- A thoughtful, well-reasoned compilation
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Landscape Archaeology: Reading and Interpreting the American Historical Landscape
Manufacturer: University of Tennessee Press
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Customer Reviews:
A thoughtful, well-reasoned compilation.......2004-01-15
Expertly co-edited by archaeology experts Rebecca Yamin and Karen Bescherer Metheny, Landscape Archaeology: Reading And Interpreting The American Historical Landscape ably collects and presents essays from a variety of learned authors having as special focus America's landscapes and how changes in the lay of the land reflect changes in culture and society itself. A thoughtful, well-reasoned compilation, offering informed and scholarly insights into the steady evolution of human nature, Landscape Archaeology is especially recommended to the attention of archaeology students in general, and those non-specialist general readers with an interest in the sciences of landscape archaeology, landscape assessment, and garden archaeology in particular.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Mummies fascinate us. As we peer at their withered flesh, we are glimpsing a type of immortality. Heather Pringle tells the stories of some of these "frail elders"--and the scientists who study them--in The Mummy Congress.
Pringle details the tension between the preservationists, who want to protect the ancient dead and refuse to unwrap them, and the dissectionists, who see mummies as a repository of scientific data waiting to be studied. She also introduces the reader to the preserved dead from around the world--from the bog bodies of northern Europe to the mysterious Caucasian-looking mummies from China's Tarim Basin, from Egyptians in linen shrouds to incorruptible Christian saints, and from Lenin in his Moscow mausoleum to Incan children found on Andean mountaintops.
Peppered with fascinating snippets of information--for example, for centuries artists were sold on a pigment called "mummy," a transparent brown made from ground-up mummies--The Mummy Congress makes for lively, if somewhat ghoulish reading. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney
Book Description
When acclaimed science journalist Heather Pringle was dispatched to a remote part of northern Chile to cover a little-known scientific conference, she found herself in the midst of the most passionate gathering of her working life -- dozens of mummy experts lodged in a rambling seaside hotel, battling over the implications of their latest discoveries. Infected with their mania, Pringle spent the next year circling the globe, stopping in to visit the leading scientists so she could see firsthand the breathtaking delicacy and unexpected importance of their work.
In The Mummy Congress, she recounts the intriguing findings from her travels, bringing to life the hitherto unknown worlds of the long-dead, and revealing what mummies have to tell us about ourselves. Pringle's journeys lead her to the lifelike remains of medieval saints entombed in Italy's grand cathedrals, eerily preserved bog bodies in the Netherlands bearing signs of violent and untimely slaughter, and frozen Inca princess glimpsed for the first time atop icy mountains. She learns of the extraordinary skills of ancient Egyptian embalmers capable of preserving bodies, in the words of one mummy expert, "until the end of time"; of the horrifying sacrifices made by ancient South Americans to pacify their gods; and of the weird mummified parasites, preserved in the guts of millennia-old bodies, that still wreak havoc across the world today.
Ranging from the famous excavation of Tutankhamen to tales of ascetic Japanese monks trying to mummify themselves, and from the Russians' terrified attempts to embalm the body of Stalin to the fleeting craze for public mummy unwrappings in nineteenth-century New Orleans, The Mummy Congress demonstrates that our own obsession with the preserved dead has a long and bizarre history. Packed with extraordinary stories and narrated with great humor and verve, The Mummy Congress is a compelling and entertaining journey into the world of the everlasting dead.
Customer Reviews:
Are You My Mummy?.......2007-09-17
I kept spotting this book as I browsed the bargain books at the local mega-bookseller. I'm normally leery of books with mummies and Egyptian stuff on the cover as most of them seem to be pretty thin on content and real heavy on the same old sensationalist or quasi-New Age stuff with a handful of glossy and colourful images intended to get the rubes to buy in. The price seemed right (under $5.00) so I decided to see what the back cover had to say about the content. The back of the Fourth Estate paperback didn't tell me much, but on the other hand it didn't discourage me from looking inside the book either.
From the first page: Heather Pringle is a journalist and writer who has written on archeology and ancient cultures in numerous magazines including Discover, National Geographic Traveller, New Scientist, Science and Geo. She is also the author of two books, including In Search of Ancient North America. She lives in Vancouver, Canada.
That pretty much sold me - a solid non-fiction science writer.
The Mummy Congress starts with the convening of Third World Congress on Mummy Studies in Arica, Chile and gives us a good sense that this small field of study is made up of very dedicated people that share the same (almost maniacal) interest in mummies. Absent seem to be the snake oil salesmen, taking the liberty of calling themselves Egyptologists, we are more familiar with. Pringle uses the characters at the congress as her jumping off point for her narrative about the various kinds of mummies that exist, the way they are discovered, preserved, studied and at times desecrated for profit.
Some of the things you will learn about while reading:
* The dissection of mummies in Egypt where they are more plentiful than anywhere else and where the bits and pieces of those not fortunate enough to have celebrity mummy status end up.
* Studies of mummies for ancient drug use and parasites that inhabited them while alive.
* Origins of the "Bog People" and their ritual killing before being tossed into bogs.
* Controversies over Caucasian looking mummies discovered in Northern China dating from before Europeans officially made any trips that far east.
* The origin of the word "mummy" and it's roots in the for profit capitalization of ground up mummy bits packaged as medicines, elixirs and artists paint.
* Famous sideshow proprietors of mummified remains and their exhibitions.
* The Vatican's interest in the study of mummified remains.
* The mummification of Communist leaders.
An overall well written book that manages to convey lots of factual information (with a meaty bibliography and a good index) while keeping the reader entertained with colourful characters and vivid descriptions of this fascinating field of study that spans the entire globe. If you like non-fiction and/or mummies this is a great read. I didn't find any pitfalls in this book, except for the chapter on parasites which gave me the creeps while reading it in the middle of the night.
Good but not great.......2005-09-24
"The Mummy Congress" narrates the study of mummies around the world, with its takeoff point being a meeting of mummy experts at the edge of Chile's Atacama desert. Pringle travels, interviews, observes, researches and reports. There are far more mummies around, including some being created even today, than you would have dreamed of. In addition to the Egyptian mummies --so plentiful they are almost without value -- there are "incorruptible" saints, bodies occasionally preserved in clayey English graves, dried natives of the Atacama desert, and Caucasian-seeming mummies that the Chinese government has placed off limits to investigators. The book will interest history buffs, chemists (because the preservation methods vary) and trivia fans. Much of what she learns and tells us is indeed interesting, but not riveting. There is no central person whose story is compelling; it is not like Dava Sobel's "Longitude", which followed the lifetime quest of John Harrison to create the world's first chronometer. The book is handsomely produced, with excellent photographs. It's the sort of thing you will like if you like this sort of thing. (Abraham Lincoln joke.)
Good introduction to the topic.......2003-12-13
The writer brings a journalistic approach to the topic of mummies and the sub-title of the book clearly defines the multiple angles she chose to follow. She covers a great deal of territory, both geographically (all the continents except Antarctica) historically, psychologically and morally.
In a sense this is almost an "Encyclopedia of the Mummy" because it covers so many aspects of mummy hunting, dissecting and preserving. Most mummy hunters seem obsessed by their quest. They may be after mummies for scientific, historic, theatric or religious reasons, but hunt them they must. This raises moral issues; after all these were once human beings that we are putting on display, slicing for DNA or just carting off to some museums storage room. Can we justify it if we, say, understand some disease better after the research? Or is it just voyeurism for us all to know what the Iceman ate for his last meal?
The writer introduces us to individual mummy hunters, strong characters all, and the unusual places they work. Her writing is clear and vivid, if a trifle long. She is at her best describing the moral and psychological issues surrounding our fascination with mummies and the way they relate to our own mortality anf hopes for immmortality.
Good introductory book.......2003-12-13
The writer brings a journalistic approach to the topic of mummies and the sub-title of the book clearly defines the multiple angles she chose to follow. She covers a great deal of territory, both geographically (all the continents except Antarctica) historically, psychologically and morally.
In a sense this is almost an "Encyclopedia of the Mummy" because it covers so many aspects of mummy hunting, dissecting and preserving. Most mummy hunters seem obsessed by their quest. They may be after mummies for scientific, historic, theatric or religious reasons, but hunt them they must. This raises moral issues; after all these were once human beings that we are putting on display, slicing for DNA or just carting off to some museums storage room. Can we justify it if we, say, understand some disease better after the research? Or is it just voyeurism for us all to know what the Iceman ate for his last meal?
The writer introduces us to individual mummy hunters, strong characters all, and the unusual places they work. Her writing is clear and vivid, if a trifle long. She is at her best describing the moral and psychological issues surrounding our fascination with mummies and the way they relate to our own mortality anf hopes for immmortality.
Can't put it down!!!.......2002-07-16
This is a terrific book with lots of information and suspense. I am always wondering what is going to be revealed next. I enjoyed the discussion/debate of the social issues the members of the mummy congress face. HP is very frank about how she feels on these issues, but she does a good job of remaining objective. She also has a highly readable style which makes the book very enjoyable.
Book Description
This anthology directs attention to the evolving understanding of death and dying in today’s multicultural environment. Authoritative voices of pioneers and pathfinders in the field of death studies are joined by insightful commentators from intersecting disciplines, bringing depth and range of coverage to current knowledge about death, dying, and bereavement. This approach encourages critical thinking and allows students to examine their own feelings and beliefs about the path ahead.
Book Description
Widely recognized as the best-selling textbook in the field, The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, 6th Editionis an interdisciplinary introduction to death, dying, and bereavement. No prerequisite courses are necessary for students to appreciate the text's comprehensive treatment, sensitive writing, and unbiased presentation.
Customer Reviews:
WONDERFUL AND ENLIGHTENING.......2007-02-13
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT THE AUTHOR THIS BOOK DID A SUPERB JOB IN PLACING THE EMPHASIS AND KNOWLEDGE OF VARIOUS CULTURES HANDLING OF DEATH. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH FROM THIS BOOK.
Boilerplate plus.......2004-12-22
For those readers who have not done much reading or thinking about death, this book offers an easy to read and thoughtful introduction to looking at death vis a vis topics. In addition, this book provides for the scaffolded reading experience by asking the reader many questions, summarizing the main points of chapters and providing resources for further exploration.
On the negative side is the fact that the topical approach is available elsewehere in other books on death and dying in more encyclopedia form and more complete form.
The authors seem to think that death isnt something that people wonder a lot about or should wonder a lot about the mysterium tremendum of death. The illustrations in the book are sans context and images or illustrations on death are important in their own right for exploration as numerous authors like Robert Lifton have pointed to the importance of images when contemplating mortality. Furthermore the authors could have and should have indicated what complete exploration of death might be-surely the topical approach is just one amongst many approaches to death. So in this regard there is a disconnect between death as a subject of interest to be held at arms length and death as a highly personal vital concern that transcends topical approach.
In concluding if looking at death from arms length as a subject of interest is what youre into this book provides a good enough scaffolded reading experience. If you want something to be or more personal value in dealing or orienting to your own mortality then this wont fit the bill.
excellent.......1999-01-22
This book accomplishes a rare feat--appealing to those who would use it as a teaching guide but also so readable that the average reader will find it fascinating and invaluable. It is packed with illustrations as well as solid advice and history--from ancient funeral practices to today's arguments on assisted suicide. In between is every conceivable question and answer you could want on the subject of dying and death.
This is a wonderfully written and organized text that students will hold on to and not sell after reading it!.......1998-11-12
I will be using The Last Dance for the third year in a course I teach on Death and Dying in Western Culture. This text does a marvelous job of addressing the socio-cultural aspects of death in America and the world. The chapter on suicide is both helpful and haunting. There are so many excellent illustrations and photographs in this book that it really comes alive for the students. It is clear that the authors are very familiar with their subject matter, and that they care very much about those who read this book. I cannot imagine a better general text on the subject of death and dying.
Book Description
Can women be equal to men as long as men are physically stronger? And are men, in fact, stronger?
These are key questions that Colette Dowling, author of the bestselling The Cinderella Complex, raises in her provocative new book. The myth of female frailty, with its roots in nineteenth-century medicine and misogyny, has had a damaging effect on women's health, social status, and physical safety. It is Dowling's controversial thesis that women succumb to societal pressures to appear weak in order to seem more "feminine."
The Frailty Myth presents new evidence that girls are weaned from the use of their bodies even before they begin school. By adolescence, their strength and aerobic powers have started to decline unless the girls are exercising vigorously--and most aren't. By sixteen, they have already lost bone density and turned themselves into prime candidates for osteoporosis. They have also been deprived of motor stimulation that is essential for brain growth.
Yet as breakthroughs among elite women athletes grow more and more astounding, it begins to appear that strength and physical skill--for all women--is only a matter of learning and training. Men don't have a monopoly on physical prowess; when women and men are matched in size and level of training, the strength gap closes. In some areas, women are actually equipped to outperform men, due partly to differences in body structure, and partly to the newly discovered strengthening benefits of estrogen.
Drawing on extensive research in motor development, performance assessment, sports physi-ology, and endocrinology, Dowling presents an astonishing picture of the new physical woman. And she creates a powerful argument that true equality isn't possible until women learn how to stand up for themselves--physically.
Customer Reviews:
Hate speech.......2005-10-28
Is it just me, or do some of the rather inflammatory reviews of this book belie some very insecure minds?
Some of the condescending generalizations these people are making wouldn't be tolerated were this a book on say, racial or religious equality.
Women have been socialized to be a lot smaller and weaker than they need to be, and in a more egalitarian society, they might learn from an early age to properly nourish, exercise, and use their bodies to realize more physical accomplishments and enjoy a greater sense of self. What exactly is it about this thesis that is evoking such a hostile reaction in you? Why are you acting so threatened?
Did any of you misogynists actually bother to read the book? Given your frightened, contemptuous, kneejerk reactions, apparently not.
An Idea That Is Long Overdue.......2005-06-29
A very good book with many interesting facts. For a l;ong time now I have thought the proposition that with equal training women would show speed and pound to pound strength equal to men, is the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn. I am glad that Dowling agrees with me and from what I hear that proposition is becoming more acceptable to the general public. As a long time practitioner of martial arts I am glad that this book is inspiring women to become stronger and more agressive and in touch with thier true physical potential, as I beleive the next revolution in gender politics will be a physical one. My one criticism is that the tone of the book is often very sarcastic and at times preachy, but Dowling is very passionate about her position so I think this failing is forgivable.
Empowering!Good for Women's Studies, provides Stats & Facts.......2003-03-12
I am not a fan of Dowling's other books. This one, is a resarch book that is easily read like a novel, while providing important, empowering facts and data on the way males and females develop. Dowling talks about how from an early age, even in our times, girls are still taught it is not "feminine" or attractive to boys or others to be muscular or athletic. She talks about how boys are taken by the majority of theri fathers and taught how to throw a ball, and train their muscles, and engage in rough housing, where girls are not and so "throw like a girl." Boys and girls bodies are similar but as girls starve themselves, and do not use their muscles, their ability to develop larger muscles over all diminishes as they get older. We see female athletes who want to look like covergirls and some who are beautiful and atheltic, and those who really just want to be professional athletes. This book overall shows how women hold themselves back from achieving their true potential starting at an early age, and examines how the image a woman has of herself by thinking a certain kind of beauty is most important keeps a woman from being independant in this way. Dowling also points out that if you take a 5'7" woman who works out and a man of the same height who does not, and one who does, the results are very interesting. She points out that women are often compared to male athletes not in their weight range. While Women and men may not be biologically equal in every area, that should not keep us from being equals as humans. Dowling also talks about how athletes need to work with their menstrual cycles. Also, with the studies done now, we know that women have always been treated tradtionally nutritionally and physically by doctors as if they were skinny men with mood swings. Now we know we have different nutritional requirements, and while during our cycle, we are constantly preparing for a child, wether we want to have one or not, and men do not. When these needs are all met healthily instead of denying ourselves to fit into a body type that does not fit us, we will all have more energy for strength training. There is so much information packed into this book, and it is such a fast read, I recommend it to all women, and especially those who have daughters to see a new way of strengthening them. I find it hilarious that some still question women's strength and dexterity after reading this book.
MORE FANTASY PROPAGANDA.......2002-12-19
You couldn't find a more ridiculous premise than the one espoused by this book. Oh! Now we know -- women's biological lack of strength and muscle mass has been a vast masculine-wing conspiracy all this time. She writes of females breaking in to traditionally male sports like football, etc. Her observations are skewed and the conclusions drawn are so ludicrous that it doesn't really require any argument to refute them.
Tell me, does anyone really believe any of this? That men and women are the same - or even similar, physically? That's what I thought.
Don't buy this book. If you can locate a copy, browse through it while you stand - about thirty seconds worth - and you will have had all that you want.
What it feels like for a girl: Weakness as femininity.......2002-04-14
In "The Frailty Myth," Colette Dowling presents a compelling and well-researched analysis of why and how American girls are socialized to be "weak." Dowling examines the myths about the "weaker sex," tracing this myth as a source of the oppression of women handed down to us from Victorian times.
She convincingly explains why men fear strong women: In part, she says, it's because strength is perhaps the only area in which our culture does not say that men and women are equal. Thus, as male-only professions and traits are rapidly disappearing from public discourse, strength is masculinity's last hope.
Further, she carefully details how the media, parents, educators and peers of both sexes encourage girls to be passive and boys to be active (often without realizing it), and gives ample evidence that there is no physiological basis for the belief that women are fated to be weaker than men. It is, in essence, a mere self-fulfilling prophecy.
After demonstrating the mental and physical unhealthiness of this cycle, the author provides advice on breaking out of it. To illustrate the possibilities, she offers inspiring stories of women and girls who have become strong, breaking into "male" sports like football and even playing on co-ed teams.
This book is well-written, well-organized, and an important read for anyone with a daughter or an interest in women's issues. At the very least, it might encourage you to spend more time at the gym -- that's one of the many beneficial things it did for me!
Book Description
"The book is a treasure trove of tidbits describing how the world around us came about. . . . Things Maps Don't Tell Us actually communicates a great deal about the things maps can tell us if we care to look carefully underneath the printed symbols."—James E. Young, Cartographic Perspectives
Customer Reviews:
Inheritance.......2006-07-28
Love of maps runs in my family. Maybe there is a map-gene. Or maybe that fact that my dad owned this book is what caused this love of maps to be passed on to me and my sister.
When my dad passed away, this was the one book I wanted as my inheritance.
this book changed my life!.......2005-01-08
i know, sounds silly, but i picked up an old hardback of armin k. lobeck's masterpiece from a street "vendor" in new york about 15 years ago. paid 25c for it. it has influenced my perception of maps, geology, and the histories of the earth, life, and civilization ever since. it's a simple book, really, but full of concepts and ideas that you just don't get anywhere else here in the 21st century. also, the (hand drawn) illustration is unusually enlightening while exhibiting a charm and elegance that is lost on graphic designers these days.
the only reason anyone would ever go to the trouble of producing a document like this is because they were truly passionate about the ideas they were presenting. it's very sincere, and you'll never look at maps (or the world) the same way again.
Unique.......2002-07-12
In high school we took a lot of geography, and learned about "tombolos" and "terminal moraines" and such, but damned if the teacher ever gave you an example.
This book has an interesting approach - it shows a map on one side, the text points out interesting or unusually features, and then a second page with diagram and text explains the origin of the feature.
It seems like a simple idea, but it's an approach I've seen in few other places.
Some negatives:
This is a re-print of a fairly old book, so perhaps (according to the new forword) some of the theory is a little old. I feel however, the bulk of the material is still valid, and well worth it. (It's too bad some aspiring professor somewhere does write an up-to-date book using the same approach)
The new forword doesn't add much to the book, and the publisher might better have left it out.
All you have ever wanted to know about georaphy and geology.......2001-03-14
I haven't read the paperback, but I just came across my copy of the 1956 hard cover and devoured it with renewed interest.Professor Lobeck selects 72 examples of geography and on the facing page illustrates the geological activity that resulted in that geography.New York harbor, Long Island, the Florida peninsula, the Great Lakes, the island arcs of the Pacific and the Caribbean are among the many mapped and explained geologically.A great book for the student of earth science and the traveller interested in maps and why the our earth is so different and interesting.
Book Description
The purpose of "The Pleasures of Probability" is to introduce some of the most fundamental ideas in classical probability to a fairly general audience - reaching from mathematical amateurs to scientists, from students to professional mathematicians. The only prerequisites required are a decent background in elementary algebra and an interest in discussions of a variety of problems and applications in probability. The style is informal, and the chapters are more like essays on a particular topic than textbook treatments. Even well-known problems are often covered in more depth than usual in order to illustrate underlying ideas. The book can be used as a text for a first course in probability or as a companion to a text. Each chapter ends with a few problems, the answers to which are given at the end of the book.
Customer Reviews:
very good book - fun for amateurs.......2006-11-04
This is a wonderful book for both the serious and amateur mathematician. For the serious student and practitioner it will provide an excellent background. For the amateur who enjoy dabbling and reading about math, this is a wonderful book - just read the opening section which explains clearly and an illustrated fashion the Monty Hall problem.
delightful introduction to probability.......2000-10-31
Professor Isaac has written a book for those interested in learning about probability. It is at a high school algebra level although knowledge of calculus could be helpful at times. He starts with the now famous Monte Hall problem and provides the most lucid explanation I have seen to date. This is a great way to introduce important probability notions such as sample space and probability models for the sample outcomes. Deals mainly with discrete probability which is easiest to understand and yet rich with applications in gambling and other areas.
Important theory is presented but without the detailed mathematical proofs. Covers the gambler's ruin, geometric probability, Monte Carlo methods and some statistical decision theory. He also presents both the frequentist (throughout the text)and the Bayesian paradigms (Chapter 4) for statistical inference. Examples of the application of probability to statistical inference is nicely treated in Chapter 15. The deeper material on Markov chains and Brownian motion are relegated to the last two chapters (16 and 17). The exposition is excellent throughout and many good references are provided for readers who want to learn more or delve deeper into the theory.
Excellent introduction.......1999-08-28
This introduction to probability and statistics teaches you about important concepts, theorems and applications without going into proving most of them. It's easily accessible to amateur mathematicians with a bit of persistance, and it illuminates many of its concepts using famous problems. I'm going to take a statistics course next year, and I found this to be a delightful introduction to the topic.
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