Anthropology Books - Page 17

Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

Nathaniel Philbrick

List Price: $14.95 By: Large Print Press Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 19th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Government Science! Read Carefully, Congress! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

A little crankish determination, a little sordid bickering, a heroic cruise on a sailing ship to the ends of the Earth, betrayal and exoneration - all elements of a great adventure book, written with verve and yet with careful scholarship. I'm amazed that so many other reviewers have given this eminently readable book only four stars. The publisher's marketing director made some terrible mistakes.

The saga of Captain Wilkes - his triumphs, his shortcomings, his political court-martial - form the narrative backbone of this book, but there's more to it. There's a lot of fascinating history of the paradigmatic changes in science and technology that occurred during the first half of the 19th Century, the era that Paul Johnson describes as The Birth of the Modern. There's also an insightful depiction of American politics in that period, focusing for a change not on the issues that led to the Civil War but on the still-urgent question of the role of the federal government in funding infrastructure and development, in this case of scientific knowledge.

The US Exploring Expedition was the federal government's largest investment of public money in scientific research before the space program, in adjusted dollars more expensive than the geological surveys after the Civil War - those of Clarence King and John Wesley Powell, which committed those fellows in Washington to subsidizing the "opening of the West" - and it was, though plagued with problems and disappointing to some of its advocates, a monumental success, an enormous contribution to the world's knowledge of itself. Without federal funding, it would never have occurred. That's the subtext to all the glory of exploration, isn't it? Without Isabela, no Columbus! The closest comparison to the US Exploring Expedition is the US Space Program, so fearfully politicized and handicapped by Republican administrations and congresses. Foresightful and generous support of the sciences is one of the justifying functions of government - democratic, oligarchic, monarchical - and since science, even as early as 1838, has become big and expensive, government can be of greatest value to humanity on a proportionate scale. The difficulty that its promoters had in getting the EE funded tells much about the inadequacy of capitalism, also; the "business" interests who insisted on immediate profitable returns from the scientific expedition came close to destroying the whole project.

Editorial Review:

A New York Times Bestseller
A National Book Award-winning Author

America's greatest frontier was not the West; it was the sea. In 1838, an enormous expedition set out for the Pacific Ocean with six ships and hundreds of sailors. Using diaries kept on board, historian Philbrick uncovers the dark saga that the official reports never told.

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes

Jacques Ellul

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $6.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Orwell's 1984 = fiction; Ellul's Propaganda = prophecy 5 out of 5 stars.
41 of 43 people found this review helpful.

Jacques Ellul is meticulous and thoughtful, so this book is occasionally dense and hard to follow. In addition, most of the examples and allusions will strike modern Americans as dated and obscure. Nonetheless, Ellul saw long ago where moderns were headed. He saw that authoritarian use of modern technologies would mesmerize, stultify, and reduce humans to thralls, just as Orwell and Huxley, in far more hysterical prose, had dramatized.

Orwell's electronic miracles monitored citizens directly or indirectly. Huxley's miracles were far more therapeutic or medical. But routine surveillance or treatment is inefficient and overwhelms any state that would depend on omniscience or envelopment. Ellul foresaw tools both electronic and human that would so condition subject-audiences that close monitoring and careful prescriptions would be unneeded.

Ellul also argued that this "Brave, New World" could not but subvert democracy and decency. Once the will of the citizen is not his or her own, then democracy in any meaningful sense is at least devalued and perhaps transformed into reassuring internment.

Perhaps Ellul's most important insight was that the educated believed themselves immune to propaganda when, due to their proclivity for reading and watching news and other governmental outflow, such "intellectuals" were actually far more vulnerable than masses who did not receive propaganda as often.

So turn off the set and log off the internet and settle in with a truly life-changing read.

Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?

John Powell

By: Harpercollins/STL Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $6.35

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Sociobiology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Admitted sexual child abuse 1 out of 5 stars.
12 of 24 people found this review helpful.

A settlement has been reached in connection this Roman Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse. At least six adults claimed father John Powell abused them in the late 60's and 70's. No criminal charges were filed against Powell but the priest has admitted to the abuse.

One of the best I've read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

John Powell writes in such a way that he is easy to understand. What he writes makes sense. He uses examples and research to back up his points. I would suggest this to wanting to become more self aware.

Best Self-Help Bood 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I first read this book in 1972. It answered so many questions regarding my feelings, interations with others, and my view of life in general. I recently purchased another copy and the message holds true today as it did over 35 years ago. This is a timeless book.

A rare treasure 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It is rare that I will seek out a book that I have owned and read after more than 30 years. I, however, lost my original copy and wanted to keep my "John Powell" collection in tact...that and it is a book that I think should be required reading for all 1st year counseling or social work students. It is truly a gift and a worthwhile read for anyone seeking a more mature & rewarding life.

Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood

Taras Grescoe

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 7 to 13 days By: Harpercollins Canada Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $12.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Cultural
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An eye-opening look at aquaculture that does for seafood what Fast Food Nation did for beef.

Dividing his sensibilities between Epicureanism and ethics, Taras Grescoe set out on a nine-month, worldwide search for a delicious—and humane—plate of seafood. What he discovered shocked him. From North American Red Lobsters to fish farms and research centers in China, Bottomfeeder takes readers on an illuminating tour through the $55-billion-dollar-a-year seafood industry. Grescoe examines how out-of-control pollution, unregulated fishing practices, and climate change affect what ends up on our plate. More than a screed against a multibillion-dollar industry, however, this is also a balanced and practical guide to eating, as Grescoe explains to readers which fish are best for our environment, our seas, and our bodies.

At once entertaining and illuminating, Bottomfeeder is a thoroughly enjoyable look at the world’s cuisines and an examination of the fishing and farming practices we too easily take for granted.

Sexual Secrets: The Alchemy of Ecstasy

Nik Douglas, Penny Slinger

List Price: $29.95 By: Inner Traditions Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $22.96

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Sex -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Sex -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Poor Title, Awesome Book 5 out of 5 stars.
28 of 28 people found this review helpful.

I often laugh at all those articles in men's and women's fad magazines that promise to reveal new "sexual secrets". You know which ones I mean . . . "Become an Animal in Bed"; "9 Ways to Turn Him On"; "Keep Her Motor Humming"; "Sex Secrets Your Neighbors Won't Tell You"; "11 Erotic Uses for a Chicken Baster" . . . stuff like that. The list goes on and on, ad nauseum. Geared towards couples who have their obligatory sex two times a week for 30 minutes and need new, neat little sound-bite ideas to keep things from getting boring. All heavy on fancy shtick and paint-by-number techniques, light on any real depth or substance.

And so . . . I write this review to promise readers that, despite the poor choice of main title, this exceptional tome is not like that at all. "Secrets" here refers to holistic, ancient wisdom that celebrates the beauty and power of the sexual energy within all of us; sexual energy that permeates all of life. Thus the subtitle, "The Alchemy of Ecstacy", more accurately hits upon the truth. The word 'tantra' means 'interwoven'. The two authors have compiled a veritable bible of ancient tantric wisdom illuminating the interconnectedness of all things - an interconnectedness that has its most wonderful, powerful, and delicious expression in the sexual union between two people.

Think of this book as an encyclopedia of sacred sexuality, albeit one not in alphabetical order . . . and not sold by traveling, door-to-door salesmen, thank goodness. It is a guide to everyday living, but not from a dogmatic perspective. It is a grand expose of everything sexual. The authors provide explanations of yoga poses, stretching techniques, and breathing exercises (for instance, to summon that kundalini energy up the spine). They even have small sections devoted to food, water, clothing, massage, worship, and service to others. But it also probes (pardon the pun) the depths of the stories of Brahma the Creative, Shiva and Shakti, and Vishnu the Preserver. And of course, there are plenty of sexual positions and sensual poetry. With pictures! We like pictures!

The whole point is that, despite what organized religion would like us to think, we are sexual creatures and we should be celebrating that fact every day through our everyday activities. All of these things (eating, yoga, service, etc) ARE manifestations of our sexual energy - giving to and connecting with Life and with others. Cultivating that sexual energy (indeed, our very life-force energy and the energy that creates Universes . . . if you will allow my melodramatic flourish) is a constant, all-day thing. But not with the sole purpose of "getting some" or even "being a better lover". Instead, to connect with Source through sexual union and remember our Oneness. As the authors say in the Introduction, "It is for those who wish to use the sexual bond as a means to liberation and who desire to transcend the limits of the individual self."

This book helped start me down the path of tantra and sacred sexuality a few years ago. May I humbly recommend it to others who seek the same.

Editorial Review:

* Features more than 600 original illustrations created by artist Penny Slinger.

* 500,000 copies in print.

* The undisputed classic in its field, it has been translated into * eleven languages since it was first published fourteen years ago.

This is the #1 bestselling title on the sexual mysteries of the East. Sexual Secrets was the first book to explore the Eastern path of love and mysticism, bringing together more than a thousand years of practical techniques for enhancing sexual awareness and achieving transcendental unity.

Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol

Iain Gately

Amazon Price: $19.80 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Gotham Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $8.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Drinks & Beverages -> Spirits
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Drinks & Beverages -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Drinks & Beverages -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A spirited look at the history of alcohol from the dawn of civilization to the twenty first century

For better or worse, alcohol has helped shape our civilization. Throughout history, it has been consumed not just to quench our thirsts or nourish our bodies but also for cultural reasons. It has been associated since antiquity with celebration, creativity, friendship, and danger, for every drinking culture has acknowledged it possesses a dark side.

In Drink, Iain Gately traces the course of humanity’s 10,000 year old love affair with the substance which has been dubbed “the cause of—and solution to—all of life’s problems.” Along the way he scrutinises the drinking habits of presidents, prophets, and barbarian hordes, and features drinkers as diverse as Homer, Hemmingway, Shakespeare, Al Capone, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Covering matters as varied as bacchanals in Imperial Rome, the gin craze in 17th century London, the rise and fall of the temperance movement, and drunk driving, Drink details the benefits and burdens alcohol has conveyed to the societies in which it is consumed. Gately’s lively and provocative style brings to life the controversies, past and present, that have raged over alcohol, and uses the authentic voices of drinkers and their detractors to explode myths and reveal truths about this most equivocal of fluids.

Drink further documents the contribution of alcohol to the birth and growth of the United States, taking in the war of Independence, the Pennsylvania Whiskey revolt, the slave trade, and the failed experiment of National Prohibition. Finally, it provides a history of the world’s best loved drinks. Enthusiasts of craft brews and fine wines will discover the origins of their favorite tipples, and what they have in common with Greek philosophers and medieval princes every time they raise a glass.

A rollicking tour through humanity’s love affair with alcohol, Drink is an intoxicating history of civilization

Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date

John Major Jenkins, Terence McKenna

Amazon Price: $13.60 List Price: $20.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bear & Company Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $11.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Ancient -> Mayan
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Physical
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Sociobiology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This work of Jenkins was all and more than I thought it would be. I share his path to where we are going in 2012. I would purchase any work of Jenkins as I know I would not be disappointed.

The 'Zero Time' Is Upon Us 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Overall this book is pretty solid I think as far as the research.

The main point is that we are very close to the end of what people call "The Platonic Year". This is a 25,800 year period of time during which our solar system travels through the 12 signs of the zodiac.

On 12/21/12 a strange astronomical alignment will occur where our solar system will get lined up with the super massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The "black sun". I think I read somewhere else that an energy beam is emanating from the black sun and this beam will strike the earth on that date.

The author doesn't really say exactly what's supposed to happen on that date. Perhaps the change that occurs will be within all of us I don't know.

Another re-occuring point is the Mayan shamans' use of mind altering substances such as certain mushrooms. To avoid the upset stomach that these concoctions could cause they would sometimes inject the mixture directly into their intestines.

In appendix 6 he critiques some other books on this subject and compares them to his own research. He disagrees with others that the ancient Egyptians were more advanced that the Mayans. My own take is both cultures have a common source (Atlantis). The pyramid of Kukulcan compares very well to the other pyramids around the world. However the pyramids at Giza, especially when they were in their original condition, stand alone.

Nobody really knows how these pyramids were built by the way, much as traditional Egyptologists like to make us think they know.

He is correct that people in our modern world today may in some cases tend to underestimate the knowledge that these ancient cultures possessed.

Many people today have a feeling that something strange is going to happen soon. I do anyway. Perhaps a lot of people like to read those 'left behind' books because that's a Christian response to this feeling.

There are some truly tragic desecrations and destructions of culture and knowledge that stand out in human history. Here's my short list:

1) the Muslims destroying the surfaces of the pyramids at Giza in Egypt so they could use the limestone for their palaces for Mohammed

2) the burning of the library at Alexandria by the Christians

3) the Spanish burning all of the Mayan's ancient codex booklets and melting down all of the Aztec's priceless gold artifacts

So we see that no single religion or country had any monopoly on destroying knowledge and history.

Jeff Marzano

The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future

The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt

The Giza Death Star

Edgar Cayce's Egypt: Psychic Revelations on the Most Fascinating Civilization Ever Known

Edgar Cayce's Atlantis and Lemuria: The Lost Civilizations in the Light of Modern Discoveries

Lemuria & Atlantis: Studying the Past to Survive the Future

The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology

Initiation

Initiation in the Great Pyramid (Astara's Library of Mystical Classics)

Editorial Review:

While researching the 2012 end-date of the Maya Calendar, John Major Jenkins decoded the Maya's galactic cosmology. The Maya discovered that the periodic alignment of the Sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy is the formative influence on human evolution. These alignments also define a series of World Ages. The fourth age ends on December 21, 2012, when an epoch chapter in human history will come to an end. Maya Cosmogenisis 2012 reveals the Maya's insight into the cyclic nature of time, and prepares us for oue own cosmogenesis--the birth of a new world.

20-Something, 20-Everything: A Quarter-life Woman's Guide to Balance and Direction

Christine Hassler

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New World Library Amazon Marketplace: 74 new & used starting at $2.22

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Gender
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Social Psychology & Interactions
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Are you wrestling with a sense that you haven¹t done enough? Or you¹ve done it all and don¹t know what¹s next? If you¹ve ever wondered why you aren¹t enjoying the best years of your life, and why you¹re still mired in confusion about the choices you¹ve made or need to make, this book is for you.

Faced with a career she worked hard to achieve but didn¹t like and the disintegration of her relationship, author Christine Hassler started talking to other twenty-something women and discovered a pattern. Many women in their twenties (and thirties) feel unsettled and struggle to reassess their positions on what Christine calls the twenties triangle: Who am I? What do I want? How do I get it?

Throughout the book these questions become opportunities to identify and explore dreams and values. Rather than feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, readers can turn questions into maps that lead toward creating a career, a relationship and a life that fits just like a favorite pair of jeans.

Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs

Joan Sinclair

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $10.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Erotic Photography
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Travel -> Far East
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This Isn't a Book for Prudes or Feminists 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

"All I ask is that viewers not assume that the profession is inherently degrading. It's more complicated than that. These women are not powerless, they are not on drugs. They have made conscious choices: they have their own dignity. The clubs are a reflection of modern Japan, a literate society, where the rules are written out, prices are not negotiable, and fantasies are predetermined, prescripted, and prepaid." Those are the words of Joan Sinclair, the young female photojournalist of this amazing book. In addition to startling pictures of a startling world unimagined to most of the western world the reader is provided some valuable historical information about what they are seeing. One of my favorite pictures is a close up a man's smiling face with a woman in the background laughing at his silly antics for the camera while she enjoys a cigarette. The customer quote from the 65 year-old Mr. Taniguchi is "I think men are universally perverted; it's just that in Japan, we do something about it." According to economists, in 2001, "the commercial sexual services sector in Japan accounted for nearly $20 billion." "Pink" or "pinku" translates as "Sexual: Commercial Sex." Most of these pictures were made in 2004.
It's amazing that this book was ever made. In the United States the people involved would probably never have allowed the foreign photographer in the front door, much less let her take any photographs. What is very obvious from the pictures is that the people involved in this fantasy land of sex are having a good time and even enjoying being photographed for publication. Their profession simply doesn't have the negative stigma attached to it, as is the case in the western world. Japan never experienced an extended period of time when various forms of sex was considered taboo or wrong. It was just a natural bodily function that was intended to be enjoyed by both partners. It was considered an important element of good health and long life. Guilt over sex wasn't a part of Japanese culture. Here you have both the hosts and hostesses as well as their customers cutting up for the camera lady. It was obviously a lark for them. They obviously weren't worried about being recognized by their family members and being ostracized from society because of their behavior.
This book provides an incredible look at an unknown to the western world phenomena. It shows high school girls selling their used high school uniforms and underwear to a "Used Underwear Shop." It shows a television auction for a woman's panties (they sold for 26,000 Yen) and she included a freshly plucked pubic hair as a bonus. There is a smiling portrait of a beautiful young woman holding up the 53,000 Yen she had just received for her used, soiled underwear. Sociologist James Farrer provides a very helpful introduction to this alien universe. The various clubs and lounges photographed and discussed include Hostess Clubs, Host Clubs, Nude Theaters, Touch Pubs and Pink Salons, Soaplands, Peeping Rooms, Fashion Health, Hotel Health, Cosplay (costume play), Image Clubs, (with fantasy rooms such as "Pervert Trains" full-sized scale models of subway cars for groping other passengers, Happening Bars and Couple Cafes, and a whole universe of fantasy, S&M, Kinky stuff that I can't begin to mention in this review. Some of my favorite pictures were of women dressed in their favorite Anime Character costumes. Other interesting and almost unbelievably surreal pictures were from the Club Mammoth, Tokyo's club for those usually skinny guys who like really big, big (obese) Sumo sized women. There were also clubs where customers can paint nude bodies with traditional calligraphy brush and ink, Karaoke with some unusual twists, sushi or sashimi meals served on a nude woman. This 192-page photographic coffee table book is beautifully done and manages to tastefully skirt actual pornographic pictures (not an easy task). Some of the text in the book's picture captions is so small it's difficult to read without a magnifying glass, but most of the text is actually oversized. I suspect the weird combination of type sizes and fonts had to do with the fact the book is probably translated into several different languages? Whatever, this book will provide readers and viewers with a voyeur's eye view of the underside of Japan. Just as with Brassai's coverage of the underbelly of Paris in the 1930's, this tome is not for prudes or puritans because western ideas of sexuality standards and culture don't apply. This world is an adult amusement theme park. The mostly young people pictured in the book are obviously proud of their profession and the money it makes them. They may even feel that they are on a par with rock stars and super models? The book is full of cartoon-like settings and cartoon like characters. One has to view it with an open mind and not try to psychoanalyze it to death. The obvious question of what happens to these young hosts and hostesses when they begin to show their age isn't answered or even discussed. This is a talented photojournalist's coverage of what is there and the reader/viewer will feel like they have actually been there looking over the shoulder of the thirty-year old American lawyer/photographer. That fact is not important to the book's pictures, but it does give you additional insight into the mind of the photographer. There is a lot of both intentional and unintentional humor displayed by the various photographic subjects. This volume is a peek at a surreal world that could probably only exist in Japan. It's probably already reached the status of the traditional Japan Shunga (Floating World) Pillow Books of the Edo Era. The two types of book are obviously related.
As one views this book they may feel an urge to pinch themselves to be certain they aren't dreaming and what they are viewing is real, not fiction. It is fantasy, but it is also very real.

Editorial Review:

In Pink Box, photographer Joan Sinclair takes us on a journey inside the secret world of fuzoku (commercial sex) in Japan, a world where kawaii (cute) collides with consumerism and sex.

Unrivaled in their creativity and the sheer number of choices, the clubs featured in this book offer their clientele every fantasy imaginable. Subway groping, visits to the nurse’s office, and comic book character encounters are just the beginning of the immense list of possibilities that are played out in colorful playrooms for adults where no detail is overlooked. Sinclair’s photographs capture it all, while an introduction by sociologist James Farrer provides a brief history of commercial sex in Japan and places the images in the context of contemporary Japanese culture.

The Scalpel and the Silver Bear

Lori Alvord, Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt

List Price: $23.95 By: Bantam Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $2.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Medical
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In a remarkable book that takes the reader on a spellbinding journey between two worlds, surgeon Lori Arviso Alvord describes her struggles to bring modern medicine to the Navajo reservation in Gallup, New Mexico—and to bring the values of her people to a medical care system in danger of losing its heart.

Finding the solutions to modern medicine's most daunting problems was far from the mind of a girl from a small, dusty town on a Navajo reservation. But Lori Arviso Alvord would leave the traditional hogans of her people to attend the prestigious Stanford University Medical School and become the first Navajo woman surgeon. Only after conquering the high-tech realm of the operating room would this extraordinarily talented doctor realize something was missing from contemporary medical care—an understanding of the whole person who has come seeking healing.

The Scalpel and the Silver Bear tells of Dr. Alvord's pioneering journey to become a woman surgeon, fighting the odds presented by her own culture and the unspoken rules that made surgery the territory of a privileged class of males. Then, having accomplished her dreams, the strong-willed young woman would find herself faced with a different challenge: learning another approach to medicine amid the Hataali, the medicine men of the Diné, the people we call Navajo.

Here in this moving, enlightening, and provocative volume, Dr. Alvord teaches us how she merged the latest breakthroughs of science and methodology with the ancient tribal paths to recovery and wellness. In dramatic encounters while practicing reservation medicine—a man whose intestine was pierced by a porcupine quill, which he insisted was placed there by an enemy's curse; a woman who had been struck by lightning and blamed her cancer on it; an all-night winter sing for a gravely ill young woman, attended by the whole community—Dr. Alvord witnessed the power of belief to influence health, for good or for ill. She discovered that patients undergoing chemotherapy did better after having a native healer at bedside, and that the feelings of both the patient and the surgeon could affect recovery time, postsurgical complications, and even whether the patient lived or died.

The secret, Lori Alvord discovered, lay in the Navajo philosophy of a balanced and harmonious life, called "Walking in Beauty." Her sharing of these ancient principles promises to have an immeasurable impact on today's doctors and patients by expanding the concept of mind-body healing to include the interconnectedness of all life. Personal, simply written, yet profoundly wise, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear joins those few rare works, such as Healing and the Mind, whose ideas have changed medical practices and our understanding of the world.