Harvard University Press (harvard + university_press)

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Selected Abstracts


Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Origins of English Puritanism

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2007
Karl Gunther
Author's Introduction This essay makes the familiar observation that when one part of an historiography changes, so must other parts. Here the author observes that the phenomenon known as puritanism has dramatically changed meanings over the past quarter century, though the change has focused on the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. He asks that we consider the impact of that change on the earlier period, when puritanism in England had its origins. Focus Questions 1Why is the author unable to posit an answer to his question? 2If new study of the origins of puritanism were to reveal that it was not a mainstream Calvinist movement, but a radical critique of the Henrician and early Elizabethan church, how would that affect the new orthodoxy in Puritan studies? Author Recommends * A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation (Batsford, 1989). The starting place for all modern discussions of the English Reformation and the origins of both conservative and radical protestantism in England. Dicken's view is that the reformation was a mixture of German ideas, English attitudes, and royal leadership. * Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c.1400,1580 (Yale Univeristy Press, 2005). What was it that the Reformation reformed? In order to understand early English protestantism, one needs to see it within the context of Catholicism. Eamon Duffy rejects the narrative of the Catholic church told by Protestant reformers and demonstrates the ruthlessness of the reformation. * Ethan Shagen, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Shagan asks the question, how is a conservative population energized to undertake the overthrow of their customs and beliefs? He too is centrally concerned with the issue of how radical was the English Reformation. * Brad Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Harvard University Press, 1999). Nothing better expressed the radicalism of religious belief than the dual process of martyrdom, the willingness of the established religion to make martyrs of its enemies and of dissendents to be martyrs to their cause. Gregory explores this phenomenon across the confessional divide and comes to surprising conclusions about similarities and differences. Online Materials 1. Puritan Studies on the Web http://puritanism.online.fr A site of resources for studies of Puritanism, this contains a large number of primary sources and links to other source sites. The Link to the English Reformation is particularly useful. 2. The Royal Historical Society Bibliography http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/dataset.asp The bibliography of the Royal Historical Society contains a complete listing of articles and books on all aspects of British history. Subject searches for Puritanism or the English Reformation will yield hundreds of works to choose from. [source]


American Adversarialism Reviewing Robert A. Kagan's Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law

LAW & SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 2 2004
Herbert M. Kritzer
Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law. By Robert A. Kagan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. 339 pp. Hardcover $49.95. ISBN: 0-674-00621-6. [source]


On Fertile Ground: A Natural History of Human Reproduction

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2002
Nadine R. Peacock
On Fertile Ground:. Natural History of Human Reproduction. Peter T. Ellison. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. 358 pp. [source]


Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2001
Carol R. Ember
Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior. Christopher Boehm. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.292 pp. [source]


Personal Meaning, Self-Representation, and Agency in Some Recent Works

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 1 2001
Mark A. Cravalho
Inuit Morality Play: The Emotional Education of. Three-Year-Old. Jean L. Briggs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. 275 pp. The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture. Nancy J. Chodorow. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. 320 pp. Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds. Dorothy Holland. William Lachicotte Jr. Debra Skinner. and Carol Cain. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. 349 pp. [source]


Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Imagination

AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 2 2001
Eric Worby
Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Imagination. Carolyn Hamilton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. xii. 278 pp., map, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. [source]


African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory

AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 1 2001
Kathryn Coe
African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory. Gertrude Jacinta Fraser. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. ix. 287 pp., notes, references, index. [source]


Teaching & Learning Guide for: Moral Realism and Moral Nonnaturalism

PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2008
Stephen Finlay
Authors' Introduction Metaethics is a perennially popular subject, but one that can be challenging to study and teach. As it consists in an array of questions about ethics, it is really a mix of (at least) applied metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and mind. The seminal texts therefore arise out of, and often assume competence with, a variety of different literatures. It can be taught thematically, but this sample syllabus offers a dialectical approach, focused on metaphysical debate over moral realism, which spans the century of debate launched and framed by G. E. Moore's Principia Ethica. The territory and literature are, however, vast. So, this syllabus is highly selective. A thorough metaethics course might also include more topical examination of moral supervenience, moral motivation, moral epistemology, and the rational authority of morality. Authors Recommend: Alexander Miller, An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003). This is one of the few clear, accessible, and comprehensive surveys of the subject, written by someone sympathetic with moral naturalism. David Brink, Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). Brink rehabilitates naturalism about moral facts by employing a causal semantics and natural kinds model of moral thought and discourse. Michael Smith, The Moral Problem (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994). Smith's book frames the debate as driven by a tension between the objectivity of morality and its practical role, offering a solution in terms of a response-dependent account of practical rationality. Gilbert Harman and Judith Jarvis Thomson, Moral Relativism & Moral Objectivity (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996). Harman argues against the objectivity of moral value, while Thomson defends it. Each then responds to the other. Frank Jackson, From Metaphysics to Ethics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). Jackson argues that reductive conceptual analysis is possible in ethics, offering a unique naturalistic account of moral properties and facts. Mark Timmons, Morality without Foundations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). Timmons distinguishes moral cognitivism from moral realism, interpreting moral judgments as beliefs that have cognitive content but do not describe moral reality. He also provides a particularly illuminating discussion of nonanalytic naturalism. Philippa Foot, Natural Goodness (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001). A Neo-Aristotelian perspective: moral facts are natural facts about the proper functioning of human beings. Russ Shafer-Landau, Moral Realism: A Defence (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003). In this recent defense of a Moorean, nonnaturalist position, Shafer-Landau engages rival positions in a remarkably thorough manner. Terence Cuneo, The Normative Web (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007). Cuneo argues for a robust version of moral realism, developing a parity argument based on the similarities between epistemic and moral facts. Mark Schroeder, Slaves of the Passions (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007). Schroeder defends a reductive form of naturalism in the tradition of Hume, identifying moral and normative facts with natural facts about agents' desires. Online Materials: PEA Soup: http://peasoup.typepad.com A blog devoted to philosophy, ethics, and academia. Its contributors include many active and prominent metaethicists, who regularly post about the moral realism and naturalism debates. Metaethics Bibliography: http://www.lenmanethicsbibliography.group.shef.ac.uk/Bib.htm Maintained by James Lenman, professor of philosophy at the University of Sheffield, this online resource provides a selective list of published research in metaethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu See especially the entries under ,metaethics'. Sample Syllabus: Topics for Lecture & Discussion Note: unless indicated otherwise, all the readings are found in R. Shafer-Landau and T. Cuneo, eds., Foundations of Ethics: An Anthology (Malden: Blackwell, 2007). (FE) Week 1: Realism I (Classic Nonnaturalism) G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica, 2nd ed. (FE ch. 35). W. K. Frankena, ,The Naturalistic Fallacy,'Mind 48 (1939): 464,77. S. Finlay, ,Four Faces of Moral Realism', Philosophy Compass 2/6 (2007): 820,49 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2007.00100.x]. Week 2: Antirealism I (Classic Expressivism) A. J. Ayer, ,Critique of Ethics and Theology' (1952) (FE ch. 3). C. Stevenson, ,The Nature of Ethical Disagreement' (1963) (FE ch. 28). Week 3: Antirealism II (Error Theory) J. L. Mackie, ,The Subjectivity of Values' (1977) (FE ch. 1). R. Joyce, Excerpt from The Myth of Morality (2001) (FE ch. 2). Week 4: Realism II (Nonanalytic Naturalism) R. Boyd, ,How to be a Moral Realist' (1988) (FE ch. 13). P. Railton, ,Moral Realism' (1986) (FE ch. 14). T. Horgan and M. Timmons, ,New Wave Moral Realism Meets Moral Twin Earth' (1991) (FE ch. 38). Week 5: Antirealism III (Contemporary Expressivism) A. Gibbard, ,The Reasons of a Living Being' (2002) (FE ch. 6). S. Blackburn, ,How To Be an Ethical Anti-Realist' (1993) (FE ch. 4). T. Horgan and M. Timmons, ,Nondescriptivist Cognitivism' (2000) (FE ch. 5). W. Sinnott-Armstrong, ,Expressivism and Embedding' (2000) (FE ch. 37). Week 6: Realism III (Sensibility Theory) J. McDowell, ,Values and Secondary Qualities' (1985) (FE ch. 11). D. Wiggins, ,A Sensible Subjectivism' (1991) (FE ch. 12). Week 7: Realism IV (Subjectivism) & Antirealism IV (Constructivism) R. Firth, ,Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer' (1952) (FE ch. 9). G. Harman, ,Moral Relativism Defended' (1975) (FE ch. 7). C. Korsgaard, ,The Authority of Reflection' (1996) (FE ch. 8). Week 8: Realism V (Contemporary Nonnaturalism) R. Shafer-Landau, ,Ethics as Philosophy' (2006) (FE ch. 16). T. M. Scanlon, What We Owe to Each Other (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), ch. 1. T, Cuneo, ,Recent Faces of Moral Nonnaturalism', Philosophy Compass 2/6 (2007): 850,79 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2007.00102.x]. [source]


Estimation and evidence in forensic anthropology: Sex and race

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Lyle W. Konigsberg
Abstract Forensic anthropology typically uses osteological and/or dental data either to estimate characteristics of unidentified individuals or to serve as evidence in cases where there is a putative identification. In the estimation context, the problem is to describe aspects of an individual that may lead to their eventual identification, whereas in the evidentiary context, the problem is to provide the relative support for the identification. In either context, individual characteristics such as sex and race may be useful. Using a previously published forensic case (Steadman et al. (2006) Am J Phys Anthropol 131:15,26) and a large (N = 3,167) reference sample, we show that the sex of the individual can be reliably estimated using a small set of 11 craniometric variables. The likelihood ratio from sex (assuming a 1:1 sex ratio for the "population at large") is, however, relatively uninformative in "making" the identification. Similarly, the known "race" of the individual is relatively uninformative in "making" the identification, because the individual was recovered from an area where the 2000 US census provides a very homogenous picture of (self-identified) race. Of interest in this analysis is the fact that the individual, who was recovered from Eastern Iowa, classifies very clearly with [Howells 1973. Cranial Variation in Man: A Study by Multivariate Analysis of Patterns of Difference Among Recent Human Populations. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; 1989. Skull Shape and the Map: Craniometric Analyses in the Dispersion of Modern Homo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press]. Easter Islander sample in an analysis with uninformative priors. When the Iowa 2000 Census data on self-reported race are used for informative priors, the individual is clearly identified as "American White." This analysis shows the extreme importance of an informative prior in any forensic application. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


The primate predicament: long-term parental investment Review of Parenting for Primates edited by Harriet J. Smith, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2005, 436 pp., 22 illustrations, $29.95.

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
Toni E. Ziegler
No abstract is available for this article. [source]