At the heart of Africa is Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal and... unstaunchable war in which millions have died. And yet, despite its epic proportions, it has received little sustained media attention. In this deeply reported book, Jason Stearns vividly tells the story of this misunderstood conflict through the experiences of those who engineered and perpetrated it. He depicts village pastors who survived massacres, the child soldier assassin of President Kabila, a female Hutu activist who relives the hunting and methodical extermination of fellow refugees, and key architects of the war that became as great a disaster as--and was a direct consequence of--the genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Through their stories, he tries to understand why such mass violence made sense, and why stability has been so elusive. Through their voices, and an astonishing wealth of knowledge and research, Stearns chronicles the political, social, and moral decay of the Congolese State.

“The best account [of the conflict in the Congo] so far….The task facing anyone who tries to tell this whole story is formidable, but Stearns by and... large rises to it.” —Adam Hochschild, New York Times Book Review “[A] tour de force, though not for the squeamish.” —Washington Post “This is a serious book about the social and political forces behind one of the most violent clashes of modern times—as well as a damn good read.” —Economist “[P]erhaps the best account of the most recent conflict in the Congo.” —Foreign Policy “A serious, admirably balanced account of the crisis and the political and social forces behind it… perhaps the most accessible, meticulously researched, and comprehensive overview of the Congo crisis yet.” —Financial Times

Detroit in the 1960s was a city with a pulse: people were marching in step with Martin Luther King, Jr., dancing in the street with Martha and the... Vandellas, and facing off with city police. Through it all, Motown provided the beat. This book tells the story of Motown--as both musical style and entrepreneurial phenomenon--and of its intrinsic relationship to the politics and culture of Motor Town, USA. As Suzanne Smith traces the evolution of Motown from a small record company firmly rooted in Detroit's black community to an international music industry giant, she gives us a clear look at cultural politics at the grassroots level. Here we see Motown's music not as the mere soundtrack for its historical moment but as an active agent in the politics of the time. In this story, Motown Records had a distinct role to play in the city's black community as that community articulated and promoted its own social, cultural, and political agendas. Smith shows how these local agendas, which reflected the unique concerns of African Americans living in the urban North, both responded to and reconfigured the national civil rights campaign. Against a background of events on the national scene--featuring Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Nat King Cole, and Malcolm X--Dancing in the Street presents a vivid picture of the civil rights movement in Detroit, with Motown at its heart. This is a lively and vital history. It's peopled with a host of major and minor figures in black politics, culture, and the arts, and full of the passions of a momentous era. It offers a critical new perspective on the role of popular culture in the process of political change.

"Fascinating . . . An admirably lucid, level-headed history of outbreaks of joy from Dionysus to the Grateful Dead."--Terry Eagleton, The Nation Widely... praised as "impressive" (The Washington Post Book World), "ambitious" (The Wall Street Journal), and "alluring" (The Los Angeles Times), Dancing in the Streets explores a human impulse that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for it: the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing. Drawing on a wealth of history and anthropology, Barbara Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. From the earliest orgiastic Mesopotamian rites to the medieval practice of Christianity as a "danced religion" and the transgressive freedoms of carnival, she demonstrates that mass festivities have long been central to the Western tradition. In recent centuries, this festive tradition has been repressed, cruelly and often bloodily. But as Ehrenreich argues in this original, exhilarating, and ultimately optimistic book, the celebratory impulse is too deeply ingrained in human nature ever to be completely extinguished.

The more than 70 dance activities included in this handbook give educators the tools to use dance in their classrooms, gyms, and playgrounds. Combining... theory with practice, this introduction to dance history and terminology provides a foundation for the lesson plans tailored for physical education, kinesthetic learning, and arts education contexts. Although complete on their own, each lesson plan can be customized to fit into any curriculum. Appendices on equipment and dance-education networking resources are included, along with a specialized index categorized into age-appropriate dance activities, sample lesson plans, and group dances.

Rake, drunkard, aesthete, gossip, raconteur extraordinaire: the narrator of Bohumil Hrabal’s rambling, rambunctious masterpiece Dancing Lessons for... the Advanced in Age is all these and more. Speaking to a group of sunbathing women who remind him of lovers past, this elderly roué tells the story of his life—or at least unburdens himself of a lifetime’s worth of stories. Thus we learn of amatory conquests (and humiliations), of scandals both private and public, of military adventures and domestic feuds, of what things were like “in the days of the monarchy” and how they’ve changed since. As the book tumbles restlessly forward, and the comic tone takes on darker shadings, we realize we are listening to a man talking as much out of desperation as from exuberance. Hrabal, one of the great Czech writers of the twentieth century, as well as an inveterate haunter of Prague’s pubs and football stadiums, developed a unique method which he termed “palavering,” whereby characters gab and soliloquize with abandon. Part drunken boast, part soul-rending confession, part metaphysical poem on the nature of love and time, this astonishing novel (which unfolds in a single monumental sentence) shows why he has earned the admiration of such writers as Milan Kundera, John Banville, and Louise Erdrich.

Many promote Reconciliation as a new way for Canada to relate to Indigenous Peoples. In Dancing on Our Turtle s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation,... Resurgence, and a New Emergence activist, editor, and educator Leanne Simpson asserts reconciliation must be grounded in political resurgence and must support the regeneration of Indigenous languages, oral cultures, and traditions of governance. Simpson explores philosophies and pathways of regeneration, resurgence, and a new emergence through the Nishnaabeg language, Creation Stories, walks with Elders and children, celebrations and protests, and meditations on these experiences. She stresses the importance of illuminating Indigenous intellectual traditions to transform their relationship to the Canadian state. Challenging and original, Dancing on Our Turtle s Back provides a valuable new perspective on the struggles of Indigenous Peoples.

For the Tumbuka people of Malawi, traditional medical practices are saturated with music. In this groundbreaking ethnography, Steven M. Friedson... explores a health care system populated by dancing prophets, singing patients, and drummed spirits.Tumbuka healers diagnose diseases by enacting divination trances in which they "see" the causes of past events and their consequences for patients. Music is the structural nexus where healer, patient, and spirit meet—it is the energizing heat that fuels the trance, transforming both the bodily and social functioning of the individual. Friedson shows how the sound of the ng'oma drum, the clapping of the choir, call-and-response singing, and the jangle of tin belts and iron anklets do not simply accompany other more important ritual activities—they are the very substance of a sacred clinical reality.This novel look at the relation between music and mental and biological health will interest medical anthropologists, Africanists, and religious scholars as well as ethnomusicologists.

1995 Margaret Mead Award winner! This personal account by a biocultural anthropologist illuminates important, not-soon-forgotten messages involving the... more sobering aspects of conducting fieldwork among malnourished children in West Africa. With nutritional anthropology at its core, Dancing Skeletons presents informal, engaging and oftentimes dramatic stories from the field that relate the author’s experiences conducting research on infant feeding and health in Mali. Through fascinating vignettes and honest, vivid descriptions, Dettwyler explores such diverse topics as ethnocentrism, culture shock, population control, breastfeeding, child care, the meaning of disability and child death in different cultures, female circumcision, women’s roles in patrilineal societies, the dangers of fieldwork, and the realities involved in researching emotionally draining topics. Readers will alternately laugh and cry as they meet the author’s friends and informants, follow her through a series of encounters with both peri-urban and rural Bambara culture, and struggle with her as she attempts to reconcile her very different roles as objective ethnographer, subjective friend, and mother in the field. (Not-for-sale instructor resource material available to college and university faculty only; contact the publisher directly.)

An encyclopedia of information in an entertaining package, DANCING has been the leading practical reference on the subject since its first edition in... 1982. The thought-provoking text embraces virtually every aspect, including: Finding the best teachers; Making your body and age work for you; Developing an individual style (what makes you unique and interesting); Dancing as a career, for fun and fitness, for children, for men; Choosing a dance form: quick tours of ballet, modern, jazz, and tap; Getting the most from classes, assessing your progress; Evaluating college dance programs; Preventing and treating injuries; Launching a career, coming to New York; Proper nutrition and gear. THERE'S MUCH MORE. backstage interviews with professionals, a comprehensive directory of national dance resources, 180 photos that illuminate and inspire. BE YOUR BEST. Deep inside this book's generous 352 pages is something even more valuable: an array of tools for discovering your unique gifts and the rich rewards of doing the best with what you've got. DANCING is a solid guide for serious dancers and an exuberant invitation for those beguiled yet intimidated by the idea of dancing. WELCOME SKATERS, GYMNASTS, FITNESS AND BALLROOM DANCERS. As artistic expression and polished form become increasingly important elements for these athletes, we find a growing readership among them. USES: REFERENCE home, school, library; adopted as introductory TEXTBOOK by numerous college dance and theater depts.

Comprehensive, thought-provoking, and beautiful to look at, Dancing illuminates the many roles of dance in selected cultures around the world. Using new... research from the fields of dance history and anthropology, as well as interviews and his own travels throughout the dance world, Gerald Jonas weaves together descriptions of dance traditions from six continents.Here are clear explanations of the history and aesthetics of Western ballet, kabuki and bugaku in Japan, the court dances of Ghana's Asante people, kathakali and bharata natyam in India, as well as a history of 20th-century dance crazes, the development of modern dance, and an explanation of the cultural forces fusing African and Western dance traditions that resulted in the social dances familiar to most Americans today.

Comprehensive, thought-provoking, and beautiful to look at, Dancing illuminates the many roles of dance in selected cultures around the world. Using new... research from the fields of dance history and anthropology, as well as interviews and his own travels throughout the dance world, Gerald Jonas weaves together descriptions of dance traditions from six continents.Here are clear explanations of the history and aesthetics of Western ballet, kabuki and bugaku in Japan, the court dances of Ghana's Asante people, kathakali and bharata natyam in India, as well as a history of 20th-century dance crazes, the development of modern dance, and an explanation of the cultural forces fusing African and Western dance traditions that resulted in the social dances familiar to most Americans today.

Setting dance within a cultural context that is both understandable and interesting, this insightful reference captures the true art form of dance... and traces the activity of dance as it existed down through the ages and all over the world. Beginning with the origins of dance and moving on to what takes place on Western dance stages today, this volume offers a sweeping overview of primitive, ethnic, and folk dance forms ... examines the major branches of Western dance art including ballet from its inception in 16th century Europe, modern dance, jazz, avant-garde, and the international eclectic contemporary scene ... tracks the repertory, technical training of performers, and creative theory of the many traditions that unify this art form ... includes discussions of significant dancers, their contributions, and the performers that inspired them; the background of period styles; pertinent ideas of major choreographers; capsule biographies of outstanding dance artists; effects of music and design on choreography; national characteristics of dance; the psychology of performers; and coverage on such concepts as Classic, Romantic, and Avant-garde to clarify trends and invoke thought on the Dance Art and society ... and makes many comparisons to current day events. Suitable for anyone involved or interested in dance history.