Perspective Books

I found this book worth reading as a comprehensive overview on the potential of socio-economic analysis for contemporary societies. It offers a rich methodological introduction and a number of very illuminating case-studies which contrast sharply with the neoclassical orthodoxy. A must for anyone who wants to explore alternative pathways to neoclassical reasoning.

Advancing Time: Putting Into Perspective and Understanding the Quickening Pace of Change is a commentary on how all aspects of life in daily society have been changing at an ever-increasing pace, especially compared to the rate of change experienced by past generations. From a rising synergy of innovations, materials, and modern abilities; to the population explosion spurred on by food products and medicine; to the evolution of the modern suburbs and new means of communications, travel, and housing; to the transformations of an increasingly money-driven media; Advancing Time is a wide-spanning evaluation. Author Bruce Wilds does not shy from presenting his own opinions concerning environmental concerns and issues of social conscience in this thoughtful discussion. "Being the target of a constant barrage from media has made the images we have seen time and time again all too commonplace and a bit more of the same. Sometimes we must remind ourselves to feel more compassion to try and savor one of life's rare and precious moments. Unfortunately our senses have been dulled by the pounding of images upon images upon images." Highly recommended.

An excellent contemplative reading for those interested in spiritual growth. Brother John's life long study and insights are thought provoking and profound

Stanislav Grof was chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After more than thirty years of studying nonordinary states of consciousness, Grof has concluded that the avenues of exploration available to our psyches via holographic interconnectedness are more than vast; they are virtuallly endless.

Initially, Grof investigated the clinical uses of the hallucinogen LSD at the Psychiatric Research Institute in his native Prague, Czechoslovakia. It quickly became clear that serial LSD sessions were able to expedite the psychothereapeutic process and shorten the time necessary for the treatment of many disorders.

But LSD opened up much more than just issues involving their illnesses and included experiences of reliving what it was like to be in the womb, explore what it was like ot be other living things and even other objects, able to tap into the consciousness of their relatives and ancestors, accessing racial and collective memories in past history, and occassionally related uncannily accurate precognitive information. In an even stranger vein, they sometimes encountered nonhuman intelligences, traveled to what appeared to be other universes and other levels of reality.

Perhaps Grof's most remarkable discovery is that the same phenomena reported by individuals who have taken LSD can also be experienced without resorting to drugs of any kind. Grof and his wife, Christina, developed a simple, nondrug technique for inducing these nonordinary states of consciousness. They call their technique "holotropic therapy" and use only rapid and controlled breathing, evocative music, and massage and body work, to induce altered states of consciousness. Grof describes his current work and gives a detailed account of his methods in this book.

This text is an innovative approach to stimulating individual learning and subsequent constructive action. The author clearly expresses the means by which each aging individual can continue to remain alert and progressive in thinking and action. It is a useful guide to keep the elderly in step with the steady growth of the utilization and expansion of knowledge.
The text is arrayed in six sections. These are (1)introduction, (2)Model programs, (3) Exercises and Activities, (4) Pep talks, (5) Answers to Games, Quizzes and Puzzles and (5) Resources. The author formulated this methodology for action while doing research on creativity and aging with women who all were over the age of seventy. She quotes the scientific studies that show that even in old age the brain has a remarkable tendency to change and grow. This is especially true if the brain is stimulated by regular use. Throughout the book there is a steady unfolding of how to do this to keep each brain active and willing to learn. There is a steady and imaginative approach to how to make the commonplace and usual a means for growth and development by group interaction as a means of opening the mind to the subtlties of learning in a way that opens the means to the desire for more insight into the real world rather than limiting it to the personal world. The long and interesting examples of this is a prod to each individual to contribute to growth and development of the brain.
The 100 exercises for a healthy mind which are mental fitness cards developed by the Attainment Company, Inc. are a very good means of helping each person to address the growth of brain functioning. These are divided into twelve categories such as (1)wake up your brain,(2)creative problem solving,(3)art and imagination, (4)brainstorming, (5) double mind and seven other similar and helpful categories. The hundred versions of activities in themselves are an incentive to action and can be used in any order so that a monotonous routine may be changed to a desireable action. The steady use of this approach will help form the concept of keeping abreast of the expansion of knowledge and reduce obsolesence to the same degree that the entire populations faces. This text should stimulate many people in the middle age and elderly to reconsider thier lifestyle in order to move with knowledge expansion in a very constructive manner and to live a more composed life.

This is an excellent book. It steers clear of simplistic solutions to human problems. It presents a succinct, tightly-argued analysis of many difficulties (e.g., stress, anxiety, narcissism, alienation, guilt) common in today's world. It makes reference to various schools of thought (e.g., Rolf, Feldenkrais, F.M. Alexander), but it always brings the discussion back to the functional principles of Wilhelm Reich, rooted in biological pulsation and energy dynamics. It follows Alexander Lowen in taking into account ego psychology.

If you are looking for a textbook approach, this is the book for you. I was not; I wanted something with lots of colorful photos to give as a gift to an adolescent girl interested in the subject. The book is, however, well-written and researched and is informative.

While focusing on politics, this analysis provides insights on the cultural picture in Africa. A helpful chapter is Ch 9, "Ethnicity and Conflict," which provides a summary of approaches and working definitions of "ethnicity" in various disciplines of study. This provides a good reference point for evaluating the place of the concept of "ethnicity" in the political and social dynamics of the countries of Africa.

Hyden provides a good analysis of data from a 50-year period, which enables him to suggest practical steps to improve development approaches from the donor nations and other cross-cultural projects. He urges that the cultural patterns and worldview concepts underlying the African societies and states be taken into account.

Failed Aid Programs
He finds that virtually all aid programs have failed to produce long-term effects in any country of Africa. He identifies and clarifies the African beliefs and worldview concepts that help account for that. Important among these is the blurring of formal and informal systems and structures, which is obvious to anyone who has lived any time in virtually any African country. It is especially helpful to see his analysis of the causes in the African cultures and societies for public accountability problems.

African "Big Man" Politics
He presents an astute and accurate portrait of the "Big Man" political concept dominant in Africa, and explains how this presents problems for donor-state ideas of accountability. He analyzes specific characteristics of every African political system and clarifies the actual operating assumptions and patterns in the formal systems and informal systems dominant in each country. There is a primary difference in concept of what the State is and how it should operate between the western and the African worldviews. Lack of awareness of or attention to this largely accounts for the misguided projects and failures.

Practical
Hyden concludes with 10 specific suggestions for planning and implementing development and international partnerships. He is concerned to help the African leaders understand how the non-African world will be thinking from their cultural worldview assumptions. He likewise tries to inform the international perspective of the value and consistency of the African points of view, based on different but consistent principles and practices form their experience.

His practical analysis is specific, and he provides a map for planning for international agencies, United Nations and NGOs, as well as national leaders in Africa to better understand the limitations of the primarily western donors.

Culture without Social Dynamics?
One thing that puzzled me is that it seems that the use of the term "culture" is sometimes used in such a way as to exclude the broader social relationships. He contrasts social and cultural characteristics. What can this mean? What are cultural characteristics that can be separated from the social context they are inherently part of.

Cognitive Culture
It is helpful to distinguish material culture from cognitive culture. And I use the term Social Culture for the social and familial interactions in culture groups and societies. But the whole network and complex of social relationships, networks, obligations, interactions are expressions of the cognitive culture and the material culture reflected this cognitive culture, or worldview that unifies what we know of as "cultures" or culture groups.

Ethnicity and Social Culture
This disjunction is amazing to me, for I see no way to understand "culture" or "ethnicity" without focusing on social networks and relationships. This includes not only the social structures and patterns within one self-identified "ethnic group," but within the broader multi-ethnic societies in which almost all human culture groups have to participate.

Social culture is integral to cultural identity. Culture is not just an abstract of formal historical tradition, which seems to be the way some writers or sociological schools use the term. Culture is the whole mental and social complex that comprises a particular human grouping.

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While many studies on African rhythm approach this subject by focusing on its instrumental, percussive manifestation, this distinctively regional research assumes the centrality of the Ewe and Siwu languages at the basis of its characterization. Expanding on Nketia's general work on Ghanaian musics, Agawu combines anthropology, linguistics and European music theory as he takes the reader from the ethnography of a fictional soundscape (rhythmic physical activities in an Ewe community over the course of a day) to the rhythmic properties of the language itself (tone patterns, temporal spacing), concluding with accounts of two performances and conceptual models of Ewe rhythmic processes. He points out that the rhythmic qualities (stress, quantity and resultant pattern) of Ewe or Siwu languages so far have not received the same attention that tonal features have. A centerpiece of Agawu's presentation is his model of "Northern Ewe modes of rhythmic signification", a model that he introduces early on and later revises in its representative potential. It situates speech at the inception of rhythmic expression, yet allows "feedback-loops" and other generative impulses outside its domain to affect the musical process. Refreshing is Agawu's authoritative, yet similarly self-effacing and non-imposing writing style. His clarity of communication and lack of superfluous intellectualism makes this a very accessible and "alive" text, there is neither too much unduly self-referential pathos nor artificial scientific detachment in his descriptions. The book really seems to rest on Agawu's innate connection to this culture, and it is all the more interesting to see how he utilizes analysis and conceptualization of Western European origin to frame the issues in his discussion. At all times, while neither being afraid to honestly acknowledge compromise nor ideologically prevented from proceeding in such fashion, Agawu is aware of any attached implications that come hand in hand with this practice, yet doesn't deem them mutually exclusive.