Cultural Arts Books

The photographs, maps, travelers' accounts, physical reconstructions, and studies of the Bible that are the subject of this book once fired popular fantasies of the Holy Land. Nineteenth century visitors to the Chautauqua Institution used to walk through a large scale model of biblical Palestine, sometimes tucking a blade of grass into their pockets or purses. You can still take a tour and listen to Sunday evening lectures there. At the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, a replica of Jerusalem covered eleven acres while today, some 300 miles to the southeast, a seven story high Christ of the Ozarks looks over a modern re-creation of the Holy Land set in the hills of Arkansas. For home viewing there were tours via stereoscopic photographs, lavishly illustrated books such as Picturesque Palestine, and the reports of scholars who passed through the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. All reached for an illusory touch of the "real" in the midst of fantasies about the Holy Land, as may still be seen in a reader friendly book written by John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan Reed, Excavating Jesus. These competing visions of the Holy Land were, and are, shaped by forms of Christianity and Judaism, and entangled with various political and ideological debates at home in America.

David Gunn, Bradford Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University wrote that Imagining the Holy Land is "remarkable and important...not only pertinent to an understanding of biblical criticism and popular culture in America...but crucially important to a nuanced understanding of American public discourse about Middle Eastern affairs today."

One of the most important points Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick make in their book Immigration and American Popular Culture is that migration patterns aren't random. People don't just start spilling out from their countries for no reason, heading to various destinations with no purpose.

Rubin and Melnick use a lot of movies and plays (their chapter on West Side Story and The Young Savages is excellent) to show how American pop culture changed the immigrants, how the immigrants changed the pop culture, and how the pop culture reflected the immigrants' lives back to them and to the society at large.

In some ways pop culture told truths about new immigrants, but in other ways pop culture (sometimes with the connivance of the immigrants themselves) told lies. One of the creators of West Side Story said he'd never been poor and had never met a Puerto Rican. But a lot of the producers of the show were gay. Maybe they were talking about more than one kind of outsider. (At risk of sounding like one of Jerry Seinfeld's jokes, there's nothing wrong with someone from one outsider group recognizing the hardships and pain felt by another.)

Another point Rubin and Melnick make is how immigrant groups that were "working toward whiteness" engaged in a "masquerade" that was similar to the blackface minstrelsy that went back to post-Civil War Reconstruction.
Sometimes the "blacking up" was relatively subtle, like the Jewish Edward G. Robinson playing the Italian Rico in Little Caesar. Sometimes it wasn't so subtle, like Al Jolson on his knees in blackface singing "Mammy."

Some pop culture critics say immigrants used "blackface" (either literal paint or just trying to adopt black "cool") as a way of identifying WITH blacks, whereas some immigrant performers wanted to mock blacks and show a distinction between themselves and blacks.

Another interesting book on this subject that just came out is Black Like You by John Strausbaugh. Strausbaugh compares the generation of immigrant teenagers that made the song "Jump Jim Crow" a hit in the late nineteenth century in New York to the first generation of rock and rollers.

Well, Elvis just took black music and made it okay for white kids to dance to.

I can't help think that whites are always going to give the "appropriators" of black culture more credit for respecting that culture than blacks can, or think they should. Bing Crosby supposedly supported black artists more than anyone with his influence (read White Christmas: The Story of a Song by Jody Rosen), but watching him and Marjorie Reynolds in blackface in Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn makes you cringe.

Another Irving Berlin song goes: "Let me sing of Dixie's charms/Of cotton fields and Mammy's arms/And if my song can make you homesick/I'm happy."

The trouble is, that home never existed.

By the way, Trent Lott just announced he's running for the position of minority whip in the Senate. Looks like he'll get it, too. What he said about Strom Thurmond - - that was ages ago.

I found this a fascinating and highly original book. It certainly offers something different from the existing literature on the second empire. My only criticism would be that there are insufficient illustrations, and none in color.

This book is the product of an important conference held to debate current legal and ethical issues in art repatriation/restitution. All of the authors are at the forefront of their fields and present clear and readable overviews of the legality of the cases. Both sides are represented (for instance, for and against the repatriation of the Elgin Marbles). An excellent and interesting read; a necessity for people working in this area.

The second volume of Simone Schwarz-Bart's history of black women focuses on black women during slavery in the Americas. As lavishly illustrated as the first volume which focused on ancient African queens, "Heroines of the Slavery Era" profiles the lives of fourteen remarkable African and African-American women who managed to rise above the degradations of slavery to place themselves in the history books for all time. Besides the already familiar figures of Phyllis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, we also learn about Aqualtune, a Congolese princess enslaved in Brazil; Anastasia, who became the patron saint of Brazil's black people; Solitude, a heroine and martyr of the 1802 slave rebellion on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, and many more. We hear the haunting voices of the slaves themselves and what they endured. The breathtaking illustrations throughout this book are taken from paintings and photographs in the historical archives. Volume II of "In Praise of Black Women" continues the standard of excellence set in the first book. It's a book to be read and treasured by all women everywhere.

In 1986, Paul Simon's album, "Graceland" focused international attention on the music and people of South Africa. The music was not the mournful dirges of apartheid victims but rather the vibrant sounds of a cultural affirmation. Anyone interested the people and culture behind the "Graceland" sound need look no further than David Coplan's "In Township Tonight!"

Those who might shy away from an academic work, for fear of encountering dry-as-sawdust pedantic prose, will be pleasantly surprised. Coplan's writing is clear and unencumbered. Coplan provides a brief survey of the dynamics of Black South African culture in the nineteenth century. This serves a backdrop to the book's primary focus, Black music and culture in urban South Africa during the twentieth century.

Coplan's account is intersting and exciting, sad yet homorous. Through rigorous research and passion for his subject Coplan provides the reader with a compelling look at one of the most unusual societies of the twentieth century, apartheid South Africa. The reader is taken beyond the simplistic South Africa of media sound bites to a world of complex characters where music is part of life and where, in the background one hears the irrepresible peep of a penny whistle.

Burgin's book is a wonderful contribution to the growing field of visual culture. His examinations of Helmut Newton are beyond reproach, and his ability to link aesthetic experiences with the development of social consciousness (using, among others, theorists Lacan and Mulvey) is impressive. All delivered with good humor and supplemented by personal anecdote, this book is absolutely vital for anyone interesting in visual culture.

The Incomplete Projects: Marxism, Modernity, And The Politics Of Culture by Carl Freedman (Professor of English, Louisiana State University) is a thoughtful and scholarly examination and analysis of the role of Marxist theory plays in the study of human culture. Part I delves into a solid groundwork of Marxist thought, and Part II applies the Marxist vision to a wide variety of popular culture works, including the novels of Philip K. Dick and the television series M*A*S*H. An absorbing look at human culture, lifestyle and entertainment, The Incomplete Projects is a welcome and highly recommended contribution to 20th Century Cultural Studies reference collections and reading lists.

About the Book :
The present work, in two volumes, deals with the different facets of Indian history, society and culture. The study emphasizes the Indian land and its people in the context of the human race as a whole. Aspects of economic history, legal institutional history, intellectual history and allied areas of historical writing constitute the background to this book.

About the Author :
Dr. G. Kuppuram was born in 1956 and received his education at Madras and Karnataka. He graduated in 1976 and received his doctorate are post-doctorate in 1981 and 1986 respectively in Science and Archaeology.
At present Dr. Kuppuram is Associate Professor of Archaeology at Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya. He has excavated different parts of India. His previous books include The Imperial Cholas in Karnataka which was his PhD Thesis has been published by Sundeep Prakashan in 1986. His other book Ancient Indian Mining Metallurgy and Metal Technology which was hit D.Litt. Thesis has been published by Sundeep Prakashan in 1989. His last successful book is History of Science and Technology in India and this has earned him great laurels from all over the world.
Dr. Kuppuram has contributed several research articles on History, Culture and Archaeology in various national and international journals. At present he is editing a book on Marine Archaeological Studies-Global perspectives.

Contents :
Volume I

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Archaeological Investigations in Tamilnadu-Some Aspects
2. Current Trends in Archaeological Studies
3. Nature and Primitive Society : Contact and Adjustments
4. Towns in Ancient India-Methodological Perspectives
5. Crime and Punishments in Ancient India
6. Kautilya on Industrial Sciences : Organisation and Management
7. Chanakya on Prostitution (Based on Arthasastra)
8. Tiruchirapalli in Pre-Vijayanagar Times
9. A Fresh Survey on the History of the Tamils in Ancient Sri Lanka
10. Role of the Village Communities in the Chola Period
11. Vestiges of Feudalism in the Chola Period-A Critical Appraisal
12. A Chola Inscription on Temple Services
13. Chola-Hoysala Relations in Karnataka
14. Centralisation and Regional Autonomy-The Chola State
15. Chola Temples in Karnataka : Vignettes from Art and Architecture
16. Kuvalala-A Composite Capital of Ancient Karnataka-with Special Reference to the Cholas as the Vanguard
17. The Nidugal Cholas-A Brief Study (A.D. 1100-A.D. 1285)
18. The Cholas in the Kongu Country-Some Aspects
19. Position of Women in Medieval Southern Karnataka Under the Chola Sway
20. Some Aspects of Chola Rule in Karnataka
21. Economic Conditions in Medieval Tamilnadu-Some Problems and Proposals
22. Peculiar Customs of Marriage System in South India
23. Religious Offerings from the Inscriptions of Southern Mysore (A.D. 1000-A.D.1300)
24. Ativirarama Srivallabha Pandya and His Times (A.D. 1562-A.D. 1604)
25. The Genealogy and Chronology of Keladi Rulers : A Review
26. Principles of Sucession Under Keladi Rule
27. The Theme of Domestic Welfare in Tirukkural
28. Urbanisation in Ancient South India with Special Reference to Tamilnadu-Some Preliminary Suggestions
29. Social Complex of the Ancient Tribes of Tamilnadu
30. Southern India, An Ethnological Block : Snippets from the Tribal Complex
31. Religion and Emotional Integration in the Sangam Age
32. Migrations in Historical Times with Special Reference to South India (A.D. 900-A.D. 1500)
33. Craft Technology and Societal Acclimation in Mughal India-A Reappraisal
34. Historical Sketches of Kannanur Region-A Medieval South Indian Capital

Volume II

35. Cultural History of Medieval Tamilnadu-A Review
36. A Note on the Artisans of Medieval Tamilnadu
37. Brahmin Through the Ages : With Special References to the Decline of Brahmanism in Tamilnadu
38. The Mahanubhavas
39. Classification and Functions of Industrial Workers in Medieval India
40. Industrial Economy of Medieval Karnataka : A Historigraphical Evaluation
41. Metal Industries in Ancient Tamil Country
42. Gold in Ancient South India
43. A Scientific Note on the Meal Casting in Ancient India.
44. Indigenous Method of Iron and Steel Manufacture in the Salem Area of the Erstwhile Madras Presidency
45. Glimpses Glimpses of Indian Metallic Artwork
46. a Bibliography of Works on Indian Architecture and Sculpture
47. A Bibliography of Epigraphical Studies on Gujarat
48. Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century-A Review
49. Protection of Monuments in India
50. Cultural Heritage of India-A Threat to Survival
51. Guidelines for Environmental Education and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage
52. Snippets from the Religion Vegetarianism and Animal Care in Gujarat
53. Population Problems in India : The Past, Present and Future
54. Empirical Study on the Philosophy of Scientific History
55. Methodology and Multi-Disciplinary Approach in Indological Studies
56. Gandhian Perspectives on Non-Violent Movement as a Force for Socio-Economic and Political Transformation
57. The Pedagogics of Teaching History in Schools

This is more than just a coffee table book, its a great compilation of the past, present and future of Indian classical dance. The author has done a fabulous job presenting a brief outlook for all the major classical styles. It might look overwhelming to a novice but its truly a pleasant read.