SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Demetrius Cantemir: The Collection of Notations. Volume 2: Commentary

The substantial collection of notations of seventeenth-century Ottoman instrumental music made by Demetrius Cantemir is both a record of compositions of considerable intrinsic interest and a historical document of vital importance, representing as it does one of the most comprehensive accounts of any Middle Eastern repertoire before the widespread adoption of Western notation in the twentieth century.

This volume contains a commentary to the edition of Cantemir's notations prepared by the same author. The introductory section provides a context for the collection, giving a biographical sketch of its compiler and relating it to the theoretical treatise it accompanies. This is followed by a substantial analysis of modal structures which examines each makam individually and then attempts to make progressively wider generalizations. The projection of melody onto the various rhythmic cycles is next examined, with particular attention being paid to the various formulaic elements which constitute much of the compositional language of the period. A final section shifts to a more diachronic perspective, surveying internal evidence for historical change and for the survival of earlier styles.

Contents: Part 1: Prelude: Life; Context; Text; Part 2: Mode: Approaches; Modes 1-4; The buselik group; The hicaz group; the acem group; the irak group; the segâh group; the rast group; High-register modes; The ussak group; neva; The hüseyni group; Unnamed material; Structures and classifications; Modulation; Part 3: Rhythm: Introduction; Metrical structures; The repertoire of cycles; Typology and formulae; Internal sequences; Melodic mapping; Tempo Part 4: Postlude: Introduction; Form; Diachronic strata; Appendix; List of works consulted; Indexes.

Reviews: 'This is a singular and valuable achievement that will benefit those with a specific interest in Ottoman music, as well as those with a more general interest in Middle Eastern music history.' Bulletin of SOAS

Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese Ceramics

Paperback: 96 pages
Publisher: The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0728603276
ISBN-13: 978-0728603271

Aggregate Behaviour of Investment in China, 1953-96. An Analysis of Investment Hunger and Fluctuation.

In China, aggregate investment levels have been high and the cycles of investment growth rate have been remarkable. In order to reveal the mechanisms which drive investment hunger and cycles, this book develops an integrated growth-cycle framework which integrates the standard theory of socialist economies, the distributive barrier-constrained growth theory of developing economies, and the recent technical progresses in the western business cycle theory. It also analyzes the evolutionary dynamics of China's state investment system and the policy trade-off between industrial expansion and agricultural development.

Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Preface
Introduction
Integrating Selected Theories Based on China's Experiences
The State Investment System and its Response to Reform
Agricultural Constraint to the Insatiable Investment Demand
Energy as the Representative of Producer Goods Constraints
Estimating Investment Functions Based on Cointegration
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Index

LAIXIANG SUN is an Economist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria and Senior Research Fellow at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. He is the author of The Evolutionary Dynamics of China's Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the 1990s and his articles have been published in the Journal of Comparative Economics, Comparative Economic Studies and other international refereed journals.

Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East

At the beginning of the twenty-first century countries in the Middle East and North Africa contend with the threats and opportunities of economic globalization, the driving force of change in the contemporary world. As the authors confirm in their straightforward and, at times, irreverent analysis of the regions’ response to these challenges, it is globalization which is the key to an understanding of economic reform. Through an investigation of the structures of state and civil society, including financial systems, they also demonstrate that there is a direct correlation between economic performance and democratization. In other words, the more liberal the polity, the more effective is its economy in responding to globalization. With its interesting and incisive approach to the politics and economics of the Middle East and North Africa, this will be an essential purchase for students and policy-makers and anyone trying to come to grips with economic globalization generally.

Book Description
The authors divide the Middle East into military dictatorships, monarchies and conditional democracies. They conclude that the democracies and monarchies have a better chance of benefitting from economic globalization than the military dictatorships, but politics stands in the way of necessary reforms even in the countries with the most promise.

About the Author
Clement M. Henry is Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. His publications include The Mediterranean Debt Crescent: A Comparative Study of Money and Power in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey (1996) and (with co-editor Kate Gillespie) Oil in the New World Order (1995).

Robert Springborg is Director of the American Research Center in Egypt. Until 1999 he was Professor of Middle East Politics at Macquarie University. His most recent publication (with Abdo Baaklini and Guilain Denoeux) is Legislative Politics in the Arab World (1999), while his book Politics in the Middle East (1993), which he co-authored with James A. Bill, is now in its fifth edition.

Minaret Building and Apprenticeship in Yemen

Through a combination of rich architectural and ethnographic description, this study of apprenticeship and human spatial cognition provides a fascinating insight into the daily lives and activities of a professional class of craftsmen.

From the Back Cover
This book focuses on a team of traditional builders specialized in the construction of towering mosque minarets in Sanaca with whom the author worked as a building labourer in order to learn about learning in a context in which formal technical training, engineers, and drawn plans are non-existent. Through a combination of rich architectural and ethnographic description, this study of apprenticeship and human spatial cognition provides a fascinating insight into the daily lives and activities of a professional class of craftsmen, and investigates the unique teaching-learning processes that distinguish their trade and mould both their professional and social characters. The study of expert knowledge examines the ethnographic material in the light of theoretical ideas derived from a synthesis of cognitive science, cognitive anthropology, phenomenology, and philosophy-of-mind. Illustrated throughout.

From Dictatorship to Democracy. Economic Policy in Malawi 1964-2000

Despite three and a half decades of post-independence economic and social reform, during which the government worked in partnership with donors such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and other organizations, Malawi remains desperately poor, with a highly unequal income distribution. This text presents an analysis of development strategies in Malawi from independence in 1964 to the present day. This analysis is divided into three sub-periods - 1964-1981, 1981-1988 and 1989 to the present - and pays particular attention to economic policies and reform and the political economy context in which they have been developed. Individual chapters focus on economic and political developments in Malawi, the economic reform programme, the adjustment period up to 1988, policy reforms under the three SALs in the agricultural sector, and empirical testing and support for many of the hypotheses and arguements forwarded in the book. The book then takes a closer look at the government's overall record of compliance with policy reform conditions in all sectors under each SAL.

Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan, Vol I: Legal and Economic Documents

Sims-Williams, Nicholas (2001) Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan, Vol I: Legal and Economic Documents. Oxford; New York: The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press.

Die Wettergottgestalten Mesopotamiens und Nordsyriens im Zeitalter der Keilschriftkulturen. Materialien und Studien nach den schriftlichen Quellen

Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag
Publication date: 2001
Bibliographic info: xvi + 1024 pages
Language(s): German
Cover: Cloth
ISBN: 3-447-04456-X
ISBN13: 978-3-447-04456-1

Rabindranath Tagore. Particles, Jottings, Sparks. The Collected Brief Poems

Witty, lucid, and profound, RABINDRANATH TAGORE's (1861-1941) brief poems have not enjoyed the prominence they deserve. Originally published in three separate volumes, they are central to his poetry and personality and span his entire career. The voice of the Bengali poet is always spontaneous, friendly, and accessible in these poems. In this collection William Radice, the leading English-translator of Tagore and himself a poet, brings these pleces together for the first time. He also provides an in-depth introduction and three prose writings by Tagore. translated Into English for the first time, relating to poetry and the writing of the brief poems.

Vergessen und verloren. Die Geschichte der oesterreichischen Chinastudien

Forgotten and Lost presents an historical overview of one regional development of Chinese studies from the seventeenth century to the present time. The book focuses on the description and evaluation of contributions by scholars who originated from Austria and the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. Contributions that were made in Austria and the achievements of emigrants are treated in separate chapters. The account of the development of Chinese studies from the time when Sinology was institutionalised at Vienna University (1972) deals with the institutions involved. Apart from published material, the author also includes a wealth of unpublished research work found in libraries and archives in Austria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The book incorporates detailed investigations of the source material, descriptions of state-of-the-art research at the time, and a discussion of these contributions in the light of the international sinological discourse past and present. Book reviews, personal correspondence, discussions of personal affiliations and feuds offer further insights into the intellectual background of these scholars, their aims, concerns and methodological approaches.

Chikamatsu. Five Late Plays

"This book certainly enhances our understanding of the dramatist and his plays as works for performance, so can contribute much to Chikamatsu's continued presence on the international stage... Chikamatsu: Five Late Plays is essential reading for all scholars and students of the playwright's work. It is also highly recommended for those with more general interest in pre-modern Japan or Japanese theatre in performance." -- Helen S. E. Parker, The Japan Society "...I consider the book an essential text for any scholar or student wishing to enhance their understanding of the playwright and his works, as well as those wishing to explore 'new' approaches to further their discoveries in the traditional performing arts of Japan." -- Ai Kamikaji, School Of Oriental & African Studies vol. 66/3

Product Description
-- Taipei Times

About the Author
C. Andrew Gerstle is a professor of Japanese studies in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He is the author of Circles of Fantasy: Convention in the Plays of Chikamatsu and editor of Eighteenth Century Japan and other books.

English-Lakota Dictionary

"This handsome volume fills the need for a comprehensive English -Lakota dictionary. Lakota is the second most impotant Native American language in the Unite States."
-"International Journal of American Linguistics
"This book, clearly a labor of love, is the best English-Lakota dictionary available, and the easiest to use. most reliable, and most attractively produced of any of the Sioux dictionaries."
-Willem J. De Reuse, University of North Texas

Product Description
This dictionary of 12,000 entries aims to preserve Indian culture and at all points illustrate the use of words in examples, especially syntactic words, whose usage cannot be captured purely by giving an English equivalent.

A Grammar of Udihe

This text presents a study of the grammar of Udihe, a highly endangered Tungus language spoken in the Russian Far East. It is a comprehensive description based on the authors' field materials and illustrated by numerous examples and a collection of folklore texts. The book may be used as a reference grammar by scholars working within differing theoretical frameworks, and will be of special interest to students of linguistic typology.

Hardcover: 968 pages
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter (1 April 2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 3110169169
ISBN-13: 978-3110169164
Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16 x 5.8 cm

Structure, Alignment and Optimality in Swedish

This volume explores the grammatical structure of sentences in Swedish, presenting an account of the order of the words and phrases within the clause. This analysis is presented from the perspective of Optimality Theory within the theoretical framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. This framework provides syntactic analysis in terms of functions within the clause such as subject, object, and also topic and focus, as well as part-of-speech analysis in terms of noun phrase, verb phrase, and so on, and the hierarchical structure of those constituents. Sells argues for the superiority of a base-generated account of the phenomenon known as Object Shift, and shows how an account based on the notion of Alignment within a ranked constraint system provides a natural account of it. The nature of the Verb-Second sentence pattern and syntactic differences between Swedish and the other Mainland Scandinavian languages are also considered.

Book Description
This volume explores the grammatical structure of sentences in Swedish, presenting an account of the order of the words and phrases within the clause. This analysis is presented from the perspective of Optimality Theory within the theoretical framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar.

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (19 Dec 2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1575862328
ISBN-13: 978-1575862323
Product Dimensions: 29.4 x 13.7 x 1.2 cm

Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine

Paperback: 557 pages
Publisher: Paul Mohr Verlag (Jun 2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 3161475461
ISBN-13: 978-3161475467
Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15 x 3 cm

Chinese Perceptions of the 'Jews' and Judaism. A History of the Youtai

This text argues that prejudice against the 'Jews' is not only a western phenomenon, but also exists in Eastern countries such as China, where representations of 'Jews' and Judaism are very complex.

From the Back Cover
While prejudice against Jews is a real and ongoing category in Western culture, little attention has been paid to the myths of the Jews' and their impact in countries outside the West. This work draws on a wide variety of source materials from the past two centuries to examine the images of the Jews' as constructed in China. However, the interest here does not lie in the determination of the boundary between the real and fictional aspects of these images. Rather, it lies in the implications associated with the Jew' as an other', which remains a distant mirror in the construction of the self' amongst various social groups in modern China.
Although it has been noted by a few scholars that the use of the Jews' as a category was important to many thinkers of modern China in the construction of their nationalistic and socio- political ideologies, this is the first systematic study in the field to be published. This book is also more than a historical book on China in that it opens a new arena for modern Jewish studies from a unique angle.