Comparative-Historical Methods

This book presents some fundamental concepts behind the basic theories and tools of discrete element methods (DEM), its historical development, and its wide scope of applications in geology, geophysic

Evolutionary Phonology is a theory of sound patterns which synthesizes results in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonological theory. In this book, Juliette Blevins explores the nature of sounds patterns and sound change in human language over the past 7000–8000 years, the time depth for which the comparative method is reasonably reliable. This book presents an approach to the problem of how genetically unrelated languages, from families as far apart as Native American, Australian Aboriginal, Austronesian and Indo-European, can often show similar sound patterns, and also tackles the converse problem of why there are notable exceptions to most of the patterns that are often regarded as universal tendencies or constraints. It argues that in both cases, a formal model of sound change that integrates phonetic variation and patterns of misperception can account for attested sound systems without reference to markedness or naturalness within the synchronic grammar.

Featuring vibrant full color throughout, this new edition of Bart Ehrman's highly successful introduction approaches the New Testament from a consistently historical and comparative perspective, empha

This study of intellectuals and their cosmopolitan life trajectories is based on anthropological and historical research in Vietnam and India, two great Asian societies with contrasting experiences of empire, decolonisation and the rise and fall of the twentieth-century socialist world system. Building on the author's long-standing research experience in India and on remarkable family narratives collected during fieldwork in northern Vietnam, the book deals with epic events and complex social transformations from a perspective that emphasizes the personal and the familial. Its central theme is the extraordinary mobility of intelligentsia lives. The author explores the role of the intellectual in the economic, social and cultural transformation of the post-colonial world through in-depth ethnographic fieldwork methods. In identifying parallels and contrasts between Hanoi's 'socialist moderns' and the family and career experiences of their Indian counterparts, the book makes a distinctiv

This study of intellectuals and their cosmopolitan life trajectories is based on anthropological and historical research in Vietnam and India, two great Asian societies with contrasting experiences of empire, decolonisation and the rise and fall of the twentieth-century socialist world system. Building on the author's long-standing research experience in India and on remarkable family narratives collected during fieldwork in northern Vietnam, the book deals with epic events and complex social transformations from a perspective that emphasizes the personal and the familial. Its central theme is the extraordinary mobility of intelligentsia lives. The author explores the role of the intellectual in the economic, social and cultural transformation of the post-colonial world through in-depth ethnographic fieldwork methods. In identifying parallels and contrasts between Hanoi's 'socialist moderns' and the family and career experiences of their Indian counterparts, the book makes a distinctiv

This volume provides a concise, historical review of the methods of structural analysis and design - from Galileo in the seventeenth century, to the present day. Through it, students in structural engineering and professional engineers will gain a deeper understanding of the theory behind the modern software packages they use daily in structural design. This book also offers the reader a lucid examination of the process of structural analysis and how it relates to modern design. The first three chapters cover questions about the strength of materials, and how to calculate local effects. An account is then given of the development of the equations of elastic flexure and buckling, followed by a separate chapter on masonry arches. Three chapters on the overall behaviour of elastic structures lead to a discussion of plastic behaviour, and a final chapter indicates that there are still problems needing solution.

Research Methods for Law introduces undergraduate and postgraduate students to available methods of research - legalistic, empirical, comparative and theoretical - drawing on actual research projects

Research Methods for Law introduces undergraduate and postgraduate students to available methods of research - legalistic, empirical, comparative and theoretical - drawing on actual research projects

From ants to whales, the lives of animals are filled with challenges that demand minute-by-minute decisions: to fight or flee, dominate or obey, take-off, share, eat, spit out or court. Learning develops adaptive tuning to a changeable environment, while intelligence helps animals use their learned experiences in new situations. Using examples from field to laboratory, Animal Intelligence pools resources from ethology, behavioural ecology and comparative psychology to help the reader enter the world of wild intelligence through the analysis of adventures, of ideas and methods, rather than through theoretic modelling. It reminds us that there is a world of intellectual biodiversity out there, providing a multi-faceted panorama of animal intelligence. Written in an accessible and charming style, and with undergraduate and graduate students in mind, this book should be read by anyone with an interest in the world of animal behaviour.

Decision analysis is a prescriptive theory that aids individuals or groups confronted with complex problems in a wide variety of contexts. By framing issues, identifying risks, eliciting stakeholder preferences, and suggesting alternative approaches, decision analysts can offer workable solutions in domains such as the environment, health and medicine, engineering and operations research, and public policy. This book is a mixture of historical and forward-looking essays on key topics in decision analysis. Part I covers the history and foundations of decision analysis. Part II discusses structuring decision problems, including the development of objectives and their attributes, and influence diagrams. Part III discusses probabilities and their elicitation and Bayes nets. Part IV discusses additive and multiplicative utilities, risk preferences, and 'option pricing' methods. Part V discusses risk analysis. Part VI puts decision analysis in a behavioral and organizational context. Part VI

Decision analysis is a prescriptive theory that aids individuals or groups confronted with complex problems in a wide variety of contexts. By framing issues, identifying risks, eliciting stakeholder preferences, and suggesting alternative approaches, decision analysts can offer workable solutions in domains such as the environment, health and medicine, engineering and operations research, and public policy. This book is a mixture of historical and forward-looking essays on key topics in decision analysis. Part I covers the history and foundations of decision analysis. Part II discusses structuring decision problems, including the development of objectives and their attributes, and influence diagrams. Part III discusses probabilities and their elicitation and Bayes nets. Part IV discusses additive and multiplicative utilities, risk preferences, and 'option pricing' methods. Part V discusses risk analysis. Part VI puts decision analysis in a behavioral and organizational context. Part VI

In a rural community in Southern Ethiopia, there are two types of rituals performed by the same people. Historical evidence suggests that one has shown remarkable stability over the years, while the other has undergone massive transformations. External factors are the same, so how is this to be explained? In this 2002 book, Dena Freeman focuses on ethnographical and historical data from the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia to tackle the question of cultural change and transformation. She uses a comparative perspective and contrasts the continuity in sacrificial rituals with the rapid divergence and differentiation in initiations. Freeman argues that although external change drives internal cultural transformation, the way in which it does is greatly influenced by the structural organization of the cultural systems themselves. This insight leads to a rethinking of the analytic tension between structure and agency that is at the heart of contemporary anthropological theory.

This book examines the interface between the old and the new France in the period 1760–1820. It adopts an unusual 'comparative micro-historical' approach in order to illuminate the manner in which country dwellers cut themselves loose from the congeries of local societies that made up the Ancien Régime, and attached themselves to the wider polity of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic state. The apprehensions and ambitions of six groups of villagers located in different parts of the kingdom are explored in close-up across the span of a single adult lifetime. Contrasting experiences form a large part of the analysis, but the story is ultimately one of fusion around a set of values that no individual villager could possibly have anticipated, whether in 1750 or 1789. The book is at once an institutional, a social and a political history of life in the village in an epoch of momentous change.

Through an examination of a wide variety of financial systems in Europe, and North and South America over approximately 150 years of change, this book demonstrates the key role that finance has played in economic change, and in the development of diverse financial systems. Insights into the primacy of the state's role in the financial development of the pre-industrial era have not been carried over into the historiography of the industrial era itself, so the discoveries detailed in this book have never been brought together in a systematic manner. This book therefore aims to demonstrate through comparative historical analysis, the richness of the history of modern financial systems, and to restore the state to its primary role in the shaping of those systems. This book makes an interesting contribution to financial historiography, thus will be of interest to economists and financial, economic and world historians.

Documents the emergence of a pattern of political instability in Latin America. Traditional military coups have receded in the region, but elected presidents are still ousted from power as a result of recurrent crises. Aníbal Pérez-Liñán shows that presidential impeachment has become the main constitutional instrument employed by civilian elites to depose unpopular rulers. Based on detailed comparative research in five countries and extensive historical information, the book explains why crises without breakdown have become the dominant form of instability in recent years and why some presidents are removed from office while others survive in power. The analysis emphasizes the erosion of presidential approval resulting from corruption and unpopular policies, the formation of hostile coalitions in Congress, and the role of investigative journalism. This book challenges classic assumptions in studies of presidentialism and provides important insights for the fields of political communica

This book is a theory-informed, comparative and historical exploration of the notion of the public sphere within Western and Islamic traditions. It situates the emergence of the modern public sphere i

This 2003 book provides a rigorous introduction to the theory of complex angular momenta, based on the methods of field theory. It comprises an English translation of the series of lectures given by V. N. Gribov in 1969, when the physics of high-energy hadron interactions was being created. Besides their historical significance, these lectures contain material which is highly relevant to research today. The basic physical results and the approaches Gribov developed are now being rediscovered in an alternative context: in the microscopic theory of hadrons provided by quantum chromodynamics. The ideas and calculation techniques presented in this book are useful for analysing high-energy hadron scattering phenomena, deep inelastic lepton-hadron scattering, the physics of heavy ion collisions, kinetic phenomena in phase transitions, and will be instrumental in the analysis of electroweak processes at the next-generation particle accelerators, such as LHC and TESLA.

Over the last two decades soccer has become a major institution within the popular culture of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. They have attained disproportionate success in this field. Given their marginalisation from many areas of Israeli society as well as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such a prominent Arab presence highlights the tension between their Israeli citizenship and their belonging to the Palestinian people. Bringing together sociological, anthropological and historical approaches, Sorek examines how soccer can potentially be utilised by ethnic and national minorities as a field of social protest, a stage for demonstrating distinctive identity, or as a channel for social and political integration. Relying on a rich combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, he argues that equality in the soccer sphere legitimises contemporary inequality between Jews and Arabs in Israel and pursues wider arguments about the role of sport in ethno-national confl

The focus of this 1991 book is on the decentralization reforms legislated by the Socialist government in France from 1982 to 1986. These reforms redefined the role of the central state in the periphery and gave extensive new powers to territorial governments. Vivien Schmidt examines these reforms and their impact in comparative historical perspective. Tracing the history of decentralization from the French Revolution to the present, the book highlights the significant reforms at the beginning of the Third Republic in the 1870s. It then analyses the actual impact of the reforms of both the 1870s and the 1980s on local government institutions and processes. Professor Schmidt uses an innovative mix of methods borrowed from political sociology and cultural anthropology, combined with historical analysis and extensive interviews with national and local politicians and civil servants. She provides important theoretical insights into the changing nature of the French state in addition to reve

Written by a group of international experts in their field, this book is a review of Lagrangian observation, analysis and assimilation methods in physical and biological oceanography. This multidisciplinary text presents new results on nonlinear analysis of Lagrangian dynamics, the prediction of particle trajectories, and Lagrangian stochastic models. It includes historical information, up-to-date developments, and speculation on future developments in Lagrangian-based observations, analysis, and modeling of physical and biological systems. Containing contributions from experimentalists, theoreticians, and modelers in the fields of physical oceanography, marine biology, mathematics, and meteorology, this book will be of great interest to researchers and graduate students looking for both practical applications and information on the theory of transport and dispersion in physical systems, biological modeling, and data assimilation.

Critical Theory and Performance presents a broad range of critical and theoretical methods and applies them to contemporary and historical performance genres—from stage plays, dance-dramas, per

In the ancient Near East the God of Israel stands unique; he is the central character of the Old Testament. The collection of essays in this volume presents the historical background against which belief in him developed and discusses aspects of the topic that remain unresolved or largely unaddressed. What was he like? How does he differ from other gods of the ancient world? And what difference does the worship of this god make, both in the world of the Bible and now? The papers presented contribute to the continuing discussion about the God of Israel and other deities in the ancient Near East, and the emergence of monotheistic belief and worship. A multifaceted approach is adopted in which comparative, theological, historical, literary-critical, cultural, narratological, canonical, exegetical and ethical issues feature prominently.

This book offers the first detailed comparative study of the seven best-documented early civilizations: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang China, the Aztecs and adjacent peoples in the Valley of Mexico, the Classic Maya, the Inka, and the Yoruba. Unlike previous studies, equal attention is paid to similarities and differences in their sociopolitical organization, economic systems, religion, and culture. Many of this study's findings are surprising and provocative. Agricultural systems, technologies, and economic behaviour turn out to have been far more diverse than was expected. These findings and many others challenge not only current understandings of early civilizations but also the theoretical foundations of modern archaeology and anthropology. The key to understanding early civilizations lies not in their historical connections but in what they can tell us about similarities and differences in human behaviour.

Using the comparative historical method, this book looks at the experience of indigenous peoples, specifically the Native Hawaiians, showing how a nation can express culture and citizenship while seek

There are forty-one problematic play texts, variously classified as 'bad quartos' or 'memorial reconstructions', from Shakespeare's time. Textual criticism of these quartos has been fraught with assumption and contradiction. Laurie Maguire examines all the texts in detail. She deconstructs the theories of W. W. Greg and his followers, scrutinizing the methods by which critics diagnose texts as 'bad', and examines the historical evidence for the concept of memorial reconstruction (compilation from the recollection of actors or spectators). The valuable contextual material includes fresh analysis of the New Bibliographers, the rise of English studies, Renaissance oral culture and textual problems in non-suspect texts. The assembly of textual information about all the suspect texts in tabular form makes the book an essential reference work. The result is a study which covers a vast textual subject without sacrificing detail.

The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics provides a survey of the field covering the methods which underpin current work; models of language change; and the importance of historical linguistic

Too few investigations have attempted to shore up critical knowledge gaps about post-Soviet states by conducting comparative analyses of political institutions and developing rigorous methods suitable

Virginia Woolf, the Intellectual, and the Public Sphere relates Woolf's literary reviews and essays to early twentieth-century debates about the value of 'highbrow' culture, the methods of instruction in universities and adult education, and the importance of an educated public for the realization of democratic goals. By focusing on Woolf's theories and practice of reading, Melba Cuddy-Keane refutes assumptions about Woolf's modernist elitism, revealing instead a writer who was pedagogically oriented, publicly engaged and committed to the ideal of classless intellectuals working together in reciprocal exchange. Woolf emerges as a stimulating theorist of the unconscious, of dialogic reading, of historicist criticism and of value judgments, while her theoretically informed but accessible prose challenges us to reflect on academic writing today. Combining a wealth of historical detail with a penetrating analysis of Woolf's essays, this 2003 study will alter our views of Woolf, of modernis

This book applies comparative cultural and literary models to a reading of Catullus' poems as social performances of a 'poetics of manhood': a competitively, often outrageously, self-allusive bid for recognition and admiration. Earlier readings of Catullus, based on Romantic and Modernist notions of 'lyric' poetry, have tended to focus on the relationship with Lesbia and to ignore the majority of the shorter poems, which are instead directed at other men. Professor Wray approaches these poems in the light of more recent models for understanding male social interaction in the premodern Mediterranean, placing them in their specifically Roman historical context while bringing out their strikingly 'postmodern' qualities. The result is an alternative way of reading the fiercely aggressive and delicately refined agonism performed in Catullus' shorter poems. All Latin and Greek quoted is supplied with an English translation.

Interest in growth theory has reawakened since the middle of the 1980s, but it is some time since a comparative exercise has been carried out. This volume explores the catch-up and convergence evidence of European growth on a cross-sectional basis, armed not only with alternative theoretical ideas, but also with the empirical evidence since 1950 on which to draw. Individual chapters cover macroeconomic accounts, national accounts by industry, measures of fixed capital stocks, technology indicators, human capital, total factor productivity and changes in trend rates of growth, and each assesses the pitfalls, benefits and implications of the methods used. The result is an authoritative quantitative account of the dimensions of European economic growth within an explicitly internationally comparative framework.

The Origins of Theater in Ancient Greece and Beyond examines the evidence for the pre-history and origin of drama. The belief that drama developed from religious ritual has been commonplace since the time of Aristotle but there is little agreement on just how this happened. Recently, scholars have even challenged the historical connection between drama and ritual. This volume is the most thorough examination on the origins of Greek drama to date. It brings together seventeen essays by leading scholars in a variety of fields, including classical archaeology, iconography, cultural history, theater history, philosophy, and religion. Though it primarily focuses up on ancient Greece, the volume includes comparative studies of ritual drama from ancient Egypt, Japan, and medieval Europe. Collectively, the essays show how the relationship of drama to ritual is one of the most controversial, complex, and multi-faceted questions of modern times.

Political Game Theory is a self-contained introduction to game theory and its applications to political science. The book presents choice theory, social choice theory, static and dynamic games of complete information, static and dynamic games of incomplete information, repeated games, bargaining theory, mechanism design and a mathematical appendix covering, logic, real analysis, calculus and probability theory. The methods employed have many applications in various disciplines including comparative politics, international relations and American politics. Political Game Theory is tailored to students without extensive backgrounds in mathematics, and traditional economics, however there are also many special sections that present technical material that will appeal to more advanced students. A large number of exercises are also provided to practice the skills and techniques discussed.

This book follows the social, economic and demographic transformations of the Alpine area from the late Middle Ages. Its aim is to reassess the image of the upland community which emerges from the work of historians, geographers and social anthropologists. The book therefore deals at length with such problems as the causes and consequences of emigration and patterns of marriage and inheritance in favouring or hampering the adjustments of local populations to changing economic or ecological circumstances, and tackles the vexed question of the relative importance of cultural and environmental factors in shaping family forms and community structures. Although its foundation lies in a long period of anthropological fieldwork conducted in an Alpine community, Upland Communities relies on the methods and conceptual tools of historical demography. Combined with a long-term historical perspective, its broad comparative approach unveils an unexpected diversity in regional and spatial demographi

Hilson (Scandinavian studies, U. College London, UK) presents a comparative historical study of the emergence of working-class political movements in the naval dockyard towns of Plymouth in Britain an

The history of British political thought has been one of the most fertile fields of Anglo-American historical writing in the last half-century. David Armitage brings together an interdisciplinary and international team of authors to consider the impact of this scholarship on the study of early modern British history, English literature, and political theory. Leading historians survey the impact of the history of political thought on the 'new' histories of Britain and Ireland; eminent literary scholars offer novel critical methods attentive to literary form, genre, and language; and distinguished political theorists treat the relationship of history and theory in studies of rights and privacy. The outstanding examples of critical practice collected here will encourage the emergence of fresh research on the historical, critical, and theoretical study of the English-speaking world in the period around 1500–1800. This volume celebrates the contribution of the Folger Institute to British st

How did contemporary English and European notions of sovereignty, empire, law and state formation impact upon English methods of settlement and governance in the Americas? Using documents such as travel narratives, promotional literature, colonial charters, maps, diplomatic correspondence and state papers, Ken MacMillan offers a major new study of legal imperialism under Queen Elizabeth and the early Stuarts. He argues that the imperial centre had a legal and historical right and responsibility to supervise its colonial peripheries. By drawing on legal resources associated with Roman law and the law of nations, the crown and its agents ensured that English New World claims would gain recognition in the broader European community, thereby establishing legal foundations that would have an enduring impact on the British Empire. The book will appeal to scholars in imperial studies, English and American legal and constitutional history, foreign affairs and the history of international law.

This book is a contribution to comparative constitutional law and deals with important changes in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the original members of the present Commonwealth of Nations. It is based on lectures delivered at the University of Cambridge. The first lecture discusses the development in recent years of the constitutional autonomy of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and its effect on the constitutions of those countries and on the concept of the 'crown'. The second lecture is concerned with methods to entrench, constitutionally, individual and democratic rights. The final lecture contrasts judicial attitudes to the interpretation of the constitutions of Canada and Australia. The conclusion is reached that although the EEC is not a federation, there is a structural similarity between the distribution of governmental power within the Community and its members, and the federal issues that arise in Canada, Australia and other federations.

This book offers crucial perspectives on the vexed question of chronology in Flaubert's work. Critics have struggled long and hard with the apparent inconsistencies in his writing, but Claire Addison's study reveals that the situation is far more subtle, complex and intriguing than hitherto supposed. She argues that Flaubert's manipulation of dates is deliberate and that what have previously been dismissed as inadvertent errors are in fact evidence of the strong presence of Flaubert's family life, events in historical Europe and events in the life of his literary characters. This interesting reading goes far beyond what traditional methods of literary history allow us to perceive of the link between the life and work of the author.

This 1994 book offers insights into the rich and varied Dutch literature of the Middle Ages. Sixteen essays written by top scholars consider this literature in the context of the social, historical and cultural developments of the period in which it took shape. The collection includes studies of the most representative authors, genres, works and current fields of research interest, ranging from the court and the city, the world of chivalry, the literature of love, religious literature, drama and the artes texts. The essays draw on the idea of a common tradition in medieval literature, originating in France and shared by other literatures of western Europe. To facilitate the reader's understanding of the European context in which Dutch literature developed, a comparative chronological survey provides an overview of the main cultural, historical and literary events between 1150 and 1500. The bibliography includes details of published English translations of medieval Dutch texts discussed

This 1990 study in historical sociology explores the relationship between educational development and religious change in Norwegian society during a period of significant social and economic transition. John Flint traces the processes whereby the laity radically reduced clerical control over religious institutions. He examines census materials, reports to the Ministries of the Church and Education, and information from organizational histories, using historical role analysis to describe the changing relationships among state church pastors, parish school teachers, pupils, parents, and lay preachers. In his examination of the movement toward mass literacy, John Flint draws on and contributes to the sociology of comparative education development. His findings from this Norwegian study have wider theoretical and methodological implications, and will be of interest to historians and sociologists studying religion and education.