The Sumerians may have said it best: “Food: That’s the thing! Drink: That’s the thing!” (Gordon 1959: 142). From bread and beer to wine and cheese, the people of the ancient Near East and North Africa developed a rich cuisine based on a set of crops and livestock domesticated in Southwest Asia, and a sophisticated technology of food preparation and preservation. This chapter traces the history ...

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an acute tick-borne zoonotic disease. The disease has been reported in many countries of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and in Eurasia. During the past decade, new foci of CCHF have emerged in the Balkan Peninsula, southwest Russia, the Middle East, western China, India, Africa, and Turkey. CCHF virus produces severe hemorrhagic manifestations in humans...

Afghanistan is a war-ravaged country surrounded by mountainous terrain. Due to the geography and harsh living conditions, people have intermarried among tribes for centuries. The right familial combinations can cause manifestations of genetic linked diseases. Thalassemia major is one of these genetic diseases that are prevalent throughout southwest Asia and Africa. This condition is so severe t...

Curcuma zedoaria belonging to the family Zingiberaceae has been used in the traditional system of medicine in India and Southwest Asia in treating many human ailments and is found to possess many biological activities. The rationale of the present study was to isolate, identify, and characterize antitumour principles from the rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria, to assess its cytotoxic effects on huma...

We have previously described hominin remains with numerous archaic traits from two localities (Maludong and Longlin Cave) in Southwest China dating to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. If correct, this finding has important implications for understanding the late phases of human evolution. Alternative interpretations have suggested these fossils instead fit within the normal range of variati...

the genus ixiolirion, belonging to the amaryllidaceae family, contains about 3 species distributed in center and southwest of asia and northeast of africa. the iranian flora consists of only one bulbous flowering species; ixiolirion tataricum (pall.) herb., with the persian name of “khiarak”. in the present work, i. tataricum was collected, during the flowering stage, from the sarduiyeh area in...

Abstract The East Asian summer climate displays a marked change after the late 1990s. This is principally due to weakening of Pacific–Japan (PJ) teleconnection pattern that was dominant driver precipitation variability over Asia. Nevertheless, western Japan has frequently experienced heavy rainfall events past several years. Atmospheric reanalysis and observational datasets are used investigate...

Shamanism is a pervasive form of ritual practice documented within hunter-gathering and farming societies throughout the world, continuing some present-day urban communities. Despite exhibiting considerable variation, shamanism has several recurrent features, notably role shaman as mediator between spirit human worlds. been cited to explain aspects Epipalaeolithic Neolithic archaeological recor...

Lori K. Holleran Steiker, PhD, is Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austiti. Felipe Gotizález Castro, PhD, is Professor, Psychology Departmetit, Arizona State University. Karol Kumpfer, PhD, is Professor of Health Promotion and Education, The University of Utah, PI and Program Developer of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) in the United States and countri...

Nepeta cataria Linn (Family Labiatae), commonly known as catnip, is a herbaceous plant and is a native of southeast Europe, Orient, Southwest Asia and Western temperate Himalayas. Leaves and flowering tops, which contain tannin and volatile oil are aromatic, carminative, tonic, diaphoretic, refrigerant, emmenagogue, antiseptic, stimulant and useful in infantile colic and hysteria. Leaves are de...