In spite of their therapeutic significance for much of human history, mineral waters have been largely ignored by historians of medicine. One suspects that this neglect has to do with the perception that spa medicine has owed more to human credulity than to medical science. This volume of essays suggests that such neglect and dismissal are about to give way to more thoughtful assessment. Althou...

Whether it was bread-wielding Tunisians, marching Suez workers, or Yemeni protestors chanting against corruption, the 2011 Arab uprisings put political economy issues front and center. Indeed, a critical thread throughout the region’s uprisings has been the simple question: “where has the money gone?” And though the field of political economy is multifaceted, the basic refrain “follow the money...

anniversary of Boyle's death in 1691. This was held appropriately near Stalbridge on the Somerset-Dorset border where Boyle lived between 1645 and 1655. The twelve revised conference papers printed here include a useful Boyle bibliography of nearly 300 items published since 1940 and a helpful introductory orientation by Hunter which again lays to rest Jacob's thesis that there was a direct conn...

A cross the broad fields of educational theory and research, constructivism has become something akin to a secular religion. In her book Evolution as a Religion (1985), Mary Midgley wrote that the theory of evolution "is not just an inert piece of theoretical science. It is, and cannot help being, also a powerful folk-tale about human origins. Any such narrative must have symbolic force" (1985,...

Today’s society is facing great challenges regarding social development and religious harmony. Religion race, both serve as not only pivotal centers to many ideologies, norms values but can also be key factors the rise of divisive unrest conflicts between individuals, institutions nations that run deep down affect each chore communal life. Thus, problems originating from racial spheres pose a d...

This article sorts recent approaches in the sociology of religion into six groups, each of which tells a different story about what his happening to religion in the late-modern world. One, the secularization narrative, sees religion in decline. A second narrative tracks a rise of “fundamentalisms” worldwide. A third notes that religion is becoming local, especially in the United States. A fourt...

The Arab revolutions were filled with aspirations for social justice, freedom, and human dignity. But most of the uprisings led to brutal repression, violent civil wars, state collapse. Are they failed revolutions? Passive Or, as has been argued, revolution-restorations?Betrayal, loss, defeat, tragedy are words that repeatedly appear in literature on revolutions. Despite their commonness, book ...

Two overlapping yet distinct sets of developments influence Iran’s position in the Persian Gulf region, one having to do with Islamic Republic’s own policies and other structural factors that are largely beyond control policymakers Tehran. In terms policy, Tehran’s regional relations shaped by a confluence security as well diplomatic priorities. At broadest level, resulting policy output amount...

Fieldwork on violence needs to take into consideration its knowledge practices and the ways in which is contained, produced made sense of as normalized or traumatic. This I argue a way incorporate production with experiential that anthropology has privileged source understanding suffering. The work Munira Khayyat Jean-Michel Landry are brought together this issue by ethnographic location: Leban...