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Books in Arts and humanities

Elsevier's Arts and Humanities titles encompass a rich spectrum of scholarship that explores human culture, history, philosophy, and creative expression. These works offer deep insights into language, literature, visual arts, and critical theory, supporting the academic community in understanding diverse perspectives and cultural legacies. Designed for scholars, educators, and students, this collection bridges classic studies with contemporary issues, fostering a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the human experience.

  • Speech and Language

    Advances in Basic Research and Practice
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 2
    • Norman J. Lass
    • English
    Speech and Language: Volume 2, Advances in Basic Research and Practice is a compendium of papers that discusses the processes and pathologies of speech and language, such as functional articulation disorders, lexical development, and a group therapy for treating stuttering. Some papers deal with vocal fold vibrations, childhood homonymy, framework for conversational speech behaviors, and vibrotactile testing. One paper cites studies of Hersen and Barlow (1976) that treatments warrant consideration only if these are powerful enough to effect obvious gains; and of Gilbert, McPeek, and Mosteller (1977) that treatment research is more likely to give modest than substantial gains—the degree of gains which can also be difficult to detect. Another paper examines suggestions for teaching words to language-disordered children, that when knowledge of normal language processes is applied in training approaches, effective and individualized programs will follow. Used in the treatment of stuttering, the Shaping Group, which employs action and many other treatment models, shows that its approach is effective. Another paper notes that before a surgical correction of voice disorders is undertaken, the importance of knowing the possible effects of various procedures on the voice should first be known. The compendium is well suited for linguists, ethnologists, psychologists, speech therapists, and researchers whose works involve linguistics, learning, communications, corrective surgery, and syntax.
  • Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy

    • 2nd Edition
    • Edward C. Harris
    • English
    This book is the only text devoted entirely to archaeological stratigraphy, a subject of fundamental importance to most studies in archaeology. The first edition appeared in 1979 as a result of the invention, by the author, of the Harris Matrix--a method for analyzing and presenting the stratigraphic sequences of archaeological sites. The method is now widely used in archaeology all over the world.The opening chapters of this edition discuss the historical development of the ideas of archaeological stratigraphy. The central chapters examine the laws and basic concepts of the subject, and the last few chapters look at methods of recording stratification, constructing stratigraphic sequences, and the analysis of stratification and artifacts.The final chapter, which is followed by a glossary of stratigraphic terms, gives an outline of a modern system for recording stratification on archaeological sites. This book is written in a simple style suitable for the student or amateur. The radical ideas set out should also give the professional archaeologist food for thought.
  • Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange

    • 1st Edition
    • PERISIC
    • English
    Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange is a collection of papers that discusses the theoretical and methodological approaches in understanding the parameters of regional exchange from both the Old and New Worlds. The papers deal with the sourcing of exchange material, spatial patterning, the modeling of exchange, production for exchange, consumption, and symbolic contexts. One paper evaluates the different laboratory techniques for analyzing archaeological materials, their efficiency, "cost," range of applicability, and the mathematical usefulness of the data toward the research. Another paper describes the prehistoric obsidian used throughout New Mexico, and applies mathematical representations of the procurement strategies associated with the different obsidian source areas or time periods. The paper then incorporates these analyses with available bodies of theories on raw-material procurement and exchange. Through an analysis of stylistic and technological attributes of southwestern ceramics, one paper notes that inferring exchange on the basis of stylistic similarity does not always lead to a simple correlation between stylistic distributions and patterns of material exchange. Another paper suggests that ethnohistory and archaeology in Andean exchange can be complementary approaches to the discovery of patterns, processes, and change/exchange of other systems. The collection can prove beneficial for archaeologists, anthropologist, sociologists, and researchers interested in the pre-history of the Old World or New World.
  • The Languages of Theatre

    Problems in the Translation and Transposition of Drama
    • 1st Edition
    • O. Zuber
    • English
    This book focuses on the various problems in the verbal and nonverbal translation and tranposition of drama from one language and cultural background into another and from the text on to the stage. It covers a range of previously unpublished essays specifically written on translation problems unique to drama, by playwrights and literary translators as well as theorists, scholars and teachers of drama and translation studies
  • Financial Decision Making Under Uncertainty

    • 1st Edition
    • ANDERSON ANDERSON WEBSTER
    • English
    Financial Decision Making under Uncertainty presents the increasing application of the approach to financial decision making under uncertain to a myriad of practical problems. This book provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of financial theory. Organized into five parts encompassing 13 chapters, this book begins with an overview of formulating a problem as a linear program. This text then discusses the highlights of the theoretical and empirical analysis and then uses the same analytical framework to obtain results on the effect of inflation on the market price of risk. Other chapters consider meaningful utility functions for individual households that can be combined to construct an aggregate demand function for risky assets. This book discusses as well the formulation of the capital expenditure problems. The final chapter examines the case where the regulatory constraint is continuously enforced. This book is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in financial theory.
  • Coba

    A Classic Maya Metropolis
    • 1st Edition
    • William J. Folan
    • English
    Coba: A Classic Maya Metropolis investigates the ancient Maya and their ways both at Coba and in the rest of southern Mesoamerica. More specifically, it examines the composition, size, and organization of Coba and the manner in which the residents of this classic Maya metropolis extended themselves and their activities over the landscape. An interpretation of Maya class structure is also offered. Comprised of 14 chapters, this book begins with a background on the archaeological investigations of Coba as part of the Coba Archaeological Mapping Project. The debate over the urban status of Classic Maya settlements is considered, along with investigations of the hydrology, paleoclimatology, flora patterns, and soils of Coba. The importance of Coba in Maya history is then discussed, and the physical geography of the Yucatan Peninsula is described. Subsequent chapters focus on the various characteristics of Coba, including its urban organization and social structure; the composition of its residential compounds; neighborhoods and wards; and cottage industry and guild formation. A reconstruction of Coba's prehistoric population is also presented. This monograph will be of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists.
  • Behavior of Nonhuman Primates

    Modern Research Trends
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 1
    • Allan M. Schrier + 2 more
    • English
    Behavior of Nonhuman Primates: Modern Research Trends, Volume I focuses on studies on the dynamics of behavior of nonhuman primates. The selection first offers information on discrete-trial training techniques and stimulus variables and discrimination-learn... sets. Discussions focus on the characteristics of learning-set behavior, procedural variables, basic learning-set procedures, renaissance of contiguity, border cues and additivity, and contiguity and automation. The text then ponders on hypothesis behavior and delayed-response problem, including variations of the delayed-response problem; delayed response and discrimination learning contrasted; and the hypothesis model and its application to the object-discriminatio... experiment. The manuscript examines associative problems and operant conditioning. Topics include discriminative behavior, similarity and dissimilarity problems, alternation problems, discrimination reversal problems, discrimination problems, and behavior controlled by aversive stimuli. The text is a valuable reference for researchers interested in the behavior of nonhuman primates.
  • Cannon's Point Plantation, 1794 - 1860

    Living Conditions and Status Patterns in the Old South
    • 1st Edition
    • John Solomon Otto
    • English
    Cannon's Point Plantation, 1794 – 1860: Living Conditions and Status Patterns in the Old South presents the results of historical archaeological investigations at Cannon's Point, an antebellum sea-island cotton plantation off the Georgia coast. This book compares investigations of archaeological remains at sites once occupied by slaves, overseers, and planters—people who differed in racial, social, and economic status. This text not only examines the material living conditions of the Old South, but also observes a substantial example of status patterning in the archaeological record. This publication is valuable to archaeologists and historians concerned with the treatment and daily lives of slaves in the Old South.
  • Speech and Language

    Advances in Basic Research and Practice
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 7
    • Norman J. Lass
    • English
    Speech and Language: Advances in Basic Research and Practice, Volume 7 presents contributions that discuss a wide array of topics on speech and language processes and pathologies. This volume contains 11 contributions focusing on a broad range of topics on speech and language. Topics discussed in the book include auditory processing deficits in aphasic individuals and the factors that influence their performance; the functioning of the auditory system in stutterers; speech training aids for the deaf; and techniques for the assessment of language abilities in children. The morphological structure and mechanical properties of the vocal fold; the factors which participate in determining the location of a boundary signal and its amplitude; and the assessment and remediation of communication behavior in moderately retarded developmentally disabled adults are likewise covered extensively. Linguists, speech pathologists, and other language experts will find the book very insightful and informative.
  • Incest: A Biosocial View

    • 1st Edition
    • MOST
    • English
    Incest: A Biosocial View focuses on the sociobiological theory of incest and compares it with other theoretical approaches to the problem. The argument made in this book is that the existence of culture does not lead to the exemption of Homo sapiens from the evolutionary process. Instead, it creates a coevolutionary process, of which the evolution of incest avoidance in human beings is the simplest, yet most instructive, example. Comprised of 11 chapters, this volume begins with an introduction to the problem of incest, followed by a discussion on the sociobiological theory in general and some important methodological issues. Epigenetic rules and the importance of reproduction are considered, along with inclusive fitness and kin selection; kinship altruism (nepotism); reciprocal altruism; mate selection and parental investment, parent-child and sibling conflict; aggression and social order; and the biosocial view of culture. The next three chapters survey the theories and empirical findings that led to the sociobiological theory of incest, with particular reference to the views of Edward Westermarck as well as the kibbutz and the sim-pua. The propositions of the sociobiological theory of incest are then outlined. The book concludes by summarizing the classic theories of incest and synthesizing them in light of the sociobiological theory. This monograph is relevant to psychoanalysts, sociologists, biologists, anthropologists, and psychologists studying the problem of incest.