From handshakes and toasts to chant and genuflection, ritual pervades our social interactions and religious practices. Still, few of us could identify all of our daily and festal ritual behaviors, much less explain them to an outsider. Similarly, because of the variety of activities that qualify as ritual and their many contradictory yet, in many ways, equally legitimate interpretations, ritual seems to elude any systematic historical and comparative scrutiny.

In this book, Catherine Bell off...

The Silk Road was the current name for a complex of ancient trade routes linking East Asia with Central Asia, South Asia, and the Mediterranean world. This network of exchange emerged along the borders between agricultural China and the steppe nomads during the Han Dynasty (206BCE-220CE), in consequence of the inter-dependence and the conflicts of these two distinctive societies. In their quest for horses, fragrances, and spices, gems, glassware, and other exotics from the lands to their west...

Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was w...

This book aims to explain the basics of graph theory that are needed at an introductory level for students in computer or information sciences. To motivate students and to show that even these basic notions can be extremely useful, the book also aims to provide an introduction to the modern field of network science.Mathematics is often unnecessarily difficult for students, at times even intimidating. For this reason, explicit attention is paid in the first chapters to mathematical notations a...

Ibn Sina - Avicenna in Latin - (980-1037) played a considerable role in the development of both eastern and western philosophy and science. His contributions to the fields of logic, natural science, psychology, metaphysics and theology and even medicine are difficult to overstate. The great Islamic philosopher al-Ghazali thought that if one could show the incoherence of Avicenna's thought, then one would have shown the incoherence of philosophy in general.

No other author is directly cited by...

Advances in data collection and data storage techniques have enabled marketing researchers to study the individual characteristics of a large range of transactions and purchases, in particular the effects of household-specific characteristics. This 2001 book presents important and practically relevant quantitative models for marketing research. Each model is presented in detail with a self-contained discussion, which includes: a demonstration of the mechanics of the model, empirical analysis,...

Pour parler affaires – nouvelle édition bestaat uit een geïntegreerd livre de l’élève + cahier d’activités. Het livre de l’élève bestaat uit tien Modules. Communicatieve praktijksituaties en authentieke teksten vormen de basis voor het gebruik van de Franse taal. Belangrijke woordenschat staat in het kader Mots-clés en relevante grammatica-uitleg in Outils.

The perfect companion for both trainees and teacher trainers following courses such as the Cambridge CELTA, and the Trinity Certificate in TESOL, as well as teachers who are unsure of how to present grammar or those who are looking for new ways to present it. Teaching English Grammar aims to combine language information and methodological help in a straightforward, authoritative way and thus help English language teachers prepare and deliver grammar lessons within their syllabus. The book pro...

This is a user-friendly and comprehensive beginner Indonesian book and a great way to learn Indonesian. Divided into 28 graded lessons, Basic Indonesian provides fill-in-the-blank exercises, quizzes, word puzzles and question-and-answer practices to reinforce Indonesian language learning. Extensive cultural notes are provided along with detailed tips on etiquette and appropriate cultural behavior in the world's largest Islamic society.

It has been made to fill the need for a one-volume Indone...