Author: Arthur Marwick
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1847250505
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
A look at outstanding physical attractiveness as a quality or possession, comparable to power, intelligence, strength, wealth, education or family.
A History of Human Beauty
Author: Arthur Marwick
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826439454
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
If Cleopatra's nose had been half an inch longer, neither Caesar nor Mark Antony would have fallen in love with her. It: A History of Human Beauty treats outstanding physical attractiveness as a quality or possession, comparable to power, intelligence, strength, wealth, education or family, that had a marked effect on history. Beauty in men and women opened opportunities to its possessors not available to the ordinary looking or ugly. While in the past women have had to use the lure of sex to achieve power or wealth, epitomised by royal mistresses or the Grandes Horizontales of the nineteenth century, modern film stars (male and female) can acquire great wealth simply by the use of their images, while attractiveness on television is an essential modern qualification for power, as shown by Ronald Reagan and Tony Blair.
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826439454
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
If Cleopatra's nose had been half an inch longer, neither Caesar nor Mark Antony would have fallen in love with her. It: A History of Human Beauty treats outstanding physical attractiveness as a quality or possession, comparable to power, intelligence, strength, wealth, education or family, that had a marked effect on history. Beauty in men and women opened opportunities to its possessors not available to the ordinary looking or ugly. While in the past women have had to use the lure of sex to achieve power or wealth, epitomised by royal mistresses or the Grandes Horizontales of the nineteenth century, modern film stars (male and female) can acquire great wealth simply by the use of their images, while attractiveness on television is an essential modern qualification for power, as shown by Ronald Reagan and Tony Blair.
Beauty: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Roger Scruton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199229759
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
In a book that is itself beautifully written, renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores this timeless concept, asking what makes an object--either in art, in nature, or the human form--beautiful.--From publisher description.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199229759
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
In a book that is itself beautifully written, renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores this timeless concept, asking what makes an object--either in art, in nature, or the human form--beautiful.--From publisher description.
The Quest for Human Beauty
Author: Julian Robinson
Publisher: W. W. Norton
ISBN: 9780393040043
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
This is a compendium of the disparate notions of human beauty throughout history and cultures. It illuminates how and why, for thousands of years, men and women across the globe have gone to elaborate lengths to alter their natural appearance.
Publisher: W. W. Norton
ISBN: 9780393040043
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
This is a compendium of the disparate notions of human beauty throughout history and cultures. It illuminates how and why, for thousands of years, men and women across the globe have gone to elaborate lengths to alter their natural appearance.
The Art Instinct
Author: Denis Dutton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199539421
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
The Dinka have a connoisseur's appreciation of the patterns and colours of the markings on their cattle. The Japanese tea ceremony is regarded as a performance art. Some cultures produce carving but no drawing; others specialize in poetry. Yet despite the rich variety of artistic expression to be found across many cultures, we all share a deep sense of aesthetic pleasure. The need to create art of some form is found in every human society.In The Art Instinct, Denis Dutton explores the idea that this need has an evolutionary basis: how the feelings that we all share when we see a wonderful landscape or a beautiful sunset evolved as a useful adaptation in our hunter-gather ancestors, and have been passed on to us today, manifest in our artistic natures. Why do people indulge in displaying their artistic skills? How can we understand artistic genius? Why do we value art, and what is it for? These questions have long been asked by scholars in the humanities and in literature, but this is the first book to consider the biological basis of this deep human need.This sparking and intelligent book looks at these deep and fundamental questions, and combines the science of evolutionary psychology with aesthetics, to shed new light on longstanding questions about the nature of art.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199539421
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
The Dinka have a connoisseur's appreciation of the patterns and colours of the markings on their cattle. The Japanese tea ceremony is regarded as a performance art. Some cultures produce carving but no drawing; others specialize in poetry. Yet despite the rich variety of artistic expression to be found across many cultures, we all share a deep sense of aesthetic pleasure. The need to create art of some form is found in every human society.In The Art Instinct, Denis Dutton explores the idea that this need has an evolutionary basis: how the feelings that we all share when we see a wonderful landscape or a beautiful sunset evolved as a useful adaptation in our hunter-gather ancestors, and have been passed on to us today, manifest in our artistic natures. Why do people indulge in displaying their artistic skills? How can we understand artistic genius? Why do we value art, and what is it for? These questions have long been asked by scholars in the humanities and in literature, but this is the first book to consider the biological basis of this deep human need.This sparking and intelligent book looks at these deep and fundamental questions, and combines the science of evolutionary psychology with aesthetics, to shed new light on longstanding questions about the nature of art.
The Evolution of Beauty
Author: Richard O. Prum
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385537220
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, SMITHSONIAN, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum—reviving Darwin's own views—thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385537220
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, SMITHSONIAN, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum—reviving Darwin's own views—thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.
Beauty and the Beast
Author: Arnold Arluke
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815650914
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
From fairy tales to photography, nowhere is the complexity of human-animal relationships more apparent than in the creative arts. Art illuminates the nature and significance of animals in modern, Western thought, capturing the complicated union that has long existed between the animal kingdom and us. In Beauty and the Beast, authors Arluke and Bogdan explore this relationship through the unique lens of photo postcards. This visual medium offers an enormous and relatively untapped archive to compelling document their subject.
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815650914
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
From fairy tales to photography, nowhere is the complexity of human-animal relationships more apparent than in the creative arts. Art illuminates the nature and significance of animals in modern, Western thought, capturing the complicated union that has long existed between the animal kingdom and us. In Beauty and the Beast, authors Arluke and Bogdan explore this relationship through the unique lens of photo postcards. This visual medium offers an enormous and relatively untapped archive to compelling document their subject.
The Beauty of Being Human
Author: Nirander Safaya Ph. D.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1664132473
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Book Description
In this collection of 200 poems, written after retirement from a brilliant scientific career, author Nirander Safaya takes us on a panoramic journey of self-discovery. Collectively, these poems focus on: what it means to be Human. Attachment to life, desire to love and be loved, thirst for knowing, and consciousness are the hall marks of human nature. Dr. Safaya’s poetry portrays the beauty and the challenges of these human gifts and aspirations. The Beauty of Being Human shows how our lives can become truly beautiful and fulfilled by a conscious understanding of the gifts we Sapiens possess. The book is thematically divided into 3 parts: Part I has 70 poems on Life & Living, Part II has 68 poems on Love & Passion, and Part III has 62 poems on Light & Consciousness. By presenting the poems in a sequential order, the poet is taking the serious reader through a gradual unfolding of his aesthetic and philosophical vision of the pragmatic, romantic, and spiritual aspirations of human heart and soul. It also provides a casual poetry lover the freedom to read these poems randomly and enjoy their message and beauty. “Dazzling” and uplifting, the poetry of Nirander Safaya provides “surprising imagery...to uncommon and timeless effect”. The joys and sorrows of life and the saving grace of light and consciousness are the topics and the “sensory delight” of this book.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1664132473
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Book Description
In this collection of 200 poems, written after retirement from a brilliant scientific career, author Nirander Safaya takes us on a panoramic journey of self-discovery. Collectively, these poems focus on: what it means to be Human. Attachment to life, desire to love and be loved, thirst for knowing, and consciousness are the hall marks of human nature. Dr. Safaya’s poetry portrays the beauty and the challenges of these human gifts and aspirations. The Beauty of Being Human shows how our lives can become truly beautiful and fulfilled by a conscious understanding of the gifts we Sapiens possess. The book is thematically divided into 3 parts: Part I has 70 poems on Life & Living, Part II has 68 poems on Love & Passion, and Part III has 62 poems on Light & Consciousness. By presenting the poems in a sequential order, the poet is taking the serious reader through a gradual unfolding of his aesthetic and philosophical vision of the pragmatic, romantic, and spiritual aspirations of human heart and soul. It also provides a casual poetry lover the freedom to read these poems randomly and enjoy their message and beauty. “Dazzling” and uplifting, the poetry of Nirander Safaya provides “surprising imagery...to uncommon and timeless effect”. The joys and sorrows of life and the saving grace of light and consciousness are the topics and the “sensory delight” of this book.
The Search for the Beautiful Woman
Author: Cho Kyo
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442218959
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
While a slender body is a prerequisite for beauty today, plump women were considered ideal in Tang Dynasty China and Heian-period Japan. Starting around the Southern Song period in China, bound feet symbolized the attractiveness of women. But in Japan, shaved eyebrows and blackened teeth long were markers of loveliness. For centuries, Japanese culture was profoundly shaped by China, but in complex ways that are only now becoming apparent. In this first full comparative history of the subject, Cho Kyo explores changing standards of feminine beauty in China and Japan over the past two millennia. Drawing on a rich array of literary and artistic sources gathered over a decade of research, he considers which Chinese representations were rejected or accepted and transformed in Japan. He then traces the introduction of Western aesthetics into Japan starting in the Meiji era, leading to slowly developing but radical changes in representations of beauty. Through fiction, poetry, art, advertisements, and photographs, the author vividly demonstrates how criteria of beauty differ greatly by era and culture and how aesthetic sense changed in the course of extended cultural transformations that were influenced by both China and the West.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442218959
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
While a slender body is a prerequisite for beauty today, plump women were considered ideal in Tang Dynasty China and Heian-period Japan. Starting around the Southern Song period in China, bound feet symbolized the attractiveness of women. But in Japan, shaved eyebrows and blackened teeth long were markers of loveliness. For centuries, Japanese culture was profoundly shaped by China, but in complex ways that are only now becoming apparent. In this first full comparative history of the subject, Cho Kyo explores changing standards of feminine beauty in China and Japan over the past two millennia. Drawing on a rich array of literary and artistic sources gathered over a decade of research, he considers which Chinese representations were rejected or accepted and transformed in Japan. He then traces the introduction of Western aesthetics into Japan starting in the Meiji era, leading to slowly developing but radical changes in representations of beauty. Through fiction, poetry, art, advertisements, and photographs, the author vividly demonstrates how criteria of beauty differ greatly by era and culture and how aesthetic sense changed in the course of extended cultural transformations that were influenced by both China and the West.
Deep History
Author: Andrew Shryock
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520270282
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
This breakthrough book brings science into history to offer a dazzling new vision of humanity across time. Team-written by leading experts in a variety of fields, it maps events, cultures, and eras across millions of years to present a new scale for understanding the human body, energy and ecosystems, language, food, kinship, migration, and more.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520270282
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
This breakthrough book brings science into history to offer a dazzling new vision of humanity across time. Team-written by leading experts in a variety of fields, it maps events, cultures, and eras across millions of years to present a new scale for understanding the human body, energy and ecosystems, language, food, kinship, migration, and more.
The Invisible History of the Human Race
Author: Christine Kenneally
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458798704
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 477
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book of 2014 We are doomed to repeat history if we fail to learn from it, but how are we affected by the forces that are invisible to us? What role does Neanderthal DNA play in our genetic makeup? How did the theory of eugenics embraced by Nazi Germany first develop? How is trust passed down in Africa, and silence inherited in Tasmania? How are private companies like Ancestry.com uncovering, preserving and potentially editing the past? In The Invisible History of the Human Race, Christine Kenneally reveals that, remarkably, it is not only our biological history that is coded in our DNA, but also our social history. She breaks down myths of determinism and draws on cutting - edge research to explore how both historical artefacts and our DNA tell us where we have come from and where we may be going.
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458798704
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 477
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book of 2014 We are doomed to repeat history if we fail to learn from it, but how are we affected by the forces that are invisible to us? What role does Neanderthal DNA play in our genetic makeup? How did the theory of eugenics embraced by Nazi Germany first develop? How is trust passed down in Africa, and silence inherited in Tasmania? How are private companies like Ancestry.com uncovering, preserving and potentially editing the past? In The Invisible History of the Human Race, Christine Kenneally reveals that, remarkably, it is not only our biological history that is coded in our DNA, but also our social history. She breaks down myths of determinism and draws on cutting - edge research to explore how both historical artefacts and our DNA tell us where we have come from and where we may be going.