Author: Ray Broadus Browne
Publisher: Popular Press
ISBN: 9780879725228
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196
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Book Description
This volume presents archeological studies in conjunction with cultural anthropological studies as a means to enhance popular culture studies. Scholar Malcolm K. Shuman points out that the study of archeology must be careful to chart the total human content of an artifact, because archeology "is a profoundly human (and humanizing) endeavor that cannot be divorced from the matrix of human life." The other ten essays cover aspects of archeology and cultural anthropology, and the authors are meticulous in studying their subject in context.
Author: Miles Russell
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196
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Book Description
What would Howard Carter have thought of Lara Croft? and why do archaeologists feature so prominently in Star Trek? Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy writes the preface to this unusual collection of papers dedicated to exploring the role of the archaeologist in popular culture. The clichés and stereotypes of archaeology that abound in popular culture, the sense of mystery and adventure, the excitement generated by a dangerous treasure hunt or a thrilling detective story, rarely hint at the monotonous hours spent by modern archaeologists researching in laboratories and libraries and filling out paperwork. Yet the role-models provided by fictional characters such as Dr Who, Indiana Jones, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Lara Croft have had a powerful influence on how archaeologists and the practices of archaeology are viewed by the general public. At times hilarious, these papers nevertheless address serious cultural issues relevant to archaeology today: colonialism, the indigenous voice, gender roles, objectivity, and ownership of the past.
Author: Violet Fenn
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526776634
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241
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Book Description
An exploration of the continuing appeal of vampires in cultural and social history. Our enduring love of vampires—the bad boys (and girls) of paranormal fantasy—has persisted for centuries. Despite being bloodthirsty, heartless killers, vampire stories commonly carry erotic overtones that are missing from other paranormal or horror stories. Even when monstrous teeth are sinking into pale, helpless throats—especially then—vampires are sexy. But why? In A History Of The Vampire In Popular Culture, author Violet Fenn takes the reader through the history of vampires in “fact” and fiction, their origins in mythology and literature, and their enduring appeal on TV and film. We’ll delve into the sexuality--and sexism--of vampire lore, as well as how modern audiences still hunger for a pair of sharp fangs in the middle of the night.
Author: Amiri Baraka
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520943090
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 425
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Book Description
For almost half a century, Amiri Baraka has ranked among the most important commentators on African American music and culture. In this brilliant assemblage of his writings on music, the first such collection in nearly twenty years, Baraka blends autobiography, history, musical analysis, and political commentary to recall the sounds, people, times, and places he's encountered. As in his earlier classics, Blues People and Black Music, Baraka offers essays on the famous—Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane—and on those whose names are known mainly by jazz aficionados—Alan Shorter, Jon Jang, and Malachi Thompson. Baraka's literary style, with its deep roots in poetry, makes palpable his love and respect for his jazz musician friends. His energy and enthusiasm show us again how much Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and the others he lovingly considers mattered. He brings home to us how music itself matters, and how musicians carry and extend that knowledge from generation to generation, providing us, their listeners, with a sense of meaning and belonging.
Author: Cameron White
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742559707
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 172
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Book Description
A collection of eloquent essays, Tooning In critically examines and interprets the concept of 'popular culture.' Many interesting works have addressed this subject, but few have provided a critical perspective regarding the possibilities of popular culture as a tool for teaching and learning. White and Walker suggest that popular culture is a vital aspect of contemporary life and can be wielded as a tool for efficacy and empowerment, particularly among youth. The book addresses such important questions as: What is the role of popular culture in students' lives? What are the possibilities for popular culture in schooling and education? What are the differences between traditional and transformative approaches to popular culture? With essays specifically devoted to film, music, television, games, and other alternative popular culture texts, Tooning In invites readers to re-examine the fundamental aspects of popular culture as a societal force.
Author: Ian W. Macdonald
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443843040
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
The 1984–5 Miners’ Strike was one of the most important political events in British history. It was a bitter dispute that polarised public opinion, divided nation and families alike, and the results in terms of the destruction of centuries of industrial and cultural tradition are still keenly felt. The social and political consequences of this dispute, which have resonated for the past quarter century, have been subject to detailed analysis and reflection. The consequences for the arts and popular culture are less clearly mapped. This book attempts to begin to redress this imbalance and signal the importance of popular cultural activity both during and after the strike. The essays that appear in this book represent diverse and multidisciplinary responses to the questions raised by the strike and its relationships to a broad range of cultural forms which include literature, film, photography, music, theatre, television drama and documentary, painting, public art and heritage interventions. These responses are organised around four themes that map the interrelatedness between cultural representation, cultural intervention and historical memory. The first deals with the idea of mining culture and pre-strike representations in popular sentiment, film and literature. The second examines the role cultural forms played directly in the context of the strike, as a means of political commentary, activism and fund raising. The third looks at subsequent cultural renderings or reconstructions of the strike and the final section looks at the current process of memorialisation and commemoration. The book draws together a range of voices from academia, heritage, cultural and mining backgrounds, and offers both a historical perspective on the range of cultural activities in the course of the dispute and subsequent readings and re-readings. It aims both to provide a record of cultural intervention and stimulate new dialogues and perspectives.
Author: Marshall Fishwick
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136765522
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
“When it comes to seeing depth and lateral connections in the development of popular culture, nobody exceeds Marshall Fishwick.” -Canadian Psychology In Probing Popular Culture: On and Off the Internet, one of the leading authorities in American and popular culture studies presents an eye-opening examination o
Author: Theresa Sanders
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742563339
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
Provides historical background from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim perspectives to show the relevance and prominence of Adam and Eve's story in life today, where we are inundated with references to the Garden of Eden in popular culture from an early age.
Author: Philippa Gates
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791481387
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
Detecting Men examines the history of the Hollywood detective genre and the ways that detective films have negotiated changing social attitudes toward masculinity, heroism, law enforcement, and justice. Genre film can be a site for the expression and resolution of problematic social issues, but while there have been many studies of such other male genres as war films, gangster films, and Westerns, relatively little attention has been paid to detective films beyond film noir. In this volume, Philippa Gates examines classical films of the thirties and forties as well as recent examples of the genre, including Die Hard, the Lethal Weapon films, The Usual Suspects, Seven, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Murder by Numbers, in order to explore social anxieties about masculinity and crime and Hollywood's conceptions of gender. Up until the early 1990s, Gates argues, the primary focus of the detective genre was the masculinity of the hero. However, from the mid-1990s onward, the genre has shifted to more technical portrayals of crime scene investigation, forensic science, and criminal profiling, offering a reassuring image of law enforcement in the face of violent crime. By investigating the evolution of the detective film, Gates suggests, perhaps we can detect the male.
Author: Alex Rubens
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1468316451
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186
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Book Description
Before Call of Duty, before World of Warcraft, before even Super Mario Bros., the video game industry exploded in the late 1970s with the advent of the video arcade. Leading the charge was Atari Inc., the creator of, among others, the iconic game Missile Command. The first game to double as a commentary on culture, Missile Command put the players’ fingers on “the button,†? making them responsible for the fate of civilization in a no-win scenario, all for the price of a quarter. The game was marvel of modern culture, helping usher in both the age of the video game and the video game lifestyle. Its groundbreaking implications inspired a fanatical culture that persists to this day.As fascinating as the cultural reaction to Missile Command were the programmers behind it. Before the era of massive development teams and worship of figures like Steve Jobs, Atari was manufacturing arcade machines designed, written, and coded by individual designers. As earnings from their games entered the millions, these creators were celebrated as geniuses in their time; once dismissed as nerds and fanatics, they were now being interviewed for major publications, and partied like Wall Street traders. However, the toll on these programmers was high: developers worked 120-hour weeks, often opting to stay in the office for days on end while under a deadline. Missile Command creator David Theurer threw himself particularly fervently into his work, prompting not only declining health and a suffering relationship with his family, but frequent nightmares about nuclear annihilation. To truly tell the story from the inside, tech insider and writer Alex Rubens has interviewed numerous major figures from this time: Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari; David Theurer, the creator of Missile Command; and Phil Klemmer, writer for the NBC series Chuck, who wrote an entire episode for the show about Missile Command and its mythical “kill screen.†? Taking readers back to the days of TaB cola, dot matrix printers, and digging through the couch for just one more quarter, Alex Rubens combines his knowledge of the tech industry and experience as a gaming journalist to conjure the wild silicon frontier of the 8-bit ’80s. 8-Bit Apocalypse: The Untold Story of Atari's Missile Command offers the first in-depth, personal history of an era for which fans have a lot of nostalgia.
