The Pícaro as Jester in the Spanish Picaresque

Abstract

Jean Blacker. The Faces of Time: Portrayal of the Past in Old French and Latin Historical Narrative of the Anglo-Norman Regnum. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. xv + 263 pp.

Gretchen Rous Besser. Germaine de Staël Revisited. (Twayne's World Authors Series, 849.) New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994. xvii + 181pp. $23.95.

John Claiborne Isbell. The Birth of European Romanticism: Truth and Propaganda in Staäl's 'De l'Allemagne, 1810–1813. (Cambridge Studies in French, 49.) Cambridge University Press, 1994. xiii + 269 pp. $59.95.

Michael Sprinker. History and Ideology in Proust: A la recherche du temps perdu and the Third French Republic. (Cambridge Studies in French, 50.) Cambridge University Press, 1994. xii + 232 pp. $54.95.

William J. Kennedy. Authorizing Petrarch. Cornell University Press, 1994. ii + 301pp.

M. J. Woods. Gracián Meets Góngora: The Theory and Practice of Wit. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1995. vi + 120 pp.

Cristóbal Cuevas García, ed. Jardiel Poncela. Teatro, vanguardia y humor. Barcelona: Athropos, 1993. 302 pp.

Roberta Johnson. Crossfire: Philosophy &; the Novel in Spain, 1900–1934. The University Press of Kentucky, 1993, xi + 234 pp.

Kenton V. Stone. Utopia Undone: The Fall of Uruguay in the Novels of Carlos Martínez Moreno. Lewisburg: Bucknell U P, 1994. 217 pp. $35.00

Carol Maier, Roberta L. Salper, eds. Ramón María del Valle-Inclán: Questions of Gender. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1994. 264 pp.

Walter Mignolo. The Darker Side of the Renaissance. Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization. University of Michigan Press, 1995. 426 pp. $39.50.

José Raimundo Maia Neto. Machado de Assis, the Brazilian Pyrrhonian. (Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures, 5.) Purdue University Press: 1994. 231pp. $35.95.     

The Anthropology of Virtual Worlds: World of Warcraft

Three recent ethnographies of the well-known massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft demonstrate the health and vitality of the study of virtual worlds. In particular, they emphasize the importance of anthropologists reading ethnographic work done by researchers in other disciplines, and by connoisseurs and cultural practitioners of video games who deserve to be taken as intellectual interlocutors. It may be, however, that less and less work will be done on virtual worlds in the future as scholarly attention focuses on other, more novel forms of technology.     

Patients and practitioners: Three hundred years of Western medicine

Ludmerer, Kenneth M. Learning to Heal: The Development of American Medical Education. New York: Basic Books, 1985. xv + 346 pp. $21.95 cloth.

Morantz‐Sanchez, Regina Markell. Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. xii + 464 pp. $24.95 cloth.

Porter, Roy, ed. Patients and Practitioners: Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre‐Industrial Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 356 pp. $49.50 cloth.     

Two AHA Sessions: The Revolutionary Mr. Kuhn and the Evolutionary Mr. Bertalanffy

Abstract

Quantitative methods of content analysis have become established in most subfields of political science, but remain relatively unutilized in studies of political theory, despite the exclusive focus of that subfield on textual sources. This article develops a variation of content analysis—termed usage analysis—and employs it to resolve a standing debate in scholarship on Cicero's political theory regarding the synonymy of the major Latin terms for the state (civitas and res publica). The resulting distinction between these concepts then informs an exposition of Cicero's ideal state not as the Roman Republic itself or the mixed constitution alone, but as a universal, everlasting political society supported by justice, a mixed constitution, and active citizenship.     

Domestic Pigs in Africa

The history of African pig breeds is still controversial due to the relative scarcity of archaeological and genetic data clarifying their origins. While these breeds might descend from Near Eastern pigs entering the continent via Egypt during the Neolithic, Africa may be a primary domestication locus for pigs, as indicated for other species such as cattle and donkeys. In this regard, characterisation of the mitochondrial gene pool of African pig breeds has revealed a very low frequency of Near Eastern alleles, suggesting that, if Fertile Crescent pigs played a part in the foundation of African breeds, their genetic signature has been substantially erased. Interestingly, genetic analysis of western and eastern African pig breeds has revealed a strong phylogeographic pattern, with the latter harbouring Far Eastern alleles at high frequencies. This finding is consistent with data obtained for chickens and confirms that livestock was transported in ancient times, from the Far East to Africa as a consequence of the Indian Ocean trade. European colonisation of Africa also involved the introduction of exotic swine breeds such as Iberian pigs. The confluence of the highly divergent European and Far Eastern Sus scrofa gene pools contributed to significantly enrich the genetic reservoir of African swine breeds, favouring their adaptation to environmental conditions that are often harsh. Conservation of this genetic legacy will be of utmost importance to ensure the prosperity of current resource-based subsistence farming systems in Africa.