John Grayzel - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by John Grayzel
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2012
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2015
Laina Farhat-Holzman God's Law or Man's Law: The Fundamentalist Challenge to Secular Rule... more Laina Farhat-Holzman God's Law or Man's Law: The Fundamentalist Challenge to Secular Rule Times Publishing Group, Aptos, 2002Laina Farhat-Holzman Strange Birds from Zoroaster's Nest, Revised Edition None The Less Press, Lenexa, 2003Laina Farhat-Holzman How Do You Know That?: A Guide to Critical Thinking about Global Issues The Center for Sustainable Business Practices, Kalamazoo, 2011Laina Farhat-Holzman World Changes: Ten Inventions That Changed Everything The Center for Sustainable Business Practices, Kalamazoo, 2012.Laina Farhat-Holzman is a prolific author, the copious extent of whose production challenges the reader who is ambitious enough to go below any one work to grasp the larger issues and positions she presents. The four books that concern us now are: 1) Strange Birds from Zoroaster's Nest (Revised Edition), 2) God's Law or Man's Law: The Fundamentalist Challenge to Secular Rule, 3) How Do You Know That: A Guide to Critical Thinking about Global Is...
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2019
Polynesian civilization was configured — prior to Western colonization — in ways similar to that ... more Polynesian civilization was configured — prior to Western colonization — in ways similar to that sometimes described as necessary for humanity's interstellar migration into space. Over thousands of years and miles, across open ocean, a core population expanded to settle on hundreds of scattered islands, while maintaining shared identity, continued awareness and repetitive contact with each other. Key to their expansion was their development of robust ocean-going vessels and their extraordinary abilities to navigate across vast expanses of open water. The first half of the 1800s saw a surge in contacts between Polynesia and western missionaries and whalers, followed by significant depopulation due to disease and, after 1850, the imposition of Western political control. The result was a dramatic disruption of many elements of Polynesian life. At the same time, the propensity of many outsiders was to characterize Polynesia as uncivilized or as an “arrested” civilization. However, i...
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2015
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsAr... more This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Comparative Civilizations Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2020
Anthropology and Development in North Africa and the Middle East, 2019
Anthropology has throughout much of its history been concerned with the correspondence between th... more Anthropology has throughout much of its history been concerned with the correspondence between the ideal and the real as reflected at the individual and group levels, and as expressed in the discrepancy between how people view themselves, their cultures, and ...
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, 2017
Comparative Civilizations Review, Apr 1, 2012
Sjoberg, Andree, Dravidian Language and Culture: Dravidian University, Kuppam 2009 When we discus... more Sjoberg, Andree, Dravidian Language and Culture: Dravidian University, Kuppam 2009 When we discuss contemporary Dravidian peoples we are generally referring to over 200 million people, from diverse groups across the India sub-continent area, who speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family and who very often are characterized by darker skin color than that of first language Hindi speakers. The term Dravidian comes from the Sanskrit term Dravidian, meaning "Tamil." Therefore, what is often depicted as "Dravidian" reflects a variety of customs popularly seen as "South Indian", though the presence of Dravidian speakers extends into central India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The origin of the Dra vidians has been a subject of much controversy. And a great deal of that has been focused on the relative extent to which the Dravidians have been a major primary creator of the larger Hindu civilization of the Indian sub-continent or the recipients of outside enrichments to which they have added the residuals of their more ancient ways. A fundamental premise of this book-a collection of diverse essays by Prof. Andree Sjoberg, a long-time active member of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, is that there is a significant under-appreciation of the contribution of Dravidians to present day more generalized Indian Hindu culture; further, key elements of Hindu culture are often excessively attributed to the Aryan groups who entered India, pushing back the more ancient Dravidian populations in the process. But while Sjoberg makes a strong case that the preponderance of evidence seems to attest to the major formative role of Dravidian speakers in the molding of Hindu civilization, many of the specifics remain imprecise, as she herself clearly notes. For example, she notes that the linguistic and biological evidence often seems contradictory, because many of the specifics of linguistics point to an origin in Central Asia and Asia Minor for Dravidian groups while other biological and cultural aspects seem more oriented to the southeast and even a Proto-Australoid or Australoid past. This publication by Pravadea University provides an excellent exposure to how Dr. Sjoberg' s own thoughts and research are important contributions to the resolution of many of those contradictions. Pravadea University's publishing of Sjoberg's work, Dravidian Language Culture, represents a type of activity frequently produced by specific institutions and organizations of a highly localized nature and whose subject matter is often perceived to be esoteric or highly specialized in contrast to the interests and presentations of reigning majority concerns, conceptions and dynamics. In India, of course, the concept of "minority" must be understood as only relative, given the size of minority populations and the richness of local cultures. Yet those outside the obvious intended audience for such works who do take up the challenge of navigating through the concentrated localized content are often rewarded with profound insight - like sweet grapes picked through the labor of arduous workers who select from rarer and more mature vines than those used for more general mass distribution. Such is the case with Sjoberg's book. Sjoberg uses what she identifies as the process of "elimination" to support her thesis that Dravidian culture has profoundly influenced what is characterized as presentday Hindu Indian civilization. However, because the evidence is so very scattered and varied, she makes the case that such a large presence of evidence, even if imprecise, justifies attribution of cause specifically because there is far less evidence to support a contrary position. In short, in cases where there is a lack of solid evidence, accepting the preponderance of evidence is the acceptable default criterion. From a religious perspective, she notes how the core concept of Shakti (power or energy), so central to Hinduism, is clearly pre-Aryan and mainly Dravidian. …
Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, & Africa: An Encyclopedia
Comparative Civilizations Review, Apr 1, 2013
Trautmann, Thomas R. 2011. India: Brief History of a Civilization. New York: Oxford University Pr... more Trautmann, Thomas R. 2011. India: Brief History of a Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press. Indian edition 2011. Italian translation 2014. La civiltà dell’India. Le vie della civiltà. Il Mulino. Second edition forthcoming 2015. This book is an introductory overview of Indian Civilization, intended as a first book for students, comprehensive in coverage but brief enough to be read in a few sittings. It gives a big-picture survey of 5,000 years of history in South Asia, from the beginnings of farming, cities and writing, to the present. It gives readers new to the topic a map of the territory and the tools to take on more advanced and specialized readings. It comes from many years of teaching an introductory course on Indian Civilization at the University of Michigan and trying out many different textbooks (books that I liked, from writers I admired), only to find that the students complained that there was too much detail and too many difficult-to-master proper names of persons, places and things, and technical terms in Sanskrit and other languages. Eventually I began writing a text for my students, giving it to them in course-pack form, and collecting their comments on the drafts. This text is the result of several years of field-testing and feedback from my students. It is illustrated with 21 original drawings by James Cogswell and 13 original maps by Elisabeth Paymal.
The world of pastoralism: …, 1990
The chapter examines the Fulbe tribe and their pastoral system which can be found in an area of M... more The chapter examines the Fulbe tribe and their pastoral system which can be found in an area of Mali approximately 60 km south of the city of Segou. The Fulbe are an extremely heterogeneous class of people whose similarity to each other and dissimilarity ...
Comparative Civilizations Review, Apr 1, 2014
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2012
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2015
Laina Farhat-Holzman God's Law or Man's Law: The Fundamentalist Challenge to Secular Rule... more Laina Farhat-Holzman God's Law or Man's Law: The Fundamentalist Challenge to Secular Rule Times Publishing Group, Aptos, 2002Laina Farhat-Holzman Strange Birds from Zoroaster's Nest, Revised Edition None The Less Press, Lenexa, 2003Laina Farhat-Holzman How Do You Know That?: A Guide to Critical Thinking about Global Issues The Center for Sustainable Business Practices, Kalamazoo, 2011Laina Farhat-Holzman World Changes: Ten Inventions That Changed Everything The Center for Sustainable Business Practices, Kalamazoo, 2012.Laina Farhat-Holzman is a prolific author, the copious extent of whose production challenges the reader who is ambitious enough to go below any one work to grasp the larger issues and positions she presents. The four books that concern us now are: 1) Strange Birds from Zoroaster's Nest (Revised Edition), 2) God's Law or Man's Law: The Fundamentalist Challenge to Secular Rule, 3) How Do You Know That: A Guide to Critical Thinking about Global Is...
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2019
Polynesian civilization was configured — prior to Western colonization — in ways similar to that ... more Polynesian civilization was configured — prior to Western colonization — in ways similar to that sometimes described as necessary for humanity's interstellar migration into space. Over thousands of years and miles, across open ocean, a core population expanded to settle on hundreds of scattered islands, while maintaining shared identity, continued awareness and repetitive contact with each other. Key to their expansion was their development of robust ocean-going vessels and their extraordinary abilities to navigate across vast expanses of open water. The first half of the 1800s saw a surge in contacts between Polynesia and western missionaries and whalers, followed by significant depopulation due to disease and, after 1850, the imposition of Western political control. The result was a dramatic disruption of many elements of Polynesian life. At the same time, the propensity of many outsiders was to characterize Polynesia as uncivilized or as an “arrested” civilization. However, i...
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2015
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsAr... more This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Comparative Civilizations Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2020
Anthropology and Development in North Africa and the Middle East, 2019
Anthropology has throughout much of its history been concerned with the correspondence between th... more Anthropology has throughout much of its history been concerned with the correspondence between the ideal and the real as reflected at the individual and group levels, and as expressed in the discrepancy between how people view themselves, their cultures, and ...
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, 2017
Comparative Civilizations Review, Apr 1, 2012
Sjoberg, Andree, Dravidian Language and Culture: Dravidian University, Kuppam 2009 When we discus... more Sjoberg, Andree, Dravidian Language and Culture: Dravidian University, Kuppam 2009 When we discuss contemporary Dravidian peoples we are generally referring to over 200 million people, from diverse groups across the India sub-continent area, who speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family and who very often are characterized by darker skin color than that of first language Hindi speakers. The term Dravidian comes from the Sanskrit term Dravidian, meaning "Tamil." Therefore, what is often depicted as "Dravidian" reflects a variety of customs popularly seen as "South Indian", though the presence of Dravidian speakers extends into central India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The origin of the Dra vidians has been a subject of much controversy. And a great deal of that has been focused on the relative extent to which the Dravidians have been a major primary creator of the larger Hindu civilization of the Indian sub-continent or the recipients of outside enrichments to which they have added the residuals of their more ancient ways. A fundamental premise of this book-a collection of diverse essays by Prof. Andree Sjoberg, a long-time active member of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, is that there is a significant under-appreciation of the contribution of Dravidians to present day more generalized Indian Hindu culture; further, key elements of Hindu culture are often excessively attributed to the Aryan groups who entered India, pushing back the more ancient Dravidian populations in the process. But while Sjoberg makes a strong case that the preponderance of evidence seems to attest to the major formative role of Dravidian speakers in the molding of Hindu civilization, many of the specifics remain imprecise, as she herself clearly notes. For example, she notes that the linguistic and biological evidence often seems contradictory, because many of the specifics of linguistics point to an origin in Central Asia and Asia Minor for Dravidian groups while other biological and cultural aspects seem more oriented to the southeast and even a Proto-Australoid or Australoid past. This publication by Pravadea University provides an excellent exposure to how Dr. Sjoberg' s own thoughts and research are important contributions to the resolution of many of those contradictions. Pravadea University's publishing of Sjoberg's work, Dravidian Language Culture, represents a type of activity frequently produced by specific institutions and organizations of a highly localized nature and whose subject matter is often perceived to be esoteric or highly specialized in contrast to the interests and presentations of reigning majority concerns, conceptions and dynamics. In India, of course, the concept of "minority" must be understood as only relative, given the size of minority populations and the richness of local cultures. Yet those outside the obvious intended audience for such works who do take up the challenge of navigating through the concentrated localized content are often rewarded with profound insight - like sweet grapes picked through the labor of arduous workers who select from rarer and more mature vines than those used for more general mass distribution. Such is the case with Sjoberg's book. Sjoberg uses what she identifies as the process of "elimination" to support her thesis that Dravidian culture has profoundly influenced what is characterized as presentday Hindu Indian civilization. However, because the evidence is so very scattered and varied, she makes the case that such a large presence of evidence, even if imprecise, justifies attribution of cause specifically because there is far less evidence to support a contrary position. In short, in cases where there is a lack of solid evidence, accepting the preponderance of evidence is the acceptable default criterion. From a religious perspective, she notes how the core concept of Shakti (power or energy), so central to Hinduism, is clearly pre-Aryan and mainly Dravidian. …
Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, & Africa: An Encyclopedia
Comparative Civilizations Review, Apr 1, 2013
Trautmann, Thomas R. 2011. India: Brief History of a Civilization. New York: Oxford University Pr... more Trautmann, Thomas R. 2011. India: Brief History of a Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press. Indian edition 2011. Italian translation 2014. La civiltà dell’India. Le vie della civiltà. Il Mulino. Second edition forthcoming 2015. This book is an introductory overview of Indian Civilization, intended as a first book for students, comprehensive in coverage but brief enough to be read in a few sittings. It gives a big-picture survey of 5,000 years of history in South Asia, from the beginnings of farming, cities and writing, to the present. It gives readers new to the topic a map of the territory and the tools to take on more advanced and specialized readings. It comes from many years of teaching an introductory course on Indian Civilization at the University of Michigan and trying out many different textbooks (books that I liked, from writers I admired), only to find that the students complained that there was too much detail and too many difficult-to-master proper names of persons, places and things, and technical terms in Sanskrit and other languages. Eventually I began writing a text for my students, giving it to them in course-pack form, and collecting their comments on the drafts. This text is the result of several years of field-testing and feedback from my students. It is illustrated with 21 original drawings by James Cogswell and 13 original maps by Elisabeth Paymal.
The world of pastoralism: …, 1990
The chapter examines the Fulbe tribe and their pastoral system which can be found in an area of M... more The chapter examines the Fulbe tribe and their pastoral system which can be found in an area of Mali approximately 60 km south of the city of Segou. The Fulbe are an extremely heterogeneous class of people whose similarity to each other and dissimilarity ...
Comparative Civilizations Review, Apr 1, 2014