Catalog All books
Geneviève Bédoucha
Lunar Eclipse in Yemen An Anthropologist's Emotions and Feelings of Bewilderment
This is a fascinating approach by a woman of a tribal society in a mountain valley in northern Yemen, near the Saudi Arabian border. Partly a travel book and partly a journal of the author's fieldwork, it restores an anthropologist's unique first-hand experience, questionings, hesitations and discoveries, from the first moments spent in an unfamiliar village. There are few anthropological works on Yemen, and even fewer about private life in rural societies in the hinterland of the former Arab Republic of Yemen (the author's fieldwork dates from the 1980s, before reunification). At the time, the presence of a female anthropologist led both men and women to talk openly, often jokingly and provocatively, of male-female relations, and it seemed to encourage women to voice strong criticisms of male behaviour and privileges. The women's comments reveal them to be lucid independent thinkers, and not at all submissive. This book is an invitation to discover a little-known rural community at close quarters, and to penetrate the secret universe of Yemen's many-storied mud houses. It reveals relations between men and women in a closed, but curious and hospitable, Muslim Arab society. An anthropologist and research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Geneviève Bédoucha is a specialist in the relations between socio-political structures and irrigation systems in Arabic and Islamic societies.
Yvonne Knibiehler
The History of Virginity Myths, fantasies, emancipation
An original analysis of the evolution of male-female relations, as seen through the changes in their respective understanding of female virginity.
Mark Williams, Danny Penman
Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World
Following The Mindful Way through Depression, the latest success by Oxford professor Mark Williams
Georges Hansel
Talmudic Explorations
Shrouded in legend, wrapped in mystery, disparaged, censored, and sometimes even burned, the Talmud remains one of the cornerstones of Judaism. Yet the general reader knows little about it. What is the source of the shared inspiration underlying Talmudic texts which are known to address every aspect of human existence? What are the basic Talmudic notions of morality, politics, and the law, as well as of family and social relationships? Georges Hansel unveils the basic Talmudic principles as well as the underlying inspirational forces that are responsible for their coherence. Georges Hansel is a mathematician and professor emeritus at the University of Rouen.
Roland Trompette, Daniel Nahon
Short Stories of the EarthAnd Universe
The mysteries of planet Earth revealed in 37 lively accessible chapters
Bernard Walliser
Cognitive Economics
This book should help readers gain a greater understanding of economic reasoning and rationality. It shows how a period of study and apprenticeship can improve the otherwise limited rationality of economic decisions-makers, how to co-ordinate the various actors expectations in a given situation, and how speculation results from the circulation of the opinions of the economic decision-makers. Bernard Walliser teaches economics at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées.
Marie-Christine Hardy-Baylé, Christine Bronnec
What are the Limits of Psychiatry ?
On the one hand, an ever increasing demand, on the other, widespread agreement that the profession in is the grip of a crisis. The result is that the supply is badly equipped to deal with the demand. What are the origins of this crisis ? Does it run as deep as the very foundations and identity of psychiatry itself ? In particular, what can be done to transform this natural diversity into a real strength ? Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Marie-Christine Hardy-Baylé works at the André-Mignot hospital, and is a professor of medicine at the University of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. She heads the Association for the Promotion of Public Health of Yvelines Sud. A hospital director, Christine Bronnec, is in charge of the ANEAS project to evaluate psychiatric needs, and is co-president of the Association for the Promotion of Public Health of Yvelines Sud.
