Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 7, 2004|Volume 32, Number 29|Two-Week Issue

Yale Books in Brief

The following is a list of books recently or soon-to-be published by members of the Yale community. Descriptions are based on material provided by the publishers.

To submit information about books for this column, send e-mail to opa@yale.edu.

Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya
Mary E. Miller, the Vincent Scully Professor of the History of Art and master of Silliman College, and Simon Martin, with an introduction by Kathleen Berrin
(Thames & Hudson)

Published to accompany an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, of which Mary E. Miller is the guest curator, "Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya" provides an overview of the courts of ancient Mayan civilization. Based on the latest research, the book includes more than 300 illustrations to illuminate royal life and demonstrate how Maya artistic expression during the second half of the first millennium reached the highest peaks of opulence and cultural refinement in the New World. The book explores how, from one generation to another, nobles began to take on additional titles, providing an ever more refined notion of courtly rights and responsibilities, rankings and rituals. It also reveals how ancient Maya kings and queens commissioned works of art and architecture to memorialize themselves and ensure their place in history, and how they were catered to by a coterie of dwarves, hunchbacks, scribes, singers, fan bearers and others. Featured artifacts include ceramic censers, stucco heads, jade masks, terra-cotta figurines, incised wood boxes and carved limestone lintels, among other objects drawn from collections in the Americas, Europe and Australia.

Voices of the New Republic: Connecticut Towns 18001832, Volumes 1 and 2
Edited by Howard R. Lamar, former Yale president and Sterling Professor of History, and Christopher Bickford
(The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences)

"Voices of the New Republic: Connecticut Towns 1800-1832" is a two-volume book on Connecticut history that was begun more than 200 years ago by original members of The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences -- founded in 1799 by Noah Webster, Timothy Dwight and others. In 1800, they sent out a questionnaire to individuals in the state's then 107 towns, asking each about the town's founding and early settlement; its natural flora and fauna; geology and weather; agriculture; industry and commerce; and the ethnicity, diseases and mortality of its residents, among other topics. Their goal was to publish a statistical account, but some 20 years after making their survey, less than half of the questionnaires were returned, and the members lost interest in the project. In 1995, current members of the academy decided to complete the project, and sent out letters to all the historical societies and town historians of the 169 present-day Connecticut towns in search of any unrecognized reports; six towns located these early descriptions of life. The first volume of "Voices of the New Republic," titled "What They Said" and edited by Christopher Bickford, is the set of original reports about Connecticut towns written between 1800 and 1832. The second volume, titled "What We Think" and edited by Howard Lamar, contains essays by today's historians and scientists -- many from Yale -- interpreting what the documents say about particular characteristics of the towns from the vantage point of the present.

Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human
Paul Bloom, professor of psychology
(Basic Books)

Paul Bloom's "Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human" blends developmental psychology with philosophy and cognitive science to explore the expansive capacities of the human mind. Bloom shows how studying children explains some grown-up traits such as disgust, humor and morality. Bloom contends that people are natural-born dualists, with a distinct sense of both the physical and social worlds -- of body and soul -- and they make sense of reality from this dualist perspective. Born in infancy, this perspective undergoes development throughout people's lives and profoundly influences their thoughts, feelings and actions, Bloom says.

Interpreting the Bible & the Constitution
Jaroslav Pelikan, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus
(Yale University Press)

In his newest book, Jaroslav Pelikan brings the history of biblical interpretation to bear on how the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution. He compares the methods by which the official interpreters of the Bible and the Constitution -- the Christian church and the Supreme Court, respectively -- have approached the necessity of interpreting, and reinterpreting, their important texts. The historian observes that in spite of obvious differences, both require close word-by-word exegesis, an awareness of opinions that have gone before, and a willingness to ask new questions of old codes. He also demonstrates how an understanding of either biblical interpretation or constitutional interpretation can illuminate the other in significant ways.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Alpern named as new medical school dean

Sixteen honored for strengthening town-gown ties

Author Fadiman named first Francis Writer in Residence

Yale counselor helped ease grief of war-torn families in Kosovo and Iraq

Media failed to 'connect the dots' before 9/11, journalist says

With a hoisting of tentacles, giant squid returns to Peabody

Alumni delegates explore issues . . .

Threatened nation-state is topic of two-day YCIAS conference

Event showcasing medical students' original research . . .

New center offers treatment for primary immunodeficiencies

The letters of literary figures are featured in Beinecke exhibit

In elderly, recovery from injuries often good . . .

Study: For-profit hospices offer fewer services than non-profits

Chemotherapy agent called cisplatin effectively transmits . . .

Scientists learn more about bond of water molecules, protons

New fund will support YSN faculty's initiatives to improve health care

Juniors are recognized for scholarship and character

'Modernist Voices' will explore themes in American and British literature

Dr. Terri Fried lauded for her work in geriatric patient care and research

Event explores new advances in chemical biology

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes