"Published through the Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The rich storytelling traditions of the Ashéninka Perené Arawaks of eastern Peru are showcased in this bilingual collection of traditional narratives, ethnographic accounts, women's autobiographical stories, songs, chants, and ritual speeches. The Ashéninkas are located in the colonization frontier at the foot of the eastern Andes and the western fringe of the Amazonian jungle. Unfortunately, their language has a slim chance of surviving because only about three hundred fluent speakers remain. This volume collects and preserves the power and vitality of Ashéninka oral and linguistic traditions, as told by thirty members of the Native community. Upper Perene Arawak Narratives of History, Landscape, and Ritual covers a range of themes in the Ashéninka oral tradition, through genres such as myths, folk tales, autobiographical accounts, and ethnographic texts about customs and rituals, as well as songs, chants, and oratory. Transcribed and translated by a specialist in Ashéninka language varieties, Elena Mihas, and grounded in the actual performances of Asheninka speakers, this collection makes these stories available in English for the first time. Each original text in Ashéninka is accompanied by an English translation and each theme is introduced with an essay providing biographical, cultural, and linguistic information. The result is a masterful, authoritative, yet entertaining and provocative collection of oral literature that vividly testifies to the power of Ashéninka storytelling"--
"In A History of Water Engineering and Management in Yemen, Ingrid Hehmeyer describes the three-way relationship between water, land, and humans from ancient to medieval and premodern times. As illustrated in case studies from four sites, individual ecosystems necessitated different engineering and management approaches in order to make good use of the scarce water resources for both irrigated agriculture and domestic consumption. Material remains and written sources provide the evidence for a comprehensive examination of continuity and change; technical and managerial struggles, failures, and successes; the question of technology transfer; the impact of the religion of Islam on water use and allocation; and people's reactions in times of severe crisis."-- Back cover
Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānīʾs (d. 718/1319) Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh has been described by many as the first world history ever. Composed in Persian for the Mongol Il-khans Ghāzān (r. 1295-1304) and Öljeitü (Uljāytu, r. 1304-16), its aim was to set out the history and condition of the Mongol people, conquerors of the world (part one), followed by a description of the other peoples and nations of the world and their histories (part two). Given its unprecedented scope, Rashīd, vizier to both rulers, mobilized a whole team of specialists, informants, and collaborators to assist him in his task. Making use of written and oral sources, the part on the Mongols is a key source on the emergence and organisation of the Mongol empire, while the second part constitutes the first attempt ever at writing a history of the world. The section published here describes the history of the Jews
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