Robert Easton - Böcker

This book is the first full length, illustrated study of North American Indian architecture to appear in a century.The product of a collaboration between an architect and an anthropologist, the book presents the building traditions of the major tribes in nine regional profiles covering the continent - from the huge, plankhouse villages of the Northwest Coast to the moundbuilder towns and temples of the Southeast to the Navajo hogans and adobe pueblos of the Southwest.This book is far more than a survey of buildings. Its multidisciplinary approach offers a broad, clear view of the Native American world, resulting in a new understanding of the meaning of their buildings and culture. Nabokov and Easton describe how Indian buildings, as a central element of their culture, were the symbolic summation of tribal activity, and how the settlements secured for their inhabitants a sense of "place" in the environment. The book introduces us to the ancient social customs, economic ways of life, and technological skills of each tribe, emphasizing the major role played by cosmological concepts and ritual life in their architectural systems. Each chapter concludes with an account of traditional Indian building practices under revival or in danger today.The book uses historical photographs and drawings, architectural renderings, and specially prepared interpretive diagrams which decode the sacred cosmology of the principal housetypes. Native American Architecture is a major contribution to the expanding worldwide interest in vernacular architecture - a milestone in scholarly investigation and cultural reconstruction.

For many people, Native American architecture calls to mind the wigwam, tipi, iglu, and pueblo. Yet the richly diverse building traditions of Native Americans encompass much more, including specific structures for sleeping, working, worshipping, meditating, playing, dancing, lounging, giving birth, decision-making, cleansing, storing and preparing food, caring for animals, and honoring the dead. In effect, the architecture covers all facets of Indian life.The collaboration between an architect and an anthropologist, Native American Architecture presents the first book-length, fully illustrated exploration of North American Indian architecture to appear in over a century. Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton together examine the building traditions of the major tribes in nine regional areas of the continent from the huge plank-house villages of the Northwest Coast to the moundbuilder towns and temples of the Southeast, to the Navajo hogans and adobe pueblos of the Southwest. Going beyond a traditional survey of buildings, the book offers a broad, clear view into the Native American world, revealing a new perspective on the interaction between their buildings and culture. Looking at Native American architecture as more than buildings, villages, and camps, Nabokov and Easton also focus on their use of space, their environment, their social mores, and their religious beliefs.Each chapter concludes with an account of traditional Indian building practices undergoing a revival or in danger today. The volume also includes a wealth of historical photographs and drawings (including sixteen pages of color illustrations), architectural renderings, and specially prepared interpretive diagrams which decode the sacred cosmology of the principal house types.

Royal Dates with Destiny presents, in calendar form, the oddball ways in which the great and the good have met their maker. For every day of the year, the author has unearthed at least one unusual aristocratic death, from the famous (such as Cleopatra and her asp) to the less well-known (e.g. the Swedish king who ate too much pudding). Based on a number of scholarly sources for each entry, these four hundred or so 'summaries of royal mortality ' give an idiosyncratic and delightfully bizarre historical overview of the surprising ways in which the world's most powerful have perished. An appendix lists how the 'other half has died', including death by underwear, cricket ball and pea soup, while an index - from 'abbot, lecherous' to 'wrestling, with bears' - is of limited referential value but, like the rest of the book, is hugely enjoyable to read.