Tony Swain - Böcker

Chemical warfare between plants and their herbivores and pathogens was first brought to our attention by the publication 25 years ago of the paper by Fraenkel in Science. There, he pointed out that most plants have similar nutritional characteristics so that the selection of plants by insect herbivores must depend on the relative toxicity of secondary compounds. This led, rather gradually, to a host of papers on plant-herbivore interactions. More or less at the same time, insect physiologists and ecologists were starting to realise the importance of chemical communi­ cation systems in determining sexual and other characteristics of insect behaviour. Nine years ago the Phytochemical Society of North America published their Symposium on 'Biochemical Interaction Between Plants and Insects' in which the plant apparency theory was expounded by both Paul Feeny and Rex Cates and David Rhoades. This stated that plants which are apparent usually contain secondary components which reduce digestibility (tannins and lignins) while ephemeral plants have more toxic, and perhaps less costly, compounds such as alkaloids. These papers stimulated much research on biochemical ecology. The recognition of the importance of the biochemical factors in such interactions is not just of scientific interest. It is vitally important in programs for the production of new varieties of cultivated plants, especially in tropical countries where about one-third or more of the crops are lost to predation or disease.

Tony Swain has prepared a comprehensive bibliographical survey of all substantial publications on Aboriginal religions appearing between 1798 and early 1990. The volume opens with a three-chapter narrative section which provides the historic and analytic contexts for the cataloguing that follows. The 1,076 entries are critically annotated and classified by geography and theme. More specific investigation of selected topics can be pursued through the four indexes which, besides offering an alphabetical listing of all titles and authors, provide access by tribes and places and general subjects.The three narrative chapters explore the history of the study of Aboriginal religions, the emergence of key themes in investigating these traditions, and the unique features of the regions which provide the primary classification for the bibliography that follows. Chapter one shows how a succession of theories, conceptions, and blatant prejudices have molded the way writers approached the traditions of the Aborigines. Chapter two examines those themes scholars have felt useful in analyzing Aboriginal religions, placing their emergence in historical perspective and discussing their usefulness as conceptual tools. Finally, the third chapter highlights the unique features of the ten regions used as the primary categories of classification, describing possible historical forces which have shaped their particular forms. This first bibliography of Australian Aboriginal religions is an essential acquisition for all serious academic libraries.

More than a quarter of the world's religions are to be found in the regions of Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, together called Oceania. The Religions of Oceania is the first book to bring together up-to-date information on the great and changing variety of traditional religions in the Pacific zone. The book also deals with indigenous Christianity and its wide influence across the region, and includes new religious movements generated by the responses of indigenous peoples to colonists and missionaries, the best known of these being the `Cargo Cults' of Melanesia.The authors present a thorough and accessible examination of the fascinating diversity of religious practices in the area, analysing new religious developments, and provideing clear interpretative tools and a mine of information to help the student better understand the world's most complex ethnologic tapestry.

Many of the elements ascribed to traditional Aboriginal beliefs and practices are the result of contact with external peoples - Melanesians and Indonesians, as well as Europeans. This controversial and provocative 1993 book is a detailed and continent-wide study of the impact of outsiders on Australian Aboriginal world-views. The author separates out a common core of religious beliefs which reflect the precontact spirituality of Australian Aborigines. This book investigates Aboriginal myth, ritual, cosmology and philosophy, and also examines social organisation, subsistence patterns and cultural change. It will be of great interest to readers in anthropology, religious studies, comparative philosophy and Aboriginal studies.

Phenolic compounds have attracted the attention of those interested in plant constituents for over 200 years. First as dyestuffs, meaicinals and tannins and, much later, because of their potential use in examining the systematic and evolutionary relationships of plants, and their impli- cation in defence against both herbivores and phytopatho- gens. It is not surprising, therefore, that the first formally organised Society of Phytochemists, the Plant Phenolics group which was established in England in 1958, should have devoted themselves to an intensive study of these compounds. They were quickly followed by a like group in North America. But, by the mid-1960's, it was obvious to the members of both societies that their net was spread wider than just phenolic compounds and in 1965 both adopted a more appropriate name, The Phytochemical Society (now Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE), and The Phytochemical Society of North America (PSNA) respec- tively).In spite of this broadening of interest, both socie- ties have continued to devote a major portion of their deliberations to phenolic compounds and it is entirely appropriate, therefore, that their first joint Symposium, held in the late summer of 1977 at the Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, Belgium, should be concerned with "The Biochem- istry of Plant Phenolics. " First occasions are often difficult, but the chief organiser of this Symposium, Professsor Ch~is van Sumere, Head of the Laboratorium voor Plantenbiochemie of the Rijksuniversiteit te Gent with his charming wife and enthu- siastic staff overcame all obstacles.

This volume of Recent Advances in Phytochemistry is the Proceedings of the 1979 Annual Meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America held August 12-15 at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. It contains a series of exciting chapters which start with the potential use of plant products as fuels and medicinals, their possible effects in carcinogenesis and use in steroidal hormone synthesis. The volume continues with a series of chapters which examine the importance of plant constituents in the breeding and selection of corn, cruciferous vegetables, soybeans and citrus fruits. All the contributions illustrate the wide importance of research which improves the health and the economic and social well being of mankind. The authors are to be congratulated on their lucid exposition of the progress of research in their subject area and for their patience while this book was being produced. The members of the Phytochemical Society of North America can feel proud of having another of their excellent symposia series in print. It is fitting, therefore, that this volume is dedicated to one of the founder members of the Society, Ted Geissman, who has inspired so many of us with his wisdom, teaching and wonderful support of all our endeavours. He was a giant among phytochemists and is sorely missed by all who knew him.

This accessible history of Confucianism, or the ‘Way of the Ru’, emphasizes the religious dimensions of the tradition. It clearly explains the tradition's unique and subtle philosophical ideals as well as the ‘arts of the Ru’ whereby seemingly simple acts such as reading, sitting quietly, good manners, and attending to family and state responsibilities, became ways of ultimate transformation.This book explains the origins of the Ru and documents their impact in imperial China, before providing extensive coverage of the modern era. Confucianism in China: An Introduction shows how the long history of the Ru is vital to comprehending China today. As the empire drew to an end, there were impassioned movements both to reinvent and to eradicate Ru tradition. Less than forty years ago, it seemed close to extinction, but today it is undergoing spectacular revival.This introduction is suitable for anyone wishing to understand a tradition that shaped imperial China and which is now increasingly swaying Chinese religious, philosophical, political, and economic developments. The book contains a glossary of key terms and 22 images, and further resources can be found on the book's webpage http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/confucianism-in-china-9781474242462/.

This accessible history of Confucianism, or the ‘Way of the Ru’, emphasizes the religious dimensions of the tradition. It clearly explains the tradition's unique and subtle philosophical ideals as well as the ‘arts of the Ru’ whereby seemingly simple acts such as reading, sitting quietly, good manners, and attending to family and state responsibilities, became ways of ultimate transformation.This book explains the origins of the Ru and documents their impact in imperial China, before providing extensive coverage of the modern era. Confucianism in China: An Introduction shows how the long history of the Ru is vital to comprehending China today. As the empire drew to an end, there were impassioned movements both to reinvent and to eradicate Ru tradition. Less than forty years ago, it seemed close to extinction, but today it is undergoing spectacular revival.This introduction is suitable for anyone wishing to understand a tradition that shaped imperial China and which is now increasingly swaying Chinese religious, philosophical, political, and economic developments. The book contains a glossary of key terms and 22 images, and further resources can be found on the book's webpage http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/confucianism-in-china-9781474242462/.

The study of plant natural products can be considered to have started in 1806 when Serturner isolated the first of these compounds, morphine, from the opium poppy. Over the next 150 years, numerous elegant and powerful techniques were developed for the isolation and structural identifi­ cation of a variety of classes of these substances. With increasing knowledge, various speculations were put forward on the ways that these compounds were synthesised from pri­ mary metabolites and on their possible physiological, ecolo­ gical and taxonomic importance. These investigations sublimated in the late 1940's with the newly developed application of radioactively labelled precursors to the study vari ous bi osyntheti c pathways and use of rapid chromatagraphic and spectroscopic methods to uncover the structure of a plethora of new compounds and to their wide distribution in various taxa of plants recognize and other organisms. We have now entered a new stage in our investigation of natural products in which several important new problems are being tackled. The present emphasis is on how the various biosynthetic pathways are regulated, the enzymic parameters which determine the chirality of the products, the transfer and modification of components in food chains, and the ways in which a given class of physiologically or ecologically important compounds has been superseded by another during the course of evolution.