The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and The Ancient World

Book Description

The idea of a town must be strong enough to survive the inevitable chaotic overlay of urban experience, Joseph Rykwert asserts in this fundamental book on urban form. In his preface to this new edition he reviews the developments over the past thirty ears, in archeology, in historical and philological work, and in urban planning and architectural trends that make The Idea of a Town timely once again; a reminder that recognizable patterns and texture, public open space, and conspicuous institutions can enrich the late twentieth-century city which has become preoccupied with the isolated architectural object, with physical and market forces.

Rykwert focuses on the Roman town as a work of art, a symbolic pattern deliberately created and enjoyed by its inhabitants - its shape and the structure of the spaces constructed on the basis of beliefs and rituals. His starting point is the ancient texts: mythical, historical, and ritual in which city-foundations are told and played out, and in particular the "Etruscan rite," a group of ceremonies which regulated the creation of practically all Roman towns.

The principal institutions of the town, its walls and gates, its central shrines, and its public spaces, were all part of a pattern to which the myths which accompanied them provide clues. As in the other "closed" societies Rykwert investigates and compares throughout the book, these rituals and myths served to create a secure home for Roman citizens, placing them firmly in a knowable universe.

Joseph Rykwert is Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews:

Ethnocentric and Anti-Anthropological.......2004-02-20

This is an ethnocentric view of the role of religion in ancient cities. The author assumes that all cities were the same and that notions from the western tradition apply to all ancient cities. The use of the term "anthropology" in the title is ironic; his approach is not at all anthropological (anthropology works to transcend ethnocentric ideas and to document cultural variation, not ignore it). In fact, the title shows the author's ignorance of the discipline of anthropology. He employs an archaic definition, common among nineteenth-century classicists, that "anthropology" means "religion and ritual." So the title of this book really means, "the religion of urban form."

The comparative method is the hallmark of anthropology. Rykwert does make cross-cultural comparisons, but in a random, non-anthropological fashion. Instead of making controlled comparisons using a clear problem-orientation, he throws in seemingly-random examples from vastly different cultures without any theoretical justification for the particular comparison. This may be entertaining, and even illuminating in a few cases, but it is NOT anthropological, and it does not at all resemble the comparative approach of anthropology.

Rykwert makes a number of anti-anthropological statements; here are some examples: (1) "All the great civilizations practice it" (referring to rectilineal planning), page 26. This is incorrect in that rectilineal planning is NOT particularly common in ancient civilizations, and it is anti-anthropological in assuming that some civilizations are "greater" than others. (2) Rituals done at the founding of a town "must have roots in the biological structure of man" (page 194). This is nonsense, unless the author is using the trivial notion that all behavior, at some level, has roots in our biological nature.

I apologize for the vitriolics, but as an anthropologist I find the use of the term "anthropology" in this book title inaccurate and insulting.

overlooked topic offering unexpected insights.......2004-01-07

Rykwert succeeds magnificently with this work, an older and more historically focused effort than his brilliant The Seduction of Place: The Future and Future of Cities. The writing is clear and accessible, but reaches far into historical annals, educating the reader and, more importantly, touching on the role that societies have played in the founding, structuring and continued sanctifying of cities. His focus is Roman, buttressed with Etruscan and Greek insights drawn from lore and archeology, but he also offers a broader panorama in his closing chapters. Rykwert writes with an erudition that seems boundless. Urbanists, archeologists, village-people and philosophers alike will appreciate his thought on a subject that ought not to be overlooked in our mad commuting and hectic urbanism.

Not optional reading.......2001-09-02

This is a book more for architects than it is for classicists although it will enrich anyone who reads it. Rykwert is a scholar of the first rank, and it is the mark of a superior scholar to write in such a way as to cull the most arcane information from another field and trim, dry, boil, knead and package it for easy swallowing without sacrificing any of the wisdon-enhancing ingredients. Other books dealing with the same theme have preceded Rykwert's own book. F.W Jackson Knight's and Fustel de Coulanges' are exemplary for their intensity of imagination and obliquity of perspective. And like its predecessors, Rykwert's book takes you on a brief, but a grand tour of the ancient world. That is to say, it shows you just what was so grand about the ancient world and the ancient mind's response to the cosmos in its orientation with regard to "worlding". The book deals with the ancient practice, especially Roman, of founding a city. Rykwert shows you in plain language the profundity and density of religious and mythopoetic factors that used to go into the act of founding a city. But, this book is not about something that once was. It is about that which always IS in Architecture. The Roman poet Sallust said of myths, "these things never happened, but are always." This is what Rykwert gets at in describing the actual mechanisms and the machines that appear as gods, herms, gates, etc, in ancient Mediterranean constructions of the world. World: Mundus, in Latin. The chthonic gateway to the underworld, the big gaping vaginal hole in the middle of the site where the town is to be erected. The final chapter discusses the symbolic parallels found in other traditions.
This book is not optional reading for those who would pretend to practice architecture, or for those who want to understand the origin/destiny of the relationship between "art" and "religion", between the Apollonian and the Dionysian in Western culture. I recommend Camille Paglia's for a richer and wider and literary understanding of the implication of Rykwert's thesis as it applies to the whole cultural trajectory of the Occident's history. By the way, the sales rank of this book, and that after 25 years, no architect (practitioner, student, consumer) has bothered to write a review of this indispensible work only further fan my misgivings concerning the two thing I know about my own profession: intellectual vapidity of the license wielding practitioners and the miasmic cabalism of the academics.

Book Description

"Voyeur. Bandit. Hound. Ron Galella has been called every name in the book. In 1955, fresh out of the United States Air Force, he became a paparazzo--and redefined the genre. From his notoriously obsessive treatment of Jackie Onassis and the subsequent legal battles associated with it, to his alarmingly beautiful photographs of celebrities in the 60s and 70s, Galella has always been in a category of his own. Possessed of a unique talent to catch stars at moments when they seemed most alive, most human, most stylish, Galella was able to do something no other celebrity watcher was able to do: become a star himself."

Customer Reviews:

The Best.......2007-03-08

This is a great book. Ron Galella took very chic, very flattering black and white photos of STARS when the world actually had STARS - not the tabloid trash that we have today. Great printing and art direction - a classic.

The Photographs of Ron Galella : 1960-1990

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The Photographs of Ron Galella : 1960-1990
Steven (editor) Bluttal
Manufacturer: Distributed Art Publishers/D. A. P.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLSKNY

Book Description

Land is the integrating component of all livelihoods depending on farm, forest, rangeland, or water (rivers, lakes, coastal marine) habitats. Due to varying political, social, and economic factors, the heavy use of natural resources to supply a rapidly growing global population and economy has resulted in the unintended mismanagement and degradation of land and ecosystems. Sustainable Land Management provides strategic focus to the implementation of sustainable land management (SLM) components of the World Bank's development strategies. SLM is a knowledge-based procedure that integrates land, water, biodiversity, and environmental management to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustainaing livelihoods and the environment.

This book, aimed at policy makers, project managers, and development organization, articulates priorities for investment in SLM and natural resource management and indentifies the policy, institutional, and incentive reform options that will accelerate the adoption of SLM productivity improvements and pro-poor growth.

Customer Reviews:

Agricultural Sustainability.......2006-11-10

The book provides excellent insite on the challenges of the concept of sustainability and the balancing effect.

Agricultural Restructuring and Sustainability: A Geographical Perspective (Sustainable Rural Development Services)

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Agricultural Restructuring and Sustainability: A Geographical Perspective (Sustainable Rural Development Services)

Manufacturer: CABI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0851991653

Book Description

This book consists of selected and revised papers from a conference held in North Carolina that brought together rural geographers from Canada, UK, and USA, and New Zealand. The papers focus on agricultural restructuring and sustainability, a subject of considerable current interest as rural areas in developed market economies undergo rapid change. The book is aimed at rural geographers, agricultural economists, rural sociologists, and policy makers concerned with rural studies.

Agriculture, Environment, and Health: Sustainable Development in the 21st Century

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Agriculture, Environment, and Health: Sustainable Development in the 21st Century

Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Beyond Market Liberalization

Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Food For Thought: Ancient Visions and New Experiments of Rural People

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Biodiversity could be a western fad

Food For Thought: Ancient Visions and New Experiments of Rural People
Bertus Haverkort , and Wim Hiemstra
Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This book presents new insights about the knowledge systems of rural people. It goes beyond the technical knowledge embodied in traditional farming, land use and health practices by dealing with their underlying ancient worldviews and cosmovisions. It draws some general conclusions about the holistic nature, strengths and limitations of these bodies of knowledge and describes how in various countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe some development agencies are supporting rural people and their traditional leaders in carrying out practical experiments based on local concepts.

Customer Reviews:

Biodiversity could be a western fad.......2005-11-09

Interesting book on the second concept of the organization COMPAS that sponsors this publication. The first concept was that of endogenous development, the development dynamic that comes from inside a traditional community. This present book centers itself on the concept of cosmovision : the vision a traditional community has of itself in the world, the cosmos, associating Man-Nature and the Spiritual world. The first remark is that the term culture is reduced too much to « traditional culture ». The creative dimension of culture is neglected and this creative dimension of the today traditional culture that used to be an innovation is absolutely forgotten. The case of the Vedas is analyzed in India. When they came out they represented a tremendous revolution in the concerned communities, a revolution that must have been brooding, growing and germinating in these communities maybe for centuries, just like Buddhism will be another one some centuries later, though today these forms of culture could be considered as traditional. Culture means change, progress, development not something to be conserved. But culture also means that the change, the development, the progress we are speaking of cannot be imposed from outside but has to come from the inside energies that inhabit the culture and the community. The real stake of this globalization that the book criticizes is the future of the youth of today and tomorrow. How long are they going to accept a reduced education closed to the outside world ? Never. This is already gone. How long will they accept to have no means of transportation except their feet, and it is not a choice for exercise sake ? Not very long. How long will they accept to have no television, no radio, no electricity, no running water ? Not very long. If alternative development is to succeed, it has to satisfy these modern and unescapable needs of the younger generations. Otherwise they will go on doing what they already do, and have been doing for decades : they will vote for change with their feet and go to urban centres. It is not shamans and gurus that are going to retain young people in isolated villages. COMPAS seems to know the challenge but can they answer it ? When will the invalid of that Indian village who needs to be transported to the hospital in a basket over many miles, be able to be transported there by an ambulance or some kind of motorized vehicle ? It has to be within a very short period of time. Biodiversity is becoming a Eurpean-centered concept for western ecologists who accept very well that millions of people go on living in squalid conditions provided biodiversity is respected, or even worse, the reverse : to respect biodiversity we condemn some communities to live in backward and squalid conditions. A completely different approach has to be devised. I neither see nor feel it in this book.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne

The Growth and Sustainability of Agriculture in Asia (A Study of Rural Asia, Volume 2)

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The Growth and Sustainability of Agriculture in Asia (A Study of Rural Asia, Volume 2)
Mingsarn Santikarn Kaosa-ard , and Benjavan Rerkasem
Manufacturer: An Asian Development Bank Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This book presents an extensive account of the green revolution's effect on the performance of Asian agriculture over the past two decades, as well as the second-generation problems that the green revolution is now experiencing.

Indicators of Land Quality and Sustainable Land Management: An Annotated Bibliography (Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Series. Rural Development)

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Book Content

Indicators of Land Quality and Sustainable Land Management: An Annotated Bibliography (Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Series. Rural Development)
J. Dumanski , S. Gameda , and Christian J. M. G. Pieri
Manufacturer: World Bank Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0821342088

Customer Reviews:

Book Content.......2006-11-10

The book provides a good guide on the indicators for sustainability for persons involved in land use.

Non-Governmental Organisations and the State in Asia: Rethinking Roles in Sustainable Agricultural Development (Non-Governmental Organizations)

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Non-Governmental Organisations and the State in Asia: Rethinking Roles in Sustainable Agricultural Development (Non-Governmental Organizations)
J. Farrington
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Presents twenty specially commissioned case studies of farmer participatory approaches to agricultural innovation initiated by NGOs in Asia with case material set within the context of NGOs' relations with the state.

Sustainability in Agricultural and Rural Development

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Sustainability in Agricultural and Rural Development

Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Tools for Land Use Analysis on Different Scales With Case Studies for Costa Rica (With CD-ROM) (System Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development)

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Tools for Land Use Analysis on Different Scales With Case Studies for Costa Rica (With CD-ROM) (System Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792364791

Book Description

Regional development is intrinsically related to the way in which the land is used. Given the rising awareness of the multifunctionality of the world's land resources, policy makers now face the complex task of accommodating multiple objectives of an increasing number of stakeholders in regional development. This implies a need for tools that can be employed to provide insights into the opportunities and limitations of land use. Those tools should be capable of quantifying trade-offs between socio-economic, sustainability, and environment-related policy objectives.
This book offers a detailed account of a range of interdisciplinary methodologies for land use analysis, developed over a twelve-year period (1986-1998) in Costa Rica, through collaborative research between three institutions: one from the North (Wageningen Agricultural University of The Netherlands), and two from the South (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center [CATIE] and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock [MAG]). The methodologies span a number of spatial scales, ranging from the field level all the way to the national level. Concepts of systems analysis and information technology play a pivotal role in each of the methodologies. Together, they form a unique toolbox that deserves ample use in the process of agricultural policy design.
With the book, a complimentary CD-ROM is provided which contains a practical account of the methodologies presented, including a full documentation of models, manuals, a number of introductory exercises, as well as previously unavailable data sets. In this way, the CD-ROM offers an opportunity for familiarization with the methodologies by students, research specialists, and decision-makers alike.

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