How the World Works: Letters to Lily
| Created: | 2013-01-02 15:09 |
|---|---|
| Institution: | King's College |
| Description: | Alan Macfarlane in December 2012 reads the thirty letters originally published in 2005 by Profile Books in 'Letters to Lily: On How the World Works'.
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Media items
This collection contains 31 media items.
Media items
1 Why write to you?
Why write a series of letters trying to explain how the world works to a grand-daughter? An attempt to see how an outsider, perhaps a Martian anthropologist, would view the...
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
2 Who are you?
The nature of personal identity, constructed from age, gender, race and ethnicity and other determinants.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
3 Why are families often difficult?
The nature of different family systems and the problems they cause, in particular during adolescence.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
4 What is love?
The nature of romantic love and its function in different societies - in particular the west.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
5 Who are our friends?
Friendship - where it comes from, how it works and what effects it has on our lives, compared also to patron-client relations etc.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
6 Why play games?
The role of games, particularly team games, and of leisure more generally around the world, seen from anthropology and history.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
7 Is violence necessary?
A consideration of violence, both physical and symbolic, including personal violence, vendetta, secret organizations etc., from an anthropological and historical viewpoint.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
8 What is war and why do we fight?
War throughout history and across the planet - some of the different types and some of the causes and consequences.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
9 What is witchcraft?
Theories of witchcraft, its function, origins and the causes for some decline in the belief in witches.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
10 Who are the terrorists?
An analysis of various types of mass hysteria, from medieval heretics, Jews and witches, through to McCarthy, child abuse and the War on Terror.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
11 Who is God?
Various theories concerning the nature and functions of religion and a belief in God or gods, from an anthropological viewpoint.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
12 Can we control the spiritual world?
An analysis of the functions and nature of rituals, symbols, taboos and other constraints on human beings, from an anthropological and historical viewpoint.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
13 How do we learn?
An analysis of some of the ways in which humans increase their knowledge of the world through formal education and other means.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
14 Does information destroy knowledge?
Some of the blocks to knowledge - from power, religion, social structure and too much information.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
15 How well does democracy work?
The advantages and disadvantages of democracy as a form of government.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
16 Where does freedom come from?
An analsysis of the roots of personal freedom, in particular the growth of Civil Society and the legal device of the Trust.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
17 What is bureaucracy for?
A analysis of some of the functions of bureaucracy, and also of some of the strong tendencies for organizations to become over-bureaucratic.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
18 How do we get justice?
A comparison of different legal systems, their structures and outcomes, particularly English Common Law and Japan.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
19 Why is there inequality?
Different systems of inequality examined - caste, class, serfdom etc. and why there is a growing tendency towards inequality.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013
20 What makes us individuals?
The meaning of individualism and theories of the causes for its development and some of its consequences.
Collection: How the World Works: Letters to Lily
Institution: King's College
Created: Wed 2 Jan 2013