The proverbs in this book are all genuine sayings collected from many cultures around the world. They are extracts from a number of proverb collections (many dating from the nineteenth century) compiled by various folklorists, linguists, social anthropologists and travellers.
This collection ignores the common sayings we’re all familiar with and concentrates on the more colourful, unusual and, in some cases, incomprehensible proverbs that have been recorded over the years.
Many of these sayings fall naturally into categories such as ‘Love and Marriage’ or ‘The Fairer Sex’ but others are not so easy to classify and have been ordered in a less conventional fashion.
Yoruba1 Proverbs is the most comprehensive collection to
date of more than five thousand Yoruban proverbs that showcase Yoruba
oral tradition. Following Oyekan Owomoyela’s introduction, which
provides a framework and description of Yoruba cultural beliefs, the
proverbs are arranged by theme into five sections: the good person; the
fortunate person (or the good life); relationships; human nature;
rights and responsibilities; and truisms. Each proverb is presented in
Yoruba with a literal English translation, followed by a brief
commentary explaining the meaning of the proverb within the oral
tradition.
This definitive source book on Yoruba
proverbs is the first to give such detailed, systematic classification
and analysis alongside a careful assessment of the risks and pitfalls
of submitting this genre to the canons of literary analysis.
1 The Yoruba (Yorùbá in Yoruba orthography) are a large ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in Africa; the majority of them speak the Yoruba language (èdèe Yorùbá; èdè = language). The Yoruba constitute approximately 21 percent of Nigeria's total population, and around 30 million individuals throughout the region of West Africa.
Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order This unique collection showcases Noam Chomsky’s brilliant and boundless
insight into a wide range of topics of critical importance, from human
nature and language to international politics and the New World Order.
Chomsky’s linguistics chapters are accessible and interesting to the
lay reader, and offer a good introduction to Chomsky’s philosophy of
language and science.
The chapters on politics provide an important and necessary
critique of the political and social status quo, and address key issues
of the day: the Middle East "peace process," East Timor, and the global
economy.
With the same user-friendly, quirky, and perceptive approach that made Innumeracy
a bestseller, John Allen Paulos travels though the pages of the daily
newspaper showing how math and numbers are a key element in many of the
articles we read every day. From the Senate, SATs, and sex, to crime,
celebrities, and cults, he takes stories that may not seem to involve
mathematics at all and demonstrates how a lack of mathematical
knowledge can hinder our understanding of them.
Dozens of examples in innumeracy show us how it affects not only
personal economics and travel plans, but explains mischosen mates,
inappropriate drug-testing, and the allure of pseudo-science.
This is the book that made "innumeracy" a household word, at least
in some households. Paulos admits that "at least part of the motivation
for any book is anger, and this book is no exception. I'm distressed by
a society which depends so completely on mathematics and science and
yet seems to indifferent to the innumeracy and scientific illiteracy of
so many of its citizens."
But that is not all that drives him.
The difference between our pretensions and reality is absurd and
humorous, and the numerate can see this better than those who don't
speak math.
