Arenas Of Life Research Articles

No Contest: The Case against Competition

Precisely because we are so immersed in it, competition can easily escape our notice. A fish does not reflect on the nature of water, Walker Percy once remarked, cannot imagine its absence, so he cannot consider its presence.' Even those who think and write for a living have paid surprisingly little attention to the subject. In the last fifty years, for example, no one has written a book that explores the very idea of competition and the way it plays itself out in all the varied arenas of human life. I do not mean a lament about what has happened to sports today or a recipe for being a winner in business or a statistical operation performed on abstractions that issue from experimental games. These roll off the presses regularly. I mean a took at what it really means to try to beat other people, a careful investigation of this arrangement that requires some people to fail in order that others can succeed.

Striking It Rich: The Significance of Striking Points in the Evolution of the Romantic Piano

It is no exaggeration to state that the historical study of the piano is still in its infancy. There is a respectable quantity of literature, to be sure, but very little in the way of systematic 267 investigations of either the instruments or their relationship to the repertoire still universally cultivated by pianists of all persuasions. About ten years ago a leading university press sent me, as a last resort, a manuscript about the technological development of the piano that had received two unfavorable reviews, largely, I came to believe, because it was considered overly specialized. Although the text contained a generous quota of errors and raised as many questions as it answered, I was excited by the lively, engaging writing style and by the clear love of the subject that shone through. In my report to the press, I argued that the manuscript would be well worth publishing if, in order to clear up firsthand the myriad of issues that he had raised, the author could find a way to spend three to six months visiting instruments scattered around Europe and the United States. As in so many arenas of life, those in charge took only half of my advice, and about a year later I received a copy of the book with a handwritten dedication from the author, who had made only cosmetic changes from the manuscript I had seen. He later pointed out to me that it took a very long time to look closely at just one piano, and if he were to look directly at all those that he discussed in his book, then it might never have appeared. Over the last ten years I have grown to appreciate this remark more and more. When, during the 197os, I be-

Points of Stress and Modes of Adjustment in Southwest Alaska

This paper examines the relationship between socioeconomic change and psychosocial stress among the residents of the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska. The region is characterized by high rates of stress-related morbidity and mortality. Social and economic activities in the region are guided by two major sociocultural orientations: a traditional orientation based on a subsistence lifestyle, and a modern orientation based on a commercial economy. These orientations are articulated by local residents to meet certain social and psychological needs. Inherent in this articulation is the process of adjustment in which the two orientations exist together in certain arenas of social and cultural life. Two of these arenas, social organization and psychosocial identity, are examined. Points of stress emerge in this adjustment process which create a risk to the health and well-being of many Bristol Bay residents. The points of stress in the sociocultural systems of Bristol Bay are most clearly evident among res...

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Geology and ManCoastal Oeomorphology in AustraliaParkes, D. (ed.) Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Haifa Continent

Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Half a Continent

Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Half a Continent

Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Half a Continent

Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Half a Continent