The cold; stygian dark of the extreme sea depths is home to some of our planetrsquo;s strangest creatures. Even their names evoke a science fiction adventure: dragonfishes; greeneyes; viperfishes; mirrorbellies; lanternfishes. Marine biologist Henry ldquo;Hankrdquo; Compton (1928ndash;2005) of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departmentrsquo;s Rockport Marine Lab was present on some of the earliest Gulf of Mexico cruises on which these fishes were collected for the first time in Texas waters.Upon returning; Compton would retire to the darkroom he had constructed beneath a stairwell at the lab and photograph the specimens. A talented artist; Compton then painted watercolors based on his photographs. He allowed free rein to both his scientific judgment and his artistic vision as he constructed representations of how the specimens might have appeared in the crushing pressure of their alien environment.Compton dubbed the series of deep-water paintings ldquo;Fire in the Seardquo; because of the shimmering bioluminescence common to these deep-water species. Then; along with taxonomic descriptions; he drafted fanciful narratives to accompany the paintings: quirky; humorous; and sometimes cryptic stories of the fishes in their unreachable habitat. Professor; researcher; and author David A. McKee has taken Comptonrsquo;s work; discovered in cardboard boxes following his death; and; along with others; provided chapters on bioluminescence; life in the deep; taxonomic arrangement; and life history information.
#3145464 in eBooks 2014-05-15 2014-05-28File Name: B00KCJAUL8
Review
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful. "...an appalling amalgam of factual errors; spurious reasoning; and ethnocentric commentary."By QyzylboshThis is not a scholarly reference work by a dance specialist; but an appalling amalgam of factual errors; spurious reasoning; and ethnocentric commentary. The publishing house; Rowman Littlefield; should take responsibility for their editorial failing and immediately remove this book from publication. It is not only misleading but quite possibly harmful; disseminating erroneous stereotypes.The timeline confuses myth with history. Womenrsquo;s dances of ancient Egypt ndash; notably depicted in art with high kicks; acrobatic "bridges;" and bare upper torsos - are conflated with 20th century Cairo cabaret dance in an assertion that; in 1570 BCE; ldquo;the Egyptian bedleh (belly dance costume)rdquo; acquired tinkling jewelry; and sheer scarves and veils." And the biblical Exodus is not only listed on the chronology as an accepted historical fact; which it is not; but it is given a specific date - 1446 BCE.There are curious geographical and linguistic lapses. The location of the island of Corsica is given as "off the southern coast of Croatia." (Only if the Italian peninsula sinks into the Mediterranean.) The communal Balkan circle dance known as kolo (sometimes translated as wheel) is described as a line dance. The Magyar czardas is surprisingly labeled as the "tempestuous emblem of Hungarian and Slovak spirit."[Italics mine.]Eurocentric bias emerges in the descriptions of Eastern dance forms. The rich and varied world of Arab dance gets barely three pages of text and some of that space is inexplicably devoted to the dances of non-Arabs like Turks; Persians; Kurds; Yemenite Jews and Israelis. The article fails to identify all of the 22 Arabic-speaking countries or to provide any structured analysis of the diverse dance genres of the Arab people. Instead; their dances are described as ldquo;engrossing gallops and sashays.rdquo; Most disturbingly; the sacred and contemplative sema ritual of Turkeyrsquo;s Mevlani Sufi order is labeled as ldquo;exhibitionism.rdquo;And there are glaring omissions. The ancient; dynamic dance traditions of the Caucasus are quickly dismissed with a phrase bordering on an ethnic slur: ldquo;Armenians; Azerbaijanis; and Assyrians link little fingers to prance out the tamzarahellip;rdquo; The vigorous; world-famous dances of Georgia are not mentioned at all. Central Asian dance is covered only in connection with shamanism; ignoring the intricate classical and folk traditions of the Uzbeks and Tajiks.These are only a few examples. Indeed; it is difficult to find a paragraph that is not riddled with errors.For comparison; examine the Oxford University Press International Encyclopedia of Dance; now available online. Contributions come from world dance scholars; specialists in their fields.19 of 19 people found the following review helpful. A Work of FictionBy Buttercup RobertsThe content on Arab dance; which is the subject I know most about in this book; is ridiculous enough to make me question the validity of the whole book. The content is wildly orientalist and full of over the top inaccuracies; reading like a handbook written by an especially closed-minded European traveller in the 1600s. For example; no distinction is made amongst the ethnicities of the Middle East mdash; all are considered part of Arab dance even though they are not all Arab and have completely different cultures; dances; and languages. Information on various groups of people is simply smashed together as if they were all one cohesive culture. The "facts" about the dances and culture are also mostly false mdash; for example; the author describes raks sharki (oriental dance) as "an erotic presentation glorifying the female anatomy". Seriously? This is written in a supposed encyclopedia? She also lists incorrect dates on the timeline; among many other inaccuracies. This book does not seem like it was researched or had a fact checker. It boggles the mind how it was published as non-fiction; or at all.29 of 31 people found the following review helpful. More like a "Badly-Researched Collection of Dance-Based Wishtory and Nonsense"By JenniferIm a folk dancer; and a bit of a nerd (perhaps a redundant qualifier!); so when I saw that there was a new encyclopedia of world dance; I got very excited. Fortunately; thanks to the "look inside" feature; I have saved myself nearly a hundred bucks. This is not the encyclopedia I was looking for -- and its not the one youre looking for; either. Unless you have a deep and abiding interest in reading garbled; poorly sourced; incoherent wishtory.A few examples; pertaining to the two folk dances I know best; will be sufficient to demonstrate my point.1. "In southern Spain during an anti-Muslim sweep by Catholic forces; Arab and Berber tonal scales and rhythms blended with Hispanic dance to create the flamenco; a fusion completed in the 1300s by the Roma. On an Iberian battleground; guitar strums and Arabic drumbeats accompanied universal themes of sorrow; suffering; and mortality." (p. 76)There is an impressive amount of misinformation in these two sentences; all of it entirely unsourced. Romani people only arrived in Spain in the 15th century; theres nothing like flamenco recorded until the 17th century (in Cervantess "Novelas ejemplares"); things called guitars existed in the 1300s but they werent like modern guitars and you certainly couldnt have played flamenco on them; and you definitely wouldnt have taken them into battle with you. (And "anti-Muslim sweep by Catholic forces" is an odd way of describing the Reconquest in the 14th century -- not least because thats a good two centuries before Martin Luther made the Catholic/Protestant distinction necessary!)2. "In Wales and England; morris dancers performed from as early as 1448 disguised as blackface riders on hobbyhorses; a representation of Moors in Iberia." (p. 78)"1300: An English-Welsh specialty; late medieval morris dancers claim rural exotica and seasonal spectacle as ethnic expressions of unity and belonging." (p. xxiii)The earliest recorded mention of morris dancing in England is 1458 (a mention in a will of an engraved silver cup decorated with a morris dancer); so the chronology placing their "ethnic expressions of unity" in 1300 is simply nonsensical. Late medieval morris dances were primarily court (and thus urban) entertainments and later became part of urban parades and celebrations; before becoming a primarily rural pastime in the Early Modern period. (This is extensively documented in John Forrests book; "The History of Morris Dancing in England; 1458-1750"; which is a fraction of the price of this book!) And finally; hobby-horses are not animals that can be ridden; nor much like the modern childs toy -- they are dancers inside horse costumes; often only a stylised horse-head with a cape.I dont have much historical knowledge of other folk dance forms (there are so many!) but what Ive read about flamenco and morris dancing so far looks to be completely wrong in every imaginable way; so Id imagine the rest of this "encyclopedia" is just as poorly written and poorly researched. Save yourself time; money; and a whole lot of headache; and just start with the Wiki pages.
