Peter Worsley

Today the colonial empires of the world are shrinking, and the new nations which have emerged from the colonial past are rapidly developing into an important force in international affairs--the "third world." They are faced by a common problem, the urgent necessity to transform a peasant society into a modern industrial economy, and they are united by a common outlook, absolute opposition to all forms of colonialism and neocolonialism. In this work Peter Worsley analyzes the unique political forms that have evolved as a result of these two basic conditions. In his view the third world has rejected both of the great ideologies of today. Their new solutions are unique in world history, being based on populism, socialism, and, often, the one-party state, which, although anathema to the Western liberal, is a natural development in societies united by the common enemy of colonialism. "No one seriously concerned with the greatest problem of our time, the division of the world between the developed, industrialized, 'affluent' countries and les nations prolétaires, can afford to miss this book. . . . Professor Worsley has succeeded in giving us more solid information about underdeveloped parts of the world than can be found in any other book of comparable length."--The Times Literary Supplement "Peter Worsley . . . has written an excellent descriptive analysis of the evolution and present state of a third force in world politics. Africa, Asia, and the Middle East have . . . given society not only a new philosophy with new goals but charismatic philosophers who have the potential to make the philosophy of the third world a vital presence to be reckoned with. . . . a brilliant book."--Peter Schwab, Journal of Modern African Studies

A Vital New Force in International Affairs

The Third World

The Lincolnshire Estates of Charles and Erasmus Darwin and Their Family

The Darwin Farms

S. Supomo

Thomas Hunter

Margaret Fletcher

In Mpu Monaguṇa's Sumanasāntaka, the authors offer an edited text and translation of Mpu Monaguṇa's early thirteenth century epic kakawin Sumanasāntaka along with extensive commentary on the history of the poem and its story in India, Java and Bali.

An Old Javanese Epic Poem, its Indian Source and Balinese Illustrations

Mpu Monaguṇa's Sumanasāntaka

Peter Worsley's studies at Cambridge were interrupted by war service as a communist officer in the colonial forces in Africa and India, and it was here that he developed a keen interest in anthropology. He work in mass education in Tanganyika and then studied with Max Gluckman at Manchester University. Banned from re-entering Africa, Worsley went to Australia where he was banned once more, this time from New Guinea, yet he did succeed in completing field-research for his Ph.D. on an Australian Aboriginal tribe. His subsequent book on 'Cargo' cults in Melanesia is now regarded as a classic, but his left-wing politics ensured that he could not get a job in anthropology, so he switched to sociology, on his return to Manchester.

An Academic Skating on Thin Ice

Los trabajos reunidos en la colección HISTORIA DE LOS MOVIMIENTOS SOCIALES tienen un protagonista: las masas. El análisis de los movimientos sociales ha impulsado el desarrollo de una disciplina -la historia social- ritualmente invocada, a partir de 1930, como parte de la «historia económica y social». Esta rama histórica se ha convertido en campo privilegiado de convergencia de la antropología, la sociología y la historia. Su metodología ofrece la variedad y amplitud propias de una disciplina en rápida gestación, nutrida por polémicas fructíferas. En 1932 la isla de Buka, en las Salomón, entró en un estado de efervescencia. Se establecieron vigías para escudriñar el horizonte día y noche, en busca de un barco. Pero no un barco ordinario, sino el barco que traía los espíritus de 1os antepasados y grandes cantidades de «cargo» para su distribución entre los nativos. Un profeta había dicho a las gentes que abandonaran sus antiguas costumbres: iba a comenzar una nueva vida. Los ritos de iniciación ya no debían seguir siendo secretos; el negro sería igual al blanco y el culto de los antepasados tomaría nuevamente el lugar de la religión de los blancos. La doctrina se extendió como un incendio y las autoridades debieron tomar fuertes medidas para suprimirla. La historia del llamado culto «cargo» no se limita en absoluto a Buka. Comenzó ya en 1885 en las islas Fidji y rápidamente se extendió al conjunto de la Melanesia. Peter Worsley muestra en este estudio cómo el culto «cargo», al principio estrechamente vinculado a los ritos de la fertilidad y al culto a los antepasados, se transformó gradualmente en un movimiento nacionalista. Los aspectos, aparentemente irracionales del culto eran, de hecho, síntomas de la creciente inseguridad de los melanesios y de su temor a un mundo en el que las condiciones sociales y económicas cambiaban por la intrusión de los blancos. Así, en sus últimas etapas el culto llegó a representar un intento de los melanesios de hacer frente a la nueva situación y afirmar su independencia frente a la administración de los blancos.

Al son de la trompeta final

This classic series provides students with concise and readable introductions to the work, life and influence of the great sociological thinkers.

Peter Worsley

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