Taūs (mayuri)

Popular at nineteenth century Indian courts, this bowed lute borrows features of other Indian stringed instruments, such as the body shape of the sarangi and the frets and neck of the sitar. There are four melody strings and fifteen sympathetic strings that sound when the instrument is played to accompany popular religious song. The peacock is the vehicle of Sarasvatî, the goddess of music, and it appears in Indian poetry as a metaphor for courtship.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/500709?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=mayuri&pos=2

Vũ, Trọng Phụng, and Shaun Kingsley. Malarney. Lục Xì: Prostitution and Venereal Disease in Colonial Hanoi. Honolulu: U of Hawaiʻi, 2011. Print.

A subject I was really interested in was the bringing of venereal disease to Hawaii by early settlers and the devastating effects that had on the native population. So when I searched through the library’s catalog, I looked under “Hawaii”, “disease”, and “venereal”. Surprise, I came book about an island whose history is similar to that of Hawaii’s. Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, by the 1930’s, had been in the control of the French for over fifty years. This book focuses on the massive commercial sex industry initiated by French arrival. It also highlights the health effects that arise as a result of this industry, such as spikes in the amount of people with a venereal disease and the psychological effects the industry had on the women involved. Books near this one on the shelf included ones on the Sexual Revolution, and other books surrounding topics such as sex, disease, freedom, and colonization.

The City and Tsar: Peter the Great and the move to the West 1648-1762.

Lamb, Harold. The City and Tsar: Peter the Great and the Move to the West 1648-1762. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957. Print.

I am currently taking a Russian history of culture, art and politics course, so going into this Shelfie, I choose to focus on the Eurasian Empire of Russia, Peter the Great, and the impact he had during his reign. When searching the library catalog for titles that fit what I wanted to read, I looked up keywords such as “Peter the Great” and “Russia”. Naturally, titles about his bringing of western culture to Russia appeared. I chose the book entitled The City and Tsar: Peter the Great and the Move to the West because after listening to lectures in the Russian history class on him, I feel this title embodied Peter the Great best. The books cover is a plain red and the pages contain little illustrations and only a few maps. However, from reading the chapter outlines, I gathered that the book covered the full scope of Peter the Great’s travels to Western Europe, mainly Britain, and the aspirations he had for bringing Russia out of the “dark ages”. It also included the changes Peter the Great put into action in Russia and his revamping of St. Petersburg, a major city in Russia. The books that surrounded this one on the shelf were also about the life and times of Peter the Great and the impact he had on the history of the Russian Empire.