African-American-Health Books

Now that I have purchased this one as well as Verismo, I have come to love this one even more. I again have many, many favorites and was very difficult to choose just one favorite! But, through reading more and more, I have found one to call my own!
Again, thank you Dech, for making my mind go deep inside my inner souls of souls, and realize the ways of our worlds. I
Love you my friend and I CANNOT wait to get my hands on Puppets mountain!

Decheonbae is a very good writer and he really knows his stuff. Iwas given this book for a gift now I buy this book to give to others!

Pearls of Justice seems to cover everything in a poetical way-life, dreams, and society. This is not your run of the mill poetry book! This is a book of reason and Justice for self and humanity, I am confident that Decheonbae is only going to higher levels in his next set of writing's but somehow I think he did it now. I can only be amazed of what this man do next because he is breaking all traditional barriers! I must say he is a challenging young indivisual with a extreme view on life and I am glad that I finally recieved my book! I must say like the others, this book is definetly 'something new and promissing"-this man got talent and from what I've been hearing "VERISMO" is a must have! I just want to say keep it up Decheonbae Jones, I can tell you have what it takes thus more.

Hello every one I am new to Decheonbae Jones poetry and must say he is a GOD in my book. You can not deny him and the treasure he posses in the meaning behind his works. I am a very shock on the way that he just jumps out on you and really explains the humanity of truth, I swear he is bonafide and gifted in the arts. My job seems so much easier now with his knowledge,I don't see how he can possibilty do better than VERISMO but if he do I will be there. "Hey DECHEONBAE if you write a novel what is it going to be about, I really want to know more of your mind!"

'Love it was robust..."

This is Poetry of an different style, Evil; but sacred genius of description- Possible but Known Humanity, Robust passions in a way of grains, Plus love of non-fictional-bless too beyond mistakes, My pattern yet they are lost into jeopardy- Perhaps I am of who you thought, So Behold I am in danger but Love was Pre-hemp too past tense then Rehearse of cause general, ... - By Decheonbae Thanks you Jones, ...

THE ONLY POET...-:!!!111,

The new book sooner than you think my love "PuppetsMountain,"

Decheonbae Jones- Welcome'

I purchased several copies of this book to give to the women in our family, and friends. I feel it is a must read.

This is an excellent book and necessary for each one of us to read to better understand who we are and why we make the choices we have made and continue to make. If we want something different for our lives, this book introduces us to ways to examine the lives and choices of our mothers, grandmothers, etc., in an effort to make different choices......

I have never read a book that revealed more about black male female relationships. I've read this book three times, and I've given as a gift to other sisters in the struggle just as many times. I recommend this book highly to anyone on a search to understand themselves intergenerationally.

This book is an absolute MUST for any black woman (or man for that matter) who wants to deal with intergenerational scarcity beliefs which prevent us from truly experiencing love in our lives. Richardson and Wade do an excellent job of explaining how the slavery experience impacted every facet of black life and remnants of that impact are played out in our relationships with our family, friends, and mates. For instance, many of us can look back in our family tree to locate where different behavioral patterns (i.e. alcoholism, sexual abuse, obesity, etc.) developed and now play out in our own lives. The authors have you do a series of exercises, such as a genogram which lists the scarcity beliefs and self-destructive behaviors members of our families have developed and passed on to us, to help you begin to understand those internalized beliefs and behaviors which prevent us from experiencing real love. The book doesn't just focus on love relationships with mates but explores love relationships with ourselves, our family, and our mates. Personally, I found the chapter on anger to be the most provocative and enlightening. So much so that I have begun using the information I learned about my anger issues in my individual counseling sessions. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to deal with the pain of slavery and its reprecussions on our present day lives.

I cound not put this book down! I was amazed of the imact black slavery has on us today.The entire truth was never taught to me in school. I'm glad this book tells it how it is(or how it use to be)!This book taught me how to heal deep emotional scars that have been pasted down from one generation to the next. I had no idea what a profound impact past emotional abuse has had on my personal life and love relationships today. Don't live in the dark, buy this book and be enlightened to the abudance that was ment for you...

This book is quickly becoming my 5 month old son favorite. The vibrant colors and ryhme captivate his attention and help to build a foundation for a love of reading. He turns the pages and listen attentively again and again. I am sure we will be reading this book for the next few year. I also purchased this book and whose toes are those as gifts for babyshowers. They were a big hit.

I purchased this book, along with "Whose Toes are Those?" for my twin boy and girl. They both love them! I think that these are great African-American books.

I got this and several other books for my 20 month old grandson. He loves this book. He looks at the knees in the book and then looks at his knees. He laughs and giggles!!! This book is TOO CUTE!!!!

Jabari Asim has created a wonderful board book featuring characters of color that centers around, you guessed it, knees. The story starts with a question, that is sure to give a sense of mystery and intrigue to even the youngest of readers; "Whose knees are these?" Throughout the book, which is filled with fun illustrations, readers follow along until the narrator finally figures out to whom the mysterious knees belong.

WHOSE KNEES ARE THESE is an engaging celebration of individuality. The fun, rhyming language, and the overall simplicity of the story itself make it perfect for the target age group. In addition to celebrating uniqueness, the book promotes body awareness, introduces the concept of left and right, and encourages positive self-image and familial bonds. Toddlers, who often enjoy reading the same book over and over, can quickly pick up the book's content, and may even chose to "read" it to their parents.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I was so happy to hear of this book on the NYTimes book review and see board books (along with partner book Whose Toes are Those) written for African American toddlers. My son is 18 months old and this is his favorite book! He carries it everywhere and forces me to read it over and over and over and over at bedtime.

Our daughter loves this book, after buying "Whose Knees Are These" she kept asking for its companion. We were not disappointed, its a frequent selection at nap and bedtime.

I purchased this book along with "Whose Knees are These?" for my twin boy and girl. They love these books. I think that they are excellent African-American books. Provide very positive images.

This book, along with its "brother" book "Whose Knees are These" have become our favorite gifts for children in our lives. The books are fun, original, and fast page-turners. My daughter loves to do the "This little piggie" game as we read it. We also appreciate the multi-ethnic illustrations. We think that it is great for all kinds of children to have books featuring all kinds of children!

This book is great for cuddling and playing with your baby. It encourages you to touch and tickle their feet. It also encourages you to ask your baby questions and wait for an answer, even if it is just a coo. I absolutely love the style as it leads to wonderful interaction between parent and baby.

WHOSE TOSE ARE THOSE is Jabari Asim's second board book for babies and toddlers in which the focus is on body parts. The text is playful and engaging and appeals to a child's excitement about themselves. The illustrations are the perfect complement and are bright and colorful, making them easily relatable to the words on the pages. Little girls, especially, will love the book as it clearly represents several of ther aspects, such as "the girl with the sparkling eyes and that cute button nose."

WHOSE TOES ARE THOSE is a perfect book to assist in teaching body parts and the beauty of even the simplest of things; in this case, toes. It fosters awareness of self-esteem and depictions of themselves in which children of color can recognize. From the rhyming text to the introduction of counting, this adorable book will become a favorite for children and parents alike.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I think this book is very informative and I recommend this to anyone. I'm still reading it, when I'm done, I'll be passing it along to relatives.

This is a very excellent book. I found it very informative and inspiring. I enjoyed the fact that it covered not only physical issues but emotional and spiritual issues as well. It made for a very good read because I felt the author really knew her subjects and what things might be underlying causes for ill health. I would recommend this book to all women who are on a quest to feel better physically and emotionally.

This was a refreshing look into not only how to achieve and maintain a healthy heart but also the interesting facts that surround the history of black women and their cultural differences. However I would recommend this book to all women, not just black women, as there is a lot of beneficial information for all of us here.

Dr. Yates has a wonderful gift of not only talking in laymen's terms so that a larger audience can make use of this important information, but she also breaks down the facts that lie around the issues of heart health in a way that allows you to retain the facts.

The chapter on Estrogen Replacement Therapy was particularly helpful. With a sea of information on this issue, most of which is either scientific garble to me or that of pharmaceutical representation skewed toward profit margins, I was relieved to get clear information here that any reader will be able to make sense of. I walked away understanding much more about my own body and the natural resources that lie within me. Thus allowing me to make better decisions about how I will proceed when I am at the age of menopause.

I commend Dr. Yates on a job well done and I look forward to more information on other topics by her in the future.

Finally there's an author who speaks my language! I happy to say reading this book has helped me turn some things around for myself. I realize no one's going to take care of me but me, and this author speaks to me in a way that's inspiring. And she knows what I'm dealing with. Sisters, this one is worth your $.

My name is Aliou Ayaba a physician from Benin in West-Africa.I have practiced in rural hospital in Benin for almost ten years now.I met Dr Yates by chance because she was willing to donnate medical equipments and supplies to rural hospitals in Benin after an ad I placed in a local newspaper. If I saw her book on stack in a library I would not have paid attention to it because like all today modern physicians alternative/traditional/ natural medicine is secondary, imprecise and sometimes not important. It is sad because everytime we want to make a prescription about High blood pressure, diabete, sickle-cell anemia, depression etc, we start with :" hygienic and dietetic counseling" even though we do not have time to explain all this section to the patient..But this is rather a big issue about the place of alternative medicine today. The book written by Dr.Yates impress me a lot for it reveals in a very simple language the hidden part of our health.It has more effect on me probably because I practice in a rural hospital in Benin where I cross every day in the hospital traditional healers giving secret care to their hospitalized patients just because unlike we modern physicians busy with "mathmatical medicine" they take time to listen to patients, their recipes are natural, cheaper easy to use and with less side effects...they care not only for the body but also the mind and the patient's environment as well. Cardiovascular diseases CVD are the first killer worlwide and as Dr.Yates indicates there is a single chance: they are preventable, their prevention is cheaper or only costs a little change in our lifestyle.For everyone and particularly black women all over the world I recommend this book because if today we cannot change our socioeconomic status which put us at higher risk of dying for CVD at least we can modifies slightly our lifestyle by following the simple receipes of Dr.Yates in order to enjoy this life that never rewind...

As a person who has celebrated Kwanzaa for a couple of decades and as the creator of several kwanzaa products myself, I found the book 'Kwanzaa: From Holiday to Every Day' to be a very informative book on this growing celebration.

The book offers historical info on Kwanzaa and illustrates how the celebration connects people of African descent around the world with our cultural roots.

The book shows you how to organize a Kwanzaa celebration of your own and has a lot of great contacts for Kwanzaa music, books and supplies.

I recommend it for anyone interested in learning about Kwanzaa. I also recommend it for those who already know of and celebrate Kwanzaa as a way to reinforce its concepts and its meaning to you.

This book explores not only the holiday of Kwanzaa, but how to incorporate the values of Kwanzaa into your everyday life without going outside of who you intrinsically are. You are already a person who is creative, caring, conscientious and interested in African inspired cultural values, then this book can expand and enhance your practices.

Ms. Angaza's journalistic style takes the reader on a historical voyage as well as a personal one. Her sense of prose will dazzle the reader as well as make him ponder of why it is so important to celebrate such a holiday. This book has even inspired me to throw my first Kwanzaa event this year.

I picked up Ms. Angaza's text, Kwanzaa: From Holiday to Every Day,and have begun to read it like a novel. I thank Ms. Angaza for penning this positive vibration and upliftment. Her prose is smooth and rational. It puts into perspective the cultural repression and damage to the psyche of Africans worldwide while also providing numerous examples of our triumphs, successes and committment to our cultural heritage.

I laughed out loud at the passage where she exposes the cultural bias inherent in the debate over hyphenated identities and the kiss me i'm Irish example. She's crafted a blend of history, social commentary, practical applications, call to action and inspirational vignettes that can be beneficial to all. I reccommend purchasing this text just for the resource section - simply phenomenal. The resource seciton could be used as a life long self study core curricula. Don't overlook the recipes - yummy. She presents things so honestly (sans pretext) that I think people will be encouraged to try out many of the book's recommendations. A Complete guide is an apt subtitle for this work.

I thoroughly recommend this book to everyone! Were I able to give it 6 stars, I would have given it 7. This book is not simply a nice read... it is an Absolute Need. Seriously, this piece comes at a time when our communities & our families are in dire need of self-realization and a reconnection to the roots and core values that make African people unique. One of the things that was most impressive to me was the level of research that was done to compile this work. Who knew that so many people in so many countries across the world are celebrating Kwanzaa and adapting it's principles. Myself and my mate have even discussed beginning to travel each year during the holiday so that we may expose this tradition to our children as it is celebrated throughout the world. If you have never celebrated Kwanzaa, have celebrated all your life or think that this book is not for you... Buy this book! It is for you and you will absolutely not be dissapointed. The Resource pages toward the back are worth the purchase alone.

I loved what this book represented - a large variety of voices from many walks of life in the African American community to address a disease that has been silent within the community. Each piece was short as well as engaging and held my attention. I feel that the format can be useful for engaging many ages and gender within the community. It lends itself to be a great tool for educating the community.
Pamela Payne Foster, author of "is there a balm in Black America?"

Have you ever heard an unpleasant story or watched a horrific event on the TV newscast and thought "Oh no, not me?" Most of us have at one time or another. "Not in my Family," a collection of observations by various African Americans, examines this response in the context of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and HIV infection. Edited by journalist Gil L. Robertson IV, contributors to this compilation include celebrities such as Mo'nique and Hill Harper, activists such as Reverend Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, and ordinary folk whose names we would not recognize. Each contributor shares with the reader his or her perception of AIDS and HIV infection, usually through an essay, but sometimes through a poem or a speech.
[...] This is enough to make one sit up and take notice. Although the book contains much statistical data on AIDS and HIV, it also contains many stories of individuals who are living with this disease or have personally felt its impact. Some of the contributors share their stories of how they contracted HIV, and the manner in which they or their families coped. Others share how they first became conscious of the disease when it first came to the fore in the early 1980's.
The book examines many of the deep seated prejudices we hold about HIV and AIDS, and the way these prejudices have aided the escalation of the disease in the African American community. The issues most frequently discussed were people's perception of HIV/AIDS as a "gay" disease, and the still widely held belief that one can be infected by casual contact such as a hug or a handshake. Since HIV/AIDS is sexually transmitted, the issue of sex also looms large throughout the book.
For me, the most poignant story was that of a [...]Many contributors to the book discuss society's perceptions of "the kind of people" that contract the disease, and the factors in our community which have most impact on its spread. Among the factors discussed is the "down low" phenomenon, and the black church's position regarding homosexuality and sex outside of marriage.
Be warned! Although the book is well written and well edited, it sometimes contains adult language as the editor apparently sought to maintain the authenticity of the contributors' feelings and expressions. The "in your face" language of some of the contributors seems geared to shock. It seems their justification for this is to rouse the reader out of complacency into at least awareness if not activism.
Overall, the book will cause you to examine your attitudes toward the disease and toward people who are living with the disease. For example, one contributor questions, would you date someone who was HIV positive? Well, would you? It will also make you pay more attention to the impact the disease is having on our people here in the United States as well as in the Diaspora. The views expressed by the contributors range from conservative to ultra liberal, from conspiracy theory to punishment by the almighty for too much free love. One thing on which all of the contributors seem to agree is that a cure must be found, and it must be found very soon.
I highly recommend this book because it is bound to heighten awareness and empathy with regard to HIV/AIDS and its victims. It is also quite likely to raise levels of awareness of the impact this disease has been having on black women in particular. It certainly did that for me.

This AIDS awareness books is a great way for people to learn about the horrors of AIDS what they can do to help stop this epidemic. Robertson calls on many African American figures like Patti LaBelle, Mo'Nique, and Al Sharpton and others. There were stories from everyday figures and I could honestly feel their pain. There was a poem from a poet in the beginning of the book and it was well fit to open this kind of book. Kudos to Gil for this effort, we need to support!!

Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community grips its readers form the opening words. This collection of personal essay by numerous celebrities including Mo'Nique, Byron Cage, Patti LaBelle and Sheryl Lee Ralph, Randall Robison, Omar Tyree, Hill Harper, Jasmine Guy and Rev. Al Sharpton is edited by Gil L. Robertson IV and explores the debilitating disease that has quietly ravage countless families in the black community.

This candid compilation pokes its head into the darkest corners of the African-American psyche and experience. A black woman faced with the infection of her beloved drug-abusing bisexual husband and a swinging corporate America nephew recalls the connection, crisis and journey of those within his own family. The account of Mr. Marcus,, the highly popular adult film star, who feel compelled to have sex on camera after being recruited in Las Vegas, reveals the historical wounds that his family's legacy inflicted upon him.

Robertson weaves personal and heart-wrenching experiences that shed light on the dire need that exists throughout the African Diaspora. This anthology should be "used to stop the enemy in his tracks," as Robertson prescribes. Not in My Family is a guide and an icebreaker. It is thought provoking, sincere and heartfelt. It is necessary.

"Black America, we have a problem.
HIV/AIDS is running rampant through our communities. Many of us are sick and dying and living in fear and shame, and many of us who aren't afflicted are living in denial, detachment, ignorant, and glass houses. Worse yet, too many people in our communities act as if they are immune to the problem altogether.
`Not me.' `Not in my family!' And that's the problem.
Not in My Family is a weapon of warfare, a tool of empowerment, and a manual on friendship. It includes lessons before dying, lessons on living, lessons on love, and lessons on letting go. It is a collection of colorful stories, hard truths, and differing opinions from people of various lifestyles strung together to teach us not only how to survive, but how to thrive in the face of HIV and AIDS.
It is a dose of truth to our community. And hopefully, the truth will make us free."
-- Excerpted from the Introduction

In the United States, AIDS is increasingly an African-American epidemic, taking a disproportionate toll on the black community where someone is ten times as likely to contract the disease as in a white neighborhood. According to Gil Robertson, many factors have contributed to the explosion of this frightening phenomenon, including "dysfunction, fear, poverty, and lack of information." In fact, he suggests, that upon close inspection, we find the causes to be almost as plentiful as the number of individuals infected.
For this reason, Robertson, decided to edit an anthology of essays by folks touched by the disease, whether they might having a loved one coping with the ailment, be personally infected, on the front lines as an activist, or modestly ministering to patients. In Gil's case, his brother, Jeffrey, was diagnosed as HIV-positive over 20 years ago, and the fallout visited upon the family in the form of "shock, fear and regret" has taken the Robertsons years to overcome.
Fortunately, Gil, a gifted, syndicated journalist whose work has appeared in Essence, Billboard, Black Enterprise and The Los Angeles Times, had the wherewithal to channel his energy positively in terms of tackling a subject which has heretofore been left woefully unaddressed. For AIDS is a scourge likely to ravage the black community exponentially unless it wakes up and faces the fact that Silence = Death.
Thus, Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Family is an urgent, informative, groundbreaking book because it takes AIDS out of the inner-city closet by initiating an intelligent dialogue designed to shake both brothers and sisters out of their complacency and thereby inspire everyone to action. Among the sixty or so contributors to this timely text are entertainers, such as Patti LaBelle, Jasmine Guy, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mo'Nique and Hill Harper; physicians, including Dr. Donna Christensen, DR. James Benton and Dr. Joycelyn Elders; AIDS activists Phill Wilson and Christopher Cathcart; ministers, like Reverend Al Sharpton and Calvin Butts; best-selling authors, such as Randall Robinson and Omar Tyree; and Congressmen Barbara Lee, Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Gregory Meeks.
But just as moving as the clarion call sounded by any of these celebs, are the heartfelt stories related by relative unknowns with out any pedigree. For instance, 22 year-old Marvelyn Brown talks about how having AIDS has taught her the true meaning of friendship. Jaded judge Ivory Brown waxes poetic about her late friend and hairdresser who, before he expired, inspired her to overhaul her life by seizing the day.
Dena Gray starts her chapter with an entry from her diary which describes December 20, 1991 as "the worst day of my life," because "I found out today that I'm HIV-positive." Such a powerfully simple, straightforward, and sobering statement can't help but halt a reader in his or her tracks. Shawna Ervin, meanwhile, recounts how she reacted, at the tender age of 11, to learning that her best friend had contracted the illness via a blood transfusion, and how they remained close, in spite of the stigma, till Andrea's demise ten years later.
Filled to overflowing with such almost sacred moments, Not in My Family is a must read, but not merely as a heart-wrenching collection of moving AIDS memoirs. For perhaps more significantly, this seminal work simultaneously serves as the means of kickstarting candid dialogue about an array of pressing, collateral topics, ranging from homophobia to incarceration to brothers on the down low to low self-esteem to the use of condoms to the role of the Church in combating this virtually-invisible genocide quietly claiming African-Americana.

I really enjoyed the book, "Becoming Dead Right." The book was powerfully written and allowed the reader to feel the joys, frustrations, excitement and pain of the men and women in Hospice Care. My favorite part was the poems that were peppered in throughout the book that gave the book an extra special touch. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a book that puts a story and face with the people in Hospice Care.

I have been working in the hospice industry full time for a little over two years and I have not seen a better depiction of this topic. Ms. Parker's book gives the most descriptive and genuine look into the true nature of hospice. Most people don't truly know the many benefits of hospice and have a negative viewpoint of hospice. Ms. Parker's book is informative, straightforward, factual and timely. I think her book should be used for training in hospice courses and within hospice organizations across the country.

As much as we tend to "tip-toe" around end-of-life matters with family and friends, Parker however takes the reader on a warm and touching journey with "loud and clear" steps about what she calls, "The Other Side of Through." Throughout the book, you can't help but reflect on your life situation wherever you may be on life's timeline. It is a must-read for those thousands of "baby boomers" like me because 1. We are entering that phase of our life where, quite frankly, we begin to seriously think about our own mortality and all that that means, and 2. Many of us have had to be, or will face the very likely possibility of being, a care-giver to a loved one. "Being Dead Right" answers so many questions on the issues of hospice care almost from A-Z and is told in a very readable, informative and humane way. In her book, Parker indeed lets full sun shine on a topic long lain hid. Excellent job.

Let's face it: Becoming Dead Right is a startling use of double entendre. It grew on me as a reader, since ultimately there's no time that straight talk is more required than at, and about, end of life. Placing judgement aside, "wrong" ways of dying have detrimental effects on patient-families; "right" ways of dying make end days as humane as can be, for both the dying and their survivors.

Humaneness is the critical quality that is often misplaced or absent from critical care. Parker's humanity is palpable. Every school principal must imbue it (even if half her kids may go to their own graves in denial of their school principal's humanity), so it's no surprise she would manifest it as a hospice worker and writer.

Yet I was surprised, and touched, and bolstered. As a writer on end-of-life matters, I expect others who write on dying and death to do so with great dignity, empathy, and poise. The subject requires it. So why my surprise? I think it stems from several directions.
- Poetry. If inuendo has no place in end-of-life conversations, and metaphor ignites understanding as it relieves duress, poetry occupies a middle ground. Parker's inclusion of personal poems throughout adds a a poignant, exploratory dimension to her narrative.
- Cultural mileu #1: Inside the Looking Glass. Reading messages that emanate from inside hospice differs from reading information about hospice. Parker gives us the real deal, distinct from intellectual abstraction (no matter how important the latter may be when the subject is end-of-life choices). Parker's "person-studies" help explain, in a very accessible manner, what hospice offers.
- Cultural mileu #2: Race. For those of us outside the black community, Becoming Dead Right offers a glimpse into the human fabric that makes Black America rich in ways that are intrinsic to their unique identity as a people. The glimpse arises naturally, through the telling. It's subtle, and probably unintentional--making this book all the more valuable.

And if Parker can help manifest her vision of Boomer Haven on a national scale, I'd queue up when it's my turn--even if I wasn't already predisposed.

-- Bart Windrum, author of Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's End-of-Life Hospitalization

This book was enlightning and a pleasure to read. I found it difficult to put down. Each of many patient related stories told was captivating and conveyed significant and often imperative messages. Comprehensive, insightful, empathetic, amusing, comforting and instructive are all applicable adjectives. Becoming Dead Right is a gift of sagacity to us all.

This book may be the most important book ever written on the evolution of human social organization. It brings together observation and theory from social anthropology, primatology, and paleoanthropology in a manner never before equalled. The author, Chris Knight, who teaches social anthropology at the University of London is up to date on all these fields and has achieved an extraordinary synthesis. His critiques of Claude Levi-Strauss on totemism and myth are a sheer tour de force. The basic premise can be summarized, though only in an extremely cursory fashion, as follows. The basis of primate social organization is predicated on the distribution of food resources and how females array themselves around these. Males array themselves around females. Over the course of human evolution, the acquisition of animal protein came to be of critical significance. Proto-human females acquired this valuable resource from males via a collective bargaining agreement which formed the basis of human kinship organization and social exchanges. This accomplished through a systematic "sex-strike" cycle which ran according to a lunar based schedule of menstruation/hunting following by ovulation/feasting. Human females evolved concealed ovulation and a cultural system of sexual advertisement based on menstruation that guided this cycle. Females could now say 'yes', but they could also say 'no', depending on the success of the hunting venture. The author explores evidence for this thesis both in the ethnography of currently existing non-industrial societies as well as in the paleolithic in the use that anatomically modern humans' made of red ochre and other pigments to signify and exploit the menstrual event. A number of previously incomprehensible myths, such as the 'Rainbow Snake' of the Australian Aborigines, receive a new and revealing interpretation in this light.

Dr.Chris Knight was one of my lecturers at university and without fail I would come away from my Anthropology lectures with my head blown away by all the amazing knowledge transfer that occurred. It was all fantastic stuff and all totally confusing until one of those "aha" moments, when all of Chris's and the other anthropologists theories suddenly all fell into place and began to make real sense.

The book itself was a key text during our studies with various chapters needing to be read at various times. For that reason I shall not break down the book, rather I shall say that it will be one of the most illuminating and eye-opening books that you will ever read. Maybe not the easiest to read but definitely one of the best. Oh, and you can always impress your friends in the pub of an evening with your knowledge of Marxist paleo-anthropological theories pertaining to the emergence of human culture!

This book was a revelation for me. Having struggled through numerous turgid anthropological works by the likes of Levi-Strauss, Roheim, etc., it was thrilling to read such an ambitious clear-sighted and compelling account of the origins of human culture, together with an excellent critique of much current anthropological thinking.

It's worth mentioning that Chris Knight is a marxist, and by that I don't mean vaguely left-wing in the manner of, say, Eric Hobsbawm. He's a real believer...dialectic materialism, the whole works. Clearly Knight believes his marxism is essential to his thesis. I would argue that although this maybe enabled him to see through other anthropological schools - structuralism, functionalism, what-have-you - and to develop his own theories, in the end it's irrelevant to his conclusions. So, wade through the marxist stuff, you can ignore it, it's not to my mind necessary to agree with his ideological beliefs (I don't) to appreciate his arguments, and to agree with much of what he says - or at least to find this a wonderfully stimulating book.

"The notion of tabu as connoting both 'danger' and 'power' belongs in fact to a venerable tradition. One source of this is the work of Durkheim...a pioneering article on menstrual symbolism published in 1898...Durkheim argued that women established the exogamy rule by periodically BLEEDING so as to repulse the opposite sex...[women] were the immediate agents of religious ideology's segregating action."

"...But of course, the model of cultural origins advocated in this book would lead us to trace the underlying abstract logic of the Rainbow Snake...much further back into the Aborigines past--indeed, right back to their first entry into Australia [from central Africa]..."

"It would be interesting to study the ideological and political factors which led to Durkheim's insights being virtually ignored for a hundred years."

Chris Knight, BLOOD RELATIONS
Chapter 11: "The Raw and The Cooked" and
Chapter 14: "The Dragon Within"

" At Yirkalla, in...north-east Arnhem Land [aboriginal Australia]...women's solidarity is still very strong, menstrual blood is regarded as 'sacred'... It is only when this snake power of the women themselves has been established that the conditions are felt appropriate for the climax of the ceremony...

'...really we have been stealing what belongs to them (the women) for it is mostly women's business... Women can't see what men are doing...This is because all the Dreaming business came out of women--everything...In the beginning we had nothing...we took these things from women.'

"It is one of the severest indictments of 20th Century anti-evolutionist anthropology that its models have led ethnographers to dismiss such profound Aboriginal insights as scientifically valueless."

Chris Knight, BLOOD RELATIONS
Chapter 13: "The Rainbow Snake"

This is a five star, paradigm-shifting treatise on human cultural origins if there ever was one. Chris Knight's rendering of the four plus million years of primate and proto-human history in BLOOD RELATIONS, right up to the latest 200,000 years that begin true humankind and human culture in central Africa and along the Nile, through to the psychic/motivational bedrock of our conflicted modern society, becomes more impressive, more inclusive--and more impregnable with every chapter and every turn of the page.

My test for the far-reaching influence and power of any theorist--particularly of the wannabe revolutionary kind--is three-fold. One, their theory must be completely plausible; i.e. not needing simple revolt from detractors and complimentary but poorly explained aspects of ITSELF to proclaim and rationalize its essential relevance. Two, they must have the ability to completely encapsulate the foundational principles, concepts and findings of the other historical and competitive theories within its discipline as an integral part of its own new perspective; showing their ideas to be the great quantum leap beyond our sense of reality and the all inclusive step toward truth. And third, perhaps most important of all, it has to excite me. There may be things my mind will not be specifically educated enough, multi-lingual enough or quick enough to pick up, but you cannot fool my heart. All these three are BLOOD RELATIONS's great achievement and great contribution.

Chris Knight, the brilliant and controversial London anthropologist, does this all in BLOOD RELATIONS with such remarkable clarity and erudition, in fact, attempts to disagree with his findings becomes pointless. His unified field-theory of the prehistoric African woman's role in the formation of human culture is so incredibly well done, and so profoundly earth shattering in its implications, that I read the book twice to fully soak in all the sacred pre-verbal intuitions I have had that it reveals to be historical fact and obvious science.

So far the only complaint of BLOOD RELATIONS I could have is the only one possible: he seemingly focuses too much on the Marxist avatar of revolutionary cultural ideas while using it as the lens via which the origins of culture could be best understood. This at times seems to ironically minimize the revolutionary spirit of humankind that produced them. None less than the great Picasso was once quoted in saying "today's artists are tomorrow's politicians;" focusing more on the *artistic* power of the creative human spirit (my bias) may have put his new paradigm in an even more inclusive perspective. Yet even there he establishes, to my knowledge, the first credible dialectic between the devolved, political diseases of 20th century Stalinism/Maoism and the philosophical/scientific postulates of the 19th century Marxism upon which their regimes were originally based. So powerfully, in fact, that the Marxist perspective he examines and explains driving his reevaluation of 20th century anthropology--and, in turn, our entire view of human culture--need not (and in his book does not) come with the kind of intellectual apologies that would otherwise signify an inherent lack of validity.

Chris Knight with BLOOD RELATIONS shows unquestionably that women, via sex and the rhythm of menstruation, nurtured the primal creative impulse of civilization and they essentially created human culture. And he shows it to be made up of communal solidarity against oppressors and oppressive situations (be it prehistoric animals or alpha males), symbol-driven creativity, and achieving a certain oneness with the rhythms of nature. This primal social movement that is the womb of human culture, told in every ancient culture's foundational myths, could naturally just as easily explain the birth of democracy and/or capitalism in the historical ages of feudalism as it does the advent of Marxism in the age of capitalism...and what is next for human kind.

This is another of the great books of our time whose far-reaching influence in modern culture has not even begun to be felt. One can only imagine what anthropological works throughout history that have been ignored because of intellectual biases will now be reexamined and redeemed through his paradigm shifting work. I would combine this with Barbara Ehrenreich's 1995 work BLOOD RITES, and the 19th Century Gerald Massey's ANCIENT EGYPT, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD as an anthropological trinity of monumental, paradigm shifting proportions that will change your view of humankind-our true past, present and potential-forever.

BLOOD RELATIONS is beautiful.

The many words used to describe Chris Knight's "Blood Relations" include, monumental, encyclopedic, brilliant, original, ingenious, and a tour-de-force. It is all of these and more! This work is simply the most brilliant and imaginative book about human cultural development ever written. Its range is astonishing. Its arguments are cogently made with great detail. Its synthesis of primatology, socio-biology, and anthroplogy are compelling. Where others have depicted women as the victims of a dominant male hierarchy, Knight reveals how the sex roles and behavior of both men and women developed together in a dialectic relationship. Where others have stressed the loss of oestrus and continuous sexual receptivity in the female, Knight spotlights menstruation and its associated marital and other cultural taboos. Where others stress man the hunter and woman the gatherer, Knight envisions paleo-women as evolving an increasing solidarity to shape the structure of both hunting and gathering. Women are not the passive creatures that are so often depicted by the radical feminists who have an interest in portraying women as the victims of dominant males. Females have been active participants in shaping culture, behavior, and human destiny. As Knight says, "symbolic culture involves very widespread levels of synchronized co-operative action."

Somewhere between 40,000 and 100,000 years ago, Knight believes, a massive social, sexual, and cultural explosion occurred and he does an ingenious job of providing us with insight into how this may have happened. A major change in reproductive strategy had to take place before males could take off as hunters and leave their women behind. Women synchronized their ovulatory cycles with one another; the concept of the "sex-strike" is the heart of the book. Blood as a symbol of menstruation provides a key to much of human culture and Knight uses it to explain the inner logic of many of mankind's myths and taboos. Because the disruptive effects of sex can be enormous, these controls have played an important role in the development of human culture.

The riches of this deeply learned book cannot simply be conveyed in a brief review. It is a work to be read over and over and contemplated. The many insights into human culture and the relationships among the sexes will surely provide any open minded person with a new perspective as to why we are the way we are.

Dr. D. Kim Singleton, noted psychologist, has braved a wilderness whose path is rarely travelled. Broken Silence helps black women give voice to their pain and rejection in a society that has been less than encouraging to them.

The compassionate and graceful manner in which Dr. Singleton approaches, addresses and eventually aids her patients will help many women reading this book readily embrace therapy as a viable option in the fight against negative experiences from the past. It is a must-read for anyone crushed by the double whammy of racism and sexism in our society.

Because Dr. Singleton is an African American woman, I must admit that I was ready to trust her as soon as I opened the book. After reading Broken Silence, I can truly say that I experienced a certain level of healing, personally. The book helped me understand how a professional can help me identify a problem; determine goals that will change the problem; put into practice measures that will bring about my goals and maintain the right attitude and therapist to insure continued success on my life's journey.

I would recommend Broken Silence to everyone, but especially to African American women. By mastering a tool that has been traditionally mistrusted in our community, Dr. Singleton has used psychotherapy to pierce the silence of the eight black women in her book, and in so doing has offered hope and wholeness to all women everywhere.

Dr. Singleton's book is right on time for the African American woman of today, because as quiet as it's kept, we are hurting and need to be healed. As a 17 year old African American female I opened the book and from reading the first page I knew that it was not another one of those "How-To" books. We all know about the sudden trend in writing motivational books where the author has an eyecatching title like "How To Heal Your Broken Soul With Five Easy and Totally Doable Steps!", written by some person who couldn't be further away from their target readers.

Dr. Singleton's book is far from anything like that. This book is real and with every chapter dedicated to another hurt and troubled Black woman, the reader can relate to one,if not two or three of the women. This book is not just for middle-aged Black woman.It is for any woman of any age."Broklen Silence" is simply put and can be read in no time, and even if you find that every chapter is not aplicable to you, each reader should find Singleton's ending 10 Priciples of Affirmation.

Thank you for writing this book Dr. Singleton.There is someone of my generation out here reading it.

Broken Silence is an exceptional book that I found to be very captivating. I am an African-American male and I believe that every "brother" should read this book, and gain an understnading of the women in their lives as well as themselves. We all have loved ones, friends or co-workers who at some time in their life will go through a period of emotional or psychic distress and will need guidance to successfully cope with the situation. All too often the women in our lives suffer in silence, hence the title of the book.

In the preface, Dr. Singleton stated that she had to undergo therapy herself as part of her training and found it to be an unpleasant experience. This helps to explain part of the reason for so much resistance in our community towards therapy, especially if the therapist comes from another cultural background. Dr. Singleton manages to combine therapy with good old-fashioned wisdom and thereby gain the trust of those who have come to her for help.

Eight women are profiled in the book, a representative sample of the thousands of people Dr. Singleton has assisted over the years. Dr. Singleton shows in each different situation, how to turn a negative experience into one of empowerment and triumph. Pychological counseling is not an easy process and it takes a lot of time and hard work, just like in any good relationship. As I read this book, it brought to mind a movie I saw last year, the Antwone Fisher Story. I saw men who were moved to tears by that film and this book could have the same impact.

This culture and society has never been a facilitating environment for good relationships between African-American women and men. Today our young people are constantly bombarded with misogamist (hatred of marriage) and misogyny (hatred of women) messages through videos, music and television. The society has never embraced us as equals in the workplace either as we witness the attack upon affirmative action. It is very hard to be sane in an insane world. Dr. Singleton shows in her book, Broken Silence, that no matter how dire your personal, family, or work situation, through therapy and love, you can become a strong and vibrant woman. The process works for the "brothers" too. We all need help from time to time and should not be ashamed to seek it. This book should be placed upon everyone's "must read" list.

This book is great beginning for women who are uncertain about whether they need to seek professional help! She really has captured the essence of Black women and their path to therapy. I have recommended it to many of my friends.

Dr. Singleton prefaces the novel, Broken Silence, by quoting an axiom from a t-shirt she once saw: "Being a Black Woman Is One of the Hardest Jobs in the World." She comments that this maxim has proven itself true as evidenced in the lives of her clients. Too often women of color hide behind walls of silence (with disastrous consequences), only turning to therapy when the burdens become too heavy to bear. I loved the way the author substantiated this point by citing the historical "silent suffering" experienced by African American slaves as fodder for pain; how religion is repeatedly viewed as the only means of relief; and how the "silent suffering" is still deeply rooted in the modern African American psyche.

The middle portion of the book contains eight success stories of black women who have benefited from therapy. Each woman has different types of issues ranging from emotional and sexual abuse, relationship issues, and self-respect/identity problems. Dr. Singleton introduces each story with care and compassion. Her objectivity, presentation of the issues, and counsel to her patients are helpful, sound, and sensible. She has simplified highly complex problems which allow the reader to easily empathize and learn from the lessons of others. My only comment here is she might have over-simplified a bit too much, but her advice and strategies to minimize stress and encourage her clients are wonderful.

I think this book is an excellent resource for women, especially black women, who need to know that they are not alone in their experiences with abuse, failed relationships, and/or career disappointments. It also provides clear explanations and warning signs along with practical suggestions and exercises for healthier living. It demonstrates that personal change is possible and helps women realize that if they choose to overcome the cultural stigma of therapy, they will find the support, comfort, relief, and balance needed to let the healing begin.

Reviewed by Phyllis