Introduction to "Cruelty, Suffering, Imagination: The Lessons of J. M. Coetzee"

For over two decades, Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee has brilliantly addressed issues of interest to anthropologists: the brutal effects of racist tyranny and injustice in South Africa; the reach of empire; guilt and revenge; and the problem of language in particular historical and political moments. In his recent work Elizabeth Costello (2003a), Coetzee confronts a particularly pressing set of contemporary political and ethical concerns, ones to which anthropologists have much to add. In this "In Focus," anthropologists from each of the subdisciplines use Elizabeth Costello as a lens for working through such concerns, addressing a range of questions—including the nature of evil and its relationship to state power, the burden of belief, the legacy of colonialism, the ethical limits of representations of horror, what it means to live in a world of cruelty and suffering, and the power of humans' sympathetic imagination to confront such a world.     

The Dictionary of Anthropology.; Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture, and Social Life.; A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory.

The Dictionary of Anthropology. Thomas Barfield. ed. Maiden, MA: Blackwell, 1997. 626 pp.
Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture, and Social Life. Tim Ingold. ed. New York: Routledge, 1997. 1128 pp.
. Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory. Michael Payne. ed. Maiden, MA: Blackwell, 1996. 644 pp.     

The Genus Myrtus L. in Algeria: Composition and Biological Aspects of Essential Oils from M. communis and M. nivellei: A Review

The genus Myrtus L. (Myrtaceae family) comprises two species, Myrtus communis L. (known as common myrtle) growing wild all around the Mediterranean basin and Myrtus nivellei Batt . and Trab . (known as Saharan myrtle), found in central Sahara. Only one country, Algeria, hosts both species, M. communis in the North and M. nivellei in the South. The aim of this review was to collect, summarize, and compare the main results reported relative to the essential oils isolated from aerial parts of both species: botanical aspects, habitat, traditional use, chemical composition, new compounds, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity, anti‐inflammatory effect, and insecticidal activity. Both essential oils have potential applications in human health.