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Rubber (The Social and Natural History of an Indispensable Substance)

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Rubber (The Social and Natural History of an Indispensable Substance)

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Specifications

	Publisher: Westland Books
	Author Vidya Rajan
	Language: English
	Pages: 284 (B/W Illustrations)
	Cover: PAPERBACK
	8.5x5.5 inch
	Weight 280 gm
	Edition: 2025
	ISBN: 9789360455873
	HBM218

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	Usually ships in 7 days
	Returns and Exchanges accepted within 7 days
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Easy Returns

Return within 7 days of
order delivery.See T&Cs

1M+ Customers

Serving more than a
million customers worldwide.

25+ Years in Business

A trustworthy name in Indian
art, fashion and literature.

Book Description

About the Book The Aztecs and the Mayas believed that rubber possessed immense cosmic significance. Today, it is an indispensable and omnipresent part of human society. But how did the journey of this substance take the turns that it did, transforming it from an object of amusing curiosity to one of necessity?

Natural sciences expert Vidya Rajan takes us back in time to the Mesoamerican civilisation when rubber extracted from trees was used for a surprising variety of purposes: from playing an early version of football to making waterproof footwear. She tells us about the patent wars that it sparked. Of how the demand for rubber triggered a terrible, gory exploitation of the native populations of the Amazon Basin and the Congo-regions where rubber trees were found in abundance. Of how rubber came into existence at all, over aeons of existential struggle between plants and animals, and how it shaped them both.

This fascinating social and natural history of rubber will lay bare the extraordinary story of an ancient substance that underpins the fabric of our everyday lives.

About the Author Vidya Rajan is a science aficionado. She has academic credentials in the biological sciences from four different universities on three continents. For the last seven years, she has written a monthly science column called 'Inner Nature'. Her interest in antifeedants arose from research she did for her doctoral dissertation and from her interest in managing pests without pesticides. She currently works as an adjunct associate professor at the University of Delaware and as a technical writer. She loves dogs and kids, enjoys nature walks, cooking, woodworking, reading, thinking, writing and red wine.

Preface Rubber was used over 3,500 years ago in the areas R of Central America inhabited by the Olmec, Maya and Aztec civilisations, encompassing modern-day Mexico and Guatemala. Milk-like latex obtained from indigenous trees was collected and processed into a bouncy and rubbery substance they called 'olli'. The springiness and utility elevated olli into a nucleus around which their mythology and rituals were built. In its latex form, it was symbolic of fertility, and represented the characteristics of milk, semen and blood.

Acknowledgements First, thank you to Professor Barry Holland, who supervised F my doctoral thesis over thirty years ago, for lively discussions on science and politics ever since your enthusiasm for this book gave me the confidence to persist. Barry, my husband Stephen, my friend and neighbour Krish and Westland Books' copyeditor Sanjana asked insightful questions to refine the narrative, caught omissions and errors and tightened up the prose. Working with them has been the best part of this whole process.

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