Jones, Constance (Constance A. Jones)

PERSONAL:

Education: Emory University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. E-mail—cjones@ciis.edu.

CAREER:

Served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and the Columbia Theological Seminary, and in India at Banaras Hindu University and Vasanta College; Krishnamurti Study Center, Varanasi, India, researcher; Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China, researcher; California Institute of Integral Studies, faculty member. Member of the board of directors of the Institute for the Study of New Religions, Turino, Italy; member of the international advisory board for The Complete Teachings of J. Krishnamurti, 1910-1986.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Post-doctoral fellowship, Center for the Study of New Religious Movements, Graduate Theological Union.

WRITINGS:

(With Derris L. Raper and Jon J. Sbrega) The American Experience: Documents and Notes, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company (Dubuque, IA), 1985.

Karen Horney, Chelsea House (New York, NY), 1989.

Pasta, H.P. Books (Los Angeles), 1990, enlarged as Pasta: Sauces and Fillings for All Shapes and Sizes, Fairfax (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Derris L. Raper) A Goodly Heritage: The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, Pictorial Heritage Publishing Company (Norfolk, VA), 1992.

The European Conquest of North America, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1995.

Trailblazers: The Men and Women Who Forged the West, MetroBooks (New York, NY), 1995.

Sexual Harassment, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor) Love of Friends: An Anthology of Gay and Lesbian Correspondence with Friends and Lovers, researched by Val Clark, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.

R.I.P.: The Complete Book of Death and Dying, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

1,001 Things Everyone Should Know about Women's History, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1998.

(With James D. Ryan) Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Facts on File (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books by others, including Encyclopedia of Religions of the World, edited by Gordon Melton, ABC Clio (Santa Barbara, CA), 2002, and New Religions in a Postmodern World, Volume 6, edited by Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg, Aarhus University Press (Copenhagen, Denmark), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Constance Jones's book The European Conquest of North America details the settlement of the North American continent and its impact upon the indigenous people already living there. Jones takes an objective and rather cold look at the havoc placed on Native American culture after Europeans landed, including exposure to diseases such as smallpox, according to Booklist contributor Ann O'Malley. Jones also, however, notes some of the good that came from European settlement, such as exchange of products and adoption of cultural practices. Victoria Yablonsky of Voice of Youth Advocates praised the "abundance of factual material," including the book's substantial chronology, bibliography, and index. Though the reviewer concluded that covering the subject is hardly possible in one book, she called the work "a good introduction to an important era in world history."

The second section of Jones's R.I.P.: The Complete Book of Death and Dying contains necessary information about wills, funeral planning, and avoiding scams that are often targeted at grieving survivors. The first half of the book describes how death has been viewed since early times, what happens to the human body during cremation and putrefaction, and near-death experiences, as well as containing profiles of infamous cannibals and serial killers. Included are the epitaphs and last words of well-known people and a section on cult suicides.

Jones and James D. Ryan, a colleague at the California Institute of Integral Studies, wrote the Encyclopedia of Hinduism, a 600-entry reference that covers all aspects of Hinduism dating back to prehistory. Subjects include deities, worship practices, mediations, funeral rites, and texts such as the Bhagavad Gita. Also studied are festivals and rituals and the relationship between Hinduism and other religions. A reviewer for Booknews.com noted that it is written to be understandable to high school and college students, as well as a general readership.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 1995, Ann O'Malley, review of The European Conquest of North America, p. 1559.

Children's Book Watch, September, 1995, review of The European Conquest of North America, p. 5.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1995, Victoria Yablonsky, review of The European Conquest of North America, p. 183.

ONLINE

A.V. Club,http://www.avclub.com/ (March 29, 2002), John Krewson, review of R.I.P.: The Complete Book of Death and Dying.

Booknews.com,http://www.booknews.com/ (January 8, 2008), review of Encyclopedia of Hinduism.

CelebrityCafe.com,http://thecelebritycafe.com/ (January 8, 2008), V. Alexandra de F. Szoenyi, review of R.I.P.