Gurus and Oracles

Gurus and Oracles PDF Author: Miklos Sarvary
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262300389
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
An examination of the information industry, from Reuters to Facebook, and the special characteristics of information and knowledge markets. We live in an “Information Age” of overabundant data and lightning-fast transmission. Yet although information and knowledge represent key factors in most economic decisions, we often forget that data, information, and knowledge are products created and traded within the knowledge economy. In Gurus and Oracles, Miklos Sarvary describes the information industry—the far-flung universe of companies whose core business is to sell information to decision makers. These companies include such long-established firms as Thomson Reuters (which began in 1850 with carrier pigeons relaying stock market news) as well as newer, dominant players like Google and Facebook. Sarvary highlights the special characteristics of information and knowledge and analyzes the unusual behaviors of the markets for them. He shows how technology contributes to the spectacular growth of this sector and how new markets for information change our economic environment. Research in economics, business strategy, and marketing has shown that information is different from other goods and services; this is especially true in competitive settings and may result in strange competitive market outcomes. For example, Sarvary points out, unreliable information may be more expensive than reliable information; information sellers may be better off inviting competitors into their market because this may allow them to increase their prices; and competition may lead to increased media bias—but this may benefit consumers who want to discover the truth. In Gurus and Oracles, Sarvary explores the implications of these and other peculiarities for information buyers and sellers.

The Modern Anthropology of India

The Modern Anthropology of India PDF Author: Peter Berger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134061110
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
The Modern Anthropology of India is an accessible textbook providing a critical overview of the ethnographic work done in India since 1947. It assesses the history of research in each region and serves as a practical and comprehensive guide to the main themes dealt with by ethnographers. It highlights key analytical concepts and paradigms that came to be of relevance in particular regions in the recent history of research in India, and which possibly gained a pan-Indian or even trans-Indian significance. Structured according to the states of the Indian union, contributors raise several key questions, including: What themes were ethnographers interested in? What are the significant ethnographic contributions? How are peoples, communities and cultural areas represented? How has the ethnographic research in the area developed? Filling a significant gap in the literature, the book is an invaluable resource to students and researchers in the field of Indian anthropology/ethnography, regional anthropology and postcolonial studies. It is also of interest to students of South Asian studies in general as it provides an extensive and critical overview of regionally based ethnographic activity undertaken in India.

American Gurus

American Gurus PDF Author: Arthur Versluis
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199368139
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the public spiritual teacher who neither belongs to, nor is authorized by a major religious tradition. From the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed Eckhart Tolle to figures like Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless spiritual teachers who claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment. American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon emerged. Through an examination of the broader literary and religious context of the subject, Arthur Versluis shows that a characteristic feature of the Western esoteric tradition is the claim that every person can achieve "spontaneous, direct, unmediated spiritual insight." This claim was articulated with special clarity by the New England Transcendentalists Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Versluis explores Transcendentalism, Walt Whitman, the Beat movement, Timothy Leary, and the New Age movement to shed light on the emergence of the contemporary American guru. This insightful study is the first to show how Asian religions and Western mysticism converged to produce the phenomenon of "spontaneously enlightened" American gurus.

Forbidden Oracles?

Forbidden Oracles? PDF Author: AnneMarie Luijendijk
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161528590
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
"This book centers on The Gospel of the Lots of Mary, a previously unknown text preserved in a fifth- or sixth-century Coptic miniature codex. It presents the first critical edition and translation of this new text. My book is also a project about religious praxis and authority, as I situate the manuscript within the context of practices of and debates around divination in the ancient Mediterranean world."--Preface, p. [vii].

God of Justice

God of Justice PDF Author: William S Sax
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195335864
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
In God of Justice, anthropologist William S. Sax offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of cursing, black magic, and ritual healing in the Central Himalayas of North India. Based on ten years' ethnographic fieldwork, God of Justice shows how these practices are part of a moral system based on the principle of family unity.

All the Facts

All the Facts PDF Author: James W. Cortada
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190460695
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 800

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Book Description
All the Facts presents a history of the role of information in the United States since 1870, when the nation began a nearly 150-year period of economic prosperity and technological and scientific transformations. James Cortada argues that citizens and their institutions used information extensively as tools to augment their work and private lives and that they used facts to help shape how the nation evolved during these fourteen decades. He argues that information's role has long been a critical component of the work, play, culture, and values of this nation, and no more so than during the twentieth century when its function in society expanded dramatically. While elements of this story have been examined by thousands of scholars---such as the role of radio, newspapers, books, computers, and the Internet, about such institutions as education, big business, expanded roles of governments from town administration to the state house, from agriculture to the services and information industries---All the Facts looks at all of these elements holistically, providing a deeper insight into the way the United States evolved over time. An introduction and 11 chapters describe what this information ecosystem looked like, how it evolved, and how it was used. For another vast layer of information about this subject the reader is directed to the detailed bibliographic essay in the back of this book. It includes a narrative history, case studies in the form of sidebars, and stories illustrating key points. Readers will find, for example, the story of how the US postal system helped create today's information society, along with everything from books and newspapers to TV, computers, and the Internet. The build-up to what many today call the Information Age took a long time to achieve and continues to build momentum. The implications for the world, and not just for the United States, are as profound as any mega-trend one could identify in the history of humankind. All the Facts presents this development thoroughly in an easy-to-digest format that any lover of history, technology, or the history of information and business will enjoy.

Decision DNA

Decision DNA PDF Author: John C. Elliott
Publisher: Infinity Publishing
ISBN: 0741429179
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
Decision DNA is an executives guide for discovering and creating Reality Based Decision-Making. From a historical perspective of decision making, through the organization of the decision-making process

Divination and Oracles

Divination and Oracles PDF Author: Michael Loewe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000508684
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
First published in 1981, Divination and Oracles analyses the religious practices of the ancient world as they have been witnessed from Scandinavia to Tibet and Japan, from the third millennium BC until the present day. Divination and the consultation of oracles formed part of the religious practice of the ancient world and are part of the living folklore of the contemporary societies. They are subjects that are of immediate concern to anthropologists and not infrequently to the historians of early science. Written by the specialists in the early history of European and Asian Civilisations, the chapters call on the evidence of the written word of history and the surviving artefacts and inscriptions of archaeology. They describe the different methods that have been adopted and examine the types of question that feature in man’s attempt to seek guidance from other powers. The contributions show how an appeal to the irrational can affect the decision of prophet or statesman, or the way of life of farmer or sailor; and how such an appeal can also stimulate scientific enquiry into the cycles of nature. This book is a must read for scholars and researchers of religion, comparative religion, and ancient history.

Success Oracles

Success Oracles PDF Author: Katya Tylevich
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781786275868
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


A New Testament

A New Testament PDF Author: Tone Bleie
Publisher: Solum Bokvennen
ISBN: 8256028742
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
A NEW TESTAMENT offers a recast economic, legal, and social history of the strangely neglected, enduring and power-laden relationship between a Scandinavian Transatlantic mission and the Santals, Boro and Bengalis of East India, Northern Bangladesh, and Eastern Nepal. Bleie's kaleidoscopic portraits transport readers back to the medieval period and Danish and British Company Rule. The British Raj and the early post-Independence period remain her principal framing, however. This customized text enables readers to navigate and selectively immerse themselves in theoretical and descriptive chapters brimming with immersive storytelling. The volume is relevant for university curricula in international history, Scandinavian and Norwegian transnational history, Santal ethnohistory, the history of religion, the sociology of religion, mission history, intercultural history of Christianity, museum studies, subaltern and postcolonial studies, comparative international law, peace and development studies, social anthropology, history of aid, tribal studies, women's studies, and the study of indigenous oral and textual history.