The Social Life of Spirits

The Social Life of Spirits PDF Author: Ruy Blanes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608180X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Spirits can be haunters, informants, possessors, and transformers of the living, but more than anything anthropologists have understood them as representations of something else—symbols that articulate facets of human experience in much the same way works of art do. The Social Life of Spirits challenges this notion. By stripping symbolism from the way we think about the spirit world, the contributors of this book uncover a livelier, more diverse environment of entities—with their own histories, motivations, and social interactions—providing a new understanding of spirits not as symbols, but as agents. The contributors tour the spiritual globe—the globe of nonthings—in essays on topics ranging from the Holy Ghost in southern Africa to spirits of the “people of the streets” in Rio de Janeiro to dragons and magic in Britain. Avoiding a reliance on religion and belief systems to explain the significance of spirits, they reimagine spirits in a rich network of social trajectories, ultimately arguing for a new ontological ground upon which to examine the intangible world and its interactions with the tangible one.

The Social Life of Spirits

The Social Life of Spirits PDF Author: Ruy Blanes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608180X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book

Book Description
Spirits can be haunters, informants, possessors, and transformers of the living, but more than anything anthropologists have understood them as representations of something else—symbols that articulate facets of human experience in much the same way works of art do. The Social Life of Spirits challenges this notion. By stripping symbolism from the way we think about the spirit world, the contributors of this book uncover a livelier, more diverse environment of entities—with their own histories, motivations, and social interactions—providing a new understanding of spirits not as symbols, but as agents. The contributors tour the spiritual globe—the globe of nonthings—in essays on topics ranging from the Holy Ghost in southern Africa to spirits of the “people of the streets” in Rio de Janeiro to dragons and magic in Britain. Avoiding a reliance on religion and belief systems to explain the significance of spirits, they reimagine spirits in a rich network of social trajectories, ultimately arguing for a new ontological ground upon which to examine the intangible world and its interactions with the tangible one.

Spirits in Politics

Spirits in Politics PDF Author: Barbara Meier
Publisher: Campus Verlag
ISBN: 3593399156
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
4e de couv.: This anthropology addresses persisting questions social anthropologist, historians, and political scientists working in African societies have been confronted with: Do spirits enter the scene after political have failed as a relapse into an allegedly non-modern condition? Or do they precede colonial processes of political transformation, as classis theories of modernization try to establish? The volume seeks to extend the reflections on the relationship of religious phenomena in the socio-political sphere in African societies. It presents case studies which focus on the concepts of modernity, power, and violence, adding the notion of healing to this context and investigating their empirical correlations.

Becoming Mature

Becoming Mature PDF Author: Valerie Malhotra Bentz
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9780202364384
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Bentz (sociology, Texas Woman's University) presents an integrated theory of development and maturation focusing on the influence of childhood experiences on adult women. Draws on the theories of Mead, Habermas, and Schutz, and on narratives and group discussions to analyze case studies. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Spirits Among Us

Spirits Among Us PDF Author: Sherry Howard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781478870289
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Scooter has been wheelchair bound ever since the accident that took her mother's life. Carrying on her mother's ghost hunting work, Scooter and her best friend Harlan create a YouTube show called Spirits Among Us. Wanting to get a message from her mother before she passes over, Scooter buys a special ghost hunting camera and places it in her family's cemetery. But, when a string of robberies frighten the locals, will the camera capture more than a ghost?

The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness

The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness PDF Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN: 9781855840102
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Speaking at a time of intense war in Europe, Rudolf Steiner reveals the spiritual roots of the crises of our times and the means by which we can overcome them. Since 1879, Steiner tells us that "backward" angels, or "spirits of darkness"--who were forced out of the heavens and made their abode on Earth following their defeat in a forty-year battle with the Archangel Michael--have influenced human minds. It is now possible for human beings to awaken more consciously to the truth of these profound changes and thus inwardly counter the fallen spirits' influences. We can come to the realization that definite spiritual causes lie behind earthly events in our rapidly changing times. In these fourteen lectures, given at the end of 1917 following four years of war in Europe, Steiner speaks on the complex spiritual forces behind the World War I, humanity's attempts to build theoretically perfect social orders, and the many divisions and disruptions that would continue on Earth into our own time. Humanity in general was asleep to the fact that fallen spirits, cast from the spiritual worlds, had become intensely active on Earth. This manifested mainly in human thinking and perception of the surrounding world. However, the defeat and fall of these spirits also ensured that a science of the spirit would always be available to humanity.

Moving by the Spirit

Moving by the Spirit PDF Author: Naomi Haynes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520294254
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Prologue : a breakthrough for Mr. Zulu -- Introduction : Pentecostalism as promise, Pentecostalism as problem -- Boom and bust, revival and renewal -- Making moving happen -- Becoming Pentecostal on the Copperbelt -- Ritual and the (un)making of the Pentecostal relational world -- Prosperity, charisma, and the problem of gender -- On the potential and problems of Pentecostal exchange -- Mending mother's kitchen -- The circulation of Copperbelt saints -- Conclusion : worlds that flourish

Signs of the Spirit

Signs of the Spirit PDF Author: Tony Perman
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252052137
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
In 2005, Tony Perman attended a ceremony alongside the living and the dead. His visit to a Zimbabwe farm brought him into contact with the madhlozi, outsider spirits that Ndau people rely upon for guidance, protection, and their collective prosperity. Perman's encounters with the spirits, the mediums who bring them back, and the accompanying rituals form the heart of his ethnographic account of how the Ndau experience ceremonial musicking. As Perman witnessed other ceremonies, he discovered that music and dancing shape the emotional lives of Ndau individuals by inviting them to experience life's milestones or cope with its misfortunes as a group. Signs of the Spirit explores the historical, spiritual, and social roots of ceremonial action and details how that action influences the Ndau's collective approach to their future. The result is a vivid ethnomusicological journey that delves into the immediacy of musical experience and the forces that transform ceremonial performance into emotions and community.

Toward 2012

Toward 2012 PDF Author: Daniel Pinchbeck
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440658994
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
An informed, challenging, and engaging collection of essays on the new choices in lifestyles and community as we begin the countdown toward the year 2012. This fresh and thought-provoking anthology draws together some of today’s most celebrated visionaries, thinkers, and pioneers in the field of evolving consciousness— exploring topics from shamanism to urban homesteading, the legacy of Carlos Castaneda to Mayan predictions for the year 2012, and new paths in direct political action and human sexuality. Toward 2012 highlights some of the most challenging, intelligent pieces published on the acclaimed website Reality Sandwich. It is coedited by Daniel Pinchbeck, the preeminent voice on 2012, and online pioneer Ken Jordan, and features original works from Stanislav Grof, John Major Jenkins, and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky); interviews with Abbie Hoffman and artist Alex Grey; and a new introduction by Pinchbeck. Here are ideas that trace the arc of our evolution in consciousness, lifestyles, and communities as we draw closer to a moment in time that portends ways of living that are different from anything we have expected or experienced.

Book of Spirits

Book of Spirits PDF Author: Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
ISBN: 9781588464903
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book includes: A comprehensive look at the spirit reflection of the World of Darkness, designed for mortal and supernatural chronicles alike, Extended rules on the interplay between the flesh and the spirit, providing ways to use spirits and the spirit-touched in any chronicle, A variety of mortal perspectives, as well as an extensive selection of antagonists that come from the other side, New spirits, Ridden, rules and setting lore for Vampire: The Requiem[Registered], Werewolf: The Forsaken[Registered], Mage: The Awakening[Registered] and more. Book jacket.

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance PDF Author: Robert Louis Welsch
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Coaxing the Spirits to Dance explores the relationship between social life and artistic expression since the nineteenth century in one of the most important art-producing regions of Papua New Guinea. It includes a stunning presentation of hand-carved and hand-painted ancestor boards, masks, drums, skull racks, and personal items. Each society on the Papuan Gulf had its own elaborate traditions of carved, painted, or decorated masks, boards, and hand drums that filled the men's longhouses for use in dances and performances. Today these art objects offer a glimpse into the varied cosmologies and ritual lives of these surprisingly diverse societies before they were changed significantly through their contact with the West.