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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Customs & folklore > Customs

Ancestor Worship and Korean Society (Hardcover): Roger L. Janelli, Dawnhee Yim Janelli Ancestor Worship and Korean Society (Hardcover)
Roger L. Janelli, Dawnhee Yim Janelli
R3,651 Discovery Miles 36 510 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The study of ancestor worship has an eminent pedigree in two disciplines: social anthropology and folklore (Goody 1962: 14-25; Newell 1976; Fortes 1976; Takeda 1976). Despite obvious differences in geographical specialization and intellectual orientation, researchers in both fields have shared a common approach to this subject: both have tried to relate the ancestor cult of a given society to its family and kin-group organization. Such a method is to be expected of social anthropologists, given the nature of their discipline; but even the Japanese folklorist Yanagita Kunio, whose approach to folk culture stems from historical and nationalist concerns, began his work on ancestors with a discussion of Japan's descent system and family structure (Yanagita 1946). Indeed, connections between ancestor cults and social relations are obvious. As we pursue this line of analysis, we shall see that rural Koreans themselves are quite sophisticated about such matters. Many studies of ancestor cults employ a combination of social and psychological approaches to explain the personality traits attributed to the dead by their living kin. Particular attention has long been given to explaining the hostile or punitive character of the deceased in many societies (Freud 1950; Opler 1936; Gough 1958; Fortes 1965). Only recently, however, has the popularity of such beliefs been recognized in China, Korea, and Japan (Ahern 1973; A. Wolf 1974b; Kendall 1977; 1979; Yoshida 1967; Kerner 1976; Lebra 1976). The earliest and most influential studies of ancestor cults in East Asia, produced by native scholars (Hozumi 1913; Yanagita 1946; Hsu 1948), overemphasize the benign and protective qualities of ancestors. Some regional variations notwithstanding, this earlier bias appears to reflect a general East Asian reluctance to acknowledge instances of ancestral affliction. Such reticence is not found in all societies with ancestor cults, however; nor, in Korea, China, and Japan, is it equally prevalent among men and women. Therefore, we seek not only to identify the social experiences that give rise to beliefs in ancestral hostility, but to explain the concomitant reluctance to acknowledge these beliefs and its varying intensity throughout East Asia. In view of the limited amount of ethnographic data available from Korea, we have not attempted a comprehensive assessment of the ancestor cult in Korean society; instead we have kept our focus on a single kin group. We have drawn on data from other communities, however, in order to separate what is apparently true of Korea in general from what may be peculiar to communities like Twisongdwi, a village of about three hundred persons that was the site of our fieldwork. In this task, we benefited substantially from three excellent studies of Korean ancestor worship and lineage organization (Lee Kwang-Kyu 1977a; Choi Jai-seuk 1966a; Kim Taik-Kyoo 1964) and from two recent accounts of Korean folk religion and ideology (Dix 1977; Kendall 1979). Yet we are still a long way from a comprehensive understanding of how Korean beliefs and practices have changed over time, correlate with different levels of class status, or are affected by regional variations in Korean culture and social organization. Because we want to provide a monograph accessible to a rather diverse readership, we avoid using Korean words and disciplinary terminology whenever possible. Where a Korean term is particularly important, we give it in parentheses immediately after its English translation. Korean-alphabet orthographies for these words appear in the Character List, with Chinese-character equivalents for terms of Chinese derivation. As for disciplinary terminology, we have adopted only the anthropological term "lineage," which is of central importance to our study. We use "lineage" to denote an organized group of persons linked through exclusively male ties (agnatically) to an ancestor who lived at least four generations ago. (A married woman could be said to have an informal membership in her husband's lineage until her death.) Thus, the term "Twisongdwi lineage" designates the agnatic kin group located in the village of Twisongdwi. This term does not refer to a line of ancestry. Smaller lineages may collectively constitute a larger lineage; for example, the descendants of two brothers may form two lineages but also ritually observe their common descent from an earlier agnatic forebear.

Day of the Dead (Hardcover): Rachel Grack Day of the Dead (Hardcover)
Rachel Grack
R415 Discovery Miles 4 150 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
The Property Species - Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind (Paperback): Bart J. Wilson The Property Species - Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind (Paperback)
Bart J. Wilson
R1,465 Discovery Miles 14 650 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

What is property, and why does our species have it? In The Property Species, Bart J. Wilson explores how humans acquire, perceive, and know the custom of property, and why this might be relevant to understanding how property works in the twenty-first century. Arguing that neither the sciences nor the humanities synthesizes a full account of property, the book offers a cross-disciplinary compromise that is sure to be controversial: Property is a universal and uniquely human custom. Integrating cognitive linguistics with philosophy of property and a fresh look at property disputes in the common law, the book makes the case that symbolic-thinking humans locate the meaning of property within a thing. That is, all human beings and only human beings have property in things, and at its core, property rests on custom, not rights. Such an alternative to conventional thinking contends that the origins of property lie not in food, mates, territory, or land, but in the very human act of creating, with symbolic thought, something new that did not previously exist. Written by an economist who marvels at the natural history of humankind, the book is essential reading for experts and any reader who has wondered why people claim things as "Mine!", and what that means for our humanity.

Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823-1889 (Hardcover): Hendrik Kraay Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823-1889 (Hardcover)
Hendrik Kraay
R1,947 Discovery Miles 19 470 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Official and popular celebrations marked the Brazilian empire's days of national festivity, and these civic rituals were the occasion for often intense debate about the imperial regime. Hendrik Kraay explores the patterns of commemoration in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, the meanings of the principal institutions of the constitutional monarchy established in 1822-24 (which were celebrated on days of national festivity), and the challenges to the imperial regime that took place during the festivities. While officialdom and the narrow elite sought to control civic rituals, the urban lower classes took an active part in them, although their popular festivities were not always welcomed by the elite. "Days of National Festivity" is the first book to provide a systematic analysis of civic ritual in a Latin American country over a long period of time--and in doing so, it offers new perspectives on the Brazilian empire, elite and popular politics, and urban culture.

The Day of the Dead (Hardcover, New): Denis Defibaugh The Day of the Dead (Hardcover, New)
Denis Defibaugh; Text written by Ward S Albro
R1,155 R951 Discovery Miles 9 510 Save R204 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The people of Oaxaca, Mexico, believe the souls of the dead, the antepasados, return every year for a twenty-four-hour visit. They are welcomed into their former homes with gaily decorated altars and offerings of food and gifts. Then they are escorted back to their resting places in the cemeteries. In recent years, Dia de los Muertos has become widely known not only throughout Mexico but also in the United States, drawing tourists in large numbers. Since 1993, photographer Denis Defibaugh and author Ward Albro have visited the festivals, both in Oaxaca City and in the smaller villages, where customs marking this passage have evolved over generations. They have been welcomed into people's homes and have taken part in the public festivals. In this beautiful book, Defibaugh's photography catches the essence of the people and their celebration, while Albro's text supplies background understanding of the beliefs and practices of the observance. ""The Day of the Dead"" book expresses the joy, sorrow, and ritual of the many public celebrations of the festival. Defibaugh's quiet, subtle perceptions distinguish his photographic vision. His approach is to perceive, compose, and capture all the visual elements and fit the analogous body language and facial expressions into his images. Albro's illuminating personal essay introduces the Muertos culture of the people of Oaxaca.

Malawi - Culture Smart! - The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture (Paperback, New edition): Kondwani Bell Munthali Malawi - Culture Smart! - The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture (Paperback, New edition)
Kondwani Bell Munthali
R252 Discovery Miles 2 520 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Culture Smart guides help travellers have a more meaningful and successful time abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on values, attitudes, customs, and daily life will help you make the most of your visit, while tips on etiquette and communication will help you navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.

Welcome to Seabreeze Farm - The beginning of a heartwarming series from top 10 bestseller Jo Bartlett, author of The Cornish... Welcome to Seabreeze Farm - The beginning of a heartwarming series from top 10 bestseller Jo Bartlett, author of The Cornish Midwife (Paperback)
Jo Bartlett
R334 Discovery Miles 3 340 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Another wonderful new series from the top 10 bestselling author of The Cornish Midwife, Jo Bartlett. Welcome to Seabreeze Farm.Unhappy with life in London, and with her love life a complete disaster, Ellie Chapman desperately needs a change. So when she learns she's inherited a farmhouse perched high up on the cliffs above the English Channel, it feels like the perfect escape. But ramshackle and dilapidated, and ruled by the world's naughtiest donkey, Seabreeze Farm is not as picture perfect as Ellie imagined. And then there's brooding local vet Ben Hastings, who seems to make it his mission to make life on the farm even harder for Ellie! With money tight, Ellie slowly rebuilds the tired old farmhouse. And as the farm comes to life under Ellie's care, Ellie's spark returns too. Because as every day passes, Ellie begins to realise that there is something special about Seabreeze Farm, and there's no other place she'd rather be. This book was previously published as two novellas - Give Me Your Answer Do and Second Chances at Channel View Farm. Praise for Jo Bartlett: 'I love second chance stories. I love returning home stories. So a book combining both is an absolute winner for me. The Cornish Midwife is simply gorgeous. Stunning setting, wonderful characters, and oozing with warmth. A triumph from Jo Bartlett.' Jessica Redland 'Perfectly written and set in the beating heart of a community, this story is a wonderful slice of Cornish escapism.' Helen J Rolfe

A Closer Look at Cultural Values - The Case of French Guests and Vietnamese Hosts (Paperback): Thuy-Huong Truong A Closer Look at Cultural Values - The Case of French Guests and Vietnamese Hosts (Paperback)
Thuy-Huong Truong
R2,079 Discovery Miles 20 790 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

With a history of attracting French tourists since the 19th century and particularly during the colonial period, Vietnam has re-emerged as one of the most popular Asian destinations for the French. A number of factors augur well for a further increase in visitation. As a former colony, Vietnam has nostalgic appeal for many French visitors. After the release of the films L' lndochine, L 'amant, Le Cyclo, Papaye Vert, and the documentary-drama Dien Bien Phu in 1993, France became the main tourism source market for Vietnam. As the ethnic composition of France has changed, the French are interested in learning about cultures generally and Asian cultures, in particular. The prospect of discovering new destinations and cultures encourages them to travel long-haul. They are quality conscious and culture loving, and prefer to use their own language when traveling overseas, favouring their own cuisine even though they do enjoy the cuisine of the host countries .Travel to Vietnam offers the prospect of fulfilling a number of their preferences. Another attraction for French tourists is that Vietnam is a member of the Francophone Community. Since 1988, the French legacy has experienced a resurgence with the renovation of colonial-style properties and restaurants. Tourists have been impressed by the French-style architecture, accommodation and cuisine that is available. Despite Vietnam's long history of contact with France, Vietnamese service providers are relatively ignorant about Western countries, their people and their values. Up to now Vietnam's tourism authorities have paid little attention to the role of cultural understanding in the tourism development process and Vietnam's overseas tourism promotions have given minimal acknowledgement of the cultural characteristics of source markets including those conducted in France. Servicing French tourists is likely to be a challenge for Vietnamese service providers because of the substantial differences between the respective host and guest cultures and rules of behaviour. International tourism generally involves a cross-cultural component, particularly in the case of encounters between tourists and service providers. If it is accepted that the cultural values of Western travellers are different, it seems reasonable to conclude that the Vietnamese service providers need to consider the effect of this cultural dissimilarity on touristahost mutual perceptions and social interaction in the intercultural service encounters. An understanding of areas of potential tourist dissatisfaction may assist the service providers to anticipate prospective negative perceptions and to address them, thereby contributing to overall holiday satisfaction, and improve the prospects of repeat visitation. It is common for destinations to attract visitation from different source countries and cultures. Nonetheless, consumer behaviour literature on cross-cultural perceptions and interaction have been largely limited to homogeneous sample populations from Western countries. Furthermore, until now there are no published studies have specifically examined touristahost service encounters interaction and mutual perceptions in the context of Vietnam as a holiday destination. Consequently, this research has both practical and academic significances. From the theoretical perspectives, this study provides an augmented comprehension on Argyle's, Rokeach and SERVQUAL models. From the practical standpoints, this study offers service managers and marketers a heightened understanding of cross-cultural awareness for improving customer satisfaction. It acclaims an evidence base that can guide provision to meet the needs of international tourists with particular reference to the impact of rules of behaviour on touristahost service encounters interaction. It accentuates the effect of cultural backgrounds on tourists' perceptions towards and satisfaction with service quality. By this means, it applies the empirically based models to development related challenges confronting the tourism sector in the cross-cultural settings for designing appropriate strategies with the aim of gaining a competitive advantage. Keywords: French Guests, Vietnamese Hosts, Cultural Values, Rules of Behaviour, Interactions, Satisfaction, Service Attributes and Performances.

The Fairy Tellers - A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales (Paperback): Nicholas Jubber The Fairy Tellers - A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales (Paperback)
Nicholas Jubber
R387 Discovery Miles 3 870 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

'His cornucopia of tellers and tales is a delight, a riveting celebration of a genre that revels in its own hybridity and the imaginative riches produced by the crossing of cultural and literary borders' Financial Times 'Like a child after the Pied Piper I pursued Jubber into a world both human and full of magic. A carnival of a book, rigorously researched and jostling with life' Amy Jeffs, author of Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain 'Magical tales about magical tales and tellers. Jubber, congenially and fascinatingly, explores the land from which the great fairy stories seeped, making the stories more resonant, powerful and important than ever' Charles Foster, author of Being a Human and Being a Beast The surprising origins and people behind the world's most influential magical tales: the people who told and re-shaped them, the landscapes that forged them, and the cultures that formed them and were in turn formed by them. Who were the Fairy Tellers? In this far-ranging quest, award-winning author Nicholas Jubber unearths the lives of the dreamers who made our most beloved fairy tales: inventors, thieves, rebels and forgotten geniuses who gave us classic tales such as 'Cinderella', 'Hansel and Gretel', 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Baba Yaga'. From the Middle Ages to the birth of modern children's literature, they include a German apothecary's daughter, a Syrian youth running away from a career in the souk and a Russian dissident embroiled in a plot to kill the tsar. Following these and other unlikely protagonists, we travel from the steaming cities of Italy and the Levant, under the dark branches of the Black Forest, deep into the tundra of Siberia and across the snowy fells of Lapland. In the process, we discover a fresh perspective on some of our most frequently told stories. Filled with adventure, tragedy and real-world magic, this bewitching book uncovers the stranger lives behind the strangest of tales.

The Making of Home - The 500-year story of how our houses became homes (Paperback, Main): Judith Flanders The Making of Home - The 500-year story of how our houses became homes (Paperback, Main)
Judith Flanders 1
R410 R332 Discovery Miles 3 320 Save R78 (19%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The idea that 'home' is a special place, a separate place, a place where we can be our true selves, is so obvious to us today that we barely pause to think about it. But, as Judith Flanders shows in this revealing book, 'home' is a relatively new concept. When in 1900 Dorothy assured the citizens of Oz that 'There is no place like home', she was expressing a view that was a culmination of 300 years of economic, physical and emotional change. In The Making of Home, Flanders traces the evolution of the house across northern Europe and America from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century, and paints a striking picture of how the homes we know today differ from homes through history. The transformation of houses into homes, she argues, was not a private matter, but an essential ingredient in the rise of capitalism and the birth of the Industrial Revolution. Without 'home', the modern world as we know it would not exist, and as Flanders charts the development of ordinary household objects - from cutlery, chairs and curtains, to fitted kitchens, plumbing and windows - she also peels back the myths that surround some of our most basic assumptions, including our entire notion of what it is that makes a family. As full of fascinating detail as her previous bestsellers, The Making of Home is also a book teeming with original and provocative ideas.

Latinx - The New Force in American Politics and Culture (Paperback): Ed Morales Latinx - The New Force in American Politics and Culture (Paperback)
Ed Morales
R435 Discovery Miles 4 350 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

"Latinx" (pronounced "La-teen-ex") is the gender-neutral term that covers the largest racial minority in the United States, and the poorest but fastest-growing American group, whose political empowerment is altering the balance of forces in a growing number of states. In this groundbreaking discussion, Ed Morales explains how Latinx political identities are tied to a long Latin American history of mestizaje, translatable as "mixedness" or "hybridity", and that this border thinking is both a key to understanding Latinx cultures and a challenge to America's infamously black-white racial regime.

We Are What We Eat - Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (Paperback, New edition): Donna R. Gabaccia We Are What We Eat - Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (Paperback, New edition)
Donna R. Gabaccia
R806 Discovery Miles 8 060 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Ghulam Bombaywala sells bagels in Houston. Demetrios dishes up pizza in Connecticut. The Wangs serve tacos in Los Angeles. How ethnicity has influenced American eating habits-and thus, the make-up and direction of the American cultural mainstream-is the story told in We Are What We Eat. It is a complex tale of ethnic mingling and borrowing, of entrepreneurship and connoisseurship, of food as a social and political symbol and weapon-and a thoroughly entertaining history of our culinary tradition of multiculturalism. The story of successive generations of Americans experimenting with their new neighbors' foods highlights the marketplace as an important arena for defining and expressing ethnic identities and relationships. We Are What We Eat follows the fortunes of dozens of enterprising immigrant cooks and grocers, street hawkers and restaurateurs who have cultivated and changed the tastes of native-born Americans from the seventeenth century to the present. It also tells of the mass corporate production of foods like spaghetti, bagels, corn chips, and salsa, obliterating their ethnic identities. The book draws a surprisingly peaceful picture of American ethnic relations, in which "Americanized" foods like Spaghetti-Os happily coexist with painstakingly pure ethnic dishes and creative hybrids. Donna Gabaccia invites us to consider: If we are what we eat, who are we? Americans' multi-ethnic eating is a constant reminder of how widespread, and mutually enjoyable, ethnic interaction has sometimes been in the United States. Amid our wrangling over immigration and tribal differences, it reveals that on a basic level, in the way we sustain life and seek pleasure, we are all multicultural.

When Sex is Work - Hookers, models, Strippers, and Other Sex Professionals in Popular Culture (Paperback): Jon Griffin Donlon When Sex is Work - Hookers, models, Strippers, and Other Sex Professionals in Popular Culture (Paperback)
Jon Griffin Donlon
R487 Discovery Miles 4 870 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Customary Marine Tenure in Australia (Paperback, First published in 1998 by Oceania Publications): Nicolas Peterson, Bruce... Customary Marine Tenure in Australia (Paperback, First published in 1998 by Oceania Publications)
Nicolas Peterson, Bruce Rigsby
R668 Discovery Miles 6 680 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Most Australians are familiar with the concept of land ownership and understand the meaning of native title, which recognises Indigenous peoples' rights to land to which they are spiritually or culturally connected. The ownership of areas of the sea and its resources is often overlooked however, despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connections with the sea being just as important as those with the land. The papers in this volume demonstrate how the concept of customary marine tenure has developed in various communities and look at some of its implications. Originating in a session of papers at a conference in 1996, the papers in this volume were originally published as Oceania Monograph 48 in 1998.

The Hundreds (Hardcover): Lauren Berlant, Kathleen Stewart The Hundreds (Hardcover)
Lauren Berlant, Kathleen Stewart
R2,356 Discovery Miles 23 560 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In The Hundreds Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart speculate on writing, affect, politics, and attention to processes of world-making. The experiment of the one hundred word constraint-each piece is one hundred or multiples of one hundred words long-amplifies the resonance of things that are happening in atmospheres, rhythms of encounter, and scenes that shift the social and conceptual ground. What's an encounter with anything once it's seen as an incitement to composition? What's a concept or a theory if they're no longer seen as a truth effect, but a training in absorption, attention, and framing? The Hundreds includes four indexes in which Andrew Causey, Susan Lepselter, Fred Moten, and Stephen Muecke each respond with their own compositional, conceptual, and formal staging of the worlds of the book.

Reclaiming Values - For the 21st Century (Paperback): Marcel Ernst Reclaiming Values - For the 21st Century (Paperback)
Marcel Ernst
R618 Discovery Miles 6 180 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Festivals and Ceremonies Observed by the Royal Family of Kotah Rietberg Museum (Hardcover): Festivals and Ceremonies Observed by the Royal Family of Kotah Rietberg Museum (Hardcover)
R342 R280 Discovery Miles 2 800 Save R62 (18%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Festivals and Ceremonies Observed by the Royal Family of Kotah

Africa in Europe and Europe in Africa - Reassessing the Cultural Legacy (Hardcover, New edition): Yolanda Aixela Cabre Africa in Europe and Europe in Africa - Reassessing the Cultural Legacy (Hardcover, New edition)
Yolanda Aixela Cabre
R2,043 Discovery Miles 20 430 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This book studies the Afro-European and Euro-African past and present from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. It addresses Africa as a whole, eschewing historical divisions between North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Its content exemplifies the extent to which the histories of Europe and Africa are intertwined, and the way European sources are usually privileged in the writing of historical accounts of cross-cultural encounters. Using post/decolonial studies, the authors' point of view is based on anthropology, history, ethnomusicology, and film and literary studies. The authors argue that mutual experiences and imaginations have affected how cultural heritage and legacy are conceived and thought of, as well as memories and sociopolitical experiences. The aim is to establish and encourage a broader knowledge of Africa-Europe and Europe-Africa encounters, incorporating case studies of Euro-African and Afro-European legacies. The final goal is to favour a more relational point of view by comparing Euro-African and Afro-European realities.

Einfuhrung in Das Kulturmanagement - Themen - Kooperationen - Gesellschaftliche Bezuge (German, Paperback, 1. Aufl. 2016 ed.):... Einfuhrung in Das Kulturmanagement - Themen - Kooperationen - Gesellschaftliche Bezuge (German, Paperback, 1. Aufl. 2016 ed.)
Bernhard M Hoppe, Thomas Heinze
R865 Discovery Miles 8 650 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
Von der Hochschulverwaltung zum Hochschulmanagement - Wandel der Hochschulorganisation am Beispiel der Verwaltungsleitung... Von der Hochschulverwaltung zum Hochschulmanagement - Wandel der Hochschulorganisation am Beispiel der Verwaltungsleitung (German, Paperback, 1. Aufl. 2016)
Albrecht Blumel
R1,623 Discovery Miles 16 230 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Vor dem Hintergrund umfassender Veranderungen der Leitungs- und Verwaltungsorganisation an deutschen Hochschulen geht Albrecht Blumel der Frage nach, wie sich die institutionellen Besonderheiten der Verwaltungsleitung und das berufliche Profil von Kanzlern und Kanzlerinnen an deutschen Hochschulen entwickelt haben. Anhand von Analysen der historischen Genese und der rechtlichen Veranderungen der formalen Stellung der Verwaltungsleitung sowie einer deutschlandweiten Befragung von Kanzlern und Kanzlerinnen verdeutlicht der Autor den Wandel von einer akademisch-burokratischen Logik der Hochschulverwaltung zu einer post-burokratischen Logik des Hochschulmanagements.

The Mammoth Book of Superstition - From Rabbits' Feet to Friday the 13th (Paperback): Roy Bainton The Mammoth Book of Superstition - From Rabbits' Feet to Friday the 13th (Paperback)
Roy Bainton 1
R453 R144 Discovery Miles 1 440 Save R309 (68%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Rather than providing a dictionary of superstitions, of which there are already numerous excellent, exhaustive and, in many cases, academic works which list superstitions from A to Z, Bainton gives us an entertaining flight over the terrain, landing from time to time in more thought-provoking areas. He offers an overview of humanity's often illogical and irrational persistence in seeking good luck and avoiding misfortune. While Steve Roud's two excellent books - The Penguin Dictionary of Superstitions and his Pocket Guide - and Philippa Waring's 1970 Dictionary concentrate on the British Isles, Bainton casts his net much wider. There are many origins which warrant the full back story, such as Friday the thirteenth and the Knights Templar, or the demonisation of the domestic cat resulting in 'cat holocausts' throughout Europe led by the Popes and the Inquisition. The whole is presented as a comprehensive, entertaining narrative flow, though it is, of course, a book that could be dipped into, and includes a thorough bibliography. Schoenberg, who developed the twelve-tone technique in music, was a notorious triskaidekaphobe. When the title of his opera Moses und Aaron resulted in a title with thirteen letters, he renamed it Moses und Aron. He believed he would die in his seventy-sixth year (7 + 6 = 13) and he was correct; he also died on Friday the thirteenth at thirteen minutes before midnight. As Sigmund Freud wrote, 'Superstition is in large part the expectation of trouble; and a person who has harboured frequent evil wishes against others, but has been brought up to be good and has therefore repressed such wishes into the unconscious, will be especially ready to expect punishment for his unconscious wickedness in the form of trouble threatening him from without.'

Jewish Magic and Superstition - A Study in Folk Religion (Paperback): Joshua Trachtenberg Jewish Magic and Superstition - A Study in Folk Religion (Paperback)
Joshua Trachtenberg; Contributions by Moshe Idel
R866 Discovery Miles 8 660 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Jewish Magic and Superstition A Study in Folk Religion Joshua Trachtenberg. Foreword by Moshe Idel Alongside the formal development of Judaism from the eleventh through the sixteenth centuries, a robust Jewish folk religion flourished--ideas and practices that never met with wholehearted approval by religious leaders yet enjoyed such wide popularity that they could not be altogether excluded from the religion. According to Joshua Trachtenberg, it is not possible truly to understand the experience and history of the Jewish people without attempting to recover their folklife and beliefs from centuries past. Jewish Magic and Superstition is a masterful and utterly fascinating exploration of religious forms that have all but disappeared yet persist in the imagination. The volume begins with legends of Jewish sorcery and proceeds to discuss beliefs about the evil eye, spirits of the dead, powers of good, the famous legend of the golem, procedures for casting spells, the use of gems and amulets, how to battle spirits, the ritual of circumcision, herbal folk remedies, fortune telling, astrology, and the interpretation of dreams. First published more than sixty years ago, Trachtenberg's study remains the foundational scholarship on magical practices in the Jewish world and offers an understanding of folk beliefs that expressed most eloquently the everyday religion of the Jewish people. Joshua Trachtenberg (1904-59) served in the American rabbinate for nearly three decades. He is the author of The Devil and the Jews. Moshe Idel is Professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His numerous publications include Kabbalah: New Perspectives, Messianic Mystics and Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic. He received the Israel Prize for excellence in the field of Jewish philosophy in 1999. 2004 392 pages 6 x 9 illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-1862-6 Paper $24.95s 16.50 World Rights Religion, Anthropology Short copy: A classic treatise, available now for the first time in paperback, on the folk beliefs of the Jews, with a new introduction by arguably the most important contemporary scholar of Jewish mysticism.

The Gelede Spectacle - Art, Gender, and Social Harmony in an African Culture (Paperback): Babatunde Lawal The Gelede Spectacle - Art, Gender, and Social Harmony in an African Culture (Paperback)
Babatunde Lawal
R1,038 Discovery Miles 10 380 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This remarkable study explores the use of the visual and performing arts to promote nonviolence and social harmony in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on Gelede, a popular community festival of masquerade, dance, and song, held several times a year by the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. Babatunde Lawal, an art historian and African scholar who has taught in Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States, is himself a Yoruba and has taken an active part in Gelede. He writes from the perspective of an informed participant/observer of his own culture. Lawal bases his book on extensive field research-observations and interviews-conducted over more than two decades as well as on numerous published and unpublished scholarly sources. He casts significant new light on many previously obscure aspects of Gelede, and he demonstrates a useful methodological approach to the study of non-Western art. The book systematically covers the major aspects of the Gelede spectacle, presenting its cultural background and historical origins as preface to a vivid and detailed description of an actual performance. This is followed by a discussion of the iconography and aesthetics of costume, and an examination of the sculpted images on the masks. The book concludes with a discussion of the moral and aesthetic philosophy of Gelede and its responsiveness to technological and social change. The Gelede Spectacle is illustrated in color and black-and-white with over 100 field and museum photographs, including a rare sequence on the dressing of a masquerader. It offers, in addition, more than 60 Gelede song texts, proverbs, and divination verses, each in the original Yoruba as well as in translation. Lawal's interpretations of these pieces indicate the rich complexities of metaphor and analogy inherent in the Yoruba language and art.

Earth Day (Hardcover): Erika S Manley Earth Day (Hardcover)
Erika S Manley
R293 Discovery Miles 2 930 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
The Restless Dead - Necrowriting and Disappropriation (Paperback): Cristina Rivera Garza The Restless Dead - Necrowriting and Disappropriation (Paperback)
Cristina Rivera Garza
R908 Discovery Miles 9 080 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Based on comparative readings of contemporary books from Latin America, Spain, and the United States, the essays of this book present a radical critique against strategies of literary appropriation that were once thought of as neutral, and even concomitant, components of the writing process. Debunking the position of the author as center of analysis, Cristina Rivera Garza argues for the communality-a term used by anthropologist Floriberto DIaz to describe modes of life of indigenous peoples of Oaxaca based on notions of collaborative labor-permeating all writing processes. Disappropriating is a political operation at the core of projects acknowledging, both at ethical and aesthetic levels, that writers always work with materials that are not their own. Writers borrow from the practitioners of a language, entering in a debt relationship that can only be covered by ushering the text back to the communities in which it grew. In an increasingly violent world, where the experiences of many are erased by pillage and extraction, writing among and for the dead is a form of necrowriting that may as well become a life-affirming act of decolonization and resistance.

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