The Malay-language term used for indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, "Orang Asli", covers at least 19 culturally and linguistically distinct subgroups. This volume is a comprehensive survey of current understandings of Malaysia's Orang Aslicommunities (including contributions from scholars within the Orang Asli community), looking at language, archaeology, history, religion and issues of education, health and social change, as well as questions of land rights and control of resources. Until about 1960 most Orang Asli lived in small camps and villages in the coastal and interior forests, or in isolated rural areas, and made their living by various combinations of hunting, gathering, fishing, agriculture and trading forest products. By the end of the century,logging, economic development projects such as oil palm plantations, and resettlement programmes have displaced many Orang Asli communities and disrupted long established social and cultural practices. The chapters in the present volume show Orang Asli responses to the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world. The authors also highlight the importance of Orang Asli studies for the anthropological understanding of small-scale indigenous societies in general.

Christian churches erected in Mexico during the early colonial era represented the triumph of European conquest and religious domination. Or did they? Building on recent research that questions the ""cultural"" conquest of Mesoamerica, Eleanor Wake shows that colonial Mexican churches also reflected the beliefs of the indigenous communities that built them. European authorities failed to recognize that the meaning of the edifices they so admired was being challenged: pre-Columbian iconography integrated into Christian imagery, altars oriented toward indigenous sacred landmarks, and carefully recycled masonry. In Framing the Sacred, Wake examines how the art and architecture of Mexico's religious structures reveals the indigenous people's own decisions regarding the conversion program and their accommodation of the Christian message. As Wake shows, native peoples selected aspects of the invading culture to secure their own culture's survival. In focusing on anomalies present in indigenous art and their relationship to orthodox Christian iconography, she draws on a wide geographical sampling across various forms of Indian artistic expression, including religious sculpture and painting, innovative architectural detail, cartography, and devotional poetry. She also offers a detailed analysis of documented native ritual practices that - she argues - assist in the interpretation of the imagery. With more than 260 illustrations, Framing the Sacred is the most extensive study to date of the indigenous aspects of these churches and fosters a more complete understanding of Christianity's influence on Mexican peoples.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1921 Edition.

This comparative study of African and Hindu popular religions in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago charts the development of religion in the Caribbean by analyzing the ways ecstatic forms of worship, enacted through trance performance and spirit mediumship, have adapted to capitalism and reconfigured themselves within the context of modernity. Showing how diasporic traditions of West African Orisha Worship and South Asian Shakti Puja converged in their ritual adaptations to colonialism in the West Indies, as well as diverged politically within the context of postcolonial multiculturalism, Keith McNeal reveals the unexpected ways these traditions of trance performance have become both globalized and modernized. The first book-length work to compare and contrast Afro- and Indo-Caribbean materials in a systematic and multidimensional manner, this volume makes fresh and innovative contributions to anthropology, religious studies, and the historiography of modernity. By giving both religious subcultures and their intersections equal attention, McNeal offers a richly textured account of southern Caribbean cultural history and pursues important questions about the history and future of religion.

SHAMANISM / INDIGENOUS CULTURES"Ross Heaven is a loyal initiate son who communicates the Vodou tradition faithfully." Bon Mambo Racine, Priestess of Haitian Vodou"Ross Heaven does for Vodou what Castaneda did for shamanism."Prediction magazineWritten by an initiate of Haitian Vodou, this book goes beyond the stereotypes and misunderstandings to reveal Vodou as one of the most powerful shamanic traditions. The author explains why these ancient healing practices are important for the modern world and how secret Vodou techniques can be used by anyone as safe and effective means of spiritual healing and personal development.Providing practical hands-on exercises drawn from all aspects and stages of the Vodou tradition, Vodou Shaman shows readers how to contact the spirit world and communicate with the loa (the angel-like inhabitants of the Other World), the gede (the spirits of the ancestors), and djabs (Nature spirits) for healing purposes. The author examines soul journeying and warrior-path work in the Vodou tradition and looks at the psychological principles that make them effective. The book also offers exercises in specific spiritual healing techniques, including the use of herbs and magical baths, ways to read and rebalance the energy body, removal of spirit intrusions and unhealthy energies, restoration of Ashe (spiritual Power), and preparation for the advanced technique of soul retrieval.ROSS HEAVEN is a shamanic teacher and Vodou Houngan. He served for many years as an apprentice in this tradition, including spending the requisite time in solitary vigil and performing the full sequence of rituals necessary to complete his initiation into the Vodou priesthood. He is the author ofThe Journey to You and Spirit in the City and lives in England.

After saving up and buying land to farm, Hen-Thorir was not a favorite among his new neighbor's. The communication between them reaches its peak when Hen-Thorir refuses to sell them hay for the winter. When his neighbors take the hay anyway, he burns them alive in their farmstead. A vendetta ensues in which Hen-Thorir is killed and beheaded.This saga highlights aspects of Norse culture, such as hospitality to guests and travellers, generosity to ones neighbors, and the need to gather support of others in order to obtain justice.

The Temiar are a Mon-Khmer-speaking group living in the uplands of northern Peninsular Malaysia. People in the region once practised Mahayana Buddhism and later Islam, but when Geoffrey Benjamin began his fieldwork in 1964, the Temiar practised a localised and unexportable animistic religion. Over a period of nearly 50 years he has followed the Temiar community, witnessing a series of changes that have seen them become ever more embedded in broader Malaysian society. Benjamin's work traces a process of religious enchantment, disenchantment and re-enchantment, as the Temiars reacted in various ways to Baha'i, Islam and Christianity, including developing their own new religion. In a text enriched by detailed ethnographic reportage, Benjamin draws on the Temiar experience to set out a novel theory of religion, and to explore the changing intellectual framework of anthropology over the past half-century.

Descended from a Werewolf Egil stirs up trouble with his first murder with an axe at the age of seven. The story goes on to tell the tales of Egil's voyages to Scandinavia and England and his personal vendetta against King Eric Bloodaxe.

This book is written to create awareness and see if adequate interpretation would be given to certain phenomena and calamities created by the vagaries of nature and induced by spirits, Agwu inclusive, and suggest how they can be resolved. To do this, Agwu has examined the concept in all its tendencies and ramifications.

It tries to explain the relationship between Agwu and other creatures from the sources of life-Supreme Being-to the least inanimate object. The moral standard set by Agwu to its worshippers has been a masterpiece incentive and also a source of inspiration to ordinary mortals who watch with admiration the special Agwu elect.

This saga tells the story of two Icelandic poets Gunnlaugr ormstunga and Hrafn Onundarson, and their competition for the love of Helga the Fair, granddaughter of Egill Skallagrimsson. The story opens with a prophetic dream of two eagles fighting over a swan, prefiguring the love triangle in the story. The story then follows Gunnlaugr as it describes his ambitious career as a court poet. He first competes with Hrafn (Raven) in verse and later in battle.

Within the West African cultural spirituality of the Yoruba, Ela is known as the Spirit of Light and Manifestation meaning all things came into existence here on Ikole Aye (Earth) by way of Ela. Ela can also be summarized as the Holy Spirit of Ifa and interchangeably used as another name for Orunmila Elerin Ipin Ibikeji Olodumare (Orunmila, Withness of Creation, Second to the Creator). It is by way of Ela that Ifa became acceptable throughout the world and Orunmila accepted by followers, including followers in secret. In "Ela, The Ifa Concept of Altered States," Awo Falokun opens the dialogue once again on how devotees can continue to seat Ifa in the West. His approach to the subject of Ela is not the way, but a way to create and maintain Extended Family and Community. Knowledge of Ela and the Orisa is not enough - through the possession (spiritual access to the wisdom) of Ela, Ifa devotees can begin to heal ourselves of the negative influences of the Western World View, past and present, and heal the Ifa Community and the world around us. In this book, Awo Falokun teaches that the basis of Traditional Yoruba Spirituality is Good Character, which is accessible through Ela, and how it is essential to go into possession with the Spirit of Orunmila in order to maintain good character and banish the negative forces that create ori buruku, i.e., gossip, jealousy, lying, stealing, violence, etc.

Asatru, or Heathenry, is based on the pre-Christian religion and way-of-life of our Northern European Ancestors. Modern Heathen honor the true Gods of their ancestors, and we honor them in the ways that they did. We also honor our ancestors and the spirits of the land. Heathenry is very family oriented, and encourages us to live responsible lives of honor. Nothing is more important than our families and the children that we bring into this world. The modern heathen fables within are just one part of a larger puzzle of finding better ways of sharing our way-of-life with our children. This book brings together all of the essays written by the author to-date on the topic of Heathen children and families. Love your children, give gifts to your Gods, honor your ancestors, and respect the Vaettir of the land. Hail our Folk