Rivers in India are commonly associated with certain worldly religious values: wealth, beauty, long life, good health, food, love, and the birth of children. However, these "domestic" values have been relatively neglected by Indologists, who have tended to view India and Hinduism through the prism of poverty, misery, asceticism, and themes of purity or pollution. Following recent scholarship by arguing that the earthly pursuits are equally vital to an understanding of popular Hinduism, Feldhaus examines the role of these ideals in the religious meanings of rivers in Maharashtra, a large region of western India. Drawing both on written religious texts and on a wide range of oral, iconographic, and ritual materials gathered in the course of field work in India, she shows that these values, which are usually associated with women or represented by goddesses, are an important motif in popular religious practices and oral traditions associated with the rivers of Maharashtra, and she presents the many different ways in which rivers are imagined, enshrined, worshipped, and feared.

Annemarie Anrod Shimony's classic work clearly shows the contemporary cultural and religious crises that face the Longhouse Iroquois at the Six Nations Reserve, Ontario. Shimony presents a lucid and eloquent account of the survival of the Native American tradition, which is struggling to maintain political and cultural autonomy in an ever-changing modern world. Based on original field work dating from 1953 to 1961, and supplemented by new material describing changes during the last thirty years, Shimony's work is once again the most comprehensive ethnography of the largest extant traditional Iroquoian community. Some of the material discussed includes the social organization, the system of hereditary chiefs, the beliefs and practices of the Longhouse religion, the events of the Iroquoian life cycle, and the extensive medicinal and witchcraft aspects of the culture. Additional areas of focus include the rituals of the agricultural calendar and Iroquois conceptions of death and burial rituals. As Elizabeth Tooker wrote in Indians of the Northeast, Shimony's monograph is, "next to Morgan's League, the most important general description of the Iroquois". With its new material added, Conservatism among the Iroquois is once again required reading for anyone interested in Native American culture.

"This book is a marvelous counterpoint to the rich scholarship that has developed on the 'center' in Southeast Asian societies, providing for the first time an in-depth study of the play of personhood and power--and their historical transformations--on the Indonesian 'periphery.'"--Toby Alice Volkman, Social Science Research Council

"A very important work, not only for the specialists of island Southeast Asia, but also for the general anthropologist. Atkinson accomplishes a number of tasks in fresh and innovative ways."--George E. Marcus, Rice University

"Impressively informed by major theoretical issues, Atkinson's work at the same time brings her readers into the everyday world of the Wana in Sulawesi, Indonesia."--Renato Rosaldo, Stanford University

'Hultkrantz treads where other angels fear to with this audacious and clear overall survey. He leaves the room for specialists to debate and generalists to quicken curiosity.'--Christian Century

Among the topics considered in this classic study are world origins and supernatural powers, attitudes toward the dead, the medicine man and shaman, hunting and gathering rituals, war and planting ceremonies, and newer religions, such as the Ghost Dance and the Peyote Religion.
"The distinctive contribution of ["Red Man's Religion"] is the treatment of topics, the insight and the perspective of the author, and her ability to transmit these to the reader. . . . Trais and aspects of religion are not treated as abstract entitites, to be enumerated and summated, assigned a geographic distribution, and then abandoned. No page is a dry recital; each is an illumination. Insight and wisdom are framed in poetic prose. An offering of information in such a medium merits gratitude."--"American Anthropologist"

This ground-breaking study reveals an unorganized and previously unacknowledged religion at the heart of American culture. Nature, Albanese argues, has provided a compelling religious center throughout American history.

Crow Christianity speaks in many voices, and in the pages of Crow Jesus, these voices tell a complex story of Christian faith and Native tradition combining and reshaping each other to create a new and richly varied religious identity. In this collection of narratives, fifteen members of the Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation in southeastern Montana and three non-Native missionaries to the reservation describe how Christianity has shaped their lives, their families, and their community through the years. Among the speakers are elders and young people, women and men, pastors and laypeople, devout traditionalists and skeptics of the indigenous cultural way. Taken together, the narratives reveal the startling variety and sharp contradictions that exist in Native Christian devotion among Crows today, from Pentecostal Peyotists to Sun-Dancing Catholics to tongues-speaking Baptists in the sweat lodge. Editor Mark Clatterbuck also offers a historical overview of Christianity's arrival, growth, and ongoing influence in Crow Country, with special attention to Christianity's relationship to traditional ceremonies and indigenous ways of seeing the world. In Crow Jesus, Clatterbuck explores contemporary Native Christianity by listening as indigenous voices narrate their own stories on their own terms. His collection tells the larger story of a tribe that has adopted Christian beliefs and practices in such a way that simple, unqualified designations of religious belonging - whether ""Christian"" or ""Sun Dancer"" or ""Peyotist"" - are seldom, if ever, adequate.

This landmark volume compiled by Jacob K. Olupona and Rowland O. Abiodun brings readers into the diverse world of Ifa-its discourse, ways of thinking, and artistic expression as manifested throughout the Afro-Atlantic. Firmly rooting Ifa within African religious traditions, the essays consider Ifa and Ifa divination from the perspectives of philosophy, performance studies, and cultural studies. They also examine the sacred context, verbal art, and the interpretation of Ifa texts and philosophy. With essays from the most respected scholars in the field, the book makes a substantial contribution toward understanding Ifa and its role in contemporary Yoruba and diaspora cultures.

*Contains never-before-released talks by Rolling Thunder preserved by the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart as well as accounts of remarkable healings and weather magic from famous personalities who knew him*Explains that in order to heal Nature's afflictions we must first restore balance and unity in ourselvesCherokee-Shoshone medicine man Rolling Thunder (19161997) was a healer, teacher, visionary and activist who rose to popularity in the 1960s and '70s through his friendship with artists such as Bob Dylan and as the inspiration for the Billy Jack films. Eyewitness accounts of his remarkable healings are legion, as are those of his ability to call forth the forces of nature, typically in the form of thunder clouds. Yet it was his equally uncommon gift as a prophet and living representative of Native American wisdom that truly set him apart from other spiritual teachers of that era. Thirty years before most people had ever heard of global warming, Rolling Thunder described in graphic detail the signs of encroaching planetary doom and campaigned for environmental harmony. The key to healing nature's afflictions, he maintained, is to first restore balance and unity in ourselves. Containing never-before-released talks preserved by the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, this book shares the teachings of Rolling Thunder in his own words and through inspiring interviews with psychologist Alberto Villoldo and other famous personalities who knew him. Collected and edited by his grandson, Sidian Morning Star Jones and longtime friend, Stanley Krippner, this book allows you to incorporate Rolling Thunder's wisdom into your own life.

From first-hand experience, the author tells of daily life among the Hopi Indians in Northern Arizona--their beliefs, rituals and Catcina (Kachina) ceremonies. The interaction and conflict between the Anglo and Indian cultures are presented from the viewpoint of the Hopi family. Robert Boissiere, born in Paris, France, came to the United States after World War II. A member of the French army, he was imprisoned in a Nazi prison camp from which he managed to escape and join a group of Basques in the Pyrenees. After moving to California, Boissiere found himself on an artistic and spiritual pilgrimage to the Hopi villages. There he was adopted by a Hopi family and became a participant in their cultural life. "The Hopi Way" is based on his experiences living as a Hopi. He is also the author of "Po Pai Mo," also from Sunstone Press.

Frances Henry's book explores various African religions as part of a cultural system, relevant to national identity in the island of Trinidad The book deals with the dynamic doctrinal and ideological changes that have taken place within the religions, and documents both the legislative and social acceptance of African religion today. This study is an important documentation of contemporary history and religious debate. It analyzes the process by which marginalized religions move toward the mainstream and the various internal and external tensions such movements engender. It makes a particularly strong contribution in its discussions of ritual authenticity. The work is based on a three-year period of fieldwork in Trinidad. Of interest to students and scholars interested in Caribbean Studies, especially African-oriented studies.

Those who teach courses in Native American religious traditions know the difficulty of finding quality books that deal in concise yet reliable fashion with a number of tribal traditions and are suitable for use in the classroom. In this volume, Lawrence Sullivan seeks to help fill this lacuna.

For centuries, a persistent and important component of Lakota religious life has been the Inipi, the ritual of the sweat lodge. The sweat lodge has changed little in appearance since its first recorded description in the late seventeenth century. The ritual itself consists of songs, prayers, and other actions conducted in a tightly enclosed, dark, and extremely hot environment. Participants who “sweat� together experience moral strengthening, physical healing, and the renewal of social and cultural bonds. Today, the sweat lodge ritual continues to be a vital part of Lakota religion. It has also been open to use, often controversial, by non-Indians. The ritual has recently become popular among Lakotas recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. This study is the first in-depth look at the history and significance of the Lakota sweat lodge. Bringing together data culled from historical sources and fieldwork on Pine Ridge Reservation, Raymond A. Bucko provides a detailed discussion of continuity and changes in the “sweat� ritual over time. He offers convincing explanations for the longevity of the ceremony and its continuing popularity.

"You shall have no other gods besides Me." This injunction, handed down through Moses three thousand years ago, marks one of the most decisive shifts in Western culture: away from polytheism toward monotheism. Despite the momentous implications of such a turn, the role of idolatry in giving it direction and impetus is little understood. This book examines the meaning and nature of idolatry--and, in doing so, reveals much about the monotheistic tradition that defines itself against this sin.

The authors consider Christianity and Islam, but focus primarily on Judaism. They explore competing claims about the concept of idolatry that emerges in the Hebrew Bible, as a "whoring after false gods." Does such a description, grounded in an analogy of sexual relations, presuppose the actual existence of other gods with whom someone might sin? Or are false gods the product of "men's hands," simply a matter of misguided belief? The authors show how this debate, over idolatry as practice or error, has taken shape and has in turn shaped the course of Western thought--from the differentiation between Jewish and Christian conceptions of God to the distinctions between true and false belief that inform the tradition of religious enlightenment.

Ranging with authority from the Talmud to Maimonides, from Marx to Nietzsche and on to G. E. Moore, this brilliant account of a subject central to our culture also has much to say about metaphor, myth, and the application of philosophical analysis to religious concepts and sensibilities. Its insights into pluralism and intolerance, into the logic and illogic of the arguments religions aim at each other, make "Idolatry" especially timely and valuable inthese days of dark and implacable religious difference.

A Study of the Disputation between Bartlome de Las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda on the religious and iltellectual capacity of the American Indians.

This enthnographic study describes and analyzes the ritual cycle celebrated by Zulu kinship groups at birth, maturity, marriage, sickness and death as understood and interpreted by the Zulus themselves. The Zulu world view emerges as a logical and coherent system of thought, expressed primariliy through rites, rituals and symbols Axel-Ivar Berglund spent his childhood in Zululand as the son of Swedish missionaries serving there.