Modern archaeology has amassed considerable evidence for the disposal of the dead through burials, cemeteries and other monuments. Drawing on this body of evidence, this book offers fresh insight into how early human societies conceived of death and the afterlife. The twenty-seven essays in this volume consider the rituals and responses to death in prehistoric societies across the world, from eastern Asia through Europe to the Americas, and from the very earliest times before developed religious beliefs offered scriptural answers to these questions. Compiled and written by leading prehistorians and archaeologists, this volume traces the emergence of death as a concept in early times, as well as a contributing factor to the formation of communities and social hierarchies, and sometimes the creation of divinities.

We Sing We Stay Together: Shabbat Morning Service Prayers is a super user-friendly Sing-Along prayer book for the Shabbat (Saturday) Morning Synagogue Service with TRANSLITERATED ENGLISH TEXT, translation and explanation of the service. Its primary purpose is to make it beyond easy to learn the prayers when listening and singing along to the 64 track music CD album set of the same name; but it also stands, in its own right, as a learning tool explaining the meaning of the words and the service. Our Jewish prayers are beautiful love songs; full of goodness, affection, adoration, hope, kindness and generosity. They are our DNA, even if we do not know them, because these prayers, our religion, have moulded the Jewish people; our way of thinking, education, who we are, and what we represent. Judaism is all about being good and positive for oneself, family, community, the wider world - all out of respect and love for Hashem. It fills me with gratitude, humility, and pride. Our heritage is an intellectual, cultural, spiritual and religious blessing - but we need easy access. I was never able to participate in, let alone enjoy, the Shabbat Morning Service, but I loved those moments when the whole community comes together and sings a few short prayers with moving melodies. There just was not enough of it, we needed more singing, much more! Community is all about family and friends, and we are all friends, it is actually written in one of our prayers. Our prayers are crying out to be sung with great happiness, clearly and harmoniously. Communal prayers are all about belonging, sharing, and that is only possible if we can all join in as equals; and for that we need clearly articulated words that are easy to learn and enjoyable to sing. I dedicate this project of melodizing the Shabbat Morning Service prayers and writing a Sing-Along prayer book to all who love and care for Jewish Continuity, Judaism, Torah, and the Nation-State of the Jewish People, Israel; and so also to all our wonderful friends, the righteous among the nations. Remember to remember that when we sing together, we stay together. AM ISRAEL CHAI - the people of Israel live. With love, and hope for our children, Richard Collis

"Wir Singen Wir Bleiben Zusammen (We Sing We Stay Together) - Gebete zum Morgengottesdienst am Shabbat" ist ein besonders benutzerfreundliches Gebetsbuch zum Mitsingen fur den Morgengottesdienst am Shabbat (Samstag) in der Synagoge, mit TRANSKRIBIERTEM ENGLISCHEM TEXT und einer Transliteration des Gottesdienstes mit Erklarungen. Hauptsachlich will das Werk beim Hoeren und Mitsingen der 64 Titel des gleichnamigen CD-Musikalbums das Erlernen der Gebete ganz besonders erleichtern; doch auch fur sich genommen dient es als Hilfsmittel zum Erlernen der verwendeten Begriffe und der Ablaufe des Gottesdienstes. Unsere judischen Gebete sind wunderschoene Liebeslieder; voller Gute, Warmherzigkeit, Anbetung, Hoffnung, Freundlichkeit und Edelmut. Sie sind uns eingraviert, selbst wenn wir sie nicht kennen, denn diese Gebete, die gleich unserer Religion sind, haben das judische Volk, seine Denkweise und die Ausbildung gepragt und uns zu dem gemacht, was wir sind und fur was wir einstehen. Im Judentum geht es vor allem darum, zu sich selbst, der Familie, der Gemeinde und allen Mitmenschen gut und positiv zu sein - und das aus dem Respekt und der Liebe zu Hashem heraus. Das erfullt mich mit Dankbarkeit, Demut und Stolz. Unser Erbe ist ein intellektueller, kultureller, spiritueller und religioeser Segen - aber wir brauchen jemanden, der uns Zugang dazu gewahrt. Ich konnte nie am Shabbat-Morgengottesdienst teilnehmen, geschweige denn, ihn geniessen, doch ich liebte jene Momente, in denen die ganze Gemeinde zusammenkam und einige kurze Gebete in bewegenden Melodien singt. Man konnte einfach nicht genug davon bekommen, und deshalb brauchen wir mehr Lieder, noch viel mehr! Die Gemeinde sind die Familie und die Freunde, und wir alle sind Freunde - so heisst es sogar in einem unserer Gebete. Unsere Gebete verlangen danach, mit grosser Freude deutlich und harmonisch gesungen zu werden. Das gemeinsame Gebet bringt Zugehoerigkeit und Gemeinschaftsgeist, und das ist nur moeglich, wenn jeder von uns gleich ist. Dazu brauchen wir gut verstandliche Worte, die man leicht lernt und die zu singen Freude macht. Ich widme dieses Projekt der Vertonung von Gebeten zum Shabbat-Morgengottesdienst und der Niederschrift eines Gebetsbuchs zum Mitsingen all denjenigen, die den Fortbestand der Juden, das Judentum, die Thora, und den Nationalstaat des judischen Volks, Israel, lieben und schatzen, und ich widme das Werk unseren wunderbaren Freunden, den Gerechten unter den Voelkern. Denken Sie immer daran: Wenn wir zusammen singen, dann bleiben wir zusammen. AM ISRAEL CHAI- das Volk Israels lebt. Mit Liebe und Hoffnung fur unsere Kinder, Richard Collis

The summer of 2022 saw the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, the first time in British history that a monarch has reached this remarkable milestone. As the event was the first of its kind to be televised, images from the ceremony inside Westminster Abbey are instantly recognisable. Far less familiar are the scenes in the streets outside, where huge crowds assembled to see a procession of state coaches and historic regiments marching past public buildings festooned with patriotic banners and colourful grandstands erected outside many famous landmarks. Using a private collection of more than 200 rare images of London's West End, Protect and Keep looks back to the day that the Queen pledged herself to her country. It provides a unique and precious record of an historic occasion: the day of the Coronation as it was seen by ordinary members of the public.

Translating Totality in Parts offers an annotated translation of two of preeminent Chinese Tang dynasty monk Chengguan's most revered masterpieces. With this book, Chengguan's Commentaries to the Avatamsaka Sutra and The Meanings Proclaimed in the Subcommentaries Accompanying the Commentaries to the Avatamsaka Sutra are finally brought to contemporary Western audiences. Translating Totality in Parts allows Western readers to experience Chengguan's important contributions to the religious and philosophical theory of the Huayan and Buddhism in China.

In this book, Mashal Saif explores how contemporary 'ulama, the guardians of religious knowledge and law, engage with the world's most populated Islamic nation-state: Pakistan. In mapping these engagements, she weds rigorous textual analysis with fieldwork and offers insight into some of the most significant and politically charged issues in recent Pakistani history. These include debates over the rights of women; the country's notorious blasphemy laws; the legitimacy of religiously mandated insurrection against the state; sectarian violence; and the place of Shi'as within the Sunni majority nation. These diverse case studies are knit together by the project's most significant contribution: a theoretical framework that understands the 'ulama's complex engagements with their state as a process of both contestation and cultivation of the Islamic Republic by citizen-subjects. This framework provides a new way of assessing state - 'ulama relations not only in contemporary Pakistan but also across the Muslim world.

Journey into the world of Ayahuasca and healing. A mysterious and powerful plant medicine with curative powers that is drunk as a tea during a sacred ceremony, Ayahuasca has been known to change people's lives dramatically. But what was once a healing experience practiced only by Indigenous South Americans - and sought out by the adventurous few - has, in the past fifty years, become increasingly popular around the world. Hachumak, a Peruvian medicine man, has been practicing traditional healing arts in his country for more than twenty years. His unique approach is based on ritualistic simplicity and highlights the essence of the Art, which includes the borrowed forces from Nature. In this remarkable book, he shares his knowledge and experiences to broaden our understanding of this powerful medicine and protect it from misuse and exploitation. Whether you are among the uninitiated and curious, or a seasoned journeyer, you will gain a deeper understanding of what shamanism is and how and why it works, as well as its possibilities and limitations. Hachumak reveals his own path to becoming a shaman and explains how a well-crafted Ayahuasca ceremony unfolds when run by an experienced curandero. He describes in detail what to expect - both physically and psychologically - while under the guidance of the sacred plants. With Hachumak as our experienced and trusted guide, Journeying Through the Invisible offers a new and healing way of seeing ourselves and the world around us.

This volume brings together studies on Greek animal sacrifice by foremost experts in Greek language, literature and material culture. Readers will benefit from the synthesis of new evidence and approaches with a re-evaluation of twentieth-century theories on sacrifice. The chapters range across the whole of antiquity and go beyond the Greek world to consider possible influences in Hittite Anatolia and Egypt, while an introduction to the burgeoning science of osteo-archaeology is provided. The twentieth-century emphasis on sacrifice as part of the Classical Greek polis system is challenged through consideration of various ancient perspectives on sacrifice as distinct from specific political or even Greek contexts. Many previously unexplored topics are covered, particularly the type of animals sacrificed and the spectrum of sacrificial ritual, from libations to lasting memorials of the ritual in art.

Take your child on a colorful adventure to share the many ways Jewish people celebrate Shabbat around the world. Shabbat Shalom Beginning in an old Jerusalem market Friday morning, shopping for foods to make Shabbat meals specialSetting a beautiful Sabbath table in Australia Friday afternoonLighting Shabbat candles with a family in TurkeySinging zemirot with relatives in RussiaMaking hamotzi as a congregation in the United StatesParading the Torah scrolls at Shabbat morning services in a synagogue in GermanyRelaxing in the peace of Shabbat day in CanadaEnjoying a special Sabbath afternoon meal in Morocco

From Israel to Thailand, from Ethiopia to Argentina, you and your children are invited to share the diverse Sabbath traditions that come alive in Jewish homes and synagogues around the world each week and to celebrate life with Jewish people everywhere."

This Element explores the disputed relationship between Islam and suicide attacks. Drawing from primary source material as well as existing scholarship from fields such as terrorism studies and religious studies, it argues that Islam as a generic category is not an explanatory factor in suicide attacks. Rather, it claims that we need to study how organisations and individuals in their particular contexts draw tools such as Islamic martyrdom traditions, ritual practices and perceptions on honour and purity from their cultural repertoire to shape, justify and give meaning to the bloodshed.

We Sing We Stay Together (Cantamos y Permanecemos Juntos): El libro Plegarias Del Servicio Matutino del Shabbat es un libro de plegarias para acompanar el canto en el servicio de culto del Shabbat (sabado) por la manana, con texto transliterado a caracteres del alfabeto latino, traduccion y explicacion del servicio de culto. Su objetivo principal es simplificar al maximo el aprendizaje de las oraciones, como soporte de ayuda para escuchar y cantar con el CD de 64 canciones del mismo nombre; pero tambien constituye, por derecho propio, una herramienta de aprendizaje que explica el significado de las palabras y del servicio de culto. Nuestras plegarias judias son bellas canciones de amor, llenas de bondad, afecto, adoracion, esperanza, amabilidad y generosidad. Son nuestro ADN aunque no las conozcamos, porque estas plegarias, nuestra religion, han moldeado al pueblo judio: nuestra manera de pensar y educacion, quienes somos y que representamos. El judaismo implica ser bueno y positivo para uno mismo, la familia, la comunidad y el mundo en general - todo por respeto y amor a Hashem. Me llena de gratitud, humildad y orgullo. Nuestro legado es una bendicion intelectual, cultural, espiritual y religiosa, pero necesitamos un acceso facil. Nunca pude participar ni aun menos disfrutar del servicio matutino del Shabbat, pero adoraba esos momentos en que toda la comunidad se reunia y cantaba plegarias cortas con melodias conmovedoras. No habia suficiente, necesitabamos mas canto, !mucho mas! La comunidad es cuestion de familia y amigos, y todos somos amigos: lo dice incluso una de nuestras plegarias. Nuestras oraciones reclaman ser cantadas con jubilo, clara y armoniosamente. Las plegarias comunales buscan la pertenencia, compartir, y eso solo es posible si todos nos unimos como iguales; necesitamos palabras claramente articuladas, faciles de aprender y agradables de cantar. Dedico este proyecto de melodizar las plegarias del servicio matutino del Shabbat y de escribir un libro de plegarias para acompanar el canto a todos los que aman y desean la continuidad judia, el Judaismo, la Tora y el estado-nacion del pueblo judio, Israel; y asimismo a todos nuestros maravillosos amigos, los justos entre las naciones. Acordaos de recordar que cuando cantamos juntos, permanecemos juntos. AM ISRAEL CHAI - el pueblo de Israel vive. Con amor y esperanza para nuestros hijos, Richard Collis