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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology
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Spirits in Culture, History and Mind (Hardcover, New)
Loot Price: R2,897
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Spirits in Culture, History and Mind (Hardcover, New)
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"Spirits in Culture, History and Mind" reintegrates spirits into
comparative theories of religion, which have tended to focus on
institutionalized forms of belief associated with gods. It brings
an historical perspective to culturally patterned experiences with
spirits, and examines spirits as a locus of tension between
traditional and foreign values. Taking as a point of departure
shifting local views of self, nine case studies drawn from Pacific
societies analyze religious phenomena at the intersection of
social, psychological and historical processes. The varied
approaches taken in these case studies provide a richness of
perspective, with each lens illuminating different aspects of
spirit-related experience. All, however, bring a sense of
historical process to bear on psychological and symbolic approaches
to religion, shedding new light on the ways spirits relate to other
cultural phenomena.
Included is a provocative theoretical chapter, co-authored by
Robert Levy and the editors. Unabashedly comparative at a time when
most anthropologists confine themselves to interpreting local
meanings, this chapter argues for a distinction between god-like
and spirit-like beings, with gods representing the moral order
while spirits are countered at its periphery. Issues associated
with morality, power, control, conformity, possession, selfhood,
the uncanny, and the impingement of high religions on folk beliefs,
among others, are addressed in this chapter.
The conclusion, by Michael Lambek, also excites controversy.
Reflecting on the ethnographic material included in the volume,
Lambek draws attention to the importance of understanding
spirit-related experiences, in their historicalcontexts, for coming
to grips with the very nature of religion.
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