Cracked Egg, a true story, begins at the earliest age remembered. It is based on memory as understood then and now. Marriage, at much too young an age, could have contributed--and probably did contribute--to the stumble resulting in problems that grew and grew.

Feelings and beliefs are evident throughout each chapter that promotes considerate thought as to what is right, wrong, and good in life as seen in the cracked egg's family. The cracked egg's life and family picture how sin developed to follow generation after generation.

God continued blessing this imperfect egg during the failures, or sins, as responsibilities for the problems were acknowledged and accepted. Life experiences, blessings, and beliefs are shared to generate and initiate other people's beliefs.

Would you believe that failure to tithe, regardless of the reason, would cause you not to be able to continue teaching Sunday school? It happened? You will have to read to believe.

The most spiritual family member, among the youngest, was taken to paradise. This death guided and taught endurance and understanding of the question "Why?"

A lesson in forgiveness was learned after other family member caused tremendous hurt prior to a large storm. Many changes have been accomplished in the cracked egg's life and the story illuminates this as it moves through chapter by chapter.

Hopefully this story will provide insight to others before they tumble down a mountain of regrets. God bless every person who reads this story.

With the deft evocations of a master storyteller and the exhaustive knowledge of a scholar, LeVine takes us on a quest to understand the role of religious belief in everyday life around the globe. She writes of uneasy relations between Islam and spirit possession in a Nigerian town; of a Nepalese teenager's flight from an arranged marriage to become a feminist Buddhist nun; of Mexican women taking the Virgin Mary as their role model; and of American Zen Buddhists struggling to maintain their community despite a deeply flawed teacher. These stories and more give a larger picture of religious faith, one that has little to do with doctrine or philosophical abstractions.

"Fascinating ethnography focuses on ways in which urbanization and rapid social change have affected family life and women at various life stages, including childhood, adolescence, marriage, childbearing years, and old age. Based on interviews with 15 working-class women of distinct generational groups from a tenement neighborhood in Cuernavaca. Interviews were conducted semiweekly over a one-year span (1984-85). Additional chapter discusses women's roles and family relations during the 1990s"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

Women's schooling is strongly related to child survival and other outcomes beneficial to children throughout the developing world, but the reasons behind these statistical connections have been unclear. In Literacy and Mothering, the authors show, for the first time, how communicative change plays a key role: Girls acquire academic literacy skills, even in low-quality schools, which enable them, as mothers, to understand public health messages in the mass media and to navigate bureaucratic health services effectively, reducing risks to their children's health. With the acquisition of academic literacy, their health literacy and health navigation skills are enhanced, thereby reducing risks to children and altering interactions between mother and child. Assessments of these maternal skills in four diverse countries - Mexico, Nepal, Venezuela, and Zambia - support this model and are presented in the book. Chapter 1 provides a brief history of mass schooling, including the development of a bureaucratic Western form of schooling. Along with the bureaucratic organization of healthcare services and other institutions, this form of mass schooling spread across the globe, setting new standards for effective communication - standards that are, in effect, taught in school. Chapter 2 reviews the demographic and epidemiological evidence concerning the effects of mothers' education on survival, health, and fertility. In this chapter, the authors propose a model that shows how women's schooling, together with urbanization and changes in income and social status, reduce child mortality and improve health. In Chapter 3, the authors examine the concept of literacy and discuss how its meanings and measurements have been changed by educational research of the last few decades. Chapter 4 introduces the four-country study of maternal literacy. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 present the findings, focusing on academic literacy and its retention (Chapter 5), its impact on maternal health literacy and navigation skills (Chapter 6), and changes in mother-child interaction and child literacy skills (Chapter 7). Chapter 8 presents a new analysis of school experience, explores policy implications, and recommends further research.

"Rebuilding Buddhism" describes in evocative detail the experiences and achievements of Nepalis who have adopted Theravada Buddhism. This form of Buddhism was introduced into Nepal from Burma and Sri Lanka in the 1930s, and its adherents have struggled for recognition and acceptance ever since. With its focus on the austere figure of the monk and the biography of the historical Buddha, and more recently with its emphasis on individualizing meditation and on gender equality, Theravada Buddhism contrasts sharply with the highly ritualized Tantric Buddhism traditionally practiced in the Kathmandu Valley.

Based on extensive fieldwork, interviews, and historical reconstruction, the book provides a rich portrait of the different ways of being a Nepali Buddhist over the past seventy years. At the same time it explores the impact of the Theravada movement and what its gradual success has meant for Buddhism, for society, and for men and women in Nepal.

Child Care and Culture examines parenthood, infancy, and early childhood in an African community, revealing patterns unanticipated by current theories of child development and raising provocative questions about the concept of "normal" child care. Comparing the Gusii people of Kenya with the American white middle class, the authors show how divergent cultural priorities create differing conditions for early childhood development. Combining the perspectives of social anthropology, pediatrics, and developmental psychology, the authors demonstrate how child care customs can be responsive to varied socioeconomic, demographic, and cultural conditions without inflicting harm on children. This text will be of interest to researchers in child development and anthropology.