This book Explores Indo-European fire rituals and sacrifices throughout history and fire in its fundamental role in rites and religious practices. Analyzes fire rituals as the unifying structure in time and space in Indo-European cultures from the Bronze Age onwards. Asks the question how and why was fire the ultimate power in culture and cosmology? Has a broad interdisciplinary audience including archaeology, ethnography, folklore, religious and Indo-European studies.

This book Explores Indo-European fire rituals and sacrifices throughout history and fire in its fundamental role in rites and religious practices. Analyzes fire rituals as the unifying structure in time and space in Indo-European cultures from the Bronze Age onwards. Asks the question how and why was fire the ultimate power in culture and cosmology? Has a broad interdisciplinary audience including archaeology, ethnography, folklore, religious and Indo-European studies.

The Nile River Basin supports the livelihoods of millions of people in Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, principally as water for agriculture and hydropower. The resource is the focus of much contested development, not only between upstream and downstream neighbours, but also from countries outside the region. This book investigates the water, land and energy nexus in the Nile Basin. It explains how the current surge in land and energy investments, both by foreign actors as well as domestic investors, affects already strained transboundary relations in the region and how investments are intertwined within wider contexts of Nile Basin history, politics and economy. Overall, the book presents a range of perspectives, drawing on political science, international relations theory, sociology, history and political ecology.

The Nile River Basin supports the livelihoods of millions of people in Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, principally as water for agriculture and hydropower. The resource is the focus of much contested development, not only between upstream and downstream neighbours, but also from countries outside the region. This book investigates the water, land and energy nexus in the Nile Basin. It explains how the current surge in land and energy investments, both by foreign actors as well as domestic investors, affects already strained transboundary relations in the region and how investments are intertwined within wider contexts of Nile Basin history, politics and economy. Overall, the book presents a range of perspectives, drawing on political science, international relations theory, sociology, history and political ecology.

In 2050, the population in all the Nile Basin countries is expected to be ten times higher than it was in 1950. This will put ever increasing pressure on water as a resource for development. The Nile Basin catchment area is shared by 11 countries covering about one-tenth of the African continent. Globally, around 70 per cent of fresh water consumption is used in agriculture. This puts the spotlight on future scenarios regarding food production: will there be enough water for food security in the Nile Basin countries? In this Current African Issues publication, water scarcity and food security are analysed from a range of perspectives. What are the future predictions regarding population increase and climate change, and how will these affect development in Nile Basin countries? What are the current water theories addressing the above issues, and what are the main challenges the Nile Basin countries will face in a context that is also strongly shaped by its history?

Death and the life-giving waters of the Nile were intimately interwoven in ancient Egyptian religion. The principal objective of this study is to develop a synthetic perspective for enhancing the understanding of the religious roles water had in the rise and constitution of the Egyptian civilisation during the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom. The author employs an archaeological, inter-disciplinary and comparative 'water perspective' in which water not only forms the analytical framework, but also provides empirical data that allow for new questions to be addressed. Thus, the Nile itself is used as the primary point of departure to analyse how, why and when religious changes took place, with a particular emphasis on the development of the Osiris cult. Use is made of contemporary written sources, in particular the Pyramid Texts, but also other mortuary texts as well as flood records.

16 papers presented from an EAA session held at Krakow in 2006, exploring various aspects of the archaeology of death. Contents: Chapter 1. The Materiality of Death: Bodies, Burials, Beliefs (Fredrik Fahlander & Terje Oestigaard); Chapter 2. More than Metaphor: Approaching the Human Cadaver in Archaeology (Liv Nilsson Stutz); Chapter 3. A Piece of the Mesolithic. Horizontal Stratigraphy and Bodily Manipulations at Skateholm (Fredrik Fahlander); Chapter 4. Excavating the KingsAe Bones: The Materiality of Death in Practice and Ethics Today 9Anders Kaliff & Terje Oestigaard); Chapter 5. From Corpse to Ancestor: The Role of Tombside Dining in the Transformation of the Body in Ancient Rome (Regina Gee); Chapter 6. Cremations, Conjecture and Contextual Taphonomies: Material Strategies during the 4th to 2nd Millennia BC in Scotland (Paul R J Duffy and Gavin MacGregor); Chapter 7. Ritual and Remembrance at Archaic Crustumerium. The Transformations of Past and Modern Materialities in the Cemetery of Cisterna Grande (Rome, Italy) (Ulla Rajala); Chapter 8. Reuse in Finnish Cremation Cemeteries under Level Ground - Examples of Collective Memory (Anna Wickholm); Chapter 9. Life and Death in the Bronze Age of the NW of Iberian Peninsula (Ana M. S. Bettencourt); Chapter 10. Norwegian Face-Urns: Local Context and Interregional Contacts (Malin Aasbe); Chapter 11. The Use of Ochre in Stone Age Burials of the East Baltic (Ilga Zagorska); Chapter 12. oDeath Mythso: Performing of Rituals and Variation in Corpse Treatment during the Migration Period in Norway (Siv Kristoffersen and Terje Oestigaard); Chapter 13. Reproduction and Relocation of Death in Iron Age Scandinavia (Terje Gansum); Chapter 14. A Road for the VikingAes Soul (Ake Johansson); Chapter 15. A Road to the Other Side (Camilla Gr); Chapter 16. Stones and Bones: The Myth of Ymer and Mortuary Practises with an Example from the Migration Period in Uppland, Central Sweden (Christina Lindgren).

In this original work, the author aims to develop a synthetic perspective for enhancing the understanding of the roles that death and life-giving waters have in the constitution of society and cosmos in karmic traditions. This is achieved through a material culture study of death and funeral practices as cultural, ritual, and religious processes in parts of Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and the Indus Valley.

These twenty papers were delivered at a conference held in Bergen in 2001 which was convened to honour Randi Haaland's contribution to global archaeology. The papers cover a broad archaeological spectrum but focus on the archaeology and ethnography of South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and prehistoric Europe and the Near East. Five main subjects areas are covered: Gender, rituals and social identity; Food, consumption and metal production in prehistory; Evolution, traditions and structures; Approaches to African archaeology; Cultural Heritage and Rock Art.

This study forms an ethnoarchaeological analysis of the life cycle rituals from the funeral practice and its manifestation in the mortuary remains of Brahmans and Magars in Central Dhaulagiri zone of Nepal'. It is largely based on first-hand experience of funerals and explores the religious and cosmological ideas surrounding death and the afterlife, what death represents for the living and the rites and rituals performed to the deceased. In the final chapter, Oestigaard considers how this evidence can help us interpret the burials of the past and re-appraise our Christianised views of death.

The Nile is arguably the most famous river in the world. For millennia, the search for its source defeated emperors and explorers. Yet the search for its source also contained a religious quest - a search for the origin of its divine and life-giving waters. Terje Oestigaard reveals how the beliefs associated with the river have played a key role in the cultural development and make-up of the societies and civilizations associated with it. Drawing upon his personal experience and fieldwork in Africa, including details of rites and ceremonies now fast disappearing, the author brings out in rich detail the religious and spiritual meanings attached to the life-giving waters by those whose lives are so bound to the river. Part religious quest, part exploration narrative, the author shows how this mighty river is a powerful source for a greater understanding of human nature, society and religion.

The Christian religion is deeply imbued with the imagery of water, and water plays a central role in its religious practices, not least in baptism. Yet the wider role of water in Christianity has been little explored. In this pioneering book, Terje Oestigaard uses the dramatic changes that took place in perceptions of water during the Reformation to reveal the importance that water played in structuring society and religion in the post-Reformation period. Prior to the Reformation, most common people believed misfortune and catastrophe were caused by the devil, and sought protection in the use of holy water blessed by the local priest. Holy water and holy wells gave laypeople a powerful weapon which could be used to keep the devil away, cure illness and protect fields, property and family. But with the Reformation, the nature of holy water was challenged and belief in the efficacy of holy water and holy wells was attacked as Popish magic and superstition: the status of holy water became one of the main battlegrounds between Protestants and Catholics. The author explores these conflicting views on the spiritual qualities of water and their consequences for society at large. He traces the changing views of nature that arose with Enlightenment developments in the scientific understanding of water and the hydrological cycle, and shows how the emergence of a natural theology helped encourage a belief in the Protestant work ethic whereby wealth and economic success equated with religious excellence. The author concludes by examining - and challenging - Weber's claim that the protestant work ethic and capitalist spirit of enterprise that was so important to the later success of the Industrial Revolution came about when magic and superstition were eliminated from religion by the Reformation. The result is a highly original work that provides one of the most detailed explorations of the importance of the role of water in structuring society and religion in post-Reformation England. Offering fresh insights into the development of society and religion, it will be welcomed by all those with an interest in water, religion, sociology, and the Reformation period.

Major changes in policy and management , across the entire agricultural production chain, will be needed to ensure the best use of available water resources in meeting growing demands for food and other agricultural products. This new volume in the successful History of Water Series focuses on the African continent to address this key issue. Humanity has its roots in Africa and many of our food systems developed there. All types of agricultural production are present and the sheer size of the continent offers wide ecological variation from extreme desert to dense rainforest. Drawing together leading international contributors from a wide variety of disciplines Water and Food offers new insights into the evolution of food systems, from early hunter gatherers to the global challenges of the modern world.

These three volumes present an original exploration of all aspects of water - social, cultural, political, religious, historical, economic and technological - from ancient times until the present day. Among the varied themes, the contributors examine the changing histories of water as a private or common good, the politics of water at local, urban, national and international level. With empirical and ethnographic case studies from around the world the three volumes together represent one of the most complete and up to date accounts of the central role of water in the history and development of humanity.