This volume was written primarily for teachers who have developed (or who are being encouraged to develop) an awareness of and commitment to teaching mathematics for understanding. The research findings presented in these chapters suggest instructional implications worthy of these teachers' consideration. Often, the authors in this volume describe instructional practices or raise issues that have the potential to broaden views of teaching and learning mathematics. These chapters provide interesting problems and tasks used in the authors' work that readers can use in their own classrooms. The volume can also be used with courses for preservice and inservice teachers, collaborative teacher study groups, and other professional activities. A hallmark of good research is its connection to the relevant literature in the field, and the authors of this volume have themselves drawn from the research literature to inform their work. The reference lists accompanying these chapters can be useful resources and should not be overlooked. Most importantly for teacher education, this volume showcases the variety of ways teachers can become engaged in research, and we hope that readers will recognize that teacher research can be both accessible and beneficial in the preparation and professional development of teachers. This is not to suggest, however, that this volume is intended only for teachers and teacher educators. It is also intended to be an interesting, informative resource for other researchers, school administrators, and policy makers. The research presented in this volume is intended to provide an opportunity for those outside the classroom to gain insight into the kinds of issues that matter to teachers, the ways in which those issues might be researched, and the contributions that classroom research makes to mathematics education.

Water managers tend to have narrow views on what they consider to be the value of water. However, not all water use is market driven; therefore, a comprehensive understanding of local community values associated with water can inform decision making by water managers. We use the term 'water manager' to encompass not only the singular person assigned this community duty but also the many councils and institutions who make decisions regarding local water resources. Regarding conventional values of water, an abundance of research exists; yet, for intangible aspects such as conservation for its own sake and spiritual connections, research involving value is limited. There are volumes of works that estimate the monetary values of water; however, intangible values are often overlooked. In general, few studies endeavor to estimate worth for water that encompasses more than a monetary value. We argue that it is the inclusion of both monetary and non-monetary values that justifies trust in the position of water manager.

It's More than Shootouts and Car Chases takes you inside the life of a Montgomery Police Officer in the capital city of Alabama. Corporal Smith began his career as a nineteen year old police cadet working in an administrative capacity, until attending the police academy in 1983. As a trainee, Smith started the police academy with twenty fellow recruits and sixteen grueling weeks later, graduating with only six. You experience from the beginning what it takes to become a Montgomery police officer. This detailed, factual account provides the reader with an inside look from being shot at as a rookie officer while investigating a car burglary, to being involved in two police shootings and working the deaths of two fellow officers as an evidence technician. Throughout his twenty year career, Corporal Steve Smith shares his experiences that will have you laughing one moment and then a call of "shots fired" will show you the true dangers of being a police officer. As Corporal Steve Smith shares his true life experiences he also shares his faith in the Lord as he serves and protects the citizens of Montgomery.

A way of understanding the laws which govem the worId of elementary particIes has not been found yet. Present-day theoretical physicists have to be satisfied with compromises which, at the best, promise some success at the expense of generality and unity. U nder these circumstances a critical analysis of the basic concepts of modem quantum theory may be timely and usefuI. It is hoped that the value of such an analysis may be preserved even if, in the near future, new ways of understanding the basis of elementary particIe physics are discovered. In this monograph one specific aspect of this analysis is treated, namely the problems of geometry in the microworld. An out- line of geometrical measurements in the macroworld was given pre- viously. These measurements seem to be c1ear enough for at least a certain set of problems to be considered as a starting point for discussing the situation in the microworld. The concepts and methods which are useful in the macroworld may only indirectly be carried over into the microworld and they require a high degree of abstraction. In comprehending the physical content of dynamic variables which have geometric meaning, for example, the space-time partic1e coor- dinates x, y, z, t it is of ten necessary to have recourse to gedanken experiments which, although not feasible in practice, can nevertheless be compatible with the basic principles of geometry and quantum mechanics.

Photoscapes and the Egg is an intimate book to be savoured and kept nearby, perhaps on a coffee table because of its sheer beauty. Inside its robin egg blue cloth cover are improvised photos of objects, nature, and art, each matched with a photo of an egg inside a cosmic circle - eggs with personalities from the calm ethereal to the hot aggressive. In full, there are more than 100 stunning colour photos, all taken with an iPhone. The match of phenomena and eggs alludes to the dance of the material world with the invisible "birthing source" represented by the egg. Accompanying text and poems bring stories to the dance. The juxtapositions evoke surprise, insight, emotions, hope, and refreshment. They make wry jokes and touch on realities beyond the obvious. This book contains unabashed gentleness and spiritual toughness without pretence. Photoscapes and the Egg sprang from the mind of Patricia Z. Smith, a 79-year-old photographer and writer with extensive life experience and a pull since childhood to meld the physical with the esoteric. The design by Louis Brody is modern and serene. The book is a gift to the reader and her or his friends. It is a resource for these times and our future.

Burkert, Girard, and Smith hold important and contradictory theories about the nature and origin of ritual sacrifice, and the role violence plays in religion and culture. These papers and conversations derive from a conference that pursued the possibility and utility of a general theory of religion and culture, especially one based on violence. The special value of this volume is the conversations as such--the real record of working scholars engaged with one another's theories, as they make and meet challenges, and move and maneuver.
Girard and Burkert present different versions of the same conviction: that a single theory can account for ritual and its social function, a theory that posits original acts of group violence. Smith sharply questions both the possibility and the utility of such a general theory. Among the highlights of this stimulating interchange of ideas is a searching criticism of Girard's theory of generative scapegoating, which he answers with clarity and conviction, and a challenging of Burkert's theory of the origin of sacrifice in the hunt by Smith's argument, posed as a "jeu d'esprit, " that sacrifice originates with the domestication of animals.

This open access book explores the role of religion in England's overseas companies and the formation of English governmental identity abroad in the seventeenth century. Drawing on research into the Virginia, East India, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New England and Levant Companies, it offers a comparative global assessment of the inextricable links between the formation of English overseas government and various models of religious governance across England's emerging colonial empire. While these approaches to governance varied from company to company, each sought to regulate the behaviour of their personnel, as well as the numerous communities and faiths which fell within their jurisdiction. This book provides a crucial reassessment of the seventeenth-century foundations of British imperial governance.

This open access book explores the role of religion in England's overseas companies and the formation of English governmental identity abroad in the seventeenth century. Drawing on research into the Virginia, East India, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New England and Levant Companies, it offers a comparative global assessment of the inextricable links between the formation of English overseas government and various models of religious governance across England's emerging colonial empire. While these approaches to governance varied from company to company, each sought to regulate the behaviour of their personnel, as well as the numerous communities and faiths which fell within their jurisdiction. This book provides a crucial reassessment of the seventeenth-century foundations of British imperial governance.

In this broad-ranging inquiry into ritual and its relation to place, Jonathan Z. Smith prepares the way for a new approach to the comparative study of religion.
Smith stresses the importance of place--in particular, constructed ritual environments--to a proper understanding of the ways in which "empty" actions become rituals. He structures his argument around the territories of the Tjilpa aborigines in Australia and two sites in Jerusalem--the temple envisioned by Ezekiel and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The first of these locales--the focus of one of the more important contemporary theories of religious ritual--allows Smith to raise questions concerning the enterprise of comparison. His close examination of Eliade's influential interpretation of the Tjilpa tradition leads to a powerful critique of the approach to religion, myth, and ritual that begins with cosmology and the category of "The Sacred."
In substance and in method, "To Take Place" represents a significant advance toward a theory of ritual. It is of great value not only to historians of religion and students of ritual, but to all, whether social scientists or humanists, who are concerned with the nature of place.
"This book is extraordinarily stimulating in prompting one to think about the ways in which space, or place, is perceived, marked, and utilized religiously. . . . A provocative example of the application of humanistic geography to our understanding of what "takes place" in religion."--Dale Goldsmith," Interpretation
"

First published in English in 1954, this founding work of the history of religions secured the North American reputation of the Romanian emigre-scholar Mircea Eliade. Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures and drawing on scholarship published in no fewer than half a dozen European languages, The Myth of the Eternal Return illuminates the religious beliefs and rituals of a wide variety of archaic religious cultures. While acknowledging that a return to their practices is impossible, Eliade passionately insists on the value of understanding their views to enrich the contemporary imagination of what it is to be human. This book includes an introduction from Jonathan Z. Smith that provides essential context and encourages readers to engage in an informed way with this classic text.

One of the most influential theorists of religion, Jonathan Z. Smith is best known for his analyses of religious studies as a discipline and for his advocacy and refinement of comparison as the basis for the history of religions. "Relating Religion" gathers seventeen essays--four of them never before published--that together provide the first broad overview of Smith's thinking since his seminal 1982 book, "Imagining Religion,"
Smith first explains how he was drawn to the study of religion, outlines his own theoretical commitments, and draws the connections between his thinking and his concerns for general education. He then engages several figures and traditions that serve to define his interests within the larger setting of the discipline. The essays that follow consider the role of taxonomy and classification in the study of religion, the construction of difference, and the procedures of generalization and redescription that Smith takes to be key to the comparative enterprise. The final essays deploy features of Smith's most recent work, especially the notion of translation.
Heady, original, and provocative, "Relating Religion" is certain to be hailed as a landmark in the academic study and critical theory of religion.

With this influential book of essays, Jonathan Z. Smith has pointed the academic study of religion in a new theoretical direction, one neither theological nor willfully ideological.
Making use of examples as apparently diverse and exotic as the Maori cults in nineteenth-century New Zealand and the events of Jonestown, Smith shows that religion must be construed as conventional, anthropological, historical, and as an exercise of imagination. In his analyses, religion emerges as the product of historically and geographically situated human ingenuity, cognition, and curiosity--simply put, as the result of human labor, one of the decisive but wholly ordinary ways human beings create the worlds in which they live and make sense of them.
"These seven essays . . . display the critical intelligence, creativity, and sheer common sense that make Smith one of the most methodologically sophisticated and suggestive historians of religion writing today. . . . Smith scrutinizes the fundamental problems of taxonomy and comparison in religious studies, suggestively redescribes such basic categories as canon and ritual, and shows how frequently studied myths may more likely reflect situational incongruities than vaunted mimetic congruities. His final essay, on Jonestown, demonstrates the interpretive power of the historian of religion to render intelligible that in our own day which seems most bizarre."--Richard S. Sarason, "Religious Studies Review
"

Complements is a gem, an intimate book to be savoured on first readings and held near as a resource on what is meaningful. It contains 110 luscious photos of small objects juxtaposed in ways that evoke emotions, thoughts, questions, and remembrance of beauty. The photographs tell stories, make wry jokes, and allude to the larger realities of the esoteric. As complements, the objects are more than the sum of their parts. A sentence or two of text accompanies each photograph, creating storylines that draw the viewer into the world of the objects as strongly as if the objects were human, except their not being human allows the viewer a purer sense of the message of their story. David Hume Kennerly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, says in the foreword, "The narrative and pictures reunite twins separated at birth." The photographs pull the viewer in with their emotional content, then ask the viewer to step back for another look - to both feel and think, to understand truths beyond words. Complements is a gem, an intimate book to be savoured on first readings and held near as a resource on what is meaningful. It contains 110 luscious photos of small objects juxtaposed in ways that evoke emotions, thoughts, questions, and remembrance of beauty. The photographs tell stories, make wry jokes, and allude to the larger realities of the esoteric. As complements, the objects are more than the sum of their parts. A sentence or two of text accompanies each photograph, creating storylines that draw the viewer into the world of the objects as strongly as if the objects were human, except their not being human allows the viewer a purer sense of the message of their story. David Hume Kennerly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, says in the foreword, "The narrative and pictures reunite twins separated at birth." The photographs pull the viewer in with their emotional content, then ask the viewer to step back for another look-to both feel and think, to understand truths beyond words. More book information can be found at: www.complementsthebook.com

It's More than Shootouts and Car Chases takes you inside the life of a Montgomery Police Officer in the capital city of Alabama. Corporal Smith began his career as a nineteen year old police cadet working in an administrative capacity, until attending the police academy in 1983. As a trainee, Smith started the police academy with twenty fellow recruits and sixteen grueling weeks later, graduating with only six. You experience from the beginning what it takes to become a Montgomery police officer. This detailed, factual account provides the reader with an inside look from being shot at as a rookie officer while investigating a car burglary, to being involved in two police shootings and working the deaths of two fellow officers as an evidence technician. Throughout his twenty year career, Corporal Steve Smith shares his experiences that will have you laughing one moment and then a call of "shots fired" will show you the true dangers of being a police officer. As Corporal Steve Smith shares his true life experiences he also shares his faith in the Lord as he serves and protects the citizens of Montgomery.

This volume was written primarily for teachers who have developed (or who are being encouraged to develop) an awareness of and commitment to teaching mathematics for understanding. The research findings presented in these chapters suggest instructional implications worthy of these teachers' consideration. Often, the authors in this volume describe instructional practices or raise issues that have the potential to broaden views of teaching and learning mathematics. These chapters provide interesting problems and tasks used in the authors' work that readers can use in their own classrooms. The volume can also be used with courses for preservice and inservice teachers, collaborative teacher study groups, and other professional activities. A hallmark of good research is its connection to the relevant literature in the field, and the authors of this volume have themselves drawn from the research literature to inform their work. The reference lists accompanying these chapters can be useful resources and should not be overlooked. Most importantly for teacher education, this volume showcases the variety of ways teachers can become engaged in research, and we hope that readers will recognize that teacher research can be both accessible and beneficial in the preparation and professional development of teachers. This is not to suggest, however, that this volume is intended only for teachers and teacher educators. It is also intended to be an interesting, informative resource for other researchers, school administrators, and policy makers. The research presented in this volume is intended to provide an opportunity for those outside the classroom to gain insight into the kinds of issues that matter to teachers, the ways in which those issues might be researched, and the contributions that classroom research makes to mathematics education.

In "Map Is Not Territory," Jonathan Z. Smith engages previous interpretations of religious texts from late antiquity, critically evaluates the notion of sacred space and time as it is represented in the works of Mircea Eliade, and tackles important problems of methodology.