Download or read book The Cult of the Goddess Pattini written by Gananath Obeyesekere and published by Motilal Banarsidass. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pattini-goddess, virgin, wife and mother; folk deity of Sinhala Buddhists and Jains; and assimilated goddess of the Hindu pantheon-has been worshiped in Sri Lanks and South India for fifteen hundred years or more, as she still is today. This long-awaited book is the culmination of Gananath Obeyesekere's comprehensive study of the Pattini cult and its historical, sociological, and psychoanalytical role in the culture of South Asia. A well-known anthropologist and a native of Sri Lanka, Obeyesekere displays his impeccable scholarship and a stunning range of theoretical perspectives in this work, the most detailed analysis of a single religious complex in South Asian ethnography (and possibly in all of anthropology). Since 1955 Obeyesekere has observed and participated in modern performances of the rituals of worship, healing, and propitiation in the Pattini cult, particularly the postharvest ritual known as the gammaduva. He presents detailed texts of the gammaduva, placing them in their historical and mythic traditions. Using the texts, he formulates a cultural analysis of the Buddhist pantheon and a critique of empiricist notions of South Asian historiography. Obeyesekere shows that some seemingly historical figures of South India and Sri Lanka are mythic characters and that their historical significance can best be understood by an anthropological analysis of myth rather than through a reification of myth in history. The concurrent Hindu worship of Pattini with its myths and rituals is described in detail. Obeyesekere documents the Sanskritization of Pattini, the changing physical structures of the goddess's shrines from the 1930s to the present, the assumption by Brahman priests of ritual functions formerly carried out by folk priest, and the sociocultural causes of these changes. He traces, too, the origins and diffusion of the cult throughout its entire history, as well as its survival today. Of psychological interest is the problematic status of Pattini as virgin, wife, and mother and her relationship with her god-husband Palanga and his courtesan Madevi. Obeyesekere discusses the psychodynamics of this relationship in detail and explains its role in Hindu-Buddhist socialization and family structure. Further, he uses this analysis to account for local variations in the performance and structure of the ritual. The ritual of the killing and resurrection of Pattini's husband and her role as mater dolorosa will interest scholars of comparative religion.

Download or read book A Demon s Past written by Catherine Lievens and published by eXtasy Books. This book was released on 2017-10-27 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The right thing to do isn't always the one we convince ourselves of.

Download or read book Versions of Life written by Neal Lander and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2021-01-27 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Versions of life is a collection of short stories. Here we have two of those tales one being Demons a sad story about loss and mental stability. The other being Entanglement a story about relationships and the problems that arise from untruths.

Download or read book The Demons of Science written by Friedel Weinert and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first all-encompassing exploration of the role of demons in philosophical and scientific thought experiments. In Part I, the author explains the importance of thought experiments in science and philosophy. Part II considers Laplace’s Demon, whose claim is that the world is completely deterministic. Part III introduces Maxwell’s Demon, who - by contrast - experiences a world that is probabilistic and indeterministic. Part IV explores Nietzsche’s thesis of the cyclic and eternal recurrence of events. In each case a number of philosophical consequences regarding determinism and indeterminism, the arrows of time, the nature of the mind and free will are said to follow from the Demons’s worldviews. The book investigates what these Demons - and others - can and cannot tell us about our world.

Download or read book Ten Thousand Things written by Judith Farquhar and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten Thousand Things explores the many forms of life, or, in ancient Chinese parlance “the ten thousand things” that life is and is becoming, in contemporary Beijing and beyond. Coauthored by an American anthropologist and a Chinese philosopher, the book examines the myriad ways contemporary residents of Beijing understand and nurture the good life, practice the embodied arts of everyday wellbeing, and in doing so draw on cultural resources ranging from ancient metaphysics to modern media. Farquhar and Zhang show that there are many activities that nurture life: practicing meditative martial arts among friends in a public park; jogging, swimming, and walking backward; dancing, singing, and keeping pet birds; connoisseurship of tea, wine, and food; and spiritual disciplines ranging from meditation to learning a foreign language. As ancient life-nurturing texts teach, the cultural practices that produce particular forms of life are generative in ten thousand ways: they “give birth to life and transform the transformations.” This book attends to the patterns of city life, listens to homely advice on how to live, and interprets the great tradition of medicine and metaphysics. In the process, a manifold culture of the urban Chinese everyday emerges. The lives nurtured, gathered, and witnessed here are global and local, embodied and discursive, ecological and cosmic, civic and individual. The elements of any particular life — as long as it lasts, and with some skill and determination — can be gathered, centered, and harmonized with the way things spontaneously go. The result, everyone says, is pleasure.

Download or read book Black Women and da Rona written by Julia S. Jordan-Zachery and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2023-04-18 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rooted in the ways Black women understand their lives, this collection archives practices of healing, mothering, and advocacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing that Black women have been living in pandemics as far back as colonialism and enslavement, this volume acknowledges that records of the past—from the 1918 flu pandemic to the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic—often erase the existence and experiences of Black women as a whole. Writing against this archival erasure, this collection consciously recenters the real-time experiences and perspectives of care, policy concerns, grief, and joy of Black women throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Nineteen contributors from interdisciplinary fields and diverse backgrounds explore Black feminine community, consciousness, ethics of care, spirituality, and social critique. They situate Black women’s multidimensional experiences with COVID-19 and other violences that affect their lives. The stories they tell are connected and interwoven, bound together by anti-Black gendered COVID necropolitics and commitments to creating new spaces for breathing, healing, and wellness. Ultimately, this time-warping analysis shows how Black women imagine a more just society, rapidly adapt to changing experiences, and innovate ethics of care even in the midst of physical distancing, which can be instructive for thinking of new ways of living both during and beyond the era of COVID-19. Contributors Shamara Wyllie Alhassan Sharnnia Artis Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards Candace S. Brown Jenny Douglas Kaja Dunn Onisha Etkins Rhonda M. Gonzales Endia Hayes Ashley E. Hollingshead Kendra Jason Julia S. Jordan-Zachery Stacie LeSure Janaka B. Lewis Michelle Meggs Nitya Mehrotra Sherine Andreine Powerful Marjorie Shavers Breauna Marie Spencer Tehia Starker Glass Amber Walker

Download or read book In the Demon s Company written by Tori Centanni and published by ODDROCKET. This book was released on with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There’s a new demon in town… …and my boss, Azmos, isn’t happy about it. I guess he doesn’t like competition in the soul-binding business. I want to help. People I know are getting hurt because of the other demon's deals. Now that Az has promoted me from errand girl to demon’s apprentice I might actually be able to do something useful. Of course, my boyfriend Cam wants me to stay out of it, and for once Azmos actually agrees with him. Sorry, but I can’t just sit around doing homework while a demon is leaving a trail of bodies all over town. Besides, I’ve got my own posse now. Okay, I’ve got an ice-cold death demon, a tortured psychic and a pink-haired demonologist to help me. Together we’ll figure it out, and I’ll prove I’m ready to be a full-fledged apprentice…or I’ll die trying.

Download or read book INVETIA written by John Greasby and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world of Invetia stood on the precipice of war. The Sario were mysteriously dying and few now remain. They carry the last chance of salvation for the land of Invetia and should they fail, then there would be nothing left to hold back the return of an ancient evil that had stood waiting in the shadows of history. Sam Meridith's world, by contrast, was mundane. Working in a Solicitor's office for the past three years had managed to almost eradicate any dreams of the life of wonder and excitement that he had once envisaged. The world now found him alone. His Mother had passed away just a few months ago and he had never known his Father. He had few friends, in fact he had just one, Anna. Unbeknownst to Sam, his world was about to change as the sudden appearance of the last remaining Sario, Ruern, brought news of a perilous journey that his destiny demanded that he undertook.

Download or read book Annala Rioghachta Eireann written by John O'Donovan and published by . This book was released on 1851 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland written by John O'Donovan and published by . This book was released on 1856 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A History of the City and County of Cork written by M. F. Cusack and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-10-21 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1875. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

Download or read book Monasticon Hibernicum or An history of the abbeys priories and other religious houses in Ireland ed by P F Moran written by Mervyn Archdall and published by . This book was released on 1873 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Eternally Blood Emperor written by Bu Zui and published by Funstory. This book was released on 2019-12-23 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes, only by being hurt to the point of heartache can he has the courage and determination to return. Sometimes extraordinary power brings people not glory and respect, but fear and jealousy of others. Ye Ya's outstanding powerful ability caused the jealousy of his leader. He was secretly killed by him. With great shock and grief, he vowed secretly that if he could relive his life, he would never let those with ulterior motives hurt him. He died but was born again. Unfortunately, in this life, he only had low-level martial arts and could only obey the orders and arrangements of others. He was assigned to be a low-ranking patriarch, what he could do was accepting. But with the memory of the previous life, how can he be willing to be an ordinary person? He wants to resist in trouble, and cultivate the martial arts so that to be the strongest. Those who have bullied him and framed him will pay a painful price! ☆About the Author☆ Bu Zui, an excellent online novelist, has rich imagination and creativity. His novels have rich twists and turns, fascinating, smooth writing, and humorous language.

Download or read book The Wit and Wisdom of Shakespeare written by Darrel Walters and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In partnerships with the website sonnetsofshakespeare.com, which contains video recordings of the author reciting each sonnet, The Wit and Wisdom of Shakespeare thoroughly demystifies 32 of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Each is presented and illuminated by a short Essence Statement, clarified in a Diagram for Greater Understanding, and described in a unique and entertaining narrative description. Embedded within the descriptions are tidbits of interesting information about Shakespeare, his associates, and cultural circumstances of the time—along with writing techniques and word play in which Shakespeare indulged, and observations from Shakespeare scholars.

Download or read book The Story of Western Science From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory written by Susan Wise Bauer and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-05-11 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting road map to the development of modern scientific thought. In the tradition of her perennial bestseller The Well-Educated Mind, Susan Wise Bauer delivers an accessible, entertaining, and illuminating springboard into the scientific education you never had. Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves. Able to be referenced individually, or read together as the narrative of Western scientific development, the book's twenty-eight succinct chapters lead readers from the first science texts by Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle through twentieth-century classics in biology, physics, and cosmology. The Story of Western Science illuminates everything from mankind's earliest inquiries to the butterfly effect, from the birth of the scientific method to the rise of earth science and the flowering of modern biology. Each chapter recommends one or more classic books and provides entertaining accounts of crucial contributions to science, vivid sketches of the scientist-writers, and clear explanations of the mechanics underlying each concept. The Story of Western Science reveals science to be a dramatic undertaking practiced by some of history's most memorable characters. It reminds us that scientific inquiry is a human pursuit—an essential, often deeply personal, sometimes flawed, frequently brilliant way of understanding the world. The Story of Western Science is an "entertaining and unique synthesis" (Times Higher Education), a "fluidly written" narrative that "celebrates the inexorable force of human curiosity" (Wall Street Journal), and a "bright, informative resource for readers seeking to understand science through the eyes of the men and women who shaped its history" (Kirkus). Previously published as The Story of Science.

Download or read book The Shadow Slayer written by Peter Riggs and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2006 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Expect No help the life and times of Jumpin Jack Flash written by Cesspool Jones and published by Booktango. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Expect No Help' is a non-fiction novel that depicts America from the 1960's up to now through the eyes of someone who was there...and still is...sometimes. It shows most anyone who reads this how to grow up (author's point of view), even coming up in the 60's and 70's. Much change happened from then till now...with the word change now reduced to a 4-letter word...along with the word power. This novel is all about the future of this country at the grass-roots level. That means 'old school America' ain't goin` anywhere soon...if at all! However, this novel looks at 'new school America' with only slight skeptisism, only for the fact...change makes the world go `round. Without change, the world turns stagnant. However, once again,"What do you want to change into?" This novel does a pretty good job in trying to decipher that question, leaving no stone unturned...with an open-minded and also a one-sided opinion. That is not easy to do. There is absolutely no 'political correctless' what-so-ever in this novel and could be considered toxic to people with narrow-minded beliefs. This novel don't care...but with tact. It is written somewhat off of the streets in a language that anyone...from a stoner to a P.H.D can understand. The very first part of the book vaguely states what the novel is all about and if that's gunna be a rough ride for you...wear a helmut while reading it or find something else to do.